Comments on The Pensive Quill: Irish Unity Comes to Toronto, or Does It?

Good read, Mike. Glad there's still a voice o...

2009-12-15T15:31:33.541Z

Good read, Mike. Glad there's still a voice out there with integrity. Roisin

Hi Nioclas, here are books that could be of intere...

2009-11-23T00:27:26.071Z

Hi Nioclas, here are books that could be of interest,
1. McRoberts, Kenneth, Quebec : social change and political crisis, Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, c1988.

2. Gilles Gougeon :
A history of Quebec nationalism, 1994

3. Garth Stevenson Parallel paths: the development of nationalism in Ireland and Quebec.

Andre, I think people were offering federalism as...

2009-11-19T16:47:35.858Z

Andre,

I think people were offering federalism as one possible institutional response to territorially-based political divisions.

I agree with you that the solutions proposed are highly problematic.

Former Prime Minister Trudeau designed the minority-language provisions of the Charter of Rights to beat Quebec nationalists over the head.

The distinct society clause was unpopular in Quebec partly because it was sold in English Canada as a meaningless symbolic gesture that would not increase the collective rights of Quebeckers. Prime Minister Harper's sudden conversion to the cause of the Quebecois nation was justifiably seen as a narrowly partisan attempt to build a Conservative majority government on the support of Quebec voters.

All of this suggests to me that Sinn Fein is not really concerned about the realization of a united Ireland. They are only now, eleven years after the signing of the Agreement, beginning to collect proposals that are highly complex, contradictory and controversial. I doubt that Sinn Fein will even try to fit all these proposals into concrete action. As I said, I think the conference had other purposes.

Had Sinn Fein been serious about making real moves toward a united Ireland, party thinking on the issue would be much more advanced than it currently is.

Interesting post Andre. I would be interested in ...

2009-11-19T12:49:33.583Z

Interesting post Andre. I would be interested in knowing more about the Quebec nationalist movement if you could recommend me any books? Cheers.

What have been said in Toronto could only have bee...

2009-11-17T18:35:40.528Z

What have been said in Toronto could only have been said in Toronto. IT would have been impossible to pretend in Quebec that the Canadian federation should be considered as a source of inspiration by partisans of a united Ireland. Nationalists in Quebec have been trying to get out of it for the past 40 years. As to the Charter of Rights of 1982, it has been voted to overrule the Charter of Rights adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec. The main aim of that charter of rights is to reduce the collective rights of the people of Quebec, just take for example the many rulings in favour of those opposing the French language Charter voted by the National Assembly of Quebec. But the irony of all of this is that panellists are saying that Sinn Féin should look at the Canadian federation to a possible path to United Ireland, the same federation that denies the right to self determination to the people of Quebec.

A sound, clear, non-vitriolic critique. Good man s...

2009-11-16T20:28:46.638Z

A sound, clear, non-vitriolic critique. Good man sir.