According to the famous quote from philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It appears that Quebec Premier François Legault is not familiar with it.
Legault doesn’t understand that history doesn’t belong to just one people, society or culture. This is evident from the statement he made last April about the planned creation of a Museum of Quebec History. Legault said then that Quebec’s history “began with the explorers, Cartier, then after that Champlain, who is the founder of our nation.”
Even on its merits, Legault is shockingly uninformed. Champlain, for instance, never considered the lands along the Saint Lawrence River as anything but a part of France. But on a deeper level, to say that Quebec history began with these two men is simply ignorant, if not worse.
The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador attempted to “remind the Quebec Government that Quebec’s history began long before the arrival of Europeans on the territory.” Calling the statement part of the “systematic erasure of our common past,” AFNQL Chief Ghislain Picard emphasized that Champlain’s arrival did not define Quebec. Historians, both Indigenous and non-Native, agreed.
The government backstepped when Indigenous relations minister Ian Lafrenière acknowledged that Indigenous Peoples were here long before the French explorers and that they had contributed to Quebec’s existence and history. He felt this should be part of the proposed museum.
Of course, the words of Legault are nothing new to First Peoples in Quebec. After all, he refuses to recognize there is systematic racism in this province. His words about Cartier and Champlain only confirm that this is the case.
Earlier this year the AFNQL gave the CAQ government a report card on their relations with First Nations. First, the sort-of-good news.
Youth Protection got a C- along with early childhood. Economic development and housing for First Nations people in urban areas got Cs. Both were found to have problems, though. Economic measures were found be useful but sadly insufficient to bridge the economic gaps between First Nations and the rest of Quebec society. Housing challenges were many, including scarcity, affordability, prejudice, mistrust, language, culture, food and more. First Nations are over-represented in the homeless in many urban communities and cities.
The bad news starts with a D on cultural safety. A law enacted in 2023 deals only with awareness and doesn’t contain any real consultation with First Nations.
Quebec received an E for its caribou protection strategy. The province has postponed efforts to address saving the herds and only recently announced pilot projects that the AFNQL say “are far from satisfactory.” Energy development and on-reserve housing are yet another sore point.
Some of the biggest problems are with the adoption of the United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2019, Legault’s party, the Coalition avenir du Québec, recognized UNDRIP. But the Legault government refuses to follow his own party’s policy.
As premier, Legault has also challenged the rights of First Nations to manage their own child welfare systems, which was recognized by the federal government’s Bill C-92. Quebec has lost several court challenges to this law, but still thinks that Indigenous children should be wards of the state.
It’s two years before the next Quebec election so there is plenty of time to prepare for it. Despite Legault, there are CAQ party members who are open to Indigenous ideas. In the meantime, we should approach them and see how we can change the historical nature of our relationship – before mistakes of the past are repeated.