Robinson, J. Michael

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Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Canada-United States Law JournalVolume 30 | Issue Article 39January 2004The Place of Quebec in North America,Proceedings of the Canada-United States LawInstitute Conference on Multiple Actors inCanada-U.S. Relations: The Place of Quebec inNorth America: IntroductionJ. Michael RobinsonFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cusljPart of the Transnational Law CommonsThis Speech is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons.It has been accepted for inclusion in Canada-United States Law Journal by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School ofLaw Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationJ. Michael Robinson, The Place of Quebec in North America, Proceedings of the Canada-United States Law Institute Conference on MultipleActors in Canada-U.S. Relations: The Place of Quebec in North America: Introduction, 30 Can.-U.S. L.J. 241 (2004)Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol30/iss/39THE PLACE OF QUEBEC IN NORTH AMERICAJ. Michael RobinsonIntroductionMR. ROBINSON: I'm Michael Robinson, and it's my privilege to pre-side over this session, which is, I told Pierre-Marc, nothing more than being areferee during the discussion period to make sure that there's not too muchshouting back and forth, and that the questions come in some sort of order.You have seen the topic for the luncheon address today or the luncheonseminar, which is "The Place of Quebec in North America." Thus, you aregoing to get the modem view of that from our speaker, who I will introducein a minute. First, I would like to give you just a little bit of historical back-ground. You might not be aware of an interesting fact, Cleveland used to bein Quebec.In 1763, after the British so-called conquest of French North America,there was a proclamation of British Quebec that said that there shall be nosettlement west of the Appalachians.' This proclamation applied also to the13 colonies. What was the purpose of this? It was to try to induce settlersfrom the 13 colonies to move to Quebec; and, thereby, dilute the overwhelm-ing French Canadian population, or at least make for more of an English-to-French mix. The 13 colonists said, "No way, it's much too cold up there.The Laurentians are rock farming. I'm not going." So that didn't work.In 1774, the Quebec Act was passed, an Act of the Parliament of West-minster, of course, the British Parliament.2 That is how Cleveland got inQuebec. The borders of Quebec were right down the Ohio River and in theOhio and Upper Mississippi Basin.3 I don't know if anybody lived in Cleve-land at that time,4 but Cleveland was certainly part of the colony of Quebecin British North America.It is interesting that there was no elected assembly permitted, and peoplewould think, "Well, that's typical, you know, they won't allow the FrenchCanadian any power." As the governor said at the time, "It would be repre-sentative only of the 600 English settlers and an instrument in their hands forThe Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763, R.S.C., app. II, No. 1.2 The Quebec Act, 14 Geo. 3, ch. 83 (1774) (Eng.).3 Id.4 The first citizens of the United States to reach the area were a survey party lead byMoses Cleveland on July 22, 1796. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, available at:http://ech.cwru.edu/timeline.html (last visited Oct. 24, 2004).1Robinson: The Place of Quebec in North America, Proceedings of the Canada-UPublished by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2004CANADA-UNITED STATES LA W JOURNALdominating and persecuting the 90,000 French." At least the English hadenough sense to realize that you cannot impose an alien government on adifferent population.Now, we had a little problem down here on this side of the border. I thinkyou decided you did not want the monarchy anymore. At the end of thatunpleasantness, there was a thing called the Treaty of Versailles, which set-tles British North America again.5To the great dismay of those living in Quebec, both Anglophones andFrancophones, Britain gave up all the land south of the Great Lakes. So sud-denly Cleveland became part of the U.S., where it hadn't been before that.In 1791, Lower Canada was created as a separate province with its ownparliament,6 secure, seigniorial tender,7 the old French style of land owner-ship,8 and state church (the Roman Catholic Church); French Civil Law wasclearly established as the Law of Quebec.9Then there was another unpleasantness, but this one was not just downhere, it came up to Canada, too, and that was the War of 1812. Again, theFrench Canadian participation was extremely important. The leading generalwas de Salaberry, who was a French Canadian. 10 He led a local militia ofFrench Canadians, who beat up on these Americans coming up attackingMontreal," Chateauguay 2 and Chrysler's Farm, 13 all famous battles wherewe whipped you Yanks, and sent you back home. Nevertheless, de Saleberrywas a French Canadian leading a French Canadian militia, not a professionalarmy.14Therefore, there is the historical context until Confederation. Canada hasten provinces, but many people do not realize there were only four when weconfederated, and two of them were the small Atlantic Provinces of NewBrunswick and Nova Scotia.'" Our Confederation was truly then regarded,and should still be regarded, I think, and I am sure Pierre-Marc would agree,as a Confederation of two founding nations, the Anglophones and Franco-phones of Canada.5 The Definitive Treaty of Peace Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States ofAmerica, art. 4 (Sept. 3, 1783), reprinted in HUNTER MILLER, TREATIES AND OTHERINTERNATIONAL ACTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1776-1818, at 151, 154 (1931).6 Constitutional Act, 1791, 31 Geo. III, c. 31 (Imp.).7 id.8 id.9 Id.1o The Canadian Press, Today in History, THE CANADIAN PRESS (Oct. 26, 2001).11 Id.12 J.L. Granatstein, A Nation Born in Battle, NAT'L POST (Nov. 13, 2000) at AI4.13 See http://www.cryslersfarm.com/battle.htm (last visited Sept. 25, 2004).14 Supra at nl0.15 Desmond Morton, Canada: A Pluralist History (March 1, 2003), in Canadian Speechesat 54.[Vol. 30:2412Canada-United States Law Journal, Vol. 30 [2004], Iss. , Art. 39https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol30/iss/39Johnson-The Place of Quebec in North AmericaWell, we dogged along until 1982, when there was an effort made to repa-triate our Constitution, which up to then had been a statute of Westminster,British Parliament. 16 Unfortunately, Quebec certainly did not like the waythat was done, or what it said, and Quebec has never signed it.' 7 A lot ofpeople do not realize that our "Constitution", which is a statute of the Cana-dian Parliament, agreed to by nine of the Provinces, has never been acceptedby the Province of Quebec. You will hear a bit more about that. I am notgoing to say anything about referenda, either.As a summary of what this topic should be called is, "The Place of TheseNouveau Anglophones in French and Spanish North America," because, ofcourse, it was the French and the Spanish that were here first with themostest. All of what is now Canada and all of what was the Mississippi, wasFrench; and everything else was Spanish with a few Russians around, and weAnglophones are new boys.I do not have much of a proper basis for being the introducer here. I amalmost a unilingual Anglophone from the Province of Ontario. We shouldhave had somebody like Simon Potter, who was unable to come, who is atruly bilingual Quebecer, but I have one claim to legitimacy. I still have, as Imentioned to Pierre-Marc at lunch, on the back bumper of my 1989 Saab, thebumper sticker that says "My Canada Includes Quebec." There were a lot ofthose around at the time of one of the efforts to convince Quebec to sign thisConstitution called the Meech Lake Accord.18 Typical of Canada, I put onebumper sticker on the left side, the English one, I tried to get the French oneto go on the other side of the bumper, and they were not available in Ontario.By the time I tried to get one in Quebec, they had run out of the supply.I am going to introduce the person who really knows about what's goingon in Quebec now, and probably knew all this history, as well, and that isPierre-Marc Johnson, who was the Premier, Prime Minister of the Provincefrom 1985 to 1987,19 was a former Professor of Law at McGill University inMontreal, 20 and is currently Senior Counsel at the interprovincial law firm ofHeenan Blaikie.21 He has wide experience in negotiation of environmentaland developmental issues at both the United Nations and with his NAF1rAassociation. He is an advisor to, and currently Chair of, the ten-year Review16 Jeffrey Wutzke, Dependent Independence: Application of the Nunavut Model to NativeHawaiian Sovereignty and Self-Determination Claims, 22 AM. INDIAN L. REv. 509, 526(1998).17 Gregory Marchildon & Edward Maxwell, Quebec's Right of Secession Under Canadianand International Law, 32 VA. J. INT'L L. 583, 585 (1992).18 PETER W. HOGG, MEECH LAKE CONSTITUTIONAL ACCORD ANNOTATED (1988).19 Political Biography available at: http://www.assnat.qc.ca/fra/membres/notices/j -l/johnpm.htm (French only) (last visited Oct. 24, 2004).20 Available at: http://www.irpp.org/about/johnson.htm (last visited Oct. 24, 2004).21 Firm website available at http://www.heenanblaikie.com/ (last visited Oct 24, 2004).2004]3Robinson: The Place of Quebec in North America, Proceedings of the Canada-UPublished by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2004CANADA-UNITED STATES LAW JOURNALCommittee for the NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Heis the author of several books. I am not going to read them all off, except thetitle of the 2000 one, which intrigued me, Beyond Trade: The Case forBroadened International Governance Agenda.Currently he is a little busy in a high profile thing called Soft Wood Lum-ber No. 4, because he is the Chief advisor and negotiator for the Governmentof the Province of Quebec on this soft wood lumber case.23 As most of youknow, Quebec and British Columbia are the two major soft wood lumberexporters to the U.S., so he has a very big job to do.24However, I want to ask him to tell me what this entitlement means, be-cause I had never heard of this order. He is a Grand Officier de 1'Ordre de laPleiade.MR. JOHNSON: Yeah.MR. ROBINSON: You have to tell us what that is.MR. JOHNSON: Well, that is a start, Michael, I guess.MR. JOHNSON: It did not take very long for me to understand what ishappening here.Professor King, dear friends, first of all, la Pleiade is the order handed outby the Francophone countries. They get together, both as Parliamentariansand Heads of Governments on a regular basis, and they founded this order.MR. ROBINSON: Wonderful.22 PIERRE MARC JOHNSON (WITH KAREL MAYRAND), BEYOND TRADE - THE CASE FOR ABROADENED INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE AGENDA: AN IRPP WORKING PAPER (IRPP, June2000) available at:http://www.irpp.org/pmlindex.htm (last visited Oct. 20, 2004).3 See: http://www.heenanblaikie.con/en/ourTeam/bio?id=327 (last visited Oct. 24, 2004).24 Steve Mertl, No Counter-offer Soon in Softwood Tiff With U.S., Says Federal TradeMinister, THE CANADIAN PRESS, March 24, 2004.25 More information available at http://www.apf.francophonie.org/ (last visited Oct. 24,2004).[Vol. 30:2414Canada-United States Law Journal, Vol. 30 [2004], Iss. , Art. 39https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cuslj/vol30/iss/39

The Place of Quebec in North America, Proceedings of the Canada-United States Law Institute Conference on Multiple Actors in Canada-U.S. Relations: The Place of Quebec in North America: Introduction

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The Place of Quebec in North America, Proceedings of the Canada-United States Law Institute Conference on Multiple Actors in Canada-U.S. Relations: The Place of Quebec in North America: Introduction

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