The Jan Wong controversy refers to a claim made by Jan Wong on September 16, 2006, three days after a shooting at Dawson College in Montreal. Canada's nationally distributed newspaper of record, The Globe and Mail, published a front-page article titled, "Get under the desk,"[1] by Jan Wong.[2] In the article, Ms. Wong controversially linked all three Quebecschool shootings of the last two decades—1989 École Polytechnique Massacre (15 deaths), 1992 Concordia University Massacre (4 deaths), and 2006 Dawson College Shooting (2 deaths)—to the purported alienation brought about by "the decades-long linguistic struggle" within the province. Public outcry and political condemnation soon followed in many venues. In response, a Globe and Mail editorial attempted to minimize the controversy as a "small uproar" over journalistic freedom, but this caused further condemnation. Jan Wong maintained her perspective and wrote extensively about the whole experience in her book Out of the Blue, A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness.[3]
Wong suggested that the school shootings might have been related to the fact that the perpetrators were not old-stock French Québécois: (Marc Lépine was half-Algerian, Valery Fabrikant was a Russian Jew, and Kimveer Gill was of Indian heritage); and they had been alienated by a Quebec society concerned with "racial purity." Citing the history of the use of the antiquated[4][5] term "pure laine," ("pure wool"), Wong postulated the existence of a uniquely Québécois brand of racism, writing: "Elsewhere, to talk of racial ‘purity’ is repugnant. Not in Quebec."
The article also portrayed school shootings in Canada as a Quebec phenomenon, citing Jan Bryan, columnist for the Montreal Gazette, saying, "Three doesn’t mean anything. But three out of three in Quebec means something." It also presented the Montreal anglophone community as a small-town, close-knit community.
Public reaction
Hundreds of letters of complaints were received by The Globe and Mail.[6] As in Barbara Kay's case, the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society (SSJB) lodged a complaint to the Quebec Press Council. SSJB president Jean Dorion declared "There is no obsession for racial purity in Quebec, definitely not. [...] The expression 'pure laine' is absolutely obsolete."[4] The blogosphere soon saw a flood of posts against Wong's allegations.[7]
Wong received hate mail, including racist comments about her Chinese ethnicity and post containing excrement. She also received a death threat that resulted in Wong's family contacting the police.[8]
Although the Gazette called it "nonsense" in an editorial,[24] it found the reaction to be out of proportion, as did Lysiane Gagnon from La Presse, who nonetheless called the theory "delirious".[25]Gazette journalist Don Macpherson wrote: "By the standards of Wong’s article, one could just as easily blame the [three] shootings on federalism, since all three happened to occur while the Quebec Liberals were in power". He advanced that, on the contrary, the tragedy and the controversy around Wong's article had shown a remarkable unity between French and English-speaking Quebecers.[26] Barbara Kay, author of the "Quebecistan" controversy, herself criticized Wong, calling the analysis "bullshit".[5]Jack Jedwab, Executive Director of the Association for Canadian Studies in Montreal and former Executive Director of the Quebec Region of the Canadian Jewish Congress, noted that the expression "pure laine" was "no longer quite common". He also called the analysis "nonsense".[5]The Globe and Mail remarked that "[i]n English Canada, unsurprisingly, the response has been considerably more muted".[6] However, on September 28, 2006, Warren Kinsella wrote a harsh criticism of Wong's work in The National Post.[27] Kinsella was born in Montreal.
Political reaction
Micheline Labelle, director of the Centre de recherche sur l’immigration, l’ethnicité et la citoyenneté (CRIEC, "Centre for research on immigration, ethnicity and citizenship") at the Université du Québec à Montréal stated that she saw in the arguments something akin to "neoracism", that is to say, a generalization of a cultural trait applied to a given population. "For less than that, minorities go to the courts", she said.[5]
On September 19, 2006, the Canadian Press reported that federalist Premier of Quebec Jean Charest demanded an apology, calling the article a "disgrace". He sent an open letter[28] to the Globe vigorously defending Quebec's society and its language protection.
In this kind of situation, anyone who ventures to put forward explanations or comparisons at the very least risks making a fool of himself. Jan Wong has certainly discredited herself with her gamble.
I was shocked and disappointed by the narrow-minded analysis published in the Saturday, September 16 edition, in which Ms Wong sought to identify the affirmation of French culture in Québec as the deeper cause of the Dawson College shootings and the killings at the Polytechnique in 1989. Quebecers make up less than 3% of the North American population. Over the centuries, through the vicissitudes of history, we have managed to preserve our language and culture, and in so doing, cherished the highest democratic ideals. Every year, we welcome tens of thousands of individuals from the four corners of the earth, people who contribute to building a free society in Québec, a society that is proud of its difference. [...]
Ms Wong’s article is a disgrace. It betrays an ignorance of Canadian values and a profound misunderstanding of Québec. She should have the decency to apologize to all Quebecers.
Conservative Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper described Wong's argument as "without foundation".[29] He sent the Globe a similar letter. "These actions (the killings) deserve our unqualified moral condemnation, not an excuse for printing prejudices masked in the language of social theory," Harper wrote.[30]Parti Québécois leader André Boisclair declared that the journalist had, on the intellectual level, "slipped into the dregs" ("glissé dans les bas fonds").[31] Former Premier of Quebec Bernard Landry declared to La Tribune "if she is of good faith, she will have to apologize [...] It is incredible that it is still possible today to convey such delirious opinions on Quebec. Especially in an era when Quebec is more cosmopolitan than ever. [...] It is insulting for Quebec and dishonouring for Canada. In the same way as if I saw a similar article about Ontario in La Tribune, I would be ashamed for La Tribune."[32]
Cameroon-bornBloc Québécois Member of Parliament Maka Kotto issued a declaration at the House of Commons of Canada stating "to pretend that there could be a link of any kind of cause-and-effect between the dramatic episode of Dawson College and Bill 101—described as infamous by the journalist—pertains of a defamatory delirium disconnected from the Quebec reality. [...] Quebec is an inclusive, welcoming society where it is pleasant to live. As an immigrant, I felt very rapidly welcome there and I deplore that the openness of the Quebec people can be put into question." He invited the federal government to denounce the writings of Jan Wong as well.[33] On September 20 the House of Commons unanimously passed a motion requesting an apology "to the Quebec people" for the column.[34]Denis Coderre, the Liberal MP who tabled the motion, called the column "classless".[35] "People feel there's a sort [...] of trend.", he said. "I think that it's enough. We're not "Quebecistan", we're not a people that ostracizes, we're a model of integration."[36] Coderre was in the group of politicians attacked by Barbara Kay in the "Quebecistan" controversy, also accused of "Quebec bashing". Marie-Hélène Paradis, press attaché of Quebec Minister of Immigration Lise Thériault, said "No data can support what Ms. Wong advances." She declared that such allegations feed "the type of fast judgements that lead to discrimination."[5]
Despite having voted for the motion, Conservative Member of Parliament Daniel Petit declared that there might be a link, as Wong suggested. "I think that the billion [dollars] that we put in [the Canadian gun registry] should have been put into education and integration of immigrants in Montreal", Petit said. Dimitri Soudas, press attaché for Conservative Prime Minister Harper, said "The comments of Mr. Petit are unacceptable, he should retract them and it does not reflect in any case the position of the government", adding that Petit was met by the Prime Minister's cabinet on the subject. MPs of the House of Commons criticized him for his statements, including Michel Gauthier, of the Bloc Québécois, and Denis Coderre, of the Liberal Party of Canada, who demanded apologies. He offered them promptly. "I made inappropriate remarks," Petit said in a statement. "I withdraw them entirely because you cannot draw any link between the integration of immigrants in Quebec and the terrible tragedy at Dawson College."[35][37]
Globe and Mail editorial response
On September 21, 2006, The Globe and Mail published an editorial on the affair. Calling the controversy a "small uproar", it defended the right of the journalist to question such phenomena, the "need to ask hard questions and explore uncomfortable avenues", saying that it "merely wondered". The editor claimed not to be surprised by the hundreds of letters of protest received, including those of First Ministers Charest and Harper. The editorial validated Wong's claims of alienation in Quebec, which the Globe called "politics of exclusion". Asking whether this exclusion led to marginalization and perhaps alienation, it said that the answer is "arguable". However, it called the marginalization and alienation of the three shooters "obvious". About whether it could be associated with the murders, it answered that "[n]o such evidence exists".[6] In a sentence apparently intended to balance the assertions, it implied at the same time that an even worse discrimination existed in the Quebec of the past, as it wrote: "By the same token, it would be remiss to forget that today’s Quebec is not the Quebec of yesteryear."[6]The Globe and Mail did not issue an apology for Jan Wong's piece, as requested by many, including the unanimous House of Commons.
Reactions to the editorial
Leader of the Bloc Québécois Gilles Duceppe declared that he considered the editorial an attempt at justification.[37] "It even suggests there might be some problems in Quebec because of the language laws. It's unacceptable and it's deplorable and it's shameful for a newspaper of that stature", he said. "Try imagining the opposite—If I'd made such nonsensical, absurd remarks (about English Canada). Then all the editorial writers across Canada would get involved."[35] Premier of Quebec Jean Charest was said to be disappointed by The Globe and Mail response. He was also said to be offended by the little consideration the paper gave his open letter, that was published in the readers' opinion page (like the one from Prime Minister Harper). "The (House of Commons) motion is totally ignored", said the Premier's press attaché.[38] On September 23, 2006, the Canadian Press reported that Edward Greenspon, editor of The Globe and Mail, expressed regrets. In a The Globe and Mail column, without making formal apologies, he wrote that the personal opinions of Wong should have been excised from the piece, not because they were unacceptable, but because they constituted a "thesis", not a "statement of fact". He wrote that "they should have been put into a separate piece clearly marked opinion". He however believed the reaction to be clearly disproportionate.[39] Despite Greenspon's insinuation that the piece was not "clearly marked opinion", it had in fact been accompanied by a headshot of Wong, the traditional means of designating opinion pieces.[8]
Jan Wong's response
Jan Wong declined the invitation of host Guy A. Lepage to explain herself at the popular Québécois talk show Tout le monde en parle.[31] She has declared: "I brought forward a point of view [...] and I maintain it."[40] She has claimed that, during the controversy, she was the target of sexist and racist attacks, citing a Le Devoir cartoon that caricatured Wong with glasses and buck teeth opening a fortune cookie that said "Beware of Bill 101". The newspaper claimed that it was a reference to the Chinese restaurants of her well-known father, Bill Wong, not her ethnicity. Jan Wong wrote extensively about the whole experience in her book Out of the Blue, A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and Yes, Happiness.[3] In it, Jan Wong described in detail the backlash she received immediately after her article published, how the Globe and Mail management, in her view, abandoned her in front of the torrent of negative reactions from all sides, and how she spiraled down into depression. She described when she found the ‘exact moment I began my descent into depression’ when she was shattered by racial attack.[41] This book was self-published after Doubleday, the publisher of her previous books, pulled out mere days before print although Doubleday denied any legal interference from The Globe.[42] It was released on May 5, 2012.[3]
Bouchard-Taylor Commission
The term "Québécois de souche" continued to be used in both English and French media.[43][44][45] And in 2007, the Bouchard-Taylor Commission included the recommendation that the use of the expression "Québécois de souche" be ended and replaced with the term "Quebecers of French-Canadian origin."[46] The Commission investigated reasonable accommodation of immigrants into Quebec society.
According to David Austin, author of Fear of a Black Nation, (2013) which was based on Austin's two decades of inquiry including interviews and international archival research,[47]
"Québecois has conventionally been used to signify the descendants of Québec settlers from France, the majority habitants of the province, who are otherwise referred to as pure laine (pure wool) or Québecois de souche (of the base of the tree, or root). However, the changing face of Québec's increasingly diverse population challenges the privileged place of those French descendants and calls for a more inclusive notion of what it means to be Québecois or a Quebecer."
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was formed by Members of Parliament (MPs) who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative Party and Liberal Party during the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord. Founder Lucien Bouchard had been a cabinet minister in the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.
Lucien Bouchard is a French Canadian lawyer, diplomat and retired politician.
John James "Jean" Charest is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that, he was a member of Parliament (MP) between 1984 and 1998. After holding several Cabinet posts from 1986 to 1990 and from 1991 to 1993, he was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998.
Jacques Parizeau was a Canadian politician and Québécois economist who was a noted Quebec sovereigntist and the 26th premier of Quebec from September 26, 1994, to January 29, 1996.
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The Action démocratique du Québec, commonly referred to as the ADQ, was a right-wing populist and conservative provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. On the sovereignty question, it defined itself as autonomist; it had support from nationalists and federalists. Its members were referred to as adéquistes, a name derived from the French pronunciation of the initials 'ADQ'.
Jan Wong is a Canadian academic, journalist, and writer. Wong worked for The Globe and Mail, serving as Beijing correspondent from 1988 to 1994, when she returned to write from Canada. She is the daughter of Montreal businessman Bill Wong, founder of Bill Wong's buffet in 1963, and earlier of the House of Wong which was the city's first Chinese restaurant to open outside Chinatown.
Louis Plamondon is a Canadian politician who served as the interim speaker of the House of Commons of Canada from September 27 to October 3, 2023. A member of the Bloc Québécois, he has represented Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel since 1984. As the longest-serving current member of the House of Commons, Plamondon is Dean of the House, and holds the record as Canada's longest-serving dean.
Anti-Quebec sentiment is a form of prejudice which is expressed toward the government, culture, and/or the francophone people of Quebec. This prejudice must be distinguished from legitimate criticism of Quebec society or the Government of Quebec, though the question of what qualifies as legitimate criticism and mere prejudice is itself controversial. Some critics argue that allegations of Quebec bashing are sometimes used to deflect legitimate criticism of Quebec society, government, or public policies.
Joseph Facal is a Canadian politician, academic, and journalist in the province of Quebec. He was a Parti Québécois member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 2003 and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry.
Sylvain Simard is a politician and academic based in the Canadian province of Quebec. He represented Richelieu in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 2012, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry. Simard is a member of the Parti Québécois (PQ).
The Dawson College shooting occurred on September 13, 2006, at Dawson College, a CEGEP located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The perpetrator, Kimveer Singh Gill, began shooting outside the de Maisonneuve Boulevard entrance to the school, and moved towards the atrium by the cafeteria on the main floor. One victim died at the scene, while another 19 were injured, eight of whom were listed in critical condition, with six requiring surgery. The shooter later committed suicide, after being shot in the arm by a police officer. It was the third fatal school shooting in Montreal, after the École Polytechnique massacre in 1989 and the shooting spree at Concordia University in 1992.
André Pratte is a Canadian journalist and former senator who represented the De Salaberry division in Quebec. Before being appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 18, 2016, Pratte was a journalist for over 35 years and was editor-in-chief of the Montreal newspaper La Presse. He was a member of the Independent Senators Group.
Michel Vastel was a Quebec journalist and columnist for Le Journal de Montréal and other medias. He was born in Saint-Pierre-de-Cormeilles, Eure, France and immigrated to Canada in 1970.
Benoît Pelletier was a Canadian lawyer, academic, and politician in the province of Quebec.
The French term pure laine, refers to Québécois people of full French Canadian ancestry, meaning those descended from the original settlers of New France who arrived during the 17th and 18th centuries. Terms with a similar meaning include de souche and old stock as in "Old Stock Canadians".
Pierre Reid was a Canadian politician and educator in the province of Quebec. He served in the National Assembly of Quebec from 2003 to 2018, representing Orford as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party. Reid was a former cabinet minister in Jean Charest's government.
The 2012 Quebec general election took place in the Canadian province of Quebec on September 4, 2012. Lieutenant Governor Pierre Duchesne dissolved the National Assembly on August 1, 2012, following Premier Jean Charest's request. The Parti Québécois were elected to a minority government, with Pauline Marois becoming the first woman to be Premier of Quebec. The Quebec Liberal Party took second place, with Premier Jean Charest losing his seat. The newly formed party Coalition Avenir Québec led by François Legault took third place, while Québec solidaire took 2 seats out of the 125.
Québécois are people associated with Quebec. The term is most often used in reference to either descendants of the French settlers in Quebec or people of any ethnicity who live and trace their origins in the province of Quebec.
The 2014 Quebec general election was held on April 7, 2014 to elect members to the National Assembly of Quebec. The incumbent Parti Québécois which had won a minority government in 2012 was defeated by the Quebec Liberal Party under Philippe Couillard who won a majority government of 70 seats, while the incumbent Parti Québécois finished second with 30 seats, becoming the first single-term government since Jean-Jacques Bertrand's Union Nationale government was defeated in 1970. Pauline Marois electoral defeat marked the shortest stay of any Quebec provincial government since the Canadian Confederation. It marked the lowest seat total for the Parti Québécois since 1989 and its smallest share of the popular vote since its inaugural run in 1970, as Premier Pauline Marois lost her own riding. The Coalition Avenir Québec under François Legault made minor gains in terms of seats despite receiving a smaller share of the popular vote than in the previous election. Québec solidaire won an additional seat, though co-spokesperson Andrés Fontecilla failed to win his riding. This election saw the return of the Liberals to power 2 years after their defeat in 2012. To date this is the last election where the Liberal Party won a majority of seats in the Quebec Assembly.
References
↑ Wong, Jan (September 16, 2006). "Get under the desk". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2006.
1 2 "Le racisme sournois du Globe & Mail" by Michel Vastel, Blog for L'actualité, September 18, 2006.
↑ Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal. Toronto: Between the Lines. 2013. p.255. ISBN9781771130103.
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