cmh blog 02 2005

Jen recommended that — at the recent York University Bookstore Blowout — I buy a book called Great Canadian Speeches. The book is very cool. It has a whack of great speeches that were made by Canadians (or at least people in Canada… there is a speech by Mandela).

I have been struck by the extent to which the old speeches in this book are still relevant today. Here’s a representative example. Try and guess what year it was written in as you read through.

When a people, even after expressing their views through all the avenues recognized by constitutional procedure, through people’s assemplies and through their representatives in Parliament after mature deliberation, are constantly exposed to systematic resistance; when their governors, instead of redressing the various ills that they have themselves produced through their bad government, solemnly record and declare their reprehensible determination to undermine and reverse the foundations of civil liberty, it becomes the people’s imperative duty to devote themselves seriously to considering their unfortunate position and the dangers that surround them, and through a well-designed organization to make the necessary arrangements to preserve intact their rights as citizens and their dignity as free human beings.

The wise and immortal writers of the American Declaration of Independance recorded in this document the principles on which the rights of man are solely based, and demanded the advantageous establishment of the institutions and form of government that alone can permanently ensure the prosperity and social well-being of the inhabitants of this continent, whose education and customs, linked to the circumstances of colonization, demand a system of government that depends entirely on the people and is directly responsible to the people.

In common with the various nations of North and South America that have adopted the principles incorporated in this declaration, we regard the doctrines that it contains as sacred and evident: that God did not create any artificial distinctions between man and man; that government is only a simple human institution, formed by those who must be subject to its actions, good or bad, and devoted to the benefit of all those who consent to come or remain under its protection and control; and that therefore the form of government can be changed when it no longer achieves the ends for which it was established; that public authorities and men in power are only the executors of the legitimately expressed wishes of the community, honoured when they possess the confidence of the public and respected when they enjoy public esteem; and that they must be removed from power when they no longer give satisfaction to the people, the only legitimate source of all power.

In conformity with the treaties and capitulations drawn up with our ancestors and guaranteed by the imperial Parliament, the people of this province have for many years unceasingly submitted respectful petitions complaining of the intolerable abuses that poison their days and paralyze their industry. In response to our humble requests, instead of adjustments being granted, aggression has followed aggression until finally it appears that we can no longer cling to the British Empire for our happiness and prosperity, our liberties, and the honour of the people and the Crown of England. The only aim has been to enrich a useless horde of officials who, not content with enjoying salaries that are hugely disproportionate to the duties of their position and to the resources of the country, have banded together in a faction driven purely by private interest to resist all reforms and defend all the iniquities of a government that is the enemy of the rights and liberties of this colony.

So that speech was given by Louis Joseph Papineau on the 23rd of October, 1837. This speech led to a poorly-organized rebellion against the quasi-feudal system that Britain reimposed with the Quebec act of 1774. He himself was a lord in the system. Together with a parallel rebellion in Upper Canada it caused massive political change in the country.

Many of Papineau’s ideas resonate clearly today as multinational “private interest” and “a useless horde of officials” ram the iniquities of neoconservative views and globalisation (etc.) down our throats.