THE ASBESTOS STRIKE & THE QUEBECER REVOLUTION

Today, The Grandma has been reading about one of the most significant historical moments in Quebec, the Asbestos strike, a four-month labour dispute by asbestos miners that marked the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.

The Asbestos strike of 1949, based in and around the town of Asbestos, Quebec was a four-month labour dispute by asbestos miners.

It has traditionally been portrayed as a turning point in Quebec history that helped lead to the Quiet Revolution. It also helped launch the careers of Jean Marchand, Gérard Pelletier, and Pierre Trudeau.

At midnight on February 14, 1949, miners walked off the job at four asbestos mines in the Eastern Townships, near Asbestos, Quebec and Thetford Mines.

Though these mines were owned by either American or English-Canadian companies, almost all the workers were francophones.

The largest company was the American Johns-Manville firm. The union had several demands. These included the elimination of asbestos dust inside and outside of the mill; a fifteen cent an hour general wage increase; a five-cent an hour increase for night work; a social security fund to be administered by the union; the implementation of the Rand Formula; and double time payment for work on Sundays and holidays. These demands were radical in Quebec at the time, and they were rejected by the owners.

On February 13, 1949, the workers voted to strike. The workers were represented by the National Federation of Mining Industry Employees and the Canadian Catholic Federation of Labour. Jean Marchand was the general secretary of the latter and is often seen as the de facto leader of the strike.

The strike was illegal. Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis sided strongly with the companies, largely due to his hostility to all forms of socialism. The provincial government sent squads of police to protect the mines. Duplessis' Union Nationale party had long been closely allied to the Catholic Church, but parts of the church would move to support the workers.

More information: The Canadian Encyclopedia

The population and media of Quebec were sympathetic to the strikers. The lead reporter for Le Devoir was Gérard Pelletier, who was deeply sympathetic to the cause of the workers. Pierre Elliott Trudeau also covered the strike in a sympathetic manner.

Six weeks into the strike, Johns-Manville hired strikebreakers to keep the mines open. The community was deeply divided as some of the workers crossed the picket lines. The strike turned violent as the 5000 strikers attacked, destroying the property of the scabs and intimidating them through force. More police were sent to protect the strikebreakers.

The striking miners and police fought on the picket line and hundreds of miners were arrested. Some of the incidents included.

On March 14, a dynamite explosion destroyed part of a railroad track that led into the Johns-Manville Corporation Canadian subsidiary property.

On March 16, strikers overturned a company jeep, injuring a passenger.

Strikers had the support of Canadian unions and some of the Catholic Church in Quebec.

The Catholic Church, which had until that time been largely supportive of the Union Nationale government of Duplessis, profoundly affected the strike. Some priests backed the companies, but most sided with the strikers.

On March 5, Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau delivered a fiercely pro-union speech asking all Catholics to donate to help the strikers.

Premier Duplessis asked the church to transfer the archbishop to Vancouver because of his encouragement of the strike. The church refused, signaling a dramatic change in Quebec society. Charbonneau did resign and became the chaplain at a hospital in Victoria, British Columbia.

On May 5, the strikers launched an effort to shut down the mine in Asbestos by barricading the mine and every road into and out of town. Police attempts to force their way through the barricades failed.

The strikers backed down when the police pledged to open fire on the strikers. The next day, the riot act was read and mass arrests of the strikers had begun, including a raid on the church. The arrested strikers were beaten and their leaders severely battered.

After the arrests, the unions decided that they must compromise, and began negotiations with the company. Archbishop Maurice Roy, of Quebec City, served as mediator. In June, the workers agreed to return to work with few gains. When the dispute ended, miners received a small pay increase, but many never regained their jobs.

More information: Canadian Labour

One of the most violent and bitter labour disputes in Quebec and Canadian history, the strike led to great upheaval in Quebec society.

The strike was in large part led by Jean Marchand, a labour unionist. Journalist Gérard Pelletier and future Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then a journalist, also played significant roles. Marchand, Pelletier and Trudeau would eventually become prominent Canadian politicians and were known later in their political careers as Les Trois Colombes (the Three Wise Men). They would largely establish the direction of Quebec federalism for a generation.

Trudeau edited a book, The Asbestos Strike, that presented the strike as the origin of modern Quebec, portraying it as a violent announcement that a new era had begun. Some historians argue that the strikers were simply pursuing better conditions and that the resulting change in society was an unintended byproduct.

Popular opinion for most of the strike was broadly supportive of the striking workers. This support, beyond its moral value, manifested itself through monetary support and the supply of provisions. It is likely that the strike would have quickly failed had it not been for the establishment of this kind of support.

In 2004, a French-language book about the strike by author-historian Esther Delisle and Pierre K. Malouf was published under the title Le Quatuor d'Asbestos.

More information: The Link

If workers are more insecure,
that's very 'healthy' for the society,
because if workers are insecure,
they won't ask for wages,
they won't go on strike,
they won't call for benefits;
they'll serve the masters gladly and passively.
And that's optimal for corporations' economic health.

Noam Chomsky

TREATY OF PARIS, QUEBEC IS CEDED TO GREAT BRITAIN

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of Claire Fontaine, one of her closest friends. Claire, who is from Quebec, has been explaining her some facts about her nation and its history because on a day like today in 1763 was signed The Treaty of Paris and France ceded Quebec to Great Britain.

The Treaty of Paris, also known as the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763 by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Great Britain and Prussia's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War.

The signing of the treaty formally ended the Seven Years' War, known as the French and Indian War in the North American theatre, and marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe. Great Britain and France each returned much of the territory that they had captured during the war, but Great Britain gained much of France's possessions in North America. Additionally, Great Britain agreed to protect Roman Catholicism in the New World. The treaty did not involve Prussia and Austria as they signed a separate agreement, the Treaty of Hubertusburg, five days later.

During the war, Great Britain had conquered the French colonies of Canada, Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago, the French factories (trading posts) in India, the slave-trading station at Gorée, the Sénégal River and its settlements, and the Spanish colonies of Manila and Havana. France had captured Minorca and British trading posts in Sumatra, while Spain had captured the border fortress of Almeida in Portugal, and Colonia del Sacramento in South America.

In the treaty, most of the territories were restored to their original owners, but Britain was allowed to keep considerable gains. France and Spain restored all their conquests to Britain and Portugal. Britain restored Manila and Havana to Spain, and Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Gorée, and the Indian factories to France.  In return, France recognized the sovereignty of Britain over Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago.

More information: Mental Floss

France also ceded the eastern half of French Louisiana to Britain; that is, the area from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. France had already secretly given Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762), but Spain did not take possession until 1769.

Spain ceded East Florida to Britain. In addition, France regained its factories in India but recognized British clients as the rulers of key Indian native states and pledged not to send troops to Bengal. Britain agreed to demolish its fortifications in British Honduras, now Belize, but retained a logwood-cutting colony there. Britain confirmed the right of its new subjects to practise Catholicism.

France lost all of its territory in mainland North America except for the territory of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River. France retained fishing rights off Newfoundland and the two small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, where its fishermen could dry their catch. In turn, France gained the return of its sugar colony, Guadeloupe, which it considered more valuable than Canada. Voltaire had notoriously dismissed Acadia as quelques arpents de neige, a few acres of snow.

The war was fought all over the world, but the British began the war over French possessions in North America. After a long debate of the relative merits of Guadeloupe, which produced £6 million a year in sugar, and Canada, which was expensive to keep, Great Britain decided to keep Canada for strategic reasons and to return Guadeloupe to France. 

The war had weakened France, but it was still a European power. British Prime Minister Lord Bute wanted a peace that would not push France towards a second war. 

Although the Protestant British worried about having so many Roman Catholic subjects, Great Britain wanted neither to antagonize France by expulsion or forced conversion nor French settlers to leave Canada to strengthen other French settlements in North America.

Unlike Lord Bute, the French Foreign Minister, the Duke of Choiseul, expected a return to war. However, France needed peace to rebuild. France preferred to keep its Caribbean possessions with their profitable sugar trade, rather than the vast Canadian lands, which had been a financial burden on France.

French diplomats believed that without France to keep the Americans in check, the colonists might attempt to revolt. In Canada, France wanted open emigration for those, such as nobility, who would not swear allegiance to the British Crown. Finally, France required protection for Roman Catholics in North America.

The article provided for unrestrained emigration for 18 months from Canada. However, passage on British ships was expensive. A total of 1,600 people left New France by that clause but only 270 French Canadians. Some have claimed that to be part of British policy to limit emigration.

Article IV of the treaty allowed Roman Catholicism to be practised in Canada. George III agreed to allow Catholicism within the laws of Great Britain. British laws then included various Test Acts to prevent governmental, judicial and bureaucratic appointments from going to Roman Catholics. Roman Catholics were believed to be agents of the Jacobite pretenders to the throne, who normally resided in France and were supported by the French regime. This was relaxed in Quebec to some degree, but top positions such as governorships were still held by Anglicans.

More information: Preceden

Article IV has also been cited as the basis for Quebec often having its unique set of laws that are different from the rest of Canada. There was a general constitutional principle in the United Kingdom to allow colonies taken through conquest to continue their own laws. That was limited by royal prerogative, and the monarch could still choose to change the accepted laws in a conquered colony. However, the treaty eliminated that power because by a different constitutional principle since terms of a treaty were considered paramount. In practice, Roman Catholics could become jurors in inferior courts in Quebec and argue based on principles of French law. However, the judge was British, and his opinion on French law could be limited or hostile. If the case was appealed to a superior court, neither French law nor Roman Catholic jurors were allowed.

Many French residents of what are now Canada's Maritime Provinces, called Acadians, were deported during the Great Expulsion (1755–63). After the signing of the peace treaty guaranteed some rights to Roman Catholics, some Acadians returned to Canada. However, they were no longer welcome in English Nova Scotia. They were forced into New Brunswick, which is a bilingual province today as a result of that relocation.

Much land previously owned by France was now owned by Britain, and the French people of Quebec felt greatly betrayed at the French concession.

Commander-in-Chief of the British Jeffrey Amherst noted that, Many of the Canadians consider their Colony to be of utmost consequence of France & cannot be convinced... that their Country has been conceded to Great Britain.

More information: OAS Peace Fund

Recognizing Quebec as being different,
recognizing our history,
recognizing our identity,
has never meant a weakening of Quebec
and has never been a threat to national unity.

Jean Charest

SWITZERLAND, CÉLINE DION & 'NE PARTEZ PAS SANS MOI'

Céline Dion in 1988 (up) and now (down)

Today, The Watsons are still preparing the candidature of Rennette Watson to participate in the next Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

They have been talking about the power of the social networks to expand a message and they have created a new account to promotionate Rennette in Instagram, under the username of @rennette_watson.

After, The Watsons have been talking with The Grandma by Skype about one of the most popular winners of the Eurovision Song Contest, the Quebecker celebrity Céline Dion, who represented Switzerland in 1988.

Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons and four official languages: Romansh, Italian, German and French. Switzerland participates in the Eurovision Song Contest representing all these languages (one every contest). In 1988, the song had to be performanced by a French-spoken artist and Céline Dion was the chosen one.

More information: Eurovision

Céline Marie Claudette Dion (Charlemagne, Quebec, born 30 March 1968) is a  Quebecker singer. Born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, she emerged as a teen star in her homeland with a series of French-language albums during the 1980s.

She first gained international recognition by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Switzerland.

After learning to speak English, she signed on to Epic Records in the United States. In 1990, Dion released her debut English-language album, Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world.

During the 1990s, she achieved worldwide fame after releasing several best-selling English albums, such as Falling into You (1996) and Let's Talk About Love (1997), which were both certified diamond in the US. She also scored a series of international number-one hits, including The Power of Love, Think Twice, Because You Loved Me, It's All Coming Back to Me Now, My Heart Will Go On, and I'm Your Angel.

Céline Dion in Eurovision, 1988

Dion continued releasing French albums between each English record; D'eux (1995) became the best-selling French-language album of all time, while S'il suffisait d'aimer (1998), Sans attendre (2012), and Encore un soir (2016), were all certified diamond in France.

During the 2000s, she built her reputation as a highly successful live performer with A New Day... in Las Vegas Strip (2003–07), which remains the highest-grossing concert residency of all time, as well as the Taking Chances World Tour (2008–09), one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time.

Dion's music has been influenced by genres ranging from rock and R&B to gospel and classical. Her recordings are mainly in French and English, although she also sings in Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. While her releases have often received mixed critical reception, she is regarded as one of pop music's most influential voices. She has won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.

Billboard named her the Queen of Adult Contemporary for having the most number ones on the radio format for a female artist. She is the second best-selling female artist in the US during the Nielsen SoundScan era.

In 2003, she was honoured by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for selling over 50 million albums in Europe. She remains the best-selling Canadian artist and one of the best-selling artists of all time with record sales of 200 million copies worldwide.

More information: Céline Dion

Dion was born in Charlemagne, Quebec, 24 kilometres northeast of Montreal, the youngest of 14 children of Thérèse (née Tanguay, 1927–2020), a homemaker, and Adhémar Dion (1923-2003), a butcher, both of French-Canadian descent. She was raised a Roman Catholic in a poor, but, by her own account, happy home in Charlemagne. Music had always been a major part of the Dion family, and she was named after the song Céline, which French singer Hugues Aufray had recorded two years before her own birth.

On 13 August 1973, at the age of five, the young Céline made her first public appearance at her brother Michel's wedding, where she performed Christine Charbonneau's song Du fil des aiguilles et du coton. She continued to perform with her siblings in her parents' small piano bar called Le Vieux Baril. From an early age, she had dreamed of being a performer.

Céline Dion won Eurovision, 1988

In a 1994 interview with People magazine, she recalled, I missed my family and my home, but I don't regret having lost my adolescence. I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer.

Two years after she learned English, Dion made her debut into the Anglophone market with Unison (1990), the lead single having originally been recorded by Laura Branigan. She incorporated the help of many established musicians, including Vito Luprano and Canadian producer David Foster. The album was largely influenced by 1980s soft rock music that quickly found a niche within the adult contemporary radio format. Unison also hit the right notes with critics: Jim Faber of Entertainment Weekly wrote that her vocals were tastefully unadorned, and that she never attempted to bring off styles that are beyond her.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic declared it a fine, sophisticated American debut. Singles from the album included (If There Was) Any Other Way, The Last to Know, Unison, and Where Does My Heart Beat Now, a mid-tempo soft-rock ballad that made prominent use of the electric guitar. The latter became her first top-ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number four.

More information: WiWi Blogs

In 1991, Dion was a featured soloist on Voices That Care, a tribute to American troops fighting in Operation Desert Storm.

In 1993, Dion announced her feelings for her manager by declaring him the colour of [her] love in the dedication section of her third English-language album The Colour of My Love. However, instead of criticizing their relationship as she had feared, fans embraced the couple. Eventually, Angélil and Dion married in an extravagant wedding ceremony in December 1994, which was broadcast live on Canadian television.

Dion was asked to perform The Power of the Dream at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In March 1996, she launched the Falling into You Tour in support of her new album, performing concerts around the world for over a year.

Let's Talk About Love was another major success, reaching No. 1 all over the world, attaining platinum status in twenty-four sales territories, and becoming the fastest selling album of her career.

Céline Dion in Eurovision, 1988

The most successful single from the album was the classically influenced ballad My Heart Will Go On, which was written and composed by James Horner and Will Jennings, and produced by Horner and Walter Afanasieff for Titanic movie.

In early 2002, Dion announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, A New Day..., at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

On 21 May 2007, Dion released the French-language album D'elles, which debuted at the top of the Canadian album charts, selling 72,200 copies in its first week.

On 22 August 2008, Dion presented a free outdoor concert, mostly in French, on the Plains of Abraham, in Québec City, for the 400th anniversary of Québec City.

On 13 August 2014, Dion announced the indefinite postponement of all her show business activities, including her concert residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and the cancellation of her Asia Tour, because of the worsening of her husband's health.

In October 2015, Dion announced on social media that she had begun working on a new French album, posting a photo by the side of Algerian singer Zaho. Dion's French single, Encore un soir, was released on 24 May 2016. 

On 3 May 2018, she released the single Ashes from the film Deadpool 2.

On 3 April 2019, Dion announced her 2019/2020 Courage World Tour, beginning in Quebec City. She also announced a new English language album of the same name, to be released later in November 2019.

Dion is often regarded as one of pop music's most influential voices. According to Linda Lister in Divafication: The Deification of Modern Female Pop Stars, she has been described as a reigning Queen of Pop for her influence over the record industry during the 1990s, alongside other female entertainers, including Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.

More information: @CelineDion

Download Switzerland, Céline Dion & 'Ne partez pas sans moi'

I'll be a Quebecker-Canadian.

I'm from Quebec, and every time I go to a country, I say that.

It's my roots, my origins, and it's the most important thing to me.

Céline Dion

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN FOUNDED LE VILLE DE QUÉBEC

The Grandma visiting le Ville de Québec

The Grandma is spending some days in Quebec. She wants to improve her French and she has decided to travel to this wonderful place to share her time with these kind and nice inhabitants. 

As all the families know, The Grandma is a great defender of learning or improving French language which is considered by her an important tool for the closer future.

Ville de Québec, Quebec City, officially Québec, is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. 

The narrowing of the Saint Lawrence River proximate to the city's promontory, Cape Diamond, and Lévis, on the opposite bank, provided the name given to the city, Kébec, an Algonquin word meaning where the river narrows.

More information: Quebec City

Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America. The ramparts surrounding Old Quebec, Vieux-Québec, are the only fortified city walls remaining in the Americas north of Mexico, and were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as the Historic District of Old Québec.

The Grandma visiting le Ville de Québec

The city's landmarks include the Château Frontenac, a hotel which dominates the skyline, and La Citadelle, an intact fortress that forms the centrepiece of the ramparts surrounding the old city. 

According to the Government of Canada, the Government of Quebec, the Commission de toponymie du Québec, and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, the names of Canadian cities and towns have only one official form. Thus, Québec is officially spelled with an accented é in both Canadian English and French, although the accent is often not used in common English usage. In English, the city and the province are formally distinguished by the fact that the province does not have an accented é while the city does, while informally the form Quebec City is frequently, although unofficially, used to distinguish the city from the province.

More information: Quebec Region

Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer and diplomat on 3 July 1608, and at the site of a long abandoned St. Lawrence Iroquoian settlement called Stadacona. Champlain, also called The Father of New France, served as its administrator for the rest of his life.

The name Canada refers to this settlement. Although the Acadian settlement at Port-Royal was established three years earlier, Quebec came to be known as the cradle of the Francophone population of North America. 

  

My quality of life here in Quebec City is extraordinary. 

Patrick Roy