Foster Smith
National Post August 16, 2001

Cet été, le National Post, fondé par lord Black of Crossharbour, a publié un reportage sur Saint-Pierre et Miquelon dont le seul but était de faire du Québec-bashing. Je ne crois pas qu'ils aient publié ma réaction. A ajouter au bêtisier de monsieur Lester. - Jacques Alain Contant, 22.11.01

ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON - Prior to General Charles de Gaulle's infamous visit to Quebec in July, 1967, the French president dropped in on the residents of St. Pierre and Miquelon, France's tiny island possessions located 20 kilometres off Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula.

Despite his 93 years, Joseph Lehuenen of St. Pierre, the islands' largest town, clearly remembers the details of Gen. de Gaulle's visit on that day -- July 20, 1967. Mr. Lehuenen is reminded of it every day by a photograph on his livingroom wall of him in his role as the mayor of St. Pierre, standing next to France's legendary hero of the Second World War.

Among Mr. Lehuenen's many recollections of Gen. de Gaulle's brief visit to France's tiny toehold in North America is a passing comment the general made regarding his upcoming trip to Quebec.

"He said 'I'm off to visit the French of Canada,' " Mr. Lehuenen recalls with obvious disagreement.

As a citizen of France, the only thing Mr. Lehuenen says he shares with the people of Quebec is a common language. Contrary to Gen. de Gaulle's belief, which he went on to express five days later in Montreal with his proclamation "Vive le Quebec libre," Mr. Lehuenen says Quebecers are not a nation within a nation but Canadian, whether they like it or not.

"The people of Quebec are French Canadian, not French," he said. "They are baptized in Canada, they are married in Canada. They are Canadian."

As with many St. Pierrais like himself, there is no animosity in Mr. Lehuenen's attitude toward the people of Quebec. As he sees it, he is just stating the facts according to the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763 after the British conquest of New France. While Quebec was handed over to its British conquerors, the French retained St. Pierre and Miquelon, the last vestige of its vast North American colony that once extended from Cape Breton south to Louisiana.

Mr. Lehuenen, however, is one of the few St. Pierrais willing to go beyond the live and let live attitude toward Quebec adopted by many of the islands' residents. While most politely decline to discuss the issue of Quebec sovereignty, Mr. Lehuenen says the St. Pierrais believe the fight for Quebec's independence is "absurd."

"They should accept the fact it was their ancestors who admitted defeat and declared their loyalty to King George III of England," he says.

Other than a widespread affection for the Montreal Canadiens hockey club, interest in Quebec is lacking and the reason is simple: with an elected deputy in France's National Assembly and a representative in the country's senate, it is French politics that really affect life on St. Pierre and Miquelon. Accordingly, its residents are more preoccupied with events across the Atlantic Ocean in France than they are with Canadian affairs.

With the demise of the Atlantic cod fishery in the early 1990s, the economy of St. Pierre and Miquelon is now almost completely dependent on subsidies from the French government. Hope for reversing the islands' historic dependency on France, however, is now vested in oil companies ExxonMobil Canada and Gulf Oil Canada as they search for possible drill sites within an area known as the "French Baguette" -- France's 200-nautical mile by 10.5-nautical mile zone of exclusive rights off the islands.

Financial dependency does not mean hardship, however. Not even close.

Despite a population that hovers around 7,000, St. Pierre and Miquelon's isolation means the islands receive French government funding on par with a community of 30,000. As a result, the town of St. Pierre and its 6,000 residents enjoy perks like a modern sports centre, three radio stations, one television station, a new airport, complete with modern European architecture, a police force of some 60 gendarmes and a souped-up disco, Le Joinville, that pumps out the Cher, Britney Spears and Daft Punk until 4 a.m.

While many residents of St. Pierre and Miquelon claim a more profound sense of kinship with the people of nearby Newfoundland than with residents of Quebec, the town of St. Pierre itself is imbued with a European sophistication more in tune with cities like Montreal and Quebec. Visitors to St. Pierre and Miquelon depart Newfoundland by ferry from a scattering of wood frame houses and half empty businesses known as the town of Fortune and arrive just over an hour later at St. Pierre harbour, which is bordered by manicured lawns, flower beds and waterfront buildings of distinct European architecture. Outside the Normanesque harbourside Customs house, Renault taxis await to whisk visitors to their hotels and bed and breakfasts through the ordered grid of St. Pierre's narrow streets, where boutiques, patisseries, bars and restaurants with extensive wine lists mix with postmodern architecture and colourful clapboard houses.

At the Librairie Sogale on St. Pierre's rue Maitre G. Lefèvre, Jeanine Miadonnet, the book store's owner, sits in her back office chain-smoking du Maurier cigarettes and poring over her account books. On her radio, she has tuned in one of the local stations, which is playing "Always The Sun" by Britain's The Stranglers.

Despite a dictionary of Quebec French for sale at the front of her store, Ms. Miadonnet says there is little if any interest in Quebec literature among the islands' readers.

"Most of what we sell are books from France," she says, estimating they make up 95% of her sales. "The education system on the island is run by the French government, which emphasizes French authors like Voltaire."

Ironically, Ms. Miadonnet says the current bestsellers at her store are translations of British author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and America's "Queen of Mystery," Mary Higgins Clark.

The lack of interest in literature from Quebec, however, does not reflect a lack of enthusiasm for their French Canadian cousins, says Ms. Miadonnet -- even if many of them do speak "mal le français."

"For every three words of French, there is one word of English," says Ms. Miadonnet. "But it's not a reflection of education in Quebec. The French taught in Quebec schools is very proper."

When it comes to talk of the separatist movement in Quebec, Ms. Miadonnet says she appreciates the separatists' concerns. Yet, ultimately, it is their problem, not hers, she says.

"We leave them to their problems and we only bother with ours," she says. "I have sympathy for their demands, but I would never participate in a war for them."

Réponse de Jacques Alain Contant

I know that journalistic standards aren't the same in the summer when not much is happening, but printing that sort of drivel won't do much to improve your reputation. Perhaps Mr Smith should stick to the skinning of cats and the saving of boys from creeks. Unless he is an agent provocateur in disguise, trying to warm up the sovereignist cause ?