Flipping out over the flag flap

'Tis the season to be sentimental. Who doesn't want to sing Joy to the World while surveying the year-end landscape?

In that spirit, an editorial in Montreal's daily LaPresse announced an armistice between Quebec's two major language communities. "Can it be that francophones and anglophones have buried the war hatchet? It does seem, at least, that there is a truce."

That language is unduly belligerent. In reality, people speaking different languages get along remarkably well. What's called "warfare" refers mostly to laws restricting the English language, and attempts to resist by appealing to the courts.

But there's another dimension of conflict. That's the readiness of so many Quebeckers to take supreme offence at any suspected slight to the Quebec flag.

It was just this month that champion swimmer Jennifer Carroll provoked a national crisis of sorts by making public a reprimand and a threat of suspension received after she waved a Quebec flag while on the podium for a silver medal at last summer's Commonwealth Games.

Her story ignited an explosion of anger, outraged national sentiment, denunciation, recrimination, demands to punish the culprits. Premier Bernard Landry pointed out this never would have happened had Quebec been sovereign. Bloc Québécois MPs went into full accusatory mode in the Commons. LaPresse published a huge front-page picture of Ms. Carroll with the caption, "Punished for having waved the Fleurdelisé." All the Quebec newspapers, talk radio programs and television broadcasts held up Ms. Carroll as a Quebec martyr.

Not to be outdone, federal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps threatened to cut off Swimming Canada's funding of $1.78-million and demanded that coach Dave Johnson be reprimanded. Amateur Sport Minister Paul DeVillers huffed and puffed. Swimming Canada issued an apology, not only to Ms. Carroll, but also to "the people of Quebec, several of our federal and provincial elected representatives and the people of Canada."

It turned out that Ms. Carroll was reprimanded for violating the rules of the Commonwealth Games that specifically ban the display of any signs other than the national colours -- and Ms. Carroll, like the other athletes, had agreed in writing to abide by the rules. It turned out that she was deprived of a $13,000 stipend not, as she claimed, for waving the Quebec flag but because she did not show up for the appropriate number of events. But, never mind, she's now a consecrated heroine in Quebec.

It's not the first time that Quebec has gone gaga over the flag. A dozen years ago, French-language television replayed over and over again the scene of a small group of protesters in Brockville, Ont., spitting at the Quebec flag before setting it on fire.

The explosion was apocalyptic. The incident was portrayed as the very essence of Canadians' attitudes toward Quebec. And yet, the perpetrators were only imitating what separatists in Quebec had been doing to the Canadian flag. As they explained, they'd noticed that this was the way to get attention.

On July 1, 1971, I covered for The Globe and Mail a demonstration of about 2,500 people marching through the streets of Montreal to protest against Confederation. After describing the scene, my report concluded: "When the speeches had ended, many young people called out their disappointment. The only action had been the burning of a Maple Leaf flag."

To burn a Canadian flag was routine. But to show a soupçon of disrespect for the Quebec flag? Lèse majesté. A sacrilege.
wjohnson@globeandmail.ca