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Quebec Separatism
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For centuries unique minority cultures have struggled for their rights as humans and as individuals. They have been oppressed and pushed into the background of society to become unrecognized by the rest of the world. In the twenty-first century it is thought that this kind of oppression has practically been abolished in Canada. Is it so? Quebec, which is the largest territorial province in Canada and is the only one to have adopted French as its official first language, has been struggling for its recognition for the last four centuries. In the last two decades alone, two referendums have been held by Quebec’s government to gain recognition from the rest of the world as a distinctive province separated from the rest of Canada. The first, which was held in 1980 under the leadership of René Levesque, was a failure by a margin of 16.4%. The second, which was held fifteen years later in 1995 under the leadership of Jacques Parizeau, was also a disappointment for the separatists as they lost by a margin of only 1.2%. These two events have greatly impacted how Quebecers feel about the separatist movement and how the federal government responds to the possible separation of Canada. These defeats have done absolutely nothing to generate a Quebec separatist sprit amongst the province’s population. Rather these two losses have done everything to bring the separatist movement to a practical stop and to make the federal government devise ways to keep its country intact. René Levesque, premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985, presented the Quebec National Assembly with a white paper proposal for a provincial referendum on August 24th 1977. After almost three years of very emotional debating and bitter negotiations, Levesque was finally able to set a date for the referendum.
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