What's Wrong With National Unity? Quebec, Pipelines and the Right to Say "No"

In recent weeks as the sham pipeline review of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain was being conducted by the National Energy Board a chorus of opposition to Kinder Morgan and the Energy East pipeline has been voiced across the country. First Nations, NGOs, grassroots activists, students and workers have all expressed their opposition in a myriad of ways from press conferences to rallies to direct actions. Yet it was Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre that was singled out for expressing his and his constituents' opposition in the way that mayors in Vancouver and other municipalities have done. This attempt to divide the climate justice movement and pit English against French repeats a long history of anti-Quebec chauvinism being used to divide and conquer social movements in Canada. 

As Quebec student leader and climate justice activist Gabriel Nadieu Dubois put it in a recent article for Richochet:

"these statements (widely circulated on social media) vividly testify to the persistence of a feeling of contempt and superiority over Quebec in the rest of Canada. When Ontario, which also receives equalization payments, announces its position on Energy East you can bet no one will accuse it of living off the coattails of Alberta. This catchphrase, history has shown, is reserved for Quebecers: “eat your gruel and shut your mouth.”"

What do socialists have to say about calls for "national unity" that are use to silence dissent in both English Canada and Quebec? Is there a national interest shared by all Canadians? What is the alternative?

Come join us to talk about this vital question for the future of the climate justice movement in Canada.