Nous souhaitons partager avec vous la toute dernière publication de François Rocher en collaboration avec David Carpentier pour la revue Review of Constitutional Studies, Vol. 26/27, Issue 2/1, p.39-71: On a Differentiated Reading of Rights: Systemic Francophobia Invites Itself to the Debate.
Résumé
The question that informs this article is whether English-language portrayals of Quebec are at times part of a process that one might describe as systemic Francophobia. Do disagreements with the orientations favoured by Quebec occasionally take the form of an outright disparagement of Quebec society as a whole or of its political elites? If so, is this disparagement marginal or anecdotal, or is it a recurring phenomenon? Does this radical critique contribute to reinforcing the social norms of Anglo-conformity at the heart of Canadian identity, which is constructed, in part, through the identification of an undifferentiated “Them” (Francophone Quebecers)? To address these questions, the article proceeds in two parts. The first part presents a theoretical discussion of the notion of Francophobia (as a specific form of collective disparagement) that is particularly aimed at French-speaking Quebecers. It argues that the use of negative discursive representations of French-speaking Quebec is not only part of a mechanism of differentiation and inferiorization, but also serves to define the contours of a Canadian “We” in opposition to a form of unacceptable sociality that is essential to the consolidation of the Canadian identity. The second part of the article then focuses more specifically on the analysis of discursive manifestations that illustrate traits specific to Francophobia. To this end, Bills 101 and 21 are examined through an analysis of debates held in the House of Commons and newspaper articles taken from the Canadian English-language press.