A battle to remember

01. Actualité - articles et dossiers




As Canadians, we remain oddly disconnected from our history. Attempts to celebrate it often encounter either indifference or protest.
Thus, a plan to re-enact the Battle of the Plains of Abraham to mark its 250th anniversary on Saturday was cancelled due to protests in Quebec. The rest of the country shrugged.
Instead of a re-enactment, there will be a reading of the FLQ manifesto on the battlefield site this weekend – as if to suggest that the battle was a humilating event.
In fact, the battle shaped two countries – Canada and the United States (which revolted against British rule a decade and a half later). And far from signifying the end of French civilization in North America, the battle marked a new beginning.
Some Quebec nationalists have nonetheless argued that it is a "painful" moment in history for them. Likewise, Gettysburg is a painful memory for the South; yet plans are already well underway in the U.S. to celebrate the sesquicentennial of that battle in 2013.
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham will not go completely unheralded here. To its credit, the CBC (though not its French-language sister network) is airing a documentary on it tonight.
"I regret we have a constructed amnesia," says CBC executive producer Mark Starowicz.
He is right. We ignore our history at our peril.

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