Ghost of a flea: A lesson learned

? Don't mess with Texas | Main | Let's consider who it was that dreamed it all ?

February 23, 2009

A lesson learned

The cancellation of the the Battle of the Plains of Abraham re-enactment scheduled for this summer was indeed a craven surrender to Quebecists threatening violence. Here come the apologists. Take Lysiane Gagnon, writing for The Globe and Mail.

From the start, the commission should never have considered such a project. As Don Macpherson, a columnist for the same newspaper, wrote: "You don't need insight to see that recalling the defeat of the French in North America with a sort of Heritage-Minutes Plainsfest in the capital of the descendants of the losing side wasn't a good idea."

Of course the radical fringe of the sovereigntist movement that threatened to disrupt the show was wrong, but this is not the point. Such angry reactions are to be expected when an event is deemed offensive by a large part of the population. Contrary to the reports that circulated throughout Canada, the opposition was not limited to militant sovereigntists. It came from large numbers of francophones, including many federalists.

A quick translation for Flea-readers living in warmer climes: By "federalists", Gagnon means French people employing French people in Canada's federal bureaucracy at the expense of English, Chinese, Italian and various other Canadians. But this is almost beside the point. To Gagnon and her ilk, "angry reactions" including threats of violence - this is the unambiguous meaning of her words - are not limited to a radical fringe but are typical of mainstream French opinion in this country. Hardly surprising. Rinse and repeat for "Palestinians" and anyone else taking full time welfare as a platform for jihad and you have the response of "the left" to every problem their stupid, sinful largesse has created.

Such is the lesson of jihadi violence and threats of violence: We have no spine and we will surrender to your ~~demands~~ whim. What choice do we have? Somebody somewhere might be offended.

Let us make something perfectly clear: I am offended. I find French threats offensive. I find apologies for French threats offensive. Above all, I find the cancellation of our British victory celebration offensive.

The linked piece under "apologists" compares the re-enactment to Orange marches in Northern Ireland. Fair dues. Everyone had better hope our government grows a spine. If not, the comparisons will not end with symbolism but in retaliatory inter-communal vigilantism. We have been down this road before. Once the people lose confidence in the ability or the willingness of the state to defend their freedoms, it falls to the people to defend themselves in whatever Hobbesian fashion they can contrive.

I am confident we have learned nothing.

Also beside the point: Cancelling a re-enactment of British victory when what is left of the British in this country have ceded our symbols, our traditions, our place names, our system of measurement, our right to use our own language, the honour of our ancestors and the legacy of our children to the French. What matter a summer pantomime when we won the war and systematically gave away the peace. These days, saying as much can land you in front of a "human rights" commission; as kangaroo an example of kangaroo French justice as one can imagine.

I demand Ontario secede from Confederation.

Related: Not a source of social division? Re-enacting the Battle of Gettysburg. Because Americans are grown ups.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at February 23, 2009 07:57 AM

Comments

Tell your French to get over themselves.

We can have American Civil War reenactments in the South and the North of the US and actually TALK with Black Americans about the Civil War.

Working with this sort of history gives you a better understanding of it and a better foundation for understanding the complexities. You're not spending a hour each week discussing something out of a book. You're spending days at a time immersed in it, many hours and months going over the details and going from there.

Posted by: Montieth at February 23, 2009 12:53 PM