Narratives of power: historical mythologies in contemporary Québec and Canada

Abstract

The official narratives that Canada tells itself about its history and identity facilitate the contemporary exercise of power, determining who is to be regarded as fully belonging and who is alien. While race is excised from these national narratives, it has in fact been central to the formation of Canadian nationhood. The image of the respectable, peaceful, multiculturalism-loving Canadian citizen, descendant of the two founding nations, France and Britain, goes hand in hand with its opposites: the Indigenous ‘Indian’, the Black, the immigrant newcomer and the refugee. This article examines the historical and contemporary variants of these images and the narratives constructed around them, arguing that Canada’s history of colonial violence, slavery and racism has been marginalised through their circulation, and that their continued invocation in public debates on crime, terrorism and immigration is a crucial factor in the perpetuation of racial exclusion. The particular ways in which Québec has conceived its relationship to English Canada add an interesting dimension to this discussion: in the 1960s, Quebecers saw in the political struggles of Africans and African Americans a metaphor for their own identity. But Québec’s own version of a founding national narrative is a tale of innocence and victimhood that conveniently omits the colonisation of Indigenous peoples, the practice of slavery and racial exclusion.