Why Quebec Says No to War

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Just over half the Canadians polled this past November strongly opposed missile defence. In Quebec, opposition to Star Wars was stronger by far: nearly two thirds were strongly opposed. This popular opposition, in addition to being co-opted by the Bloc Quebecois, also managed to break the ice with the Liberal Party and won the support of the Quebec section of the federal Liberal Party.

On March 15, 2003, 250,000 Montrealers responded to the call from the "Echec a la Guerre" (Block the War) Collective. They marched through downtown crying out their opposition to the Washington's war of aggression against Iraq. Elsewhere in Quebec, a further 40,000 people were mobilized. Many sectors of the Quebec population rejected this war and came out into the streets.

What accounts for the strong anti-war movement in Quebec? In our view, there is a direct relationship between the Quebec nation's struggle for independence and various …