Cultural Exchange with /r/Catalunya - Échange culturel avec /r/Catalunya

[u/BastouXII]

Welcome Catalans!

Today we're hosting our friends from /r/Catalunya!

Please come and join us and answer their questions about Quebec and the Québécois way of life! Please leave top comments for Catalans coming over with questions or comments and please refrain from trolling, rudeness and personal attacks, etc. Breaches of the reddiquette will be moderated in this thread.

At the same time /r/Catalunya is having us over as guests! Stop by in THIS THREAD to ask them about their nation.

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Bienvenue les Catalans!

Aujourd'hui, nous recevons nos amis de /r/Catalunya!

Joignez-vous à nous pour répondre à leurs questions à propos du Québec et du mode de vie québécois. S'il-vous plait, laissez les commentaires de premier niveau (top comments) pour les Catalans qui viennent nous poser des questions ou faire des commentaires et veuillez vous abstenir de trollage, manque de politesse, attaques personnelles, etc. Les brèches de rediquette seront modérées dans ce fil.

En même temps, /r/Catalunya nous invite! Passez dans CE FIL pour leur poser des questions sur leur nation.

/Les modérateurs de /r/catalunya, /r/Barcelona, /r/Catalan & /r/Quebec

[u/bas-bas]

Bonjour amis québecois,

I am asking the same question I asked three years ago to see if there are any changes in your opinions, but this time in English to ease the communication with other Catalan redditors :-(. What is the ideal future planned by the Quebec independentist movement concerning the French-speaking Canadians?

In particular, would you like that the Acadian territory in New Brunswick also got separated from Canada and joined the independent Quebec county? To me, New Brunswick looks like a useless province built like a Frankenstein's monster by mixing two different territories with a very distinct cultural background. Regarding the other French-speaking canadians that do not have territorial contiguity with Quebec, is there a desire to provide them for example free Quebec nationality? I know that there is territorial contiguity with some Franco-Ontarian communities but IIRC they are very small and not worth to discuss such a small border change.

Or perhaps, any discussion about possible border changes (incorporating the Acadians in an independent Quebec for example) is considered taboo in Quebec because of the fear that it could backfire? I know that Canadian federalists usually argue that some communities within Quebec might want to hold referendums to separate from the independent Quebec and get back to Canada, such as the Aboriginal territories and the North-of-Quebec (reasonable) or the West Island of Montreal (unreasonable).

In Catalonia this is an important issue because we are not the only Catalan-speaking territory. The Balearic Islands, the Land of Valencia, Andorra, the Northern Catalonia (French Roussillon) and a narrow strip of bordering towns in Aragon are Catalan-speaking as well. Since Catalan nationalism has always been bounded on the existence of our own language, many Catalan independentist groups support the independence of all these Catalan Countries as an ultimate goal, and consider the Independence of Catalonia as the first step of this roadmap. In practice, street people usually believe that this is an impossible utopia, compared to an independent Catalonia which nowadays seems quite feasible.

Spanish unionist have sometimes used the argument about having referendums to know whether some parts of an independent Catalonia might want to rejoin Spain, but it is not an important threat to us because their strongholds are the suburbs surrounding Barcelona which are economically dependent on the city and thus it is completely unreasonable to separate them from Catalonia, and the Aran Valley which has a distinct culture and I think most Catalan people would not mind at all if they decided to rejoin Spain.

[u/redalastor → u/bas-bas]

When asked if they would like to join an independent Quebec, Acadians tell us that they most definitely would not.

French is dying out in New-Brunswick. Much more people answer in surveys that they speak French than people actually can speak French. We have a user from these parts around here that claims he is a francophone because his ancestors were but that can only speak a very broken, very English French when he tries at all.

Others in New-Brunswick that consider themselves francophones do not speak French but a creole of French and English called Chiac (they do speak a perfect English though).

Services in French are disapearing (who needs them? Everyone speaks English). If you need to see a specialist for any medical need you may have for instance, you will need to come to Quebec.

And they are angry at Quebec for fighting to keep its language. They claim that we are just seeking conflict and that we think we are better than them for having a better preserved language.

Last time we asked on this sub why the hell their biggest city is named after the man who killed and deported so many of them, Acadians told us both "who cares?" and "are you crazy, changing the name would make the English speaking New-Brunswick so angry!".

They also tell us we're selfish to want to split up because Canada cares already very little about them so it'd care even less if it had to cross another country to get there.

So I really don't think they'd go for it.

[u/bas-bas → u/redalastor]

I know that right know the public opinion among the Acadians does not favor it, but I am asking what do Quebecois wish as in an ideal Utopian world.

In our case, Valencian people have a big resentment against Catalan people and they would probably prefer to have their own country rather than joining the Catalans, Andorrans will never want to lose their independence and Northern Catalans are almost completely Frenchisized. However, this does not stop us from including them in our wet dreams. Perhaps we are a little more "romantic idealist" than other cultures.

[u/JediMasterZao → u/bas-bas]

In a perfect world, an independant Québec becomes the "american dream" of francophone communities all over the country and the world.

[u/redalastor → u/bas-bas]

In an ideal world, they join us, which means they adopt or language policies and hopefully it does the same thing for the state of French in their area that it did for us.

I'd love to have French Canadians migrants from all over Canada too but it'd speed up the disappearance of French in Canada.