Charte canadienne et droits linguistiques : frontières allégoriques et autres assertions consensuelles
The boundary between politics and intellectual activism is generally fluid. The whole universe of political-constitutional thought while banging the doctrinal drum is often merely a political construct rather than grounded in fact. Through constant repetition, the Quebecois national identity narrative has established itself firmly in the public’s imagination. Through the years, it has attained the status of an outright myth. Utilized in the political arena, this myth holds tremendous sway.  This doctoral thesis focuses on the different myths which have been created since 1982 by writers of a particular branch of Quebec doctrine: language rights, the primary focus of this study, where the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Supreme Court of Canada are considered to have joined forces to redress the French language’s gains in la Belle Province. Francophones outside Quebec, since the crumbling of the concept of a French Canadian nation, find themselves excluded from the equation and removed from the constitutional chessboard. In fact, the adoption of methodological nationalism as the new political and doctrinal orthodoxy makes it particularly difficult to reconcile the existence of a national identity narrative with the enshrined myths. Thus, and following the logic of the excluded third party theory, a Francophone victory outside of Quebec is considered according to the interpretative symmetry a win for the Quebec Anglophone community.  This thesis seeks to question the value of the different established myths, and if applicable, to revaluate the scope of the Canadian Charter with regard to language rights. It will demonstrate that many of the accepted theories by Quebec scholars and doctrinal writers fail, at least partially, a fact-based analytical test. This will confirm that these espoused theories purposely ignore judicial decisions and other empirical facts which do not adhere to the suggested orthodoxy.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Language rights Francophones outside of Quebec Methodological nationalism