Separatist leader references Acadian deportation to justify Quebec independence

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A Quebec separatist leader’s references to the Acadian deportation to justify a push for independence are “deeply disappointing and even worrying,” says a federal Liberal cabinet minister.

But an Acadian New Brunswick Liberal MP is shrugging off the words.

Provincial Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has grabbed headlines this week for comments he made about Justin Trudeau, alleging that the prime minister is making an “offensive charge” against Quebec, calling the federal Liberals “a regime which only knows how to crush those who refuse to assimilate.”

The comments were a reference to Ottawa’s alleged encroachment on Quebec jurisdiction and federal immigration policies.

“The history of Canada is a history of assimilation,” St-Pierre Plamondon said. “In all Canadian provinces, French speakers have been assimilated.”

“I am always surprised by news commentators who say there is no intention behind it. It’s really forgetting recent history … forgetting what francophones experienced in deportations, executions …. This regime has been consistent throughout its history.”

It’s a reference to 1755 when all Acadians who wouldn’t declare allegiance to Britain were ordered to leave, with more than 10,000 deported, thousands of whom died of disease, starvation or shipwrecks.

The comments were rejected by Pablo Rodriguez, the federal government’s transport minister and the prime minister’s Quebec lieutenant, who said they were “deeply disappointing and even worrying,” adding that they hurt social cohesion.

Rodriguez said it is historically accurate that the British deported the French-speaking Acadians from what is now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and that they also executed francophones who rebelled against the Crown.

But those events don’t reflect present day Quebec or Canada.

“Execution? Deportation? We’re reaching a whole other level of language where we’re introducing violent terms,” Rodriguez said.

“Quebec has had great moments of brilliance, light, clarity, economic success, cultural success, influence on the world.

“This is the Quebec that we live in today.”

St-Pierre Plamondon contends the past is why Quebec needs sovereignty today.

But it’s a position New Brunswick Madawaska-Restigouche Liberal MP René Arseneault rejects.

“I respect his opinion. He’s a Canadian. He has the right to express himself as he wants,” Arseneault said, exiting a caucus meeting earlier this week, adding that the words “don’t really worry” him “in New Brunswick.”

But Quebec separating from Canada does.

“Yes, that would worry me a lot if it were to happen. You know, let’s hope that never happens,” Arseneault said.

Arseneault’s backbench bid to scrap the requirement for parliamentarians to pledge allegiance to the King, and instead give politicians the choice to swear an oath to Canada, failed last week.

Arseneault, an Acadian, said in an interview when his bill was originally introduced that the country is made up of generations of immigrants who chose to live in Canada, often from countries that faced colonialism from Britain’s imperial past.

St-Pierre Plamondon has vowed to launch a referendum if his party wins the 2026 Quebec election.

Quebec independence, he said, is for “everyone that recognizes that Quebec is capable of making its own decisions … and people who recognize that the French language and the specific culture in Quebec should have a future.”