Comparison between Kosovo and Québec

Canada, Kosovo, and the myth of Happy Hostage Unity


The United Kingdom, Australia, France, The United States, Turkey, Senegal, Albania, Afghanistan and Costa Rica have already formally recognized the Republic of Kosovo as an independent country. Some two dozen more countries will likely follow their lead by the end of the month. Canada's not on the list - yet.

Some say it's at least partially about Quebec for us. This analysis on Reuters by David Ljuggren puts it this way: "Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia is a headache for Canada, which needs to find a way of recognizing the new state without boosting the fortunes of separatists in its French-speaking province of Quebec. . ."

Fair enough. Some in Canada put it less mildly and betray some more troubling biases and assumptions: "'. . Canada is boxed in,' Alain Gagnon of the Universite du Quebec in Montreal told AFP. If Canada 'quickly recognizes Kosovo independence,' it may be obliged to accept Quebec independence if separatists ever succeed in holding another plebiscite and win, he explained. . ."
Whether or not our current federal government, a government that has shown the way foreward with more flexible federalism, buys into the assumptions underlying these statements is beside the point; They are still probably considering the mood of Canadians on this matter. Some of the radio call-in shows have seen calls once again showing fear that there'd be a circumstance where Canada might have to "let" or "allow" Quebec to leave the federation.

Think about those words . . . 'accept,' 'let,' 'allow' . . . . now think about the assumptions there. The future of one of the jurisdictions that federated to make this country is apparently, in the eyes of many Canadians, in the hands of anyone but the people of that jurisdiction. How far are we willing to carry this?

I'll put it another way. Imagine a post-"oui" vote Canada wherein Canada didn't "let" Quebec leave. Besides accommodation of childish spite, what would be accomplished here? What would the economy look like? The state of civil unrest? The way we are viewed internationally?
The daft, arrogant and rigid top-down federalism of Trudeau, Chretien and Dion had its chance. Far from saving Canada, this rigidity only further polarized this country. Ottawa governments taking this line got sovereignty referendums in 1980 and 1995 for their efforts. Secession references and the now-outed post-oui contingency plans did nothing except show that we need a new approach, or a return to more respect-based principles in our federalism.

The fact of the matter is - you can't legislate unity; You can't lawyer your way to unity; You can't, without severe scarring and human cost, coerce nations within a country to stay unified. Unity in free and democratic countries and federations has to be earned. It has to be worth it. It can't be a unity of state-sized hostage taking. Moreover, if democratic mechanisms lead to a decision we may not like, we can't take our toys and pretend as if it didn't happen. Ask the Chechans what happens when a country behaves in such a way.

I am a Newfoundlander. The people of the Dominion of Newfoundland voted by a very narrow margin to join Canada. If it was enough to snuff out the country in which my grandparents were born, then a similar fair process is bloody well enough to establish independence.
Some otherwise very pro-freedom and pro-democracy people get very uptight when talk turns this way. The possibility of change frightens them. They forget that the world is not static. There is no reason to try to grab on and freeze the globe and prevent the changing of maplines after some arbitrarily picked point in our timeline. They have always changed. If we want ours in this country to stay the same, pretending as if other nations and countries do not exist will not achieve the desired effect, it will only show us to be slightly more inconsistent in our approach to such matters.

Putting aside the fact that most academics agree that a comparison between Kosovo and Quebec is a comparison between apples and oranges, Canadians need to grow up when it comes to how they let the issue of the potential for Quebec to become independent affect them. Please don't tell me that this country is so close to death's door that the only viable tools for unity remaining open to us are semantics, lawyering, or possibly coercion . . .

It is precisely because we're big and mature enough to make this federation workable and united with strong provinces and more of the new flexible federalism that we should be among the first to confidently recognize Kosovo. Besides, it's the right thing to do.

Posted by Liam O'Brien on February 19, 2008 Permalink