His province rattled by hate campaigns and talk of partition, Premier Lucien Bouchard is doing something unheard of for a separatist leader: speaking directly to Quebec's English-speaking minority.
He has invited 400 prominent Anglophones to a Montreal theater Monday night to launch "a new dialogue" with an influential but outnumbered community that is overwhelmingly opposed to his goal of independence for the mostly French-speaking province.Bouchard's critics retort that the event will be a one-sided dialogue, since he doesn't want to answer questions from the floor. But his overture is seen as a signal that Bouchard wants to nudge Quebec away from the venomous political rhetoric of recent weeks and launch a cooperative campaign against social and economic problems.
The main source of friction has been a nationwide debate - even among federal Cabinet ministers - over the possible partition of Quebec in the event that it does vote for independence.
Partition advocates trumpeted their slogan, "If Canada is divisible, so is Quebec," and plunged into detailed discussion of how anti-separatist regions of the province, including Montreal itself, might remain part of Canada in the event of Quebec's secession.
The partition talk alarmed many Francophone Quebeckers, federalists as well as separatists.
"If partition happens, there would be a risk of violence more than in any other situation," said Rejean Pelletier, a Laval University political scientist. "It could sow the seeds of civil war."
Coinciding with the partition debate was an upsurge of political vandalism and anonymous threats, mostly targeting federalists. A brick was thrown through a window of the home of a prominent Montreal federalist, and a group claiming links with a 1960s-era terror campaign sent threatening letters to seven companies which opposed separatism in October's secession referendum.
Authorities, taking the threats seriously, set up a special investigative unit made up of provincial, Montreal and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers.
Due mostly to Bouchard's charismatic campaigning, the separatists almost won the October referendum, receiving 49.4 percent of the votes. Another referendum is expected within two years; recent polls show the separatists would win if a vote were held now.
Bouchard's speech Monday night will be telecast live by Montreal's two English-language TV stations.
Anglophones - about 800,000 out of Quebec's 7.3 million people - are pleased Bouchard is thinking about them. But there is skepticism whether he will address their demands regarding civil service job opportunities and restrictive language laws.
A group of 16 Anglophone leaders urged Bouchard on Saturday to reform a controversial education law so immigrants from English-speaking countries can send their children to English schools.
"A demoralized but determined English-speaking community will be listening very closely," the group said in a statement.