Manitoba's French-Language Crisis: A Cautionary Tale (review)

On 13 June 1985 the Supreme Court of Canada judged that Manitoba was in 'a state of emergency': all of the province's unilingual laws, passed and printed in English only, were unconstitutional. Manitoba's Official Language Act of 1890 had abolished section 23 of the Manitoba Act of 1870, which guaranteed the equal status of French and English as languages of governmental debate, record, legislation, and court proceedings. Displaying more common sense than the province's politicians, who had simply ignored lower court decisions in 1892, 1909, and 1976 that the language law was ultra vires, the Supreme Court gave the laws temporary validity until they could be translated, re-enacted, and published. Over the next several months the New Democratic government of Howard Pawley reached a compromise with the Société franco-manitobaine on the extent and schedule for the translation of past acts and regulations and as well agreed to implement French-language services. In 1989 the Conservative government of Gary Filmon, elected the previous year, implemented a more extensive program of services for areas in which francophones were concentrated and admitted that French was an official language in Manitoba.

Raymond M. Hébert has provided an engaged and engaging narrative of 'Manitoba's French-Language Crisis' and has offered a provocative theory of right-wing authoritarianism to explain the bigotry that provoked legislative paralysis and prevented a resolution of the issue except by judicial order. At the centre of the narrative and the theory is 'the fire-breathing, anti-Trudeau, Charter-loathing Sterling Lyon,' who, as premier from 1977 to 1981 and leader of the opposition for two years thereafter, headed 'a viscerally antibilingualism, rural-based caucus.' In government Lyon rejected any entrenchment of language rights, arguing, as he had during the constitutional debates, that parliament was the best guarantor of minority interests. In opposition he aggressively led the attack on the well-intentioned but divided and ineffectual Pawley government and set his party on an obstructionist course that continued even after Filmon succeeded him as party leader. With his fellow Conservatives and disaffected ndp mlas, Lyon inspired a vicious anti-francophone grassroots campaign that cowed the government. Rather than forcing a decision on a 'made-in-Manitoba' constitutional amendment, after twelve days of bell-ringing during which the Conservatives refused to attend the vote, Pawley requested that the legislature be prorogued in February 1984. The Court would decide.

As the Franco-Manitoban case for constitutional remediation advanced, anglophones, expecting to find their interests and identities reflected in their political institutions, developed an anxiety over their own political and cultural status in the province. Not only did this paranoia affect those of British background, it also provoked those formerly ethnic 'out-groups,' principally German, who had already lost their language and accepted the British identity of the province. This ethnocentrism was expressed in an authoritarianism susceptible to manipulation by a handful of demagogic leaders who warned of conspiracies, secret agendas, and dire consequences for the unvigilant. 'Sterling Lyon set the tone,' Hébert contends.

Appealing as authoritarian theory is in explaining the unpleasant Sterling Lyon and his company, its lack of subtlety contrasts with Hébert's compelling narrative, which reveals many contingencies and paths not followed. As well, the theory leaves timidity and weakness as the only explanation for the Pawley government's inability to deal with the crisis. Might not a more convincing interpretation reside in a theory about the nature of interest group politics in a federal system in which individual and communal constitutional rights stood in tension?

But this is a minor concern. The 'Cautionary Tale' is a compelling narrative – in some ways a tragedy – and it is told well. Occasionally, the author's command of the detail of events and personalities does go beyond what readers, especially those unfamiliar with Manitoba's politics, need to know, and one senses that the author wanted on the record the names of all those on...