It is a scandal that the Quebec government would have preferred to cover up: certain indigenous communities are simply not paying their hydroelectricity accounts.
The bills arrive at their homes like everyone else, but they consider them optional.
The bill is steep: we are talking about 250 million dollars.
But I said it: the government would have preferred that we not talk about it, admitted Ian Lafrenière.
Injustice
Because this would, others added, maintain prejudices against Aboriginal people.
I don’t know what the prejudices are about them – I know that Quebecers are often given dirty thoughts – but I know that I judge harshly those who believe they can consume a service without having to pay for it, as if they had a fundamental right to free access.
We would even be tempted to see it as a privilege. This privilege is based on a fashionable word: reconciliation.
I would like to believe that it is necessary, but it cannot be based on a new injustice.
What do you say to those who have their power disconnected because they didn’t pay their bills? Sorry, bad origin, friends?
As for me, I have many grievances against Ottawa: can I go on strike for federal taxes?
Reconciliation cannot be based on a historical lie either.
Quebec, which politically continues the adventure of French America, does not have to plead guilty for the faults of English America, whose record is much heavier.
Quebecers have historically had good relations with Indigenous people.
Unfortunately, Quebecers, like all Westerners, today tend to plead guilty as soon as they are accused of something.
Moreover, when it talks about Indigenous people, the Quebec government loses its mind.
Let’s think about the vocabulary a little. Quebec, as we have seen, the term indigenous. Alright.
But to talk about us, he uses the term non-native.
It could hardly be more insulting. Our own government is symbolically expelling us from our own country.
Non-natives: this consists of defining ourselves in the negative.
We become external to ourselves when it comes to naming ourselves.
Historical reminder: we were French, we became Canadians, then French Canadians, then Quebecers, then French-speaking Quebecers, and now we are… non-native?
We are not much anymore.
We become external to our own reality.
Non-natives?
Who today would dare to call themselves “masters of our house”?
Non-native: it is a way of eliminating the concept of a founding people and of merging all “non-natives” into the same category. Unless our ancestors of New France were no longer founders, but immigrants like the others?
Let’s come back to earth.
Hydro-Québec is not a predatory company: it has allowed our people to take back control of their destiny.
Should we remember that this development of the territory was to the advantage of all?
Final reminder: everyone pays their bills. Because good accounts make good friends.
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