Her name is MarieMance Vallee and she's quebecoise, with roots dating back to the 1650's, and she hopes to have a French passport and celebrate Bastille Day July 14, 2009) as a French citizen. Vallee is a member of Collectif Nationalite française, who hope in the not too distant future that many "de souche" quebecois will celebrate the Bastille Day holiday as citizens of France?
Vallee with a legal opinion and proof of her French ancestry is petitioning the French government to issue her a passport. Citizens of France residing overseas can participate in presidential elections, by voting for representatives to the French Senate and National Assembly. Outside France there are 2.2 million French citizens of these only 850,000 have the right to vote. Of course Vallee claims that she doesn't care about voting rights just as long as she is not identified as canadienne.
As Vallee has stated "it's a question of my identity, I have never thought of myself as a canadienne. The term means nothing to me.
"Since Quebec is not independent, I do not have any identity. I am quebecoise, but that isn't an official title."
If Vallee is successful, it would be a boon to approximately five million French descendants living in Quebec, according to Imperitif Nationalite française, which promotes French language and culture. What is absent here is any mention of the Indian ancestry of the canadien/canadienne of which there is quite a lot. Thus the point here is to completely remove all reference to the Indian blood the purses through the veins of the quebecois/quebecoise. But there is also the question of English, Irish, Scots and other nationalities that intermarried with the canadien/canadienne. How can they then be considered French by ancestry?
For Jean-Paul Perreault, president of Imperitif Nationalite française to even suggest that all this could definitely add to Quebec's French identity seems to be an attempt to dream in colour. "They would also be able to take advantage of dual citizenship, so that's very beneficial."
It seems that Vallee had requested dual citizenship in 2006, but was turned down because the rules stipulated that her family must have resided in France in the last 50 years. But Quebec City lawyer, Christian Neron states that a new says anyone can claim French citizenship as long as they can prove that they have ancestors who were born in France. That statement is patently incorrect, for the simple reason that all those who are now claiming French citizenship are descendants of the Habitant and others who renounced their French citizenship and freely chose to become British subjects, and remained in the British colony of Quebec (known before as New France). Thus the Anglo-French Treaty of Paris which was signed on February 10, 1763, ended all their claims and those of their descendants to French citizenship.
Of course Christian Neuron the Quebec City lawyer says he has provided Marie Mance Vallee with a legal argument to back up her request for citizenship because of her colonial links.
"The law is fairly new so not many people know about it," Neron said. "But it allows all people with French ancestry to hold electoral cards."
However, there seems to be a dispute about whether all quebecois would be eligible. According to Christian Neron, the French Consulate in Quebec last month says anyone whose ancestors came to Quebec prior to the signing of the Anglo-French Treaty of Paris of February 10, 1763, in which France surrendered NEW FRANCE to Great Britain, would not be eligible. He plans to challenge that statement. Neron has not mentioned here that when Britain offered to return of Quebec to France, the French government chose the island Guadeloupe which was rich in molasses over Quebec, which was only a few acres of snow.
"It directly contradicts the speech made by French Prime Minister Francois Fillion during the July 3, 2008, Celebrations of Quebec City's 400th Anniversary," he said. "He said that no matter if you're a quebecois, an acadien or a canadien, you remain French." Such terms are widely used by politicians. And this can well be compared with a British politician talking about Australians, Canadians or New Zealanders as being British, which citizens of those countries would strenuously object to in the strongest terms possible.
The French Consulate in Montreal could not be reached for comment on Thursday. Vallee applied for citizenship in May and said it could take between six and nine months to get an answer.
"If successful, she expects many others will follow her lead. I think it will be especially useful for young people so they can all the benefits of being part of the European Union," she said.
Neron said while many de souche quebecois know their genealogy, they would have to prove their French roots to gain citizenship.
"But that's fairly easy because there are records of people who immigrated here, going all the way back to the founding of the colony," Neron said. But therein lies the error. Because the intermarriage of Indians, English, Irish, Scots and other nationalities has diluted the quebecois to the point that they are no longer culturally French, or for that matter linguistically French.
France can also deny citizenship based on values. Recently a Moroccan woman married to French citizen was denied citizenship because of her incompatibility with French values, which could easily apply to quebecois as well, because many of the customs of the quebecois are of North American Indian origin.
I must therefore also state that while the U.S. Government of Thomas Jefferson negotiating the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the French Government of the Emperor Napoleon allowed all those residents of Louisiana who wished to retain their French citizenship the opportunity to do so, and this was an agreed part of the Louisiana Purchase. So much so that even to this very day there are descendants of those people still holding on to French citizenship and living in the U.S.
