Delisle–Richler controversy
The Delisle–Richler controversy is the name given by academics to an historical controversy in Canadian history surrounding allegations of antisemitism made by Mordecai Richler and Esther Delisle against several pre-World War II Quebec personalities, notably against the priest-historian Lionel Groulx.
Writings by Delisle
''The Traitor and the Jew''
In her 1993 book, The Traitor and the Jew: Anti-Semitism and the Delirium of Extremist Right-Wing Nationalism in French Canada from 1929-1939,, French-Canadian historian and political theorist Esther Delisle documented Lionel Groulx's antisemitism as expressed in his writings from 1929 to 1939. Delisle wrote that Groulx's writings were rampant with various attacks against the Jewish people; blaming Jews for what Groulx viewed as his own society's social, and other ills.''Myths, Memories and Lies''
In 1998, Esther Delisle published, Myths, Memories and Lies, an account of how some members of Quebec's elite, nationalist and federalist, supported Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Pétain and his Vichy government in Nazi-occupied France during World War II and helped bring French war criminals to safety in Quebec after the war ended.Criticisms of Delisle
However, Delisle's work has also been criticized for allegedly altering or misquoting many of her actual citations of Groulx's work, criticisms with which Delisle has strongly disagreed. One such critic is Gérard Bouchard, who agrees with the basic premise that Groulx expressed antisemitic opinions, but who strongly disagrees with Delisle over the importance of Groulx' antisemitism to his overall body of thought.Writings by Richler
Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country is a book by Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler. Published in 1992, it parodied the evolution of language policy in Quebec, and spoofed the Canadian province of Quebec's language laws that restrict the use of the English-language. The book, a best-seller, grew out of a lengthy article published in a September 1991 issue of The New Yorker.Criticisms of Richler
Following the publication of Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Richler faced a great deal of criticism from Quebec nationalists in the French media and some in English-Canada.Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe rose in the House of Commons to call Richler "a racist of the worst kind".
Pierrette Venne, a Bloc Québécois MP, called for the book to be banned, and for Richler to be prosecuted for disseminating hate propaganda.
Allegations surrounding Groulx
In his lifetime, Groulx made the following statement: "L'antisémitisme, non seulement n'est pas une solution chrétienne; c'est une solution négative et niaise."Immigration by non-Catholics
Groulx's alleged antisemitism has made him a controversial figure. Groulx's supporters have declared that his antisemitism has to be understood in the context of his conservative Catholic beliefs. Groulx perceived adherents of religions different from his own Catholic church as being opposed to his religion. While Groulx was opposed to all non-Catholics, Groulx had expressed a particular hatred of Jewish people and Judaism in particular. Groulx opposed immigration to Canada by Jews, Mennonites, Mormons, and other non-Catholics.Jewish arrivals to Canada
Groulx was opposed to admitting, even temporarily, Jews fleeing the Holocaust in Europe; as outlined by historians Abella and Troper in their study None is Too Many. During the period he was studying in Europe, he wrote letters to his family in which he asserted that everything possible should be done to keep Jews out of Quebec.French Canadian race
The writings of Lionel Groulx also espoused the idea of ethnic superiority. His pedagogical novel, L'Appel de la race taught that "the children of ethnically mixed marriages suffer from a form of schizophrenia because they are inhabited by two different souls."Groulx posited the existence of the French-Canadians as a heroic pure-blooded race that had been degraded by conquest, and lured away from their birth-right by foreign influences; the negative aspects of which he identified with Jews, as well as with the English and Americans.
Supersessionism
Groulx's conception of the French Canadians as race resembles his Roman Catholic conception of the Jews as a Holy Nation and God's Chosen People. As he explained in his diary, the French were "l'Israël des temps nouveaux choisi par Dieu pour être le suprême boulevard de la foi du Christ venu, l'épée et le bouclier de la justice catholique".In this context, Groulx could be seen as playing a role analogous to the biblical prophets, denouncing the worship of the false gods of secularism, modernity and urban culture while calling his people back to what he understood as their true heritage. The French-Canadian "nation" whose suffering, Groulx imagined, had been ordained by God, was part of a divine plan as he saw it, to bring the "true faith," in his conception of Roman Catholicism, to the North American continent.