While Philippe Léger and others beat the drum to reopen questions around federal interference in the 1995 vote, nobody is asking how provincial agencies and Crown corporations received cash to spend on Parti Québécois propaganda in the year leading up to the vote.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on December 1, 2025.

OTTAWA—”Operation Citizenship” was all the buzz in Quebec last week. Former immigration minister Sergio Marchi was quoted in a Quebec newspaper saying he was instructed by then-prime minister Jean Chrétien to speed up citizenship applications in advance of a potential referendum vote.

That article followed a revelation by Marchi in the Journal de Quebec coinciding with the referendum’s 30th anniversary.

It was the first time that “Operation Citizenship” was confirmed by any federal cabinet minister although reports of a potential surge in citizenship were originally noted by journalist Chantal Hébert almost 30 years ago.

Marchi has recently written a book, Pursuing a Public Life: How to Succeed in the Political Arena.

The book, published by Dundurn Press, was published on Nov. 4, and launch parties are being held to get some attention.

Two weeks ago, a presentation was held at Library and Archives Canada, and next week, Conservative MP Michael Chong and Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi will co-host a reception with the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians.

Marchi does not write about the citizenship issue in his book, and thought the journalist’s interview would be about his tome.

He spoke freely about the prime minister’s intention to make sure that the right to vote was not denied anyone who had applied for citizenship.

Journalists reported a spike in application processing in the month leading up to the October 1995 referendum, but the confirmation of a citizenship strategy after 30 years exploded like a bombshell in Quebec media circles.

Journal de Montreal columnist Philippe Léger, no fan of the former prime minister, had this to say about the revelation: ”In the pantheon of Canadian history of deception and anti-democratic manoeuvres, Jean Chrétien holds a prominent place … if there is one political constant for Chrétien, he has always put Canada first, at the cost of cheating and undermining the democratic will of Quebecers.”

Newly-elected Quebec Liberal Leader Pablo Rodriquez downplayed the revelation, saying that Quebecers were tired of going back 30 years to debate an old question.

Most people believe Rodriquez is right. But there is a cadre of disappointed separatists who will never accept the fact that Quebecers want to stay in Canada.

While Léger and others are beating the drum to reopen questions around federal interference in the vote, nobody is shining a light into how provincial agencies and Crown corporations were funded with pro-separation budgets to spend hard cash on Parti Québécois propaganda for a year leading up to the referendum.

For example, at the time, Tourism Quebec was providing paper placemats to all restaurants, stating “Welcome to my country, Quebec” with a flourishing fleur-de-lis flag. Those menus were primarily used by small mom-and-pop restaurants who couldn’t afford tablecloths and personalized menus.

That was exactly the demographic the Parti Québécois was looking to influence.

In a radio interview more than 20 years later, I debated Jean-Francois Lisée on the issue. Lisée, a former Radio Canada journalist, became leader of the Parti Québécois from 2016 to 2018. He confirmed in the interview that government agencies were funded in the year leading up to the 1995 referendum with a budget specifically designed for independence.

His rationale was that the funding stopped before the referendum was called, so it did not need to be included in referendum spending documents.

On the show, he admitted that Hydro Québec and other Crown corporations were financed to develop separatist promotions in their work for the year before the vote.

However, for some reason, there has been lots of interest in federal involvement in the referendum, but zero interest in covering actions that favoured the separatists.

One that stands out was the decision by a trucking convoy to block the road to Montreal’s West Island on the day of the referendum. That was a definitive strategy to snarl traffic in areas where the vote was expected to be almost 100 per cent pro-Canada.

Not surprisingly, neither public officials nor police did anything to get cars moving, but that has never been investigated. Thousands were denied the right to vote on the West Island because of the illegal blockade.

So while “Operation Citizenship” may get separatists’ hackles up, there are plenty of unanswered questions about dirty tricks on the other side.

Just before the referendum, then-premier Jacques Parizeau told a group of diplomats that if Quebecers were to vote ‘no’ in the referendum, they would be like “lobsters in boiling water.” The lobster gaffe was widely denied, even though Parizeau was caught on tape.

In politics there are usually no saints on either side.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Government apologies for wrongs from the distant past do little to improve things for those who were wronged and their descendants.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on May 31, 2021.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made his first foray into politics, he made it clear that he was his own person, not simply a political scion.

Last week, Trudeau followed through on that claim when he arose in the House of Commons to apologize to Italian Canadians for their internment at government hands during the Second World War. His father would never have issued such an apology because Pierre Trudeau did not believe that current governments should own the sins of their forebears.

Former Liberal minister and proud Italian Canadian Sergio Marchi recently penned an opinion piece published in The Ottawa Citizen on why he supported the viewpoint of the father, not that of the son.

Marchi himself had called for an apology while he was serving in Parliament, but he wrote that his viewpoint had changed.

“I have since moved towards former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s position. He argued that the obligation of a government is not to right the past. In the House of Commons, he stated, ‘It is our purpose to be just in our times.’ He refused to play Monday morning quarterback. He instead encouraged us to learn from history, rather than apologize for it,” wrote Marchi.

Last week, political leaders of all stripes rose to support the prime minister’s call for an apology. They needed to. There are currently 1.6 million Italian Canadians who hold considerable sway in many urban ridings, especially in the GTA. It is impossible for politicians looking for votes to oppose an apology for the wrongful interment of Italians, Japanese, and Ukrainians during more than one war.

But the question Marchi posed in his column was the right one. “First, if governments were to apologize for the actions of their predecessors, where would they stop? Parliaments could forever be revisiting past actions with an endless number of apologies. After all, to be human is to err.”

Marchi also underscored the reality that different times produce different results, based on the political realities of the day. It is difficult in principle to oppose apologies. Who doesn’t want to repair the injustices of the past? But it is a slippery slope with no end in sight. There will always be aggrieved groups treated badly by governments.

My own ancestors worked the land in the first Acadian settlement in Canada, only to be unceremoniously dispossessed when the English kicked them out of Grand-Pré in Nova Scotia during the Great Deportation. In today’s world, all 50 founding families of Grand-Pré would all have been seeking apologies and compensation. Instead, the government of Canada has invested heavily in Grand-Pré and has even signed a partnership agreement deeding lands in question back to the Acadians. With the support of Parks Canada, the site became the country’s 16th UNESCO World Heritage site back in 2012. Because of the designation, and the deep roots of the Acadian people in Atlantic Canada, the site has become a magnet for tourists looking to understand their own heritage or the beginnings of the Canadian experience. There is an Acadian tourist trail that wends its way through the region and tells the touching story of a diaspora kicked off their own land.

A decade ago, Italian Canadians received similar collective recognition with a financial investment of $5-million dollars to tell the story of historic injustices suffered by internees at the hands of the government.

An apology cannot repair bad decisions of governments past. And it has little impact on the future. That is why Pierre Trudeau worked hard to support justice in his own time. His was a body of political work that did not involve having to say you’re sorry for past mistakes.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, integrated into the Canadian constitution during Trudeau’s tenure back in 1982, did more to support Acadians than any other single piece of legislation or flowery statement in the House of Commons. That charter meant that every French-Canadian outside Quebec would receive the right to be fully educated in their own language in the public-school systems of multiple provinces. Jean Chretien was justice minister when the new constitution was penned, and he shared Pierre Trudeau’s viewpoint that doing something for change today means much more than apologizing for what happened a century ago.

As we edge closer to an election, all the parties are reaching out to multiple communities. But to those of us not trolling for votes, the rollout of apologies, especially on the eve of an election, looks decidedly spurious.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.