The Plains of Abraham come to Ottawa

André Juneau, chairman of the National Battlefields Commission had been called before the Heritage Committee to explain the furor in Québec over the controversial re-enactment of the battle of 1759 between troops led by Wolfe and Montcalm.

It featured several hundred men, mostly Americans, in period costume of the French and British armies, re-enacting the battle, camping on the Plains with their families and living for three days much as soldiers did back then.

The event was called off this month by Juneau after receiving numerous threats of violence and arousing the ire of Quebec nationalists.

Understandably, some Quebeckers see the 250th anniversary as a cause for celebration -- the victory of the British over the French and the fall of New France; for others it’s a bad memory of a conquest by an invading foreign army, and there is nothing to celebrate.

Since Juneau had already cancelled the anniversary re-enactment by the time he showed up in Ottawa this week, the MPs decided to turn on each other instead for target practice.

MP Pierre Poilievre, (Nepean-Carleton) the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary, tore into the Bloc Québécois MPs accusing them of using public funds to finance “extremists” Pierre Falardeau and Patrick Bourgeois by buying ads in the “Le Québécois” newspaper.

”That’s bullshit, that’s bullshit!” shouted back Bloc MP Roger Pomerleau.

Juneau was left to explain what had happened, how something that was innocent and nothing more than an event marking an anniversary had gone so terribly wrong and become such a controversy in Quebec.

Juneau is a forester by training and not a historian. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, a bit out of his depth perhaps, but certainly not a federalist propaganda schemer.

Battle re-enactments such as this one are staged by these same Americans all over the world, he explained. They get a kick out of it, dressing up as soldiers in period costumes and using authentic equipment to put on quite a show. They usually attract thousands of tourists. Some camp in tents for days at a time, with their families, also in costume, just as soldiers did back then.

But it all went down the drain, 10 long years of planning, when the threats of violence began coming in. Juneau said he had no choice. He received about 150 threatening e-mails, he said. Police are investigating two of them.

Juneau told a hypothetical story about what might happen to an American re-enactor who, dressed in his bright red British soldier uniform, might decide, after a hard-day of re-enacting on the Plains, to go down to the town for a cold beer. Juneau didn’t have to explain how the tavern story might end up.

It was never a federalist propaganda scheme, said Juneau. It was a historical re-enactment to help young people better understand their history, exactly what the Battlefields people have been doing without trouble since 1992.

Juneau said he got the job from Jean Chrétien just before the 1995 referendum.

But that had nothing to do with it. His organization had been organizing events on the Plains even when the PQ was in power in Quebec, and there was not a peep out of them. Nor had the Harper government or the Charest government said anything when they came to power.

It didn’t help however when Juneau said that way back he’d had access to the $1.2 million Federal Sponsorship Program through the good offices of a certain Alfonso Gagliano, and also access to a $5 “Unity Canada” fund.

That was all the proof the Bloc needed to climb the barricades. It confirmed their worst fears.

New Democrat Thomas Mulcair asked Juneau politely if he didn’t realize that staging a re-enactment battle might stir up passions between people who see themselves as victors and those who feel they were vanquished.

Juneau fudged. Obviously, he hadn’t. He was only thinking of history.

So if it was only history and not a celebration, why had Juneau planned a 250th anniversary masked ball, Bloc MPs asked.

That’s because the Intendant Vaudreuil was organizing balls three times a week, much to Montcalm’s consternation, even as Wolfe was marching on Quebec, Juneau replied. He wanted to be faithful to history.

MP Pomerleau asked what Juneau thought would happen if the Germans asked France if they could re-enact their triumphant Second World War march into Paris? Or if the Japanese asked the Americans if they could re-enact Pearl Harbor?

Juneau had no answer. He was getting a history lesson of his own.

Meanwhile, back outside in the real world, beyond the confines of Parliament, Canadians were more worried about where their next pay cheque is coming from in these economic hard times.