Vive le Quebec libre

Consider this image. It's from a fascinating National Film Board documentary called "Le Confort et l'indifference" ("Comfort and Indifference" in English) https://www.nfb.ca/film/confort_et_lindifference/

Made in 1981 it's like a cerebral home movie of my childhood in Quebec. Framed around the Quebecois desire for independence, it is a time capsule of the era's political debate - separatists on the one side in their emotional yearning for self-determination and the Federalists, on the other, as my family was, believing that Quebec should stay in Canada. The viewpoints of politicians is given ample time but what's interesting is the opinion of ordinary citizens and their point of view - sometimes inarticulate or hesitatant but authentic and often heartbreaking. These are the places I lived, the streets I walked down, the battles I fought in my head. 

The image that caught my attention above was of a Christian rally in the ill-fated Olympic Stadium (itself a symbol of Montreal and Quebec's corruption and mismanagement and delusions of grandeur). On the screen is an image of Jesus between two secular symbols - Steinberg's the local grocery chain where I would shop with my mum and Miracle Mart the discount retailer for the working class  - above the throngs of worshippers. A few years earlier Montreal welcomed the world for the Olympics and Quebec elected the Parti Quebecois - its first separatist government. A high-water mark in many ways for different reasons before a steady but drastic decline that culminated in a referendum that shattered the dreams of a people and began a mass exodus.