Lectures and Trainings

   

Joint Seminar - ‘’Quebec Separatism in Canada: Evolution, Management, and Possible Implications for Georgia’’

On December 18, 2013  a joint seminar ‘’Quebec Separatism in Canada: Evolution, Management, and Possible Implications for Georgia’’ between the Georgian Political Science Association and the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies was held at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. The presenter was Mr. Matthew Light, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Canada. During the seminar, Mr. Light discussed the origins and development of separatism in a province, Quebec, in Canada. He focused on the dynamics, threats, specificities of separatist sentiments and attempts of their control.

He said that Quebec separatism has an ethnic nature originating in the 18th century when the Kingdom of Great Britain conquered provinces of Canada. In modern epoch, this separatism established a political tint and gave unprecedented privileges to the Francophone population. Lingual privileges and very high-level autonomous rights today are the reasons why Quebec remains a part of Canada. In the presenter’s opinion, Georgian authorities should follow this example when resolving internal conflicts. Part of the audience expressed doubt about the possibility of achieving success using Quebec as a model because of Georgia’s totally different cultural-political realities.