L. Jacques Ménard deplores the widespread apathy that afflicts Quebec
Quebec’s New “Refus Global”: Please Do Not Disturb – constitutes impediment to progress

MONTREAL, June 9, 2008 – “Quebecers need to break the silence that stifles every attempt to change things in Quebec,” said L. Jacques Ménard, President of BMO Financial Group, Quebec, and author of Si on s’y mettait… in a speech today to the Canadian Club of Montreal.

“Quebec has already gone through one Refus global or Total Refusal, a milestone event that marked the beginning of the Quiet Revolution. Today it is clear we are going through another. But this time, it’s change that we are refusing,” he said.

Mr. Ménard was discussing the significant challenges facing Quebec and the approaches likely to help reestablish a level of wealth creation equal to Quebecers’ aspirations. Published last spring, Si on s’y mettait… explores the perceptions of young people (ages 18 to 35) regarding Quebec society as well as their values, ambitions and willingness to get involved in a dynamic and promising society.

“I am convinced our young people are our hope,” said Mr. Ménard after decrying the apathy that afflicts Quebec’s opinion leaders in various fields.

“I call on you to make yourselves heard, because I believe that nothing threatens us more these days than this kind of omerta that surrounds any attempted change,” Mr. Ménard said. “Even to suggest that we begin to think about taking action is seen as an attack on what we hold most dear: collective social tranquility.”

Mr. Ménard also issued a call to action to everyone who has ideas and thinks that Quebec needs to shake off its torpor and immediately begin tackling the enormous challenges confronting it. “I believe we haven’t been claiming our proper place,” he said. “And by ‘we’ I mean everyone who’s aware of Quebec’s economic, social and political situation. Everyone who’s worried about our children’s future. Everyone who’s prepared to help get the ball rolling in Quebec. There are many more of us than you’d imagine based on the small space we occupy in the public debate.”

Mr. Ménard also provided several examples of the type of society Quebec could become if we got going with it…

• A society that cuts its high school dropout rate in half;
• A society that restores university funding to a level equal to the Canadian average;
• A society that makes Quebec a province that contributes to equalization instead of whining in order to get the biggest possible slice of the pie;
• A society whose per capita income is in the top quartile in North America;
• And a society whose government debt is less than 25 per cent of its GDP.

“Our young people are deeply involved in most of the technological innovations that enrich our lives today. With the courage and boldness appropriate to their age, these same young people will be deeply involved in the social innovations that my generation finds so frightening but that today’s Quebec so urgently needs. It is then that our society will finally come into its own and realize its full and enormous potential,” Mr. Ménard concluded.

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