Comment: A devout Christian and a sovereigntist
By Lloyd Mackey
IT WAS my intention to try a Christian take on Canada's sovereignty in the light of the Iraq war. That effort was postponed by a most interesting sidelight emerging from the April 14 Quebec election.
That was the event which saw a sovereigntist government replaced by John Charest's federalist Liberals.
One of the new members of the national assembly (read provincial legislature elsewhere in Canada) was Daniel Turp of the Parti Quebecois.
Now it may be his new MNA status will be irrelevant to the cause of Quebec nationhood because separatism is likely to be a dead issue as long as Mr. Charest is premier.
Nevertheless, Christians with political interests, both in Quebec and in other parts of Canada will want to watch Dr. Turp with interest. He is a serious and articulate sovereigntist -- in both official languages. And he is also a deeply-committed Christian.
A nominal Catholic during his growing-up years, Dr. Turp met and married Barta Knoppers, daughter of a Christian Reformed minister.
Dr. Turp and Dr. Knoppers chose the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Presbyterianism's "cathedral" in Montreal, as their spiritual home. They grew spiritually under the open-faced and biblical preaching of James Armour, senior minister at "St. A&P" for over two decades, until recently. The new MNA continues to describe Dr. Armour as his spiritual mentor.
Whatever his separatist stance, Dr. Turp's Christian faith contributes to a grace and enthusiasm about the forging of a new and invigorating relationship between Quebec and Canada, should there be a separation.
He bears watching for several reasons.
He is a constitutional lawyer who, building on his teaching role at the University of Montreal, has earned the right to a strong advisory role to a series of Parti Quebecois premiers.
And he served as a Bloc Quebecois MP in Ottawa from 1997 to 2000, where his critiquing of the Clarity Bill helped, understandably, to win him the enmity of the Quebec federalist community. That legislation is viewed as having pretty much clipped the wings of the constitutional aspects of Quebec sovereigntist aspirations.
When he was defeated in the 2000 federal election, Dr. Turp went back to teaching -- and to await his next political opportunity. That came with the Quebec election. And now, as one of relative young and fresh faces in the PQ -- yet possessing both focus and experience -- he will likely emerge as a potential leadership successor to outgoing premier Bernard Landry.
(Not to be ignored is that Dr. Turp's spouse is, in her own right, highly qualified in genome law and teaches in that area, also, at U of M. Dr. Knoppers and Dr. Turp do not get involved in each others professional disciplines, but their common faith provides useful mutuality.)
A few years ago, Dr. Turp spoke to the student body of Calvin College, a Christian Reformed school in Grand Rapids, Michigan where his brother-in-law teaches. He recounts hearing from one of his audience that his views were "truly unchristian, contrary to the teaching of Scripture and that I should be ashamed of promoting the separation of Quebec from Canada."
Perhaps this quote, delivered at the Faith and Public Life conference held in October, 1999 at Queen's University will give some context for Dr. Turp's views.
"I am comforted at times . . . when in my own church, my friend, Elspeth Smart, smiles at me on Sundays, comes to tell me that she saw me on television and, at times, even sends me clippings of The (Montreal) Gazette, in which her neighbour in pew 11 -- myself -- has made the headlines.
"I doubt Ms. Smart, like the great many English-speaking Montrealers attending St. A&P -- although they might believe that Scotland has a good case for independence -- share my view on the future of Quebec and Canada. What I do know however is that we share in the same faith in God."
