The Evolution of Canada's Relations with French Africa, 1945-1968

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Shifting Priorities: the evolution of Canada's relations with French Africa, 1945-1968 by Robin Stewart Gendron A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PI-IILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 2001 O Robin Stewart Gendron 2001 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 191 of canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON KI A ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your file Voire r$lérsnce Our fife NoIr8 dl$mnce The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fh, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ,ownership,of ,the L'auteur ,conserve ,la propriété ,du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenvise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract In the 1940s and 1950~~the Canadian government viewed developments in France's African dependencies through the prism of the Cold War, the importance to Canada of its relations with France, and France's membership in the North Atlantic alliance. Al1 of these factors influenced Canadian policy towards the French African territories as they progressed towards independence from France. In the 1960s, however, the Canadian government became increasingly aware of the need to pursue substantive relations with the newly independent French African countries as a result of the government of Quebec's growing interest in pursuing its own autonomous international identity. By the end of the 1960s, Canada and Quebec were engaged in an open and vigorous competition over which of them had the right to speak for Canada's French- speaking people within the French-speaking international community known as la francophonie. The Canadian government has been criticised for ignoring French Africa until the crises of the late 1960s were virtually upon it, but this perspective fails to take into account the degree to wliich Canada did take an interest in this part of the world prior to the late 1960s' and the factors that inhibited the Canadian government from developing its relations with French Afsica more fully, such as the fear of offending the French government. Acknowledgements There are many people who helped bring this dissertation to completion and who made the process less painful and more enjoyable. First of all, 1 would like to thank Dr. David J. Bercuson for his exarnple, his assistance, and his steady hand at the helm. He also generously provided financial assistance towards the research for this project, as did the University of Calgary and the Association for Canadian Studies. This assistance is gratefully acknowledged, as is the help provided me by the efficient and friendly staff in the National Archives of Canada, the Archives nationales du Québec and the Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères de la France without whom the research would have been much more time consuming than it was. Father Jacques Monet, sj., graciously allowed me access to the Jules Léger papers at the National Archives of Canada and 1 would like to thank John Hilliker, Hector Mackenzie, Greg Donaghy, and the rest of the Historical Section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade for their advice, their assistance and their patience over the years. 1 would also like to thank the members of the Department of History at the University of Calgary, and Drs. Douglas Francis and Donald Smith in particular, for their congeniality and encourageinent through this stage of my academic career. 1 would be greatly remiss if 1 did not acknowledge the tremendous debt that 1 and al1 the other graduates of the Department of 1-Iistory owe to Karen McDermid, Olga Leskiw, Marjory McLean and the rest of the office staff past and present for al1 they do to help students through their ordeals. 1 hope my family considers this final product worthy of the years that 1 have spent iv away from them, but I nonetheless appreciate the love and support that they have given so steadfastly throughout. Their faith in me has given me the courage to complete what once seerned an impossible task. It was made easier by the fact that 1 was also welcomed into another wonderful farnily in Calgary. Thanks and love to all, but especially to Kelly whose influence over the past five years can not be measured in mere words. Table of Contents Approval Page ........................................................................................................................ii ... Abstract .................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................iv Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE: HESTITATING ON THE EDGE OF A NEW WORLD ........................11 CHAPTER TWO: TEMPERED SYMPATHY ....................................................................51 CHAPTER THREE: CANADA AND FRENCH NORTH AFRICA, 1958-1962 ............... 88 CHAPTER FOUR: CANADA AND THE FRENCH COMMUNITY IN AFRICA, 1958- 1963..................................................................................................................................... 125 CHAPTER FIVE: THE LIBERALS AND FRENCH AFRICA, 1963-1966 .....................165 CHAPTER SIX: QUEBEC AND FRENCH AFRICA, 1960-1966 ...................................203 CHAPTER SEVEN: CANADA AND THE ORIGINS OF LA FRANCOPHONIE........... 234 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................276 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................293 Appendices ...................................................................................................................... -303 INTRODUCTION In January 1968, Quebec's Minister of Education accepted an invitation on behalf of his government to attend a meeting between the ministers of education of France and the French African states in Libreville, Gabon. What was remarkable about Jean-Guy Cardinal's participation in this meeting in Febniary was the fact that the invitation had been addressed to the government of Quebec alone. Canada's federal governrnent had pointedly not been invited, nor had it been asked to re-direct the invitation to Cardinal, a clear contravention of accepted diplomatic practices. The result of this incident was an increasingly open and public airing of the domestic constitutional difficulties between the federal and Quebec governments on the international scene. The Libreville Conference was just one of several international meetings from 1968 to 1971 whose broad purpose was to establish an international association of French-speaking countries roughly .equ.iwlent to .the English-speak,i.ng Commonwealth. DDurhg.this period, Canada and Quebec competed fiercely for the right to participate in these meetings in Libreville, Kinshasa, Paris and Niamey. During tliis contest, the gcwernments of Quebec and Canada targeted the approximately 20 French-speaking countries in Africa whose support they both needed in order to fulfil their ambitions: Quebec to secure its own autonomous identity within the francophone community and Canada to prevent Quebec from doing so. Thus, for several years coinciding with Quebec's increased interest in establishing its own ties with the international community, the need to cultivate relations with French Africa occupied a principal place in the evolution of Canadian foreign policy. These French-speaking countries, however, did not just suddenly appear on Canada's horizon. By 1968, they had been sovereign, independent countries for at least seven years, some of them for over a decade. Furthermore, because of the way these countries had gained their independence fiom France, some acrimoniously, others less so, the international community had been observing and dealing with issues related to French Africa since the early post-Second World War years. The Canadian governrnent itself had a history of trying to come to terms with French Africa well before the crises of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This history has never been fully acknowledged in the Canadian foreign policy literature. There have been no monographs on the subject of Canada's relations with the French-speaking countries of Afiica and the limited attention devoted to this topic in general analyses of Canadian foreign policy focuses, perhaps not surprisingly, on the period after the mid-1960~~the Libreville conference and its aftermath. This was the

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