Whereas That Was Sad

(Reviving a post from 2012, because not getting an apology doesn’t make feelings go away.)

The Events:

It would be nice if we were all familiar with the Great Upheaval/Grand Dérangement – the forcible exile of the Acadians from the Maritime Provinces of Canada. But Americans, for example, typically learn little Canadian history. And these days, we hardly read any Longfellow.

Beginning in 1755, the Acadians were harshly deported to British colonies in America, to England, or to France. 11,500 Acadian refugees were scattered, typically to places which did not welcome destitute foreigners. Thousands died. Families were broken apart. Longfellow wrote an epic poem about the (fictional) Evangeline, deported separately from her fiance, Gabriel. She spends years searching the places of Acadian exile, always a step or two behind Gabriel. They only meet again when he is an old man dying in a Philadelphia poorhouse.

Many people call this ethnic cleansing. (Others say it was just nasty deporting.) Why did the British do it? England and France were fighting and one theater of war was the North American colonies. You might know this as the French and Indian War, or the Guerre de la Conquête. The Acadians lived in English territory, but spoke French – probably acted French – and had refused to swear to fight for the Crown. “[W]e will take up arms neither against his Britannic Majesty, nor against France…” Pacifists?! But there were also some anti-British rebels, so the British decided to deport everybody.

The idea may have been suggested by Americans. The governor of Massachusetts was a booster and New Englanders settled the land the Acadians lost.

Acadian descendants haven’t forgotten. In 1990, Warren Perrin, a lawyer in Louisiana, filed a symbolic lawsuit asking for an apology for the Expulsion. He sent it to Queen Elizabeth and then-prime minster Margaret Thatcher.

The Apology:

Somewhat to the Acadians’ surprise, Britain responded, saying they’d think about it.

In 2003, they coughed up a Royal Proclamation, which we will abridge slightly. It’s from “Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom, Canada and her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”

Whereas the Acadian people, through the vitality of their community, have made a remarkable contribution to Canadian society for almost 400 years;

Whereas on July 28, 1755, the Crown, in the course of administering the affairs of the British colony of Nova Scotia, made the decision to deport the Acadian people;

Whereas the deportation of the Acadian people, commonly known as the Great Upheaval, continued until 1763 and had tragic consequences, including the deaths of many thousands of Acadians – from disease, in shipwrecks, in their places of refuge and in prison camps in Nova Scotia and England as well as in the British colonies in America;

Whereas We acknowledge these historical facts and the trials and suffering experienced by the Acadian people during the Great Upheaval;

Whereas We hope that the Acadian people can turn the page on this dark chapter of their history;
…

Whereas We, in Our role as Queen of Canada, exercise the executive power by and under the Constitution of Canada;
Whereas this Our present Proclamation does not, under any circumstances, constitute a recognition of legal or financial responsibility by the Crown in right of Canada and of the provinces and is not, under any circumstances, a recognition of, and does not have any effect upon, any right or obligation of any person or group of persons;
…
Now Know You that We, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council for Canada, do by this Our Proclamation, effective on September 5, 2004, designate July 28 of every year as “A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval”, commencing on July 28, 2005.

Of All Which Our Loving Subjects and all others whom these Presents may concern are hereby required to take notice and to govern themselves accordingly.

Sorrywatch Analysis:

That’s not an apology. It acknowledges what happened and who did it, but then hopes “the Acadian people can turn the page.” Here’s a Day – don’t expect time off. Hope you can turn the page! It’s not good to be bitter! Resentment gives you wrinkles! Why let us live rent-free in your head? We’ve moved on, and so should you. Just saying.

Nothing about whether it was a good or bad idea, nothing about apologize/sorry/error. Nothing about whether they’d do it again.

Did the Acadian descendants point this out? Did they say ‘Hey, we asked for an apology!’ Somebody must have, but for the most part they simply declared it an apology.

A piece by Perrin himself, for the Acadian Museum, is titled “The Queen’s Royal Proclamation: An Apology for the Acadian Deportation.” An “apology.”

Maybe sometimes an apology would be so nice to get that you act as if you got one. You do a victory dance.

But Perrin doesn’t actually seem to be over it. Perrin’s part of the Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery Group litigating against British Petroleum over the Deepwater Horizon spill. That’s a logical thing for a Louisiana lawyer to be involved in.

Here’s something Perrin said in a video. “As soon as the BP spill took place, it occurred to me that it was a remarkable coincidence that it was the British government, ordered by the British Crown, that had deported the Acadians… in 1750.” Perrin said. “So here we fast-forward to April 20^th, 2010, and we have a flourishing Cajun culture in South Louisiana….”

Of a BP commercial pledging to ‘make it right’ Perrin says, “we certainly do not want to see another 300 years go by before this British Petroleum Corporation located in London protects our wetlands and protects our way of life because we certainly don’t want to have another Grand Dérangement or Great Upheaval of our people again at the hands of the British.”

Gee, Britain, I don’t think he trusts you. And after you apologized! Well, at least after you issued a proclamation.

Don’t trust us either! McCarthy and Ingall have documented ties to New England. As the truth about Yankee complicity in the Great Expulsion comes out, maybe we’re really worried that the Acadians will be coming after us. — Sumac