Canadian Polemic

Ladies and gentlemen,

For the past twelve days, violence has gripped many neighbourhoods and districts throughout our nation. Thousands of vehicles have been torched and now lie smoldering - thousands of young people have been arrested. Families have been disrupted and French society has been shaken to its core.

I acknowledge today that your government has not responded to this situation adequately in that we have not fully reacted to the roots of the problem. For that, I apologize. Your government will move forward in both protecting the safety and security of all of its citizens in the short-term, and in opening a debate on the concept of the French nation in the long-term.

Some of our actions so far may have seemed draconian to many of you - for that, however, I make no apologies. We have resurrected a law from 1955 in order to enforce curfews across the French Republic, a measure that we hope will curtail the violence and disorder currently plaguing our streets. As the Prime Minister has noted, our response will be firm and just. France is a society based on the rule of law and the security of the person, and it is our responsibility to defend those principles. We will continue to take firm measures to make the streets of Paris, Evreux, Rennes, Dijon and others, safe once more for all of you.

However, my apology lies in the fact that to date, that has been the extent of our response. We have now recognized that more must be done, that we are facing a deep-seated question and challenge to our traditional views of the French nation. It is important that we deal with this question on a grander scale, and I hope that all citizens of this great land will join with me in doing so.

We are a great nation with a great history. We share many successes and many failures, and will continue to do so. We should be united. But despite all of the rhetoric that you have heard for many years on the matter, it is time to admit that our nation is far from unified. We are a nation divided. Our conception of a French identity is no longer relevant to modern French society.

France is a cosmopolitan nation, made up of a wide variety of ethnicities, histories and backgrounds - we must celebrate all of these, and I fear that we are not. I fear that our drive to protect each of our own cultural identities at the expense of all else has led us to where we are today. We must come to understand that the French identity is not solely that of a thirteenth-generation white, Christian, French-speaking man or woman from Dijon. One can be French and Muslim. One can be French and yet of Moroccan heritage. One can be French and speak both our official language as well as Arabic.

It is time for France to confront this question of what it means to be a citizen in this country, a citizen who is respected by all and who is actively engaged in its society. My government will begin investigating this question through a far-reaching dialogue that we will seek to hold with all citizens of this great republic. In the coming days and weeks, we will outline precisely how that dialogue will take place. In the meantime, I encourage those who are rightfully frustrated with the inflexibility of the French identity to lay down their arms and violent acts and join the rest of their fellow countrymen in reinvigorating and modernizing what it means to be French.

This process does not mean that anyone will be diluting or giving up their culture or their identities. It means that we will be collaborating and adding to a greater whole. That sense of great dialectic and discussion is what this republic is all about. I implore all of you to join with me in seriously discussing the questions that have long been ignored: what does it mean to be French? How are we all citizens in different ways of this nation? What kind of similarities do we see in our citizenship?

As a nation, we are divided. But we must be united. We can be united. And that is the more important side to any reaction to this current situation. That is how we will build peace and a stronger French republic.

Thank you.