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I went to stay with a Québecois family in Montreal once (the boyfriend was friends with the daughter of the family).
When we got there it turned out we couldn't actually stay because the father wasn't having a couple of gays in his house. Awkward. Not that he would say this to our face, he made sure he wasn't around when we turned up.
The daughter seemed nice but took us on a pro-independence march. It seemed fun: the Montreal sky was unusually blue with fluffy white clouds that offset the fleurdelisé something lovely. Then they started chanting.
Quelle horreur! I have never been surrounded by so many racists at once. We got away pronto and stayed in a gipsy caravan instead. /csb
The nationalists are currently resisting a study about racism in Quebec because they know what the outcome will be:
http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/dan-delmar-why-the-worry-with-studying-racism-in-quebec
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@Oliver Schick
Fear/mistrust of foreigners is usually grouped under 'xenophobia', though. There's no doubt that this was a factor. Of course, racism and xenophobia are not incompatible, often occurring together, but racism is most likely espoused by a smaller number of people.
I had a similar discussion the other day with two Québecois. It was interesting to see the parallels. One of them was very strongly in favour of Québec going independent, the other wasn't. I think there is a more acceptable cousin of xenophobia, it's more positive mirror image, as it were, which is a genuine, if often corrupted and exploited, fear for the survival of a (mostly) smaller culture and a willingness to protect that/see it protected.
I still don't think that provides a sufficient justification for 'Brexit', but I can see the perspective, having lived in Britain (well, London) for more than twenty years, and liking certain aspects of various kinds of British culture rather better than certain aspects of various kinds of German culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7dmu4G8oc