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<\/p>\nThe self-described CEO of the next generation of\u00a0Quebec\u00a0sovereigntists is a 17-year-old rapper and TikTok sensation who claims to be more influential than Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault.<\/p>\n
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Miguel Monteiro-Beauchamp, who goes by the name kinji00, was born in Portugal and grew up in Gatineau, Que. As Canada marks the 30th anniversary of Quebec\u2019s last referendum on independence, held on Oct. 30, 1995, Monteiro-Beauchamp is emerging as the ambassador of a new wave of Gen Z sovereigntists.<\/p>\n
None of them were born when\u00a0Quebec\u00a0last voted on whether to leave Canada three decades ago. But they are proud and very online, expressing their allegiance through memes and TikTok edits. They are also mobilizing in the real world, starting independence clubs at their colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
Their numbers may not yet be large enough to constitute a major political force. But at a march for independence in Montreal last weekend that attracted hundreds of supporters, young people appeared to outnumber those who were around to cast a ballot in 1995.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere\u2019s definitely something that wasn\u2019t there five years ago,\u201d said Mounir Kaddouri, a 28-year-old YouTuber who supports\u00a0Quebec\u00a0sovereignty. \u201cA hype, a momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the evening of the 1995 referendum,\u00a0Quebec\u00a0rock band Les Colocs released an album during a live show, in anticipation of a sovereigntist victory. Cameras captured an emotional Andr\u00e9 \u201cD\u00e9d\u00e9\u201d Fortin, the band\u2019s frontman, as he absorbed the defeat in real time.<\/p>\n
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In the last song he wrote before taking his own life in 2000, Fortin reflected on that loss: \u201cI am like my people, indecisive and dreamy \/ I speak to anyone who wants to hear about my fictional country \/ My heart full of vertigo and gnawed by fear,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Monteiro-Beauchamp\u2019s desire for independence, in contrast, is neither indecisive nor dreamy. A mixtape released with his brother on Quebec\u2019s national holiday in June is called \u00c0 la prochaine fois (Until next time), a tribute to the famous words spoken by the father of\u00a0Quebec\u00a0sovereignty, Ren\u00e9 L\u00e9vesque, upon losing the province\u2019s first independence referendum in 1980.<\/p>\n
He pays homage to his predecessors, but he is not tethered to disappointments past. His songs are upbeat, irreverent, often explicit. \u201cRen\u00e9 L\u00e9vesque walked and now kinji runs,\u201d he raps on one song that has been streamed nearly half a million times on Spotify. Elsewhere: \u201cJean Chr\u00e9tien is a bastard, he stole my fleur-de-lis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are a lot of people, especially older people, who will see (the 1995 referendum) as a defeat,\u201d said Catherine Lamoureux-Schmidt, co-spokesperson of a fledgling group for student sovereigntists called Mouvement \u00c9tudiant Ind\u00e9pendantiste.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe don\u2019t see it that way at all,\u201d she said. \u201cWe see it as a period in the past, a stage in Quebec\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Her group, founded in April, is working to support a new crop of sovereigntist committees at\u00a0Quebec\u00a0junior colleges and universities. L\u00e9onard Vidal, the group\u2019s other spokesperson, said of the 22 such committees in operation, only three or four date back more than a few years.<\/p>\n
Neither Vidal, 19, nor Lamoureux-Schmidt, 20, grew up in sovereigntist families. They said they both took up the cause in recent years, after spending time abroad and realizing how proud they were to be Quebecers.<\/p>\n
Both attended the independence rally last weekend in downtown Montreal. The event was organized in part by OUI\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec, a sovereigntist group that\u2019s working to mobilize youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last four years, most of our action has been to create a new generation that\u2019s in favour of\u00a0Quebec\u00a0independence,\u201d said Camille Goyette-Gingras, the group\u2019s president.<\/p>\n
The mood was celebratory and hopeful, as young people waved\u00a0Quebec\u00a0flags and bore signs calling for a \u201cQu\u00e9bec\u00a0libre.\u201d \u201cThis is just the start \u2013 let\u2019s keep up the fight!\u201d they chanted.<\/p>\n
The enthusiasm of young sovereigntists \u201cblindsided\u201d Quebec\u2019s media establishment this year, said Kaddouri, the YouTuber. But the trend has been emerging online over the last couple of years, he explained. \u201cIf you had the right radar and you were in touch with internet culture in\u00a0Quebec, you\u2019ve seen it coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Kaddouri said Gen Z sovereigntists have repackaged the independence movement in Reddit threads and Instagram meme accounts. On TikTok, young people wrapped in the\u00a0Quebec\u00a0flag lip-synch L\u00e9vesque\u2019s famous speech after the first referendum. Other videos splice together footage from 1980 and 1995, often put to music.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a new esthetic flavoured with humour and nostalgia, Kaddouri said, and unburdened by doubt. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like it is obvious that\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0should be a country,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t even have to explain. \u2026 And that\u2019s at odds with how this movement evolved throughout the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The renewed interest in independence comes amid much hand-wringing in broader\u00a0Quebec\u00a0society over the perceived indifference of young people to their own culture and heritage. In August, a study found that 80 per cent of Quebecers aged 15 to 29 mostly watch non-Quebec\u00a0films, while only four per cent said they listened mainly to\u00a0Quebec\u00a0music.<\/p>\n
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