Courtesy

By Guy Rex Rodgers

Local Journalism Initiative

Serge Fiori was a leading musical voice of his generation. His sophisticated songs about peace and love were sung in French, yet earned a sizeable audience among English-speakers in Quebec, Canada and the USA.

Harmonium’s biggest selling album, L’Heptade, was released on Nov. 16, 1976, the same day the Parti Québécois was elected to form its first majority government. When Premier René Lévesque led a delegation to California in 1978 to promote Quebec’s culture and political aspirations, Harmonium headlined the tour.  

Last month, the government of Quebec honoured Fiori with a state funeral, attended by a who’s who of Quebec’s cultural and political luminaries. They celebrated his life and legacy with an outpouring of love. When Régis Labeaume, former mayor of Quebec City and old friend, paid tribute to Fiori’s ‘immense desire for political freedom for the people of Quebec,’ mourners erupted in applause and shouts of approval.

The Parti Québécois is currently leading the polls to win the 2026 provincial election, and Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is promising a referendum on independence in the first term. Francophone media have reported growing support for independence among Gen Z voters.  Independentists are more optimistic than they have been for decades. Youth is on their side! Heroes of the 70s like Fiori are on their side! Contemporary leaders like Labeaume are on their side! The independence movement is having a revival. But nationalism comes in many varieties: some are progressive and inclusive; others are regressive and exclude everyone except members of the dominant ‘tribe.’ 

Back in April, Régis Labeaume was vilified by Péquistes. How did Labeaume incur the wrath of the righteous? He questioned the kamikaze intransigence of Parti Québécois leadership. ‘Why rush headlong into a referendum when all the polls predict a humiliating defeat?’ The question was perfectly reasonable; the PQ response was not.

Nationalists would now like to canonize Serge Fiori and add him to their panoply of Saintly Supporters, but he does not easily fit into their ‘us’ versus ‘them’ duality. Fiori grew up in Montreal’s Little Italy. His father was Italian and his mother was francophone. I am currently conducting a research project on immigration and education. The Italian stories are particularly complex because Italians were mostly Catholic and found the French language easy to learn. Of all the immigrant groups that arrived in Quebec, Italians were the most inclined to integrate with the francophone majority. However, Italians believed in the benefits of knowing two or more languages and so they also wanted to learn English.

Journalist Marie-France Bazzo wrote a column in La Presse last year about her own complex Italian family (St-Léonard et moi).  Her father, like Fiori’s was Italian, and her mother was francophone. When Bazzo’s cousin transferred from French elementary school to English high school, a domestic crisis exploded with all the fury of the St-Léonard riots. Bazzo’s militant mother permanently terminated relations with her Italian husband’s family. Bazzo’s father only saw his brother occasionally, and Bazzo was cut off from her beloved cousin for decades. It is a tragic story that illustrates the kamikaze nature of intransigent nationalism.

Italians made valiant efforts to be part of Quebec but they also wanted to be part of the English-speaking world around them. The aspiration was perfectly reasonable; the nationalist response was not. No group was more vilified in the 60s and 70s than Italians for their desire to speak languages other than French.  Serge Fiori, inspired by the Beatles, wrote his first songs in English.  

Harmonium became national heroes in Quebec, but when they started out their music was so different from other Quebec bands that no record label in Montreal would sign them. They had to go to Toronto to sign with Celebration Records to start their career.  Brendan Kelly wrote a tribute in the Gazette to Fiori, who told him that ‘French radio in Montreal wasn’t into the band in the early days. The first station to play Pour un instant was CHOM.’ And because of that early support Fiori always retained a soft spot for the anglo classic-rock station.

In one version of Quebec history, the foundations were laid prior to the Conquest by immigrants who were Catholic and French-speaking, whose country was stolen.  In another version of Quebec history, almost everything in Quebec was built after the Conquest by immigrants of different languages, religions and cultures.  These versions of Quebec history are not incompatible.

It is possible to be a proud nationalist and also celebrate a complex history that acknowledges many partners. Serge Fiori understood this, which was why his music, and his fans, transcend borders.