New documentary unpacks 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory

We remember Quebec. We remember the Quebec where we recognized each other in our streets. These last few years, I've noticed a shift in the nationalist discourse, which is tinted with anti-immigration. There are too many immigrants, there are too many immigrants. Some even adhere to a radical ideology, that of the great replacement. That is a short excerpt from a new documentary that's sparking a lot of reaction and debate in Quebec, particularly about the French language. De Souche looks at the Great Replacement Theory, a far-right belief that white populations are being replaced by non-white immigrants. Simon Coutu made the film and joins us now. Thanks for coming into the studio. Thank you. What made you want to tackle this topic? What's the topic? I mean, I saw that this... The theory that great replacement was more and more... I was seeing it in my social media, also, like, I did a documentary two years ago called Alpha, about the alpha male movement, and some of the characters, if I may say, in the documentary were talking about this theory, so I was like, what's going on? And then there's this study from UNESCO in Quebec saying that, like, 15% of the population believes in the Great Replacement theory, in Canada it's even more, it's like 25. So I was like, all right, there's definitely public interest here, so let's do a documentary. All right. So this documentary looks at the Great Replacement here in Quebec and in Europe, particularly in France, where we're seeing it. Yeah, that's where it comes from. It's really bleeding into the politics there too. Yeah. Definitely, yeah. And here, I mean, as you say, it's not quite as widespread. But we are seeing more right-leaning politics in Quebec. Even the Parti Québécois is more right-leaning. And the dialogue tends to be, when we're talking about more right-leaning, about immigration and how it affects the French language. And you sort of tackle that in the piece. A writer called Renaud Camus, who came out... I came up with this in 2009. Here in Quebec, what is different is that when you talk about being replaced or like the French language, it's really part of the culture. So, uh, uh, uh. I guess it's even more complex to talk about these questions and that's what we try to do in the documentary. Yeah it's more complex and in some ways insidious in the sense that it's not using the term necessarily great replacement but the language seems to be changing so that it's not as unpalatable. And is more socially acceptable, and we are seeing it with some commentators, political commentators in Quebec as well. Yeah, exactly. In France, the same, like, le Rassemblement National of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, they won't use the term great replacement. They will use, like, population change. It's exactly the same here in Quebec with... People like Mathieu Boccote who will use the same sort of terms, because like Renaud Camus, the thinker behind the Great Replacement Theory, and the term is like radioactive, people don't want to use it, but there is ways to. When we talked specifically about the French language, it was so very interesting how you approached that, because there are different distinctions about the decline of the French language. There's definitely a decline, like when you're talking about like mother tongue or the language that is spoken at home. When you look at like people in Quebec able to hold a conversation, It's like around 94% of the population so if you compare this to like where it used to be like during the 70s it's way like better than it used to be and it's true but that the white or de souche population is... Maybe like declining in Quebec because we don't, I mean, we don't make enough kids. We want to grow here in Quebec. That's like a choice of society. So we need immigration. It's a choice that we made. Like 15% of the population is immigrant. So we're far from a great replacement. Immigrants who are coming into this province, majority of them are French speaking or learn to speak the language. Exactly, exactly. Exactly. But then, like, what... What does it mean to be Quebecois? I mean, at the same time, Quebecois, the great replacement theory is a racist concept. So it's like saying that these people that are not non-white or not de souche are not part of our society. So I think there's a problem that is really worrisome. It's a fascinating documentary. Thank you so much for coming in and talking about it.