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Quebec - Association Saint Jean Baptiste

Indépendatistes du Québec

Association Saint Jean Baptiste

by Jaume Ollé

In 1842, The Association Saint Jean Baptiste (today Société Saint Jean Baptiste) displayed on St John the Baptist Day, a Patriot flag with a beaver on the white stripe and a St John the Baptist.

This was just a few years after the rebellion, so many loyalists (Beaudoin says anglophones) protested against the use of this flag.

Luc-Vartan Baronian - 23 March 1997

by Jaume Ollé

The Association looked for a new flag. A two vertical equal stripes of green and white was used by the Association on St John Baptist Day until 1888 in the region of Quebec City. (Two other proposals were the French Tricolor and a plain white French Royalist flag).

Also, in 1844, a flag of blue and white was raised by the Society in Longueuil on the South Shore of Montreal. It was the Tricolor with the red torn off ; many French-Canadians felt that the Tricolor was too revolutionary, specially members of the St-Jn-Bte Society who are still a bit too catholic-folkloric to my taste.
Luc-Vartan Baronian - 23 March 1997

by Jaume Ollé

In 1862, the Association Saint Jean Baptiste of Charlesbourg, near Quebec, was presented with a white flag with green maple leaves in the center.

This is the third white flag I mention ; showing a small tendency in that period to support the restoration of the Monarchy in France.

This could be explained by the fact that the Quebec of that time was still controlled by the church, but one must remember the (greater) popularity of the French Tricolor. Also, that the first nationalist flags of green-white-red, eagles and stars had that American-French revolutionary element. The Patriots prowned a laic government and equality for all citizens, Canadiens, British and Indians. (This is even mentioned in their Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada read by their "President of the Republic", Robert Nelson, an Irish-Canadien.
Luc-Vartan Baronian - 23 March 1997