Minorities in Quebec are subjected to special difficulties. Only in Quebec does the provincial government use the full apparatus of the state to abridge and enforce the curtailment of Canadian citizens' basic rights, up to and including their right even to remain citizens of their own country. No one helps them. When it is not one of outright collusion with oppression, the history of successive federal governments has been one of benign neglect. In Quebec, individuals are left to confront the apparatus of the state, language police, l'office de la langue française, the ministry of justice, perhaps soon religious symbol police, almost entirely by themselves. Some of our lawyers work for free, "pro bono." Others cannot. (Rest assured, the lawyers of the government of Quebec are well paid.) The contributions of sympathetic fellow Canadians will help Quebec minorities use the courts – often their last resort – to keep an aggressive provincial government in check.