the Separatism seminar: the meta-extortion theory — Separation and return's real meaning

The seminar's climactic reading, which Hal recognizes as "Poutrincourt's so-called Separation and return's real meaning": the whole pan-Canadian anti-O.N.A.N. insurgency is a Québécois ruse — "Separation is still the Québecer insurgents' real goal, and their anti-O.N.A.N. insurgency is not what it appears." By orchestrating terror that "looks more and more like Canada versus O.N.A.N.," the cells provoke O.N.A.N. into treating Canada as "a big enough roach in the ointment" that Gentle and Mexico's "Vichified puppet-state" gang up on Ottawa — making Canada "the one country in a three-country continental Anschluss" the other two are punishing, under threat that "good-sized chunks of Canada could be Concavitized." Terrorized from the south, Ottawa will be "more than happy to disassociate" from Québec and let it secede. The insurgency's true object is not de-Reconfiguration but using O.N.A.N. as a lever on Canada — extortion aimed one continent over from where it seems pointed.