French-speaking Quebec Research Articles

Alouette-R normative data for French-speaking school-aged children living in Quebec.

The Alouette-R (2005) by Lefavrais is one of the most widely used tools to assess reading skills in French. However, this instrument does not have normative data specific to the French-speaking population of Quebec, Canada. The validity of an assessment being strongly compromised when using inappropriate norms, the first objective of this study was to establish local norms for the Alouette-R. The second objective was to provide sensitivity and specificity data for each Alouette-R measure in the French-speaking Quebec population. The third objective was to compare Quebec and French normative data and their sensitivity to better understand the applicability and effectiveness of the Alouette-R test at the regional level. A total of 347 fluent readers and 48 children with dyslexia from 3rd to 6th grades were recruited from different regions in Quebec. Participants had to read aloud the 265-word text of the Alouette-R in a maximum of 3 min. Norms (means, standard deviations and percentiles) by school grades were created for each test measure: reading time, number of words read, number of errors, number of words correctly read, reading accuracy index and reading fluency index. The sensitivity (i.e., the ability to correctly identify children with dyslexia) and specificity (i.e., the ability to correctly identify children without dyslexia) of these measurements were also documented. The norms and their sensitivity were then compared with those of the original French study by Lefavrais in 2005. The presence of differences between European and Quebec norms supports the importance of using local norms when assessing language skills. The reading accuracy and fluency indexes are the measurements that best discriminated children with dyslexia from those without a reading disorder in our study. This study will allow clinicians working in Quebec to have a better interpretation of the Alouette-R measurements and ultimately avoid erroneous conclusions resulting from the use of foreign normative data. What is already known on this subject The Alouette-R is a reading test validated and standardized in France to screen for dyslexia in children. The validity of existing norms with the Quebec population in Canada is questionable due to socio-linguistic differences with the population of France. What this study adds to existing knowledge This study provides for the first time normative and sensitivity/specificity data of the Alouette-R for French-speaking school-aged children living in Quebec. Differences were noted with the normative data from France, which supports the importance of using local normative data when administering reading tests in Quebec. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? When administering the Alouette-R, clinicians in Quebec will now be able to use normative data adapted to the local population, which will limit erroneous conclusions resulting from the use of foreign normative data. In addition, the sensitivity and specificity values reported in the article will allow these clinicians to better interpret their results when screening for a developmental reading disorder.

Urban planning and group and collective rights in Québec, Canada

ABSTRACT Group and collective rights are human rights, but such rights emerge when the members of a group are discriminated against in order to protect the group temporarily or in perpetuity, depending on how long the discrimination lasts. Studies investigating urban issues from the lens of a group right or collective right are almost non-existent. Using Kymlicka’s rights framework and relying on empirical work in the French-speaking Quebec province in Canada, the research concludes that Québec municipalities are fraught with tensions between individual and group rights and collective rights, resulting in issues related to places of worship, land development and commercial signage.

The Quebec Semantic Memory Battery: Development, Standardization, and Psychometric Assessment of a Semantic Memory Battery in French.

People with aphasia often experience semantic memory (SM) impairment. To improve diagnostic outcomes, SM tasks should recruit various sensory input channels (oral, written, and pictographic), permitting accessible, complete evaluation. There is a need for SM batteries for French-speaking Quebecers that use multiple input channels. The present study, therefore, describes the development of a novel French-language semantic battery: la Batterie québécoise de la mémoire sémantique (BQMS), the assessment of the BQMS's psychometric properties, and the establishment of normative data for the BQMS. We first developed eight SM tasks. Following a pilot validation study, we determined the BQMS's reliability and validity, to ensure consistent, accurate detection of SM impairment. Among French-speaking Quebecers with cerebrovascular aphasia (n = 10), people with the semantic variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia (n = 4), and healthy controls (n = 14), we examined its convergent validity, concurrent validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency. Finally, we established normative data for the BQMS by calculating cut-off scores per task that indicate SM impairment (in 93 cognitively healthy French-speaking Quebecers), stratified by sociodemographic variables associated with performance. The BQMS shows high concurrent, discriminant, and convergent validity, as well as good test-retest reliability and internal consistency. The cut-off score indicating SM impairment ranged from the 2nd to 25th percentiles (stratified by task, age, and sex). The BQMS's psychometric properties indicate that it could be a valuable clinical tool for detecting SM impairment. Our normative data will help clinicians detect such impairments.

Which factors drive the choice of the French-speaking Quebec population towards a COVID-19 vaccination programme: A discrete-choice experiment.

The aims of this study were to elicit preferences about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine campaign in the general French-speaking adult Quebec population and to highlight the characteristics of the vaccine campaign that were of major importance. A discrete-choice experiment (DCE) was conducted between April and June 2021, in Quebec, Canada. A quota sampling method by age, gender and educational level was used to achieve a representative sample of the French-speaking adult population. The choice-based exercise was described by seven attributes within a vaccine campaign scenario. A mixed logit (MXL) model and a latent class logit (LCL) model were used to derive utility values. Age, gender, educational level, income and fear of COVID-19 were included as independent variables in the LCL. A total of 1883 respondents were included for analysis, yielding 22,586 choices. From these choices, 3425 (15.16%) were refusals. In addition, 1159 (61.55%) individuals always accepted any of the vaccination campaigns, while 92 individuals (4.89%) always refused vaccine alternatives. According to the MXL, relative weight importance of attributes was effectiveness (32.50%), risk of side effects (24.76%), level of scientific evidence (22.51%), number of shots (15.73%), priority population (3.60%), type of vaccine (0.61%), and vaccination location (0.28%). Four classes were derived from the LCL model and attributes were more or less important according to them. Class 1 (19.8%) was more concerned about the effectiveness (27.99%), safety (24.22%) and the number of shots (21.82%), class 2 (55.3%) wanted a highly effective vaccine (40.16%) and class 3 (17.6%) gave high value to the scientific evidence (42.00%). Class 4 preferences (7.4%) were more balanced, with each attribute having a relative weight ranging from 1.84% (type of vaccine) to 21.32% (risk of side effects). Membership posterior probabilities to latent classes were found to be predicted by individual factors such as gender, annual income or fear of COVID-19. Vaccination acceptance relies on multiple factors. This study allowed assessment of vaccination-specific issues through a choice-based exercise and description of factors influencing this choice by segmenting the sample and drawing profiles of individuals. Moreover, besides effectiveness and safety, a major point of this study was to show the importance given by the general population to the level of scientific evidence surrounding vaccines. A small group of citizens was involved in the conception, design and interpretation of data. Participants of the DCE were all from the general population.

Cross-Cultural Mobility and Agency in Assessing the Appropriateness of Child Supervision in the Context of Cultural Diversity and Migration in Quebec

Confusion over what constitutes appropriate childrearing practices in culturally diverse settings may result in the stigmatization of ethnic minority families and over-reporting to child welfare services. This study explored stakeholders’ views on (in)adequate supervision across cultural and socioeconomic groups and how they assess the risk of harm in cases of lack of supervision. Focus group discussions were held with (a) adult caregivers (n = 39) and adolescents (n = 63) in family-based care from French-speaking Quebecers and migrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and South Asia; and (b) professionals (n = 67) in the education, health, child welfare, and security sectors in Quebec. The main criteria used to assess the appropriateness of supervision were the maturity, level of ability, age, and sex of the child, as well as contextual factors, such as proximity of other people, location, and type and duration of the activity. Mobility and immobility notions are used to explore the developmental considerations of competence and readiness within the home and in other social environments where adults’ and children’s perceptions of safety and maturity may differ, as well as the need to move away from rigid policy implementation. This paper advocates for careful consideration of the capacity and agency of children affected by migration in the provision of childcare support and their meaningful participation in research and decision making in matters that affect them.

Portrait des écarts d’anxiété mathématique selon le genre et du lien anxiété mathématique/performances en mathématiques chez les élèves québécois francophones de 15 ans ayant participé au PISA de 2003 et de 2012

Portrait des écarts d’anxiété mathématique selon le genre et du lien anxiété mathématique/performances en mathématiques chez les élèves québécois francophones de 15 ans ayant participé au PISA de 2003 et de 2012

Development and validation of a questionnaire assessing eating pleasure dimensions in the adult French-speaking population of the province of Québec, Canada

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire assessing eating pleasure dimensions in the adult French-speaking population of the province of Québec, Canada. We developed the Eating Pleasure Questionnaire, a 53-item questionnaire. An expert panel evaluated the content validity, and a pre-test was performed with 30 French-speaking Quebecers (15 men and 15 women, mean age = 46 years) to evaluate the face validity. A sample of 300 Quebecers (150 men and 150 women, mean age = 36 years) completed the online questionnaire for validation. The structure of the questionnaire was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Internal consistency was evaluated with Cronbach's alpha coefficients. Test-retest reliability was assessed using intra class correlation coefficients (ICC) and construct validity, using Pearson's correlations. Evaluation of content validity and face validity led to the clarification of the instructions, the suppression of two items, the addition of two items and some reformulations. The EFA showed a 7-factor structure: 1- health/ideological food choice motives, 2- sensory experiences and individual preferences, 3- social experiences, 4- mindful eating, 5- emotional/situational eating and reward, 6- food preparation process and 7- new experiences. Cronbach's alpha values for the seven factors ranged from 0.67 to 0.86. The total scale Cronbach's alpha was 0.91, which suggests a good internal consistency. The questionnaire appears reliable with ICC ranging from 0.66 to 0.87. It also showed a good construct validity, with expected positive associations with food well-being (how people link food to well-being), intrinsic motivation, and the pleasure orientation (the importance of obtaining pleasure from food). Overall, these analyses suggest that the Eating Pleasure Questionnaire is valid to evaluate eating pleasure dimensions in our population.

Public Preferences for a COVID-19 Vaccination Program in Quebec: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

ObjectivesWe aimed to elicit preferences of the French-speaking Quebec population regarding a COVID-19 vaccination program and to characterize individuals with respect to their vaccination behaviors.MethodsA discrete choice experiment was conducted in Autumn 2020 via a web-based survey. Its design included seven attributes: vaccine origin, vaccine effectiveness, side effects, protection duration, priority population, waiting time to get vaccinated, and recommender of the vaccine. Utilities were estimated using a mixed-logit model and a latent class logit model.ResultsOur sample included 1599 individuals. From this total, 119 always chose the opt-out option (7.4%). According to the mixed-logit model, the relative weights of attributes were as follows: effectiveness (28.48%), side effects (23.68%), protection duration (17.41%), vaccine origin (12.75%), recommender (11.96%), waiting time to get vaccinated (3.62%), and priority population (2.11%). Five classes were derived from the latent class logit model. Class 1 (9.13%) wanted to get vaccinated as fast as possible and was composed of uncertain and more vulnerable individuals. Class 5 (25.14%) was similar to the full sample, mostly favoring vaccination. Classes 2 (7.69%) and 4 (15.82%) included “vaccine hesitant and demanding” individuals but were different in their sociodemographic profiles. Finally, “anti-vaccine” and other “vaccine hesitant” individuals were in class 3 (42.21%).ConclusionsThis study showed the vaccine characteristics that are likely to improve vaccine uptake, which may more easily lead to herd immunity. Different profiles of respondents also showed various levels of acceptance toward a COVID-19 vaccination program, which may help to better understand vaccine hesitancy behaviors.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40273-021-01124-4.

Psychometric validation of the French version of the Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale (SIDAS-FR)

The purpose of this study was to validate in French the Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale (SIDAS) using an online community survey that was completed by 2304 French-speaking Quebec participants (adolescents and adults). The SIDAS-FR demonstrated high internal consistency (α = .83), a unifactorial structure, and strong convergent validity with relevant constructs. Cutoff scores of ≥13 for moderate severity and ≥20 for high severity of suicidal ideations were optimal. The excellent psychometric properties of the French-Canadian version of the SIDAS support its use as an effective tool for online screening of suicidal ideations, for both adolescents and adults.

Exposure to English as a determinant of support for Quebec independence in the 2018 Quebec elections

This paper tests the explanatory power of exposure to English on nationalist attitudes in the 2018 Quebec general elections, during which all major political parties exceptionally excluded holding a referendum on Quebec independence. Data emanate from an exit poll conducted in Quebec City and in Montreal on October 1, 2018 (N = 122). Results from a population-based survey experiment demonstrate that exposure to written English through a bilingual survey is a positive predictor of support for independence for French-speaking Quebecers who encounter spoken English frequently in their daily lives. This suggests that exposure to written English bolsters nationalist attitudes as real-life out-group contact increases. These results reinforce causal claims on the contextual determinants of political attitudes.

How Well Are Radiology Residents Prepared for Practice After Training? A Survey of French-Speaking Quebec Recent Graduates and Department Chiefs.

Radiology residents must fulfill a standardized curriculum to complete residency and pass a certification exam before they are granted a licence to practice. We sought to evaluate how well residency prepares trainees for practice as perceived by recent graduates and their department chiefs. Subjects and Methods: Radiologists who graduated from the 4 Quebec radiology residency programs between 2005 and 2016 (n = 237) and Quebec radiology department chiefs (n = 98) were anonymously surveyed. Two electronic surveys were created, for recent graduates (74 questions) and for department chiefs (11 questions), with multiple-choice questions and open questions covering all fields of radiology. Surveys were administered between April and June 2016 using the Association des radiologistes du Québec database. Response rate was 75 (31.6%) of 237 from recent graduates and 96% rated their training as excellent or good. Satisfaction with training in computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging was high, with musculoskeletal (MSK) imaging, particularly MSK ultrasound (US), as well as pediatric, cardiac, and vascular imaging needing more training. Thirty-nine (39.8%) of 98 department chiefs answered the survey and highlighted weaknesses in the interpretation of conventional radiography, obstetrical US, and invasive procedures, as well as limited leadership and administrative skills. Recent graduates and department chiefs both reported difficulties in the ability to interpret daily volume of examinations as scheduled and invasive procedure competency. This survey highlights areas of the radiology curriculum which may benefit from more emphasis during training. Adjustments in the residency program would ensure graduates are successful both in their certification exams and clinical practice.

How to Buy a Coffee in a Settler State:

Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg is an Algonquin community located roughly one and a half hours from Canada’s capital, Ottawa. It is a primarily English-speaking community located in the French-speaking province of Quebec. This essay will explore the complexities and difficulties associated with being an English-speaking Indigenous community that resides within the boundaries of French-speaking Quebec. In exploring this topic, this essay will uncover the often unexplored realities of Indigenous communities that are caught between the competing histories of colonial empires such as France and Britain and how those past colonial conflicts, and, in turn, the imposition of linguistic dominations, inform current difficulties around decolonization, nationhood, and Indigenous liberation.

The Hidden Life of Monuments: Reflections from the Lost Stories Project

The Hidden Life of Monuments: Reflections from the Lost Stories Project Ronald Rudin (bio) SINCE 2012 I HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH historians, educators, artists, and filmmakers to develop the Lost Stories Project, which seeks from the public little-known stories from the Canadian past, gives these stories to artists who transform them into inexpensive pieces of public art on appropriate sites, and documents the artists’ creative process through the production of short films.1 When I came up with the concept for the project it was largely in the context of my own research over the past 15 years, which had explored the public representation of the past in both Quebec and Atlantic Canada with a particular emphasis upon the backstory that is usually impossible for the casual observer to perceive. In the case of Quebec, I examined the public memory of Samuel de Champlain and Mgr. François de Laval, generally viewed as the founding fathers of French-speaking Quebec: one the secular father (responsible for the settlement at Quebec City) and the other the religious founder (the first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec).2 In regards to Atlantic Canada, I focused my attention on efforts in the early 21st century to commemorate both the founding moment for Acadians – the attempt to establish a permanent settlement on Île Ste-Croix in 1604 (so four years before Quebec City) – and their moment of trauma – the deportation of the Acadians between 1755 and 1763, or what they call “le grand dérangement.”3 I learned from these projects what others have also observed: namely, that public remembrance of the past – through such tools as the construction of [End Page 111] monuments – is really as much – maybe more – about the people who had the power to erect them than they were about the individuals being honoured. This point was convincingly made by Kirk Savage in his Monument Wars, which explores the commemorative landscape on the National Mall in Washington. Savage paid particular attention to the Washington Monument, the huge obelisk completed in the 1880s that bears no iconography that would directly link it to the first president of the United States. From Savage’s perspective, however, there was nothing odd about this situation because “this was indeed a ‘modern monument’ that had nothing to do with George Washington and his agrarian world. It was a monument to technocratic wisdom and bureaucratic efficiency, seemingly accessible to a democratic people yet remote from their experience and understanding.”4 But while there is a large scholarly literature that tries to tease out why and how some individuals are commemorated in public space (and others are not), sometimes this is simply not possible due to a lack of sources. In my own research, for instance, I was unable to find the minutes of the committee responsible for creating Quebec City’s monument in honour of Champlain, which was unveiled in 1898 only metres from the Château Frontenac. One report indicated that those minutes had been sealed inside the monument’s pedestal.5 More broadly, Savage has pointed to the challenges of such research since the archives provide only “a scattered record. Sometimes monument committees are very proud of themselves, and they publish their proceedings and then there are more records and archives. Other times they’re just lost entirely.”6 In this context, I imagined that Lost Stories could provide a solution since I would be able to watch the entire process unfold. What I could not have imagined in 2012, however, was that monuments were about to take centre stage in heated public debates across the globe, mostly prompted by demands for the removal of structures connected with now-disgraced individuals or deeds. By and large, these debates have only reinforced my sense of the pertinence of Lost Stories. As we will see in the following section of this short essay, the controversies surrounding such monuments as those dedicated to Confederate heroes in the American South have dealt only superficially with these structures and have largely ignored the context in which they were erected in the first place. Then, in the subsequent sections, I [End Page 112] will return to Lost Stories to discuss...

Usage du français et préférences politiques des néo-Québécois

RésuméCette étude examine l'hypothèse qu'il existe un lien entre l'usage de la langue française chez les néo-Québécois et leurs relations aux communautés politiques québécoise et canadienne. L’étude examine séparément la première et la seconde génération de néo-Québécois appartenant à une minorité visible. Conformément aux autres études sur le sujet, la présente recherche montre qu'un plus grand usage du français est associé à une plus forte préférence pour la communauté politique québécoise. L’étude suggère également que la fréquentation de l’école francophone est associée à une plus forte préférence pour la communauté politique québécoise. Dans les deux cas, les relations sont observées autant chez la première que chez la seconde génération. Néanmoins, les résultats montrent que même lorsqu'ils ont fréquenté l’école francophone et qu'ils font usage de la langue française dans leur vie quotidienne, les néo-Québécois affichent une préférence pour la communauté politique québécoise plus faible que celle observée chez la population majoritaire francophone.

Theology in French-Speaking Quebec (Canada): Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Theology in French-Speaking Quebec (Canada): Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Normative Data for the Dementia Rating Scale-2 in the French-Quebec Population

The Dementia Rating Scale-2 is used to measure cognitive status of adults with cognitive impairment, especially of the degenerative type, by assessing five cognitive functions, namely attention, initiation/perseveration, construction, conceptualization, and memory. The present study aimed to establish normative data for this test in the elderly French-Quebec population. A total of 432 French-speaking elders from the province of Quebec (Canada), aged 50 to 85 years, were administered the Dementia Rating Scale-2. Age and education were found to be associated with the total score on the test, while gender was not. Percentile ranks were then calculated for age- and education-stratified groups. Previous studies have shown that cultural background can affect performance on the DRS and the development of culture-specific norms for French-speaking Quebecers could be very useful to clinicians and researchers working with this population.

Academic Success Across the Transition from Primary to Secondary Schooling Among Lower-Income Adolescents: Understanding the Effects of Family Resources and Gender

Successful academic performance during adolescence is a key predictor of lifetime achievement, including occupational and social success. The present study investigated the important transition from primary to secondary schooling during early adolescence, when academic performance among youth often declines. The goal of the study was to understand how risk factors, specifically lower family resources and male gender, threaten academic success following this "critical transition" in schooling. The study involved a longitudinal examination of the predictors of academic performance in grades 7-8 among 127 (56% girls) French-speaking Quebec (Canada) adolescents from lower-income backgrounds. As hypothesized based on transition theory, hierarchical regression analyses showed that supportive parenting and specific academic, social and behavioral competencies (including spelling ability, social skills, and lower levels of attention problems) predicted success across this transition among at-risk youth. Multiple-mediation procedures demonstrated that the set of compensatory factors fully mediated the negative impact of lower family resources on academic success in grades 7-8. Unique mediators (social skills, spelling ability, supportive parenting) also were identified. In addition, the "gender gap" in performance across the transition could be attributed statistically to differences between boys and girls in specific competencies observed prior to the transition, as well as differential parenting (i.e., support from mother) towards girls and boys. The present results contribute to our understanding of the processes by which established risk factors, such as low family income and gender impact development and academic performance during early adolescence. These "transitional" processes and subsequent academic performance may have consequences across adolescence and beyond, with an impact on lifetime patterns of achievement and occupational success.

Normative Groups: The Rise of the Formation of the First Union Through Cohabitation in Quebec, a Comparative Approach

The rise of cohabitation in Quebec has attracted the interest of some demographers who have documented it, but why or how Quebec actively adopted this new behavior while it long had a reputation for being conservative in attitudes and behaviors with respect to family is still debated. One view is that this shift is related to an important transformation of the foundation of the normative system shared by the members of its main socio-religious group, French-speaking Catholics. This article is part of a research effort looking for empirical evidence to sustain this claim. Using data from the 1984 National Fertility Survey and from the 1990, 1995, 2001, and 2006 General Social Surveys, we estimate the hazard functions of the formation of the first union by marriage or by cohabitation for ten-year birth cohorts from 1911 to 1981 among several “normative groups” defined by language, religion, and province of residence. The results support the notion that the demise of the formation of the first union by marriage and its replacement by cohabitation in Quebec is typical of French-speaking Quebecers, among which those who declare themselves Catholic have become similar to those who declare having no religious affiliation.

Lay people's interpretation of ethical values related to mass vaccination; the case of A(H1N1) vaccination campaign in the province of Quebec (French Canada).

Pandemic influenza ethics frameworks are based on respect of values and principles such as regard for autonomy, responsibility, transparency, solidarity and social justice. However, very few studies have addressed the way in which the general population views these moral norms. (i) To analyse the receptiveness of the population of French-speaking Quebecers to certain ethical principles promoted by public health authorities during the AH1N1 vaccination campaign. (ii) To add to the limited number of empirical studies that examine the population's perception of ethical values. Eight months after the end of the AH1N1 vaccination campaign in the Province of Quebec (Canada), 100 French-speaking Quebecers were assembled in ten focus groups. Discussions focussed on the level of respect shown by public health authorities for individual autonomy, the limits of appeals for solidarity, the balance between vaccination efficiency and social justice towards non-prioritized subpopulations, vaccination as a demonstration of civic duty and social responsibility. The population acknowledged a high level of individual responsibility towards family members and agreed to vaccination to protect children and ageing parents. However, the concepts of civic duty and solidarity did not elucidate unanimous support, despite the fact that social justice stood out as a dominant value of public morals. The ethical principles promoted in influenza pandemic ethics frameworks are subject to reinterpretation by the population. An ethic of public health must consider their understanding of the fundamental values that legitimize mass vaccination.

The Hero and the Historians: Historiography and the Uses of Jacques Cartier (review)

Reviewed by: The Hero and the Historians: Historiography and the Uses of Jacques Cartier Ronald Rudin The Hero and the Historians: Historiography and the Uses of Jacques Cartier. Alan Gordon. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010. Pp. 248, $85.00 cloth, $29.95 paper With this book, Alan Gordon adds another study to the growing collection of works that explore the presentation of Canadian heroes to the larger public. Following such authors as Colin Coates and Cecilia Morgan (Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord) and Patrice Groulx (Dollard des Ormeaux), Gordon sets out to chart the representation of Jacques Cartier through such public acts as the construction of monuments as well as through the production of historical texts. On the basis of this analysis, Gordon concludes that there was a period that lasted for nearly a century, roughly between the tercentenary and quadricentenary of Cartier’s voyages to Canada in the 1530s and 1540s, [End Page 145] during which there was evidence of a certain ‘Cartiermania,’ largely – although not exclusively – among French Canadians. Gordon describes the arc of this reverence for Cartier, which rose throughout much of the nineteenth century and reached its peak in 1889, when a monument to both Cartier and the martyred Jesuit Jean de Brébeuf was unveiled in Quebec City. There was, by the end of the nineteenth century, a certain ‘common sense knowledge concerning Cartier’; it was generally understood ‘that he was discoverer of French Canada, that he was the first French Canadian, and that he was deeply religious’ (110). Into the twentieth century, while Cartier remained a source of inspiration for many, his stock began to decline. While English Canadians started to show interest in Cartier, their focus was on his role as founder of a bicultural nation, in the process diluting the uncomplicated French-Canadian narrative about Cartier that had previously existed. And even within French-speaking Quebec, Cartier’s stature faded as other heroes started to take centre stage, in particular Samuel de Champlain (whose concrete achievements were preferred over Cartier’s more ephemeral accomplishments) and Dollard des Ormeaux (whose image as a fighter for the French-Canadian nation was more in line with twentieth-century insecurities). By the time of the Quiet Revolution, ‘the facts and firsts of [Cartier’s] voyages were still routinely cited, but they were stripped of moral, religious, and historical meaning’ (179). Since Gordon’s treatment of Cartier parallels the large number of works on the representation of heroes in Canada and across the Atlantic world, he has responded in this volume to some of the issues that have emerged in the literature. In particular, Gordon responds to the work of authors such as Eric Hobsbawm, who have argued that a wide variety of traditions (including veneration of heroes from the past) were invented by leaders eager to foster harmony in the face of unsettling social and economic circumstances during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From this perspective, Cartier was simply foisted upon an unsuspecting public. There has been a retreat from Hobsbawm’s top-down approach in recent studies, and indeed Gordon notes that a tradition such as Cartiermania may ‘well have sprung from the authentic sentiments of a people.’ From this perspective, ordinary people chose to put Cartier on a pedestal for their own reasons, and the resulting consensus constituted a ‘common sense’ understanding of the past. Accordingly, Gordon wanted ‘to discover how certain “facts” about the past are discovered and presented to the public, and how they enter into common sense knowledge’ (27). [End Page 146] In spite of this claim, Gordon does not really tell us very much about the perspective of ordinary people, and so we see the views of Cartier that were offered by leaders, but much less about how these views were assimilated by the masses. Hobsbawm would have us believe that these traditions were forced on the population, a view that Gordon understandably resists. However, his use of the notion of ‘common sense’ implies that there was some active role by ordinary people who assimilated reverence for Cartier for their own reasons. But if this were the case, Gordon doesn’t offer much evidence. Indeed, one of the challenges...