Quebec Nationalism Research Articles

From landscape practices to ecosystem services: Landscape valuation in Indigenous contexts

The well-being of Indigenous people relies on a deep and complex relationship with the land. The consequences of environmental changes on landscape value need to be addressed from an Indigenous perspective. To this end, the ecosystem services framework is a good starting point as it is comprehensive, bridges a number of disciplines and is acknowledged by decision-makers. However, ecosystem services face contextual limitations when used for landscape valuation in Indigenous contexts. In collaboration with two First Nations in boreal Quebec (Canada), we revisited the ecosystem services framework so that it better corresponds to Indigenous values and perspectives. We elicited value related to six landscape practices (moose and goose hunting, trapping, fishing, education and ressourcement) using semi-structured interviews and participatory mapping. Participants had to locate on a map and discuss places of high and low value for each landscape practice and for future generations. Four dimensions of landscape value emerged from thematic analysis: abundance, quality, access and experience. Landscapes contribute to the well-being of Indigenous people by sustaining livelihood, culture and identity. We developed a landscape valuation framework that is consistent with Indigenous people's relationship with the land. The framework can guide landscape management towards sustainable Indigenous landscapes.

The two solitudes of Canadian nativism: Explaining the absence of a competitive anti‐immigration party in Canada

AbstractCanada has been celebrated in popular and academic work for its relative immunity to nativist populism. No competitive nativist party has recently emerged in federal politics that challenges the mainstream consensus around mass immigration, unlike virtually every other postindustrial democracy. This paper argues that existing explanations for this “exceptionalism” are lacking. In particular, they fail to appreciate the importance of Quebec nationalism in contributing to this outcome. Quebec nationalism fractured the stronger anti‐immigration sentiment found in rural and smaller urban areas in both Quebec and Anglophone Canada and thereby prevented right‐wing parties from mobilising that sentiment in a way that could feasibly win elections. This forced such parties to moderate their message and court “ethnic voters” in suburban ridings around Toronto and Vancouver. We illustrate this argument using novel data which permit a comparison of the Canadian experience with nativist politics in Australia and New Zealand.

Reclaiming Indigenous Identity and Cultural Diversity in Canada

Linguistic diversity is the key to Canada’s multicultural identity which it has been struggling to maintain for decades. Its language policies are rooted in two kinds of languages, the languages of European settlers and the indigenous languages spoken by aborigines who are the native residents of Canada. Despite the country’s conservation policy, social tensions and political debates abound on how it treats its languages by according them official or non-official status. Canada first developed its language policy in 1960s on account of Quebec nationalism and growing tensions between colonizing rivals. This led to establishment of policies which rendered English and French as official languages while indigenous languages got little support. Consequently, language-based discrimination is central to the nation’s social and political debates, which inform its self-image since the conquest of indigenous tribes. A combination of factors like hostile colonial policies, reserve systems and residential schools have undermined these languages and separated communities sharing common languages and traditions. This paper will assess how Canada’s indigenous tribes have fared since the implementation of national language policy which mandates protection of indigenous culture and identity. It will examine the treatment of indigenous languages in the current political milieu of Canada, and the progress made by the government towards adoption of important laws and path-breaking policies to create a future that nurtures its multicultural roots while affirming the national identity.

Our Own Monument: Landscape in the Linguistic Others of Quebec and Puerto Rico

ABSTRACTIt is common in discourse surrounding Québécois and Puerto Rican nationalism to discuss both regions in terms of their linguistic marginality to Anglo-majorities found in Canada and the USA, respectively. As two areas faced with the common American task of inventing a national identity in displaced settings in the New World, English becomes an easy “other” against which the French Quebecker and Spanish Puerto Rican may define themselves. However, language becomes a problematic means of definition when considered in relation to its intrinsically Old World origins. This paper reexamines Quebec and Puerto Rican nationalism from a larger New World perspective that focuses on the role of American landscapes and settings in conjunction with the traditional linguistic approach.

Marketing La Survivance in Pre-Quiet Revolution Montreal: Adrien Gagnon’s Physical Culture Wars With Ben Weider

In the post-war period of 1940s Montreal, in part characterized by the Quebec nationalism of Premier Maurice Duplessis, the businessman Adrien Gagnon challenged the monopoly on bodybuilding, physic...

The secessionist spectre: the influence of authoritarianism, nativism and populism on support for Quebec independence

AbstractIn recent years, Quebec has been undergoing a re‐evaluation of immigration and integration policies. The secessionist Parti Québécois had become the leader of this debate, which also coincided with a rise of right‐wing nativist, populist and sometimes authoritarian movements in other Western societies. This paper aims to evaluate the similarity or dissimilarity of Quebec's nationalism to these other nationalisms. We use the 2015 Canadian Election Study data to explore the influence of authoritarianism, nativism and populism directly on support for secession and also, indirectly, on voting intentions. We find that authoritarianism has a negative influence on support for Quebec independence and independentist parties, while the pattern is the opposite, and the effects somewhat weaker, for nativism and populism. Hence, we argue that Quebec nationalism does not seem to correlate with the right‐wing populist movement extending throughout many Western societies. Thus, Quebec nationalism was shown to be a distinct form of nationalism.

Strategic approaches to Indigenous engagement in natural resource management: use of collaboration and conflict to expand negotiating space by three Indigenous nations in Quebec, Canada

Indigenous peoples’ roles in Canadian forestry have expanded enormously during recent decades, encouraged by a variety of policies and programs from governments, industry, and Indigenous organizati...

The Role of Implicit Nationality Preference in Speaker Evaluations in the Multilingual Context of Montreal

Multilingual contexts in cross-border regions are characterized by a high number of inhabitants making use of various languages depending on the context. A language that a person speaks thus cannot be used as indicator of national group membership, which highlights the need for a distinction. The present study aimed to transfer an adapted model positing language and nationality attitudes as distinct factors of speaker evaluations, both on an explicit and implicit level, to the context of Montreal. Explicit attitudes were assumed to primarily affect explicit speaker evaluations, whereas implicit attitudes were expected to be the primary predictor of implicit speaker evaluations. Results primarily confirmed the distinctness of language and nationality concepts on an implicit attitude level. Moreover, the crucial role of nationality preference on an implicit level was highlighted: Quebecers’ implicit nationality attitudes affected implicit preferences for the Quebec nation suggesting affirmation of model transferability.

“That’s what I’m talking about”: Twitter as a promotional tool for political journalists

ABSTRACTIn the last decade, journalists have adapted to technological innovations that facilitate the creation of an individual identity online and personal connections with audiences. In parallel, the rise of hypercompetition in the media industry raises questions about the increasing importance of market considerations. Under these conditions, journalists gradually develop promotional practices online. This article examines the scope of these promotional practices among political journalists on Twitter through a content analysis of messages posted by members of the Press Gallery of the Quebec National Assembly. It also analyzes motivations and norms related to these practices through a series of interviews with Press Gallery members. The findings indicate that promotion is an important feature of the production of Quebec parliamentary press on Twitter. The quest for visibility, competition, and the requests made by management teams in a context of economic hardship are key motivations for using Twitter as a promotional device.

Geneviéve Zubrzycki, Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec

Geneviéve Zubrzycki, <i>Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec</i>

Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec, by GENEVIÈVE ZUBRZYCKI

The dramatic nature of social change in Quebec is a fascinating story skillfully told by Geneviève Zubrzycki in this beautifully written and deeply researched book, Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec. The secularization of Quebec is dramatic in two senses. It occurred in a relatively compressed interval, conveyed for example by the fact that the birth rate dropped from 4.0 to 2.09 within the space of 12 years (between 1959 and 1972). It is dramatic too in that its process of becoming secular was acted out, literally, in public performances—and it is this performance work that drives much of the book. What a treat! Zubrzycki, keenly attuned to cultural icons and their dynamic centrality to the construction and contestation of collective identities (already on fine display in her earlier book, The Crosses of Auschwitz), attends here to St. John the Baptist. It was he who, for many good reasons, became the figure-head in the making of a distinctively Catholic and French Canadian identity, with the Church at the center of institutional and everyday activity (chapter 2). His feast day, June 24, became Quebec’s ethno-national holiday and, happily coinciding with summer solstice, was celebrated with elaborate pageant-like public parades, festivals, and bonfires, as well as special Masses and commemorative medals.

The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada

Book and Film Reviews 135 The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada Xiaobei Chen, Rebecca Raby, and Patrizia Albanese, Editors (2017). Toronto: Canadian Scholars. 425 pages. $74.95 (print). ISBN 978-1-77338-018-6 (softcover). 978-1-77338-019-3 (PDF). 978-1-77338-020-9 (EPUB). The editors and contributors to The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada seek to revise childhood and youth studies through inversion of their developmental stages. We see child-centered stories that revamp the criteria that one uses to define what young folks need to know and be in society. The contributors treat us to a wealth of sources and methods for representation of youngsters’ lives. The volume has 20 chapters in four sections, an introductory essay, and a glossary at the end. The introductory chapter notifies the reader that children and youth are individuals whose lives do not neatly fit the contexts that experts assign. The editors depict the very real challenges that any student of research with children, youth, and their families faces. There is a perennial topic in Section I: Research on and with Children and Youth, which concerns how researchers form relationships with youngsters. The writing in the five chapters is quite lively, and contributors write to the research neophyte. Section II: Social Constructions of Childhood and Youth, investigates experiences and texts in children’s lives. We look at studies in disability, friendships, and storybooks. Section III: Inequalities and Intersections in Experiences of Childhood and Youth, shakes the assumption of benevolence in institutions. Section IV: Citizenship, Rights, and Social Engagement, points out that international standards such as those in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) buttress the need for recognition of children as participants in determination of their life courses. There is a perennial reminder that international law like the CRC may articulate Western norms and ideals of childhood. The editors give us a wide scope of topics, and possibilities for further research programs may be imagined. It is laudable to draw in readers who are students as active participants in creation of research questions and consideration of ethical issues. I carefully read the glossary, and it is an enjoyable read on its own. Its writing reminds readers of key methods and lessons from the studies in the collection. I applaud inclusion of research in Francophone educational contexts. Investigators decouple a traditional relationship between pedagogy and Quebec nationalism. This pairing is being ruptured through focus on the child as a “unit of analysis” (p. 51) who depicts the school environment and not “the other way around.” I like that methods are part of the stories because all researchers make and remake plans as they collect and analyze data. Such weaving of methodological insights into story shows how research actually occurs. The authors make great effort to ensure that their unique studies pose arguments and questions of interest to readers. Unfortunately, there is a significant problem: Book and Film Reviews 136 there is simply too much information in the chapters. To illustrate my criticism, I refer to chapter 16 by Cameron Greensmith and Adam Davies. There is brief mention of a student, David, who did once attend his school’s gay-straight alliance (GSA) meetings but decided not to continue involvement because in his opinion, lesbians and tea dominated the club’s rhythm. In sum, he did not feel included in the club. I did really enjoy reading this anecdote, and Greensmith and Davies are correct that it deserves picking apart, as there are issues of sexism, racism, power, diversity, and complexity that affect development of GSAs in schools. This story could be the focus of the entire chapter, but the authors introduce it and then leap to another topic. A counterpoint to chapter 16 is Jihan Abbas’ superb chapter six, which begins with her memories of her brother, her home, and her childhood. She uses literature to comprehend her experiences, frustrations, and hopes for children with disabilities. Significant topics that are likely to interest readers get short shrift. In chapter five, Jacqueline Kennelly, Valerie Stam, and Lynette Schick have a relationship that transcends standard understandings of roles and responsibilities of faculty, their...

Beheading the Saint Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec. By Geneviève Zubrzycki

Beheading the Saint Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec. By Geneviève Zubrzycki

Ecologia, cooperação internacional e configuração biogeográfica do Brasil: Pierre Dansereau e o acordo científico Brasil-Canadá nos anos 1940

Resumo O artigo analisa o trabalho realizado no Brasil pelo ecólogo canadense Pierre Dansereau (1911-2011), por meio de acordo científico firmado entre a Divisão de Cooperação Intelectual do Ministério das Relações Exteriores e a Embaixada do Canadá no país em 1944. Dansereau é considerado um dos principais nomes da ecologia no século XX e veio ao Brasil em 1945 como diretor do Serviço de Biogeografia da Província do Québec. Seu plano de estudos ecológicos previa expedições científicas, formação de pessoal especializado e perspectivas de cooperação internacional com instituições como o Museu Nacional, o Conselho Nacional de Geografia e o Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Sua viagem ao Brasil permite analisar as inter-relações entre a geopolítica do desenvolvimentismo brasileiro, o nacionalismo quebequense, o panamericanismo como movimento intelectual e a tentativa de estabelecimento de rede francófona de pesquisa em biogeografia, ecologia e sociologia vegetal.

Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec

Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec

Indigenizing Digital Literacies: Community Informatics Research with the Algonquin First Nations of Timiskaming and Long Point

Community-engaged digital literacies initiatives can greatly benefit from knowledge and practices developed by Indigenous peoples. In this paper, we describe a research project to develop digital literacies with two Algonquin First Nations in Quebec: Timiskaming and Long Point. This project reflects a First Mile approach to Community Informatics, informed by the theoretical framework of Indigenous resurgence and by engaged research methodologies. In telecommunications and broadband terminology, communities are typically framed as the ‘last mile’ of development. The First Mile approach challenges this situation by encouraging projects that emerge from the locally determined needs of collaborating communities, who gain ownership and control of processes and outcomes. Drawing on community-engaged research methodologies, university-based researchers facilitate this work while community-based researchers integrate data collection, analysis, and public outreach activities into the lived realities of community members. We discuss how digital literacies projects can benefit from the theoretical framework of Indigenous resurgence, which stresses the daily practices that support the continual renewal of Indigenous communities.

Gender versus Culture Debates andDébâcles: Feminisms, Interculturalism and the Quebec Charter of Values

AbstractQuebec's Bill 60 (or Charter of Values), legislation prohibiting public officials from wearing religious symbols and garb, provides a complicated case of a minority nation grappling with culture and gender, while also illustrating the more contingent condition of Canadian multiculturalism, equality and feminisms. Quebec has adoptedinterculturalismversusmulticulturalism; moreover, its multilayered women's movement remains a legitimate force, unlike in the rest of Canada. Despite the intricacies of these distinctive developments, this article reveals how Charter of Values justifications asserted the Quebec nation's distinctiveness and alleged egalitarian pre-eminence over others, not only homogenizing and instrumentalizing multiple cultures, but also various feminisms. Yet, when culture, gender equality and feminisms become reified and essentialized through a strategic depiction of certain minority women's rights, Canada's already well-worn claims to diversity and equality are further frayed both subnationally and nationally.

The Viability of Secession: The Case of Quebec

Quebec nationalism is one of the defining forces of Canadian politics in the twentieth century. Indeed, it has been embraced by some leaders and reviled by others. Certainly, it has produced great tension in a country which constitutionally enshrines the values of “peace, order, and good government.” (The Constitution Act, 1867, UK) Additionally, secession has become an increasingly important tool for the resolution of ethnic conflict [...]

Despite the crisis: The resilience of intercultural nationalism in Catalonia

AbstractInterculturalism provides the core framework for immigration‐related policies in Catalonia, while remaining deeply intertwined with Catalan nationalism. We first identify ‘intercultural nationalism’ as the core doctrine through which Catalan nationalist discourse has been articulated in relation to immigration. We trace interculturalism's origins to nationalism in Quebec and argue that, in Catalonia also, regional immigration policies have been constructed in opposition to those of the central state, while attempting to involve immigrants closely in subnational belonging and social cohesion. Second, we investigate whether interculturalism is durable during economic and political crises, arguing that intercultural policies did not change following the economic recession of the 2010s. This harmonises with broader interpretations that de‐emphasise the role of economic factors in ethnic conflicts. In conclusion we note how the continuing resilience of interculturalism in Catalan policies on immigration contrasts sharply with the rise of xenophobia elsewhere.

Two nations in Canada: the New Democratic Party, the Waffle movement and nationalism in Quebec

Following the election of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) to a minority government in September 2012, the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), which had used a large number of first-time victories in Quebec to help propel them to a record number of seats and the status of Official Opposition in the federal election the previous year, was forced by the media to clarify its position on Quebec sovereignty. The official policy had been drafted in 2005 under then-leader Jack Layton in what became known as the Sherbrooke Declaration; it stated that the party would support Quebec's claim to independence if a majority of voters, or 50 per cent plus one, voted in favour in a referendum. The media, however, claimed that this position seemed to 'run counter to the federal Act, which was passed into law in 2000. It says negotiations leading to the secession of Quebec from Canada could take place only after a referendum result with a majority, as determined by the House of Commons' (Galloway 2012). Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, referencing the Act rather than the Sherbrooke Declaration, later admitted that a 50 per cent plus one vote would require the federal government to negotiate but not necessarily accept independence (Macpherson 2012). Yet in January 2013, the NDP tabled a private member's bill in the House of Commons that attempted to put 'clarity back into the Clarity Act' (Pfeffer 2013); the so-called Unity Bill 'would see the federal government enter into negotiations after a simple majority vote on a clear question' (Macfarlane 2013). While these attempts to clarify the NDP's position and establish a process by which to negotiate sovereignty perhaps did not satisfy anyone, they nevertheless highlight the struggle the NDP has had addressing nationalist sentiment in Quebec.As a social democratic party that takes seriously government intervention and involvement as a way to improve the lives of Canadians, and as an explicitly federalist political party that has historically viewed the unity of the country as imperative to progress, nationalist sentiment remains a difficult issue. Yet in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as separatism gained support within Quebec, one group within the NDP sought to acknowledge these ideas while at the same time promoting a different Canadian nationalism. This group, which came to be known as the Waffle, recognised the 'existence of two nations within Canada, each with its own language, culture and aspiration', and insisted that '[a]n English Canada concerned with its own national survival would create common aspirations that would help tie the two nations together once more'. Concerned with the increasing dominance and influence of the United States over Canada, they argued that the country could maintain unity if it adopted socialism and acknowledged that Canada was comprised of two nations ('For an Independent Socialist Canada' 1969). Yet members of the Waffle also recognised Quebec's right to self-determination; they insisted that all people, including Quebeckers, should have the right to make their own decisions free from external force or influence. These positions proved to be enormously controversial and divisive at the time. Nevertheless, the Waffle played an important role in the ongoing struggles within the NDP to develop a position regarding Quebec sovereignty and self-determination.Time for reassessment: literature on the NDP and QuebecShockingly little scholarly attention has been paid to the history and development of the New Democratic Party. Monographs by Desmond Morton (1974, 1986), Ivan Avakumovic (1978), Norman Penner (1992), and Alan Whitehorn (1992) chronicle the existence of socialism in Canada, the emergence of the NDP, and the evolution of the party. As well, there are biographies and autobiographies of varying quality on many of the major players in the NDP that provide further insight into the evolution of social democracy in Canada (see Lewis 1981; MacDonald 1998; Shackleton 1975; Smith 1989; and Stewart 2003). …