Fire in the Mainframe

The 1969 Sir George Williams computer centre occupation has always felt like a secret, or underground, history, with whose protection Black Montreal has been entrusted. It is underground because it is often buried by mainstream Quebec history. When the FLQ (Front de libération du Québec), Quebec nationalism, and the October Crisis of 1970 are discussed, little or no reference is made to the occupation. That omission is telling, because people of my generation have grown up hearing about those events as centrepieces of “recent” Canadian history, and because, at the very least, the occupation shares the timeline. The occupation, in fact, preceded the October Crisis, and there is anecdotal evidence of a kind of cultural overlap. As a Black writer in Quebec, I am attracted to minor characters and suppressed histories, and this informs part of my interest in the occupation.

(Re)visions télévisuelles de la colonisation du Nord – série médiatique d’Un homme et son péché de Claude-Henri Grignon

Claude-Henri Grignon’s novel Un homme et son péché presents the life of French Canadian colonial settlers of the Laurentides region at the end of XIXth century. It depicts a realistic image of the colonisation period of Quebec history. The novel is at the origin of a media series that englobes a radio adaptation, three filmic adaptations, theater adaptations, a comic, and two television series. The aim of this article is to discuss the vision of colonisation by analysing two television series based on Un homme et son péché: Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut broadcast from 1956 to 1970 and Les Pays d’en haut broadcast from 2016 to 2019 on ICI Radio-Canada Télé 1. The analysis will try to trace modifications inherent to the process of adaptation on different levels (protagonists, representation of space, ideological discourse) and their influence on the vision of the colonisation period.

Gaining Nationhood: A Comparative Analysis of Images Found in Ontario and Quebec History Textbooks, 1920 to 1948

The centenary of the beginning of the First World War has seen renewed global attention to the war. A proliferation of scholarly works, commemorative public events, documentaries, and museum exhibits dedicated to the war ensured that the participating nations reaffirmed messages of service and sacrifice. The global response provides some insight into how nations crafted the memory of the war and the links made between remembrance and national identity. The Canadian War Museum, along with various state commemorations, encased the events of the war within narratives of heroism and sacrifice, most recently with the celebratory focus on the Battle of Vimy Ridge. This renewed interest in the war inspired this study, which explores how the war was portrayed in Ontario and Quebec history textbooks in the immediate post-war decades. This project argues that an analysis of both the textual narratives and the visual culture portrayed in history textbooks helps us better understand messages of nationhood in Canada. Through an examination of history textbooks that were approved in Ontario and Quebec between 1920 and 1948, we seek to uncover what the Ontario Department of Education, the Catholic church, and publishers felt were important for students in schools to remember about Canada’s participation in the war.RésuméLe centenaire du début de la Première Guerre mondiale a contribué à renouveler l’intérêt du public pour la Grande Guerre. On observe alors une prolifération des ouvrages académiques, des événements commémoratifs publics, des documentaires et des expositions muséales qui y sont dédiés et dont le but est de réaffirmer le message de service et de sacrifice des États qui y ont pris part. Ces ouvrages et événements donnent un aperçu de comment les nations construisent leur mémoire de la guerre ainsi que des liens tissés entre le devoir de mémoire et l’identité nationale. Le Musée canadien de la guerre, ainsi que plusieurs commémorations gouvernementales, synthétisent les événements de la Grande Guerre dans un récit d’héroïsme et de sacrifice. Un exemple récent de cela est l’intérêt porté à la bataille de la crête de Vimy. Cet intérêt renouvelé envers la Grande Guerre a inspiré cette étude qui explore comment celle-ci a été représentée dans les manuels scolaires de l’Ontario et du Québec dans les décennies suivants la fin de la Première Guerre mondiale. Ce projet propose qu’une analyse des manuels centrés sur les récits textuels et de la culture visuelle aide à mieux comprendre les messages associés à la construction de la nation canadienne. À partir d’un examen des manuels scolaires approuvés pour l’Ontario et ceux disponibles pour le Québec entre les années 1920 et 1948, nous cherchons à découvrir ce que le Département de l’Éducation de l’Ontario, l’Église Catholique et les maisons d’éditions considéraient comme étant importants à ce souvenir à propos de la participation du Canada à la Première Guerre mondiale.

Becoming citizens: High school students and citizenship in British Columbia and Québec

This article explores how British Columbia and Québec high school students construct and understand their citizenship in light of their history/social studies experience. Two multi-ethnic high schools, one in Montréal and one in Vancouver, provided a window into Québec history (grade 10) and B.C. social studies (grade 11). Key citizenship concepts (rights, participation, cultural pluralism, and identity) developed in political theory guided this study. Using a multiple case study design, this qualitative study employed multiple data collection: document analysis, school and classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews with key participants. The findings suggest that, despite different programs and teaching approaches, students in both sites accord an importance to citizenship. Yet, contrasts emerge between francophone Québécois and anglophone British Columbians, particularly in terms of identity.