French Canadians

ETHNONYMS: Francophones (outside of Quebec), Québecois

Orientation

Identification. French Canadian is a generic term applied to all descendants of French settlers in Canada. They form two groups: Québecois in the province of Quebec, and Francophones outside of Quebec. The former identify themselves as a distinct society and culture. The latter form a diaspora having a minority status, namely, Acadians in the Maritime Provinces and French Canadian communities in Ontario and the western provinces.

Location. Quebec Province is bounded by Hudson Bay and Ontario on the west, New Brunswick on the east, Labrador and the Arctic Ocean on the north, and New York on the south. Its area is 1,540,680 square kilometers. Geographically, the St. Lawrence lowlands separate the Canadian Plateau from the Appalachians. An Arctic climate, vegetation, and fauna are found in the north; subarctic climate in the center; and continental humid with mixed forest and a growing season of 60 to 160 days in the south.

Demography. The total population is about 6.4 million persons in Quebec and 500,000 outside Quebec. Francophones form 90 percent and Anglophones 10 percent of the population of Quebec. The Francophone population is now mainly urban, living in Montreal and Quebec City metropolitan areas. The remainder of the population of Quebec is sparsely distributed in regional cities of less than 10,000 Persons and in rural areas. Francophones outside Quebec live in small localities and rural areas, but some have migrated Recently to cities.

Linguistic Affiliation. French has been the official Language of Quebec Province since 1974. In the 1970s the status of the French language became an important political issue: Quebec governments adopted linguistic laws. In other Provinces, French Canadian communities must struggle to have their own institutions in order to preserve their language and culture and avoid assimilation. In New Brunswick and Ontario they now have access to French-language governmental services, education, and radio and television. The language spoken in Quebec differs from that in France in its vocabulary and pronunciation. The Quebec government decided in 1979 to translate English technical terms and promote Frenchification of all enterprises in Quebec so that French would be predominant. A special effort was also made to introduce immigrants to the language in order to protect the French character of the province.

History and Cultural Relations

In 1534, a French navigator took possession of the eastern part of Quebec in the name of France. Because of France's involvement in wars, it was not until 1608 that Samuel de Champlain, following the St. Lawrence River, founded Quebec City, the first settlement of the colony named New France. From 1608 to 1760, only ten thousand persons migrated from France to the colony, and present-day French Canadians are almost all descended from these first settlers. New France differed from New England in significant ways. France was a feudal society, which transplanted the seigneurial system, French law, and the Roman Catholic church to New France. The territory was divided between seigneuries headed by a seignor collecting seigneurial dues for granting land to censitaires, or peasant settlers. The New France Economy rested on subsistence agriculture and the fur trade, all furs being exported to France. The territory was then much larger than now, covering the Maritime Provinces, the Great Lakes region, the central part of the United States along the Mississippi River, and Louisiana.

In 1760, New France became an English colony. Since French Canadians formed a distinct society and culture, they resisted assimilation, and in 1774 the English compromised, with the Act of Quebec recognizing French Canadian distinctiveness and affording them the right to live by their laws, religion, and language. From 1774 to 1854, the seigneurial system and the Catholic church dominated the social and economic life of French Canadians. The church allied itself with the seignors and English rulers. This situation was resented by the professional and merchant class, leading to the 1837-1838 revolt, which was put down by the English army. The leaders were killed or jailed and the peasant population demoralized and subordinated to the Catholic church. From 1840 to 1867 the colony had two governments: Upper Canada with Anglophone settlers, and Lower Canada, the French Canadian territory. Each had its own somewhat autonomous parliament to manage its internal affairs. In 1867, a federation of five provinces was founded. Lower Canada then became the province of Quebec. From 1867 to 1949, five other provinces joined Canada. In the federation, Quebec Province maintained its cultural distinctiveness.

A strong nationalist movement seeking more political autonomy for Quebec has developed since 1945. The Duplessis government (1945-1959) obtained its own provincial taxation system. In 1960, a Liberal party government decided to modernize the economic, educational, and health systems, marking the end of the social and political power of the Catholic church and the beginning of a secular society in which the state plays the dominant role. Nationalist aspirations reached their high point in the 1970s. The Parti Québecois was elected in 1976 on a nationalist platform. It lost a referendum to negotiate the independence of Quebec in 1980 but remained in power until 1984. In 1982, the province was excluded from the new constitution of Canada. The Liberal party government was elected in 1984 with the mission to reintegrate Quebec into the Constitutional Act.

Isolated for one hundred years from France, francoquébecois cultural, economic, and political relations have existed since the 1960s and have been extended to all Francophone countries in Europe and elsewhere through the regular participation by the Quebec government in the Francophone Summit for the past twenty years. Québecois have been influenced almost equally by France and the United States, and their intellectual and organizational life is a synthesis of the two. Relations with English Canada have been more limited because of cultural and linguistic differences but also because of strained relations.

Settlements

Two settlement patterns have shaped the Quebec landscape. Since the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries were once the only means of transportation, all farms fronted the river in a pattern called rangs. Social life took place in these rangs and small villages. Settlements spread from the river to interior lands. From 1608 to 1850, the French Canadians lived in the rangs of seigneuries on each shore of the St. Lawrence River between Quebec and Montreal. In the 1840s, Scottish and Irish settlers colonized the eastern townships outside the seigneuries according to the English pattern. In the 1860s, peripheral regions of Quebec were colonized from the seigneuries. During this same period, thousands of French Canadians migrated to work in New England factories where they formed the Franco-American diaspora.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Quebec has been industrialized since the 1920s. Before 1939, more than 20 percent of the population worked in agriculture, industry being mostly textile-and local-market-oriented. World War II accelerated industrialization. Today, Quebec is an industrially advanced society. Since 1960, Quebec governments have encouraged a diversified industrial base of Québecois-owned enterprises through a social-democratic policy (social assistance, free health services, Health and Security Commission) and an interventionist economic policy (statist financial Institutions; direct subventions to industries; nationalization of electricity, automobile insurance, and asbestos companies; construction of dams). Agriculture has been modernized and only 2 percent of the population is now engaged in farm work. The main products are milk, pork, beef, fruits, and vegetables, grains, and greenhouse crops. Forests have attracted pulp and paper companies.

Industrial Arts. French Canadians make traditional and modern crafts. The traditional crafts focus on re-creations of folk objects. The modern is creative and functional. Craft-work is taught in technical schools and organized in associations holding annual expositions.

Trade. Cities and suburbs have shopping centers and American-style stores. There are also open-air markets during the summer for fruits and vegetables, but most people buy their food in supermarket chains. A recent trend, however, is to buy fruits, vegetables, and meat directly from the farm.

Division of Labor. Traditionally, women working on the farm performed a great variety of tasks. Many handled all the farm responsibilities while their husbands lumbered in the forests for months. They also received more education than men and managed the family money. Outside of agriculture, they could work only as teachers, nurses, or industrial workers. This rigid division of labor was challenged by a strong feminist movement during the 1970s. Since 1975, steps have been taken to give women equal access to university education, professions, and traditionally male jobs. The Quebec government has followed affirmative action guidelines for women since 1981, and the feminist movement has been Institutionalized through the formation of a Consultative Council on the status of women in 1977, and a Feminine Condition Ministry in 1979. Important changes have resulted in the division of labor between the sexes in the workplace and in the family, with the younger generation now taking sexual equality for granted.

Land Tenure. Quebec is a capitalist society. Private ownership is the rule for agricultural, industrial, and commercial property. Family farms are predominant with a single farm owner or a partnership between spouses or among relatives.

Kinship, Marriage and Family

Kinship. French Canadians reckon descent bilaterally. Kinship terminology distinguishes the paternal from the maternal line by adding the term paternel and maternel to terms like uncle, aunt, or cousin. First, second, and third cousins are recognized. Genealogical knowledge is an important Social asset in which women excel. In rural areas, women can easily state every kinship tie they have with hundreds of Persons for five or six generations. Residence was traditionally patrilocal for the son inheriting the paternal farm but Neolocal for other sons and daughters. Now it is neolocal for all.

Marriage. Traditionally, men and women had to either marry or remain celibate, taking care of their elderly parents or entering religious communities. Marriage was religious and divorce prohibited by the church. Sexuality was severely repressed and only allowed as a means to produce children. Married couples felt obligated to have a great number of Children to ensure the survival of the French Canadian nation. A radical change has taken place since 1960, with fewer men and women entering religious communities and civil Marriage, birth control, and divorce now the norm. The typical family now has only two children, and 50 percent of new Marriages end in divorce. Sexuality has been liberalized, and a woman's economic status in marriage has been recognized by civil law in marriage contracts and in divorce settlements.

Domestic Unit. Famille-souche, consisting of a married couple, their numerous children, grandparents, and unmarried brothers or sisters on the paternal farm, was the traditional pattern. For sons and daughters leaving the famillesouche, the nuclear family was the rule. The nuclear family with five persons or less is now prevalent, with a growing proportion of single-parent families as a consequence of the large number of divorces. Agricultural families have followed the urban pattern.

Inheritance. Patrilineal land transmission was the rule, with only one son (usually one of the younger ones) inheriting the paternal farm, the other sons having been given land earlier by their father. Women were not allowed to inherit land, though they now can. For inheritance of other goods, English practices have been followed since the nineteenth century.

Socialization. Traditionally, children in rural areas received only a minimal formal education for three to six years. They worked on the farm from the age of twelve to the time of their marriage. Emphasis was placed on capacity to work hard and on respect for adults and church authority. Only a minority had an opportunity to attend the colleges and universities controlled by the clergy. Since 1960, religious educational Institutions have been nationalized, and universal access to Formal education has been promoted. Familial education is more liberal and permissive since families are now smaller. With the changing roles of men and women, a greater emphasis has been put on the socialization of boys and girls free of sexual stereotypes in families and at school.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. The class structure of modern Quebec is complex and consists of several strata: (1) an Anglophone bourgeoisie; (2) a French Canadian middle bourgeoisie having interests in financial institutions, middle-sized industries, and controlling statist economic institutions, which supports the federalist political position with minimal nationalist claims; and (3) a petty bourgeoisie including public-sector managers and employees, professionals, and small entrepreneurs in industry and commerce, which supports the nationalist party. The working class is numerically important and is divided into two groups: workers organized in strong assertive unions that have won acceptable salaries and working conditions, and poorly paid nonunionized workers. In agriculture, family farms are the majority. Farmers are organized and control the sale of agricultural products through quotas. Quebec has more unemployed persons than other provinces; almost 15 percent of the population collects unemployment insurance or social security payments.

Political Organization. Quebec is a province with its own parliament within a federation. According to the Canadian Constitution, the provincial parliament has jurisdiction over educational, health, agricultural, economic, and social policy in the province. Quebec governments have sought additional autonomy from the federal government since the 1940s. The political system is bipartisan with two major political parties and a third and fourth of marginal influence. The dominant political party has been the Liberal party (1960-1976; 1984-1990). A conservative party in power in the 1950s disappeared in the 1970s, replaced by the Parti Québecois, which governed from 1976 to 1984.

The Quebec government makes decisions concerning education, health, and economic matters. Municipalities have power over local matters. All decisions regarding zoning, the environment, transportation, and economic development are centralized at the government level. Municipalities receive a part of their budget from the central government and are grouped into regional units to coordinate decision making. Deputies are important intermediaries between the people and the government. Ministries have delegated some of their power to semi-autonomous commissions like the Health and Security Commission, the Right of Persons Commission, the Agricultural Markets and Agricultural Credit Commission, the French Language Commission, and the Zoning Commission.

Social Control. Quebec operates under two legal systems: French civil law and English criminal law. The provincial court system has three levels: the Ordinary Court, the Provincial Court, and the Superior Court. Since 1981, a provincial Charter of Person's Right predominates over all laws. Quebec citizens can obtain a Supreme Federal Court judgment when they have passed through the three levels of provincial courts. A national police corps has jurisdiction over all of Quebec.

Conflict. Armed conflict has been rare in Quebec history with the exception of the 1837 revolt. In 1970, when a terrorist group kidnapped two politicians, war powers were enacted by the federal government, leading to the arrest of hundreds of persons and the military occupation of Quebec. The main conflicts in Quebec are not ethnic, but protracted conflicts involving unions are a consequence of the unions' aggressiveness in defending their interests. Racism and any kind of discrimination are overtly condemned and they occur only rarely. Québecois are on the whole tolerant and pacific People who will fight for respect but who generally live in peace with other groups.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The Catholic religion occupied a Central place in French Canadian life from the beginnings of New France until 1960. The authority of the Catholic church was not only religious but also social through the religious community's monopolization of educational and health institutions; economic through the wealth of the clergy; political through the partisan position and alliance of the clergy with English rulers and seignors in the nineteenth century and with the conservative federal and provincial governments in the 1940s and 1950s; and ideological because of the church's strong opposition to liberal and democratic ideas, helping those with conservative and elitist ideas to remain in control. With the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the Catholic church lost its social and political influence. Québecois abandoned religious practices and beliefs en masse and rapidly accepted a pluralistic value system. But schools remained confessional, and the governments have lost the battle for the complete secularization of the school system.

Arts. Québecois culture has been flourishing during the last thirty years in literature, poetry, popular songs, theater, cinema, painting, sculpture, and music. The Quebec government encourages arts with subsidies and aid for travel abroad. Cultural relations with France have helped artists to become known in Europe and to build an international reputation. Quebec culture is now celebrated internationally for its Diversity and creativity. Canadian Francophones outside Quebec followed the same path. Acadians have developed their own literature, theater, and popular song, as is the case with Franco-Ontarians and Franco-Manitobans.

Medicine. The Quebec health system was nationalized in 1960, and in 1969 the Health Insurance Commission was created by law to provide free health services for the people. Physicians are paid for their services by the commission. With the aging of the population, a debate has now begun because the costs are constantly increasing. Alternative medical practices are developing, but most are still illegal.

Death and Afterlife. Traditionally, the deceased was displayed at home or later in funeral homes for two days for viewing by kin and friends. A religious funeral ceremony was performed on the third day and a banquet organized after the ceremony. Catholic funerals have been the norm for many years. Recently, cremation was introduced as an alternative with the religious ceremony retained. Beliefs regarding life after death followed the teachings of the Catholic church, which insisted in the 1960s that those who did not conform were condemned to eternal fire. This view was rejected as a manipulative attempt by the church to maintain its waning power.

See also Acadians

Bibliography

Anthropologie et sociétés. Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval.

Hamilton, Roberta (1988). Feudal Society and Colonization: The Historiography of New France. Gananoque, Ontario: Langdale Press.

Moniere, Denis (1981). Ideologies in Quebec: The Historical Development. Translated by Richard Howard. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Recherches sociographiques. Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval.

Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française. Montreal: Institut de l'Amérique français.

Ryan, William F. (1966). The Clergy and the Economic Growth of Quebec, 1896-1914. Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval.

Sociologie et sociétés. Montreal: Presses de l'Université de Montréal.

Wade, Mason (1968). The French Canadians, 1760-1967. 2 vols. Toronto: Macmillan.

LISE PILON

French Canadians, concentrated in the province of Quebec, constituted some 3 million of Canada's population of just under 11.5 million people in 1939. French-speaking Canadians resolutely opposed a major Canadian contribution to the Second World War. Their attitude was grounded in history and bolstered by memories of racial injustice and political slights. British imperial sentiment had no appeal in francophone Quebec, and nationaliste leaders, who had opposed participation in the Boer War and any contribution to imperial defence, insisted that the Dominion's duty was limited to defending Canadian territory. The burning resentment engendered by events of the First World War, when Quebec's opposition to conscription had been overridden and a coalition government formed without French-speaking representation, inevitably coloured attitudes to the new war.

The Liberal government of Mackenzie King, strong in Quebec, had shaped its pre-war foreign and defence policy with a constant eye on French Canadian sensitivities, and the prime minister managed to bring a united Canada into the hostilities by promising a war of ‘limited liability’ and pledging that his government would not impose conscription for overseas service. That satisfied the Quebeckers, who had few objections to voluntary enlistment. But after the fall of France, the government, through the National Resources Mobilization Act 1940, put conscription for home defence in place; ‘the first bite at the cherry’, some said. By early 1942, pressures for ‘total war’ in English Canada led the government to seek release from its no-conscription pledge of 1939 in a plebiscite. English Canada voted overwhelmingly to free the government (e.g. 82% in Ontario); responding to a skilful campaign by La ligue pour la défense du Canada, however, Quebec said ‘no’ by 73% to 27%, with most of the ‘yes’ vote coming from English-speaking Canadians. Stunned by the result, King limited himself to putting enabling legislation through parliament. Not until the autumn of 1944, with the whole Canadian Army in action and infantry reinforcement scarce, did the government send conscripts, of whom under 40% were French-speaking, overseas. The popular reaction in Quebec was fierce but brief, and the King government's narrow re-election in June 1945 was largely achieved thanks to Quebec's support.

Domestic politics aside, French Canada's military effort in the war was substantial. In contrast to the First World War, when perhaps no more than 15–20,000 enlisted, from its 1941 population of 699,000 men between the ages of 18 and 45, Quebec sent 12,404 into the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), 24,768 into the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), and 138,269 volunteers and conscripts into the army. Part of this enlistment was English-speaking, of course, but francophones in other provinces also volunteered. As recruits were not categorized by language, no firm statistics exist, but estimates are that upwards of 150,000 francophones served, and served well. No French-speaking army officer in field command rose as high as major-general, but there were many brigade and battalion commanders of distinction, and several francophone infantry units such as Le Royal 22e Régiment, Le Régiment de la Chaudiére, and Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal created fine fighting records. One RCAF squadron, the Alouette, was also largely French-speaking, but in the RCN and RCAF most of the French speakers were scattered.

J. L. Granatstein

Bibliography

Granatstein J. L., and and Hitsman, J. M. , Broken Promises: A History Of Conscription In Canada (Toronto, 1976).
Stacey, C. P. , Arms, Men And Governments: The War Policies Of Canada 1939–1945 (Ottawa, 1970).