Dans certaines anciennes societes, l'infanticide etait une pratique courante et largement acceptee. En effet, tuer les enfants malades, anormaux ou illegitimes etait une pratique assez commune. Dans plusieurs de ces societes, les coutumes determinaient le nombre d'enfants par famille et ainsi, l'infanticide constituait un des moyens pour controler les naissances. Notre societe actuelle a subi des transformations. Parmi les faits divers portes a la connaissance du public, l'infanticide est l'un de ceux qui suscite le plus de malaise dans la population car chacun se sent partage entre des sentiments contraires; tout en etant bouleverse a l'idee du meurtre d'un nouveau-ne, on hesite a condamner sans remission la personne qui a pose ce geste, surtout lorsque c'est la propre mere de l'enfant. C'est ce que cette recherche a tente de verifier, pour ce faire nous avons analyse les proces des femmes canadiennes accusees du meurtre de leur enfant et condamnees a mort a la fin du XIXe et debut du XXe siecles. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Abstract Not Available.

Sous le regime liberal de Louis-J. Robichaud de 1960 a 1970, la communaute acadienne du Nouveau-Brunswick, representant environ le tiers de la population de cette province, vit sa propre "Revolution tranquille". La reforme du systeme d'education constitue un volet dominant du vaste programme de reformes, connu sous le nom de "Chances egales pour tous", mis en oeuvre par le Gouvernement Robichaud. L'ensemble de ces reformes affecte les enseignants acadiens. Dans cette these, nous proposons d'examiner leur impact sur les rapports qu'entretiennent les enseignants acadiens avec leurs homologues anglophones et avec l'Etat. A cette fin, nous etudierons le discours et l'action des associations professionnelles d'enseignants au Nouveau-Brunswick pour la periode 1960-1970, soit la N.B.T.A., qui represente legalement tous les enseignants qualifies de la province, et l'A.I.A., une association facultative a caractere professionnel et culturel. Nous constatons alors qu'un fosse se creuse entre les enseignants acadiens et le leadership de la N.B.T.A. qui defend les interets de la majorite anglophone, en particulier ceux des enseignants des villes, qui jouissent des conditions de travail les plus avantageuses. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Cette these etudie le developpement et le fonctionnement d'un systeme scolaire local au Quebec, en l'occurrence, celui de la ville de Hull, au cours des trente premieres annees du XXieme siecle. A la lumiere de la Loi de l'Instruction publique et des Reglements du Comite catholique du Conseil de l'Instruction publique, nous observerons le degre d'autonomie que possede une commission scolaire locale au sein du systeme scolaire public catholique de la province et ce, sur quatre points principaux soit: la construction et la reparation des batiments scolaires de Hull; l'administration financiere de la commission scolaire; la gestion de son corps enseignant; l'application du programme d'etudes. Le choix du systeme scolaire de Hull se justifie de plusieurs facons: premierement, Hull, a cette epoque, connai t des transformations economiques, industrielles et demographiques qui marqueront son developpement ulterieur; deuxiemement, bien que deja implantee, l'infrastructure scolaire de la ville connai t a son tour, un developpement fort important, alors qu'elle voit, entre autre, le nombre d'ecoles et d'eleves inscrits aux classes doubles; troisiemement, il appert que l'etude de l'experience scolaire au niveau local connai t certaines lacunes, exception faite du cas de Montreal, nous tenterons, bien modestement, de remedier a cette situation; quatriemement, l'histoire de la ville de Hull et de son systeme scolaire reste largement a ecrire. Nous essayerons alors d'y apporter notre contribution. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis is structured around international interests and domestic concerns as two central issues in the making of Canadian postwar immigration policy from 1945-1948. During the early post World War II period, the Department of External Affairs sought to strike a balance between these issues by integrating a greater consideration of international events into the formulation of Canadian immigration policy. The significant influence that the department had with the government helped to introduce a new dimension of active liberal internationalism and a keener sense of global responsibility and commitment into the national debate on immigration. Nevertheless, despite these efforts, the formulation and administration of Canada's immigration policy in the immediate postwar years was dominated by considerations of national self-interest, domestic politics and the national economy.

This thesis studies change during the twentieth century at the lower reaches of the Winnipeg River in eastern Manitoba Canada. The pulp and paper industry there is part of a global network of economic exchange. "Sustainable development" is popular in the industry and is promoted as economic development which does not impair the abilities of future generations of people to meet their needs. The first section explores discourse about "environment" and its relationship with value and utilization. Technological innovation and cultural development have helped create a wide gulf between human experience and the natural world. The section on landscape develops the idea that the built environment emerges or is imposed as a consequence of purposeful human activity and natural evolution. Three land use regimes were evaluated in terms of changing landscape organization. On the Sagkeeng First Nation Reserve landscape reorganization from 1941 to 1991 was due to maturation of succession from muskeg and willow to forest. The settlement pattern was closely connected to environmental factors. Clear evidence of the impact of cutting practices on forest organization was not found, due to unavailability of environmental information for the entire Forest Management Licence area. There was substantial alteration of landscape structure in the agricultural lands, particularly where drainage ditches and roads were constructed. This regime reflected the situation where many individuals made land use decisions on small plots of land. The third, contextual, portion of the thesis focused on distinct phases in the development and growth of industrial forestry. Three main threads run through the entire period: wood supply, energy to drive the process, and international competition. In each period those themes were embedded within broader societal events. In the 1920s uncertainty over wood supply led to delays in construction. The company wanted to secure a wood supply in a marginally productive area and to block competing interests. After the Second World War, the widespread attempt to move the economy to consumer-oriented industry and the drive to electrify rural areas played an integral role in the paper industry of eastern Manitoba. In the 1980s and 1990s two important situations are juxtaposed: globalization of industry and finance, and widespread concern for the environment. Renewal of rights to exploit and manage the large timber limits now requires environmental impact studies and public hearings. Waste management, air and water pollution and recycling are regulated. The present economic climate of global competition and freer trade has made older smaller mills non-competitive. Within that climate, a group of investors and the labour unions negotiated a buyout of the operation from the parent corporation (Abitibi-Price). "Sustainable development" has been a cure-all. Its meaning is so nebulous that it invites a definition tailored to any situation. The new paper company, like corporations and government bodies around the world, can use concern for the environment and the ambiguity of the concept not only to survive but to garner funding to modernize and upgrade the facility. Due to the competitive nature of the industry, the end result will likely be the sale, in several years, of the publicly-funded refurbished operation to a large corporation. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This paper argues that non-white applicants for immigration to Canada are a historically disadvantaged group entitled to protection under Section 15 of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is argued that this group has been discriminated against on the basis of colour, race, ethnic and national origin, in that they were historically denied the advantages of admission to Canada. The current immigrant profile reveals that these historically disadvantaged groups now make up the majority of new immigrants to Canada. This paper argues, however, that when these new immigrants have sought to use equality legislation to challenge immigration selection decisions, that the legislation and the Courts have perpetuated the historic discrimination against them by declining jurisdiction, thereby denying new immigrants the protections of equality legislation. It is proposed that a proper application of basic human rights and Charter principles should provide equality rights and Section 15 protection to applicants for immigration. In order to support this argument the paper takes a historic look at Canadian immigration policy and practice, to illustrate that non-white immigrants to Canada are a historically disadvantaged and powerless group. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Traditional Upper Canadian historiography has emphasized the role of the Family Compact and the flow of authority from the provincial centre. It has stressed the dominance of the York elites and their control of the province through constitutional structure, the imposition of a Conservative ideology or patronage. Local magistrates, however, governed the districts and formed a counterweight to the Family Compact. The Lieutenant-Governor appointed magistrates to administer all district affairs and to judge all petty debt and petty crime. Once appointed the decisions of the magistracy were final and the distant officials at York did not interfere. While the provincial government appointed the magistracy, their prestige and appointment was derived as much from district influence as from their connections with York. Previously appointed officials recommended suitable candidates who were often merchants and shopkeepers who provided district credit. Some were land promoters and entrepreneurs who developed the district commercial infrastructure. Many had historic roots in the Niagara, suffered the effects of the American Revolutionary War and served as militia officers during the war of 1812-14. A constellation of economic, social and political interests bound the magistrates to regional not central interests. Although the magistracy formed an elite group with numerous legislated powers, they did not act alone. The magistracy appointed constables to serve writs, warrants and subpoenas, to apprehend criminals and to ferry people back and forth from the magistrates to the district gaol, to oversee township elections and to perform a myriad of lesser duties. The township constabulary was crucial to the workings of the judicial system and spread the authority of the magistracy throughout the district. While some constables came from the upper reaches of their society, the magistracy selected the constabulary primarily from respectable farmers, innkeepers and local artisans. The majority was appointed from loyalist families and many had fought for the British as Butlers Rangers. Fathers and sons from this group had an historic allegiance to British institutions that was further expressed during the war of 1812-14. For their patriotism they had received bountiful land grants and had a vested interest in the new province. Constables as neighbours, relatives and friends acted as the bridge between the authority of the magistracy and the community. This study finds that coincident interests, district prominence and a supportive constabulary solidified the rule of the magistracy at the local level. The provincial government was many miles away and had little influence in local affairs. The traditional stress on the importance of an all powerful York-based rule has skewed the picture. Although connected to the provincial elite by their appointment, local judicial elites acting independently of the provincial government sustained local governance at the level of the district.

Using "ethnic identity" and "community" as socially constructed elements of historical experience, this thesis looks at how these concepts evolved among German immigrants in post-World War II Ottawa. This study adopts a different approach to immigrant communities by examining three immigrant socio-cultural institutions as sites of negotiation rather than as boundaries between immigrants and the host society. As such, these institutions are treated as areas of public/social space and themselves historical agents, which existed not in isolation from Canadian society but at its centre. This approach employs sources produced within the community's institutions and by institutions external to the community. Census records and English-language newspapers are used along with institutional financial and membership records, their founding charters, German-language newspapers, and first-person narratives. The end result is a history which shows "community" and "ethnic identities" as having consistently evolved while engaging social, economic, political, and cultural landscapes which confronted them. The most significant conclusion of this thesis, however, is that everyday immigrant experiences in the post-1945 era have been central to the larger Canadian historical movement, and not simply the product of "limited identities." (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

L'objectif de cette recherche est de faire une lecture originale de l'activite politique au Nouveau-Brunswick, en observant la tension entre le conception culturaliste et universelle du pacte politique tel que percu chez certains acteurs de la minorite acadienne. Le moyen principal de verification de l'objectif de cette recherche est d'examiner les perceptions du discours des leaders acadiens lorsqu'ils s'expriment sur la portee de la Loi reconnaissant l'egalite des communautes linguistiques au Nouveau-Brunswick. Cette Loi (appelee aussi 88), qui reconnai t la dualite culturelle comme fondement de l'espace politique dans l'Etat provincial, souleve un debat au coeur de plusieurs societes modernes a l'aube du XXIe siecle. Il semble se manifester au sein de ces societes un conflit entre le mouvement des Etats vers la mondialisation et l'universalisme, et le contre mouvement des groupes ethno-culturels a la recherche de reconnaissance de leurs particularismes et le maintien de leur specificite. Ces visions, en apparentes oppositions, portent egalement sur des modalites de ce qui constitue la nation. En effet, les perceptions et attentes des leaders acadiens face a cette Loi, qui proclame le principe de la dualite communautaire, nous permettent de bien illustrer le conflit qui met en opposition les fondements de l'humanisme abstrait et du culturalisme. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)