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No description available.

Using the social sciences, demography and cultural history, this thesis examines the Irish Protestants of Montreal between 1834 and 1860. Its main focus is the communal identity that had both an Irish and British basis. Using national and political societies such as the Saint Patrick Society, Irish Protestant Benevolent Society as well as the Orange Order, the thesis demonstrates how the identity of the Irish Protestant was forged from relationships with other cultural groups of the city. Central to the development of a Protestant Irish communal identity separate from that of Irish Catholics was the increasing presence of Ultramontanism in the Saint Patrick Society, which Protestants were originally a part of. This prompted the Irish Protestants to form their own national society, (the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society) and to expand common interests based on Protestantism.

In Montreal, salsa dancing is both an expression of Latin identity and a cultural commodity. Many Montrealers of Latin descent adopt salsa dance as part of their cultural heritage only after arriving in Canada, connecting, through salsa, to a transnational Latin identity that crosses the Americas. This situation illustrates how cultural affiliations are not necessarily fixed, but can be acquired in response to changing circumstances. Since salsa is not indigenous to the city, residents of Montreal can only access it through cultural institutions and community media outlets. This commodification influences the manner in which salsa expresses Latin identity in the city. At the same time that salsa dancing proclaims Latin identity for certain individuals in the city, the practice thrives in a multicultural context: the Montreal salsa scene comprises diverse individuals who promote, teach, and dance salsa. This dissertation addresses points of division and cooperation among diverse cultures, ethnicities, races, and both sexes, as they are played out in aspects of salsa dancing in the city. The unfolding of these relationships is influenced by both the commodification of salsa dancing and its link to Latin culture. This analysis seeks to provide a theoretical account of the tension between salsa's expression of identity and its status as a commodified cultural practice. This perspective integrates various approaches to the study of dance and culture stemming from anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. Analyzing the Montreal salsa scene, I draw from in-depth interviews with individuals involved in the promotion of Latin dance and music, as well as participant observations in salsa dance classes, clubs and events. The methodology of this research combines ethnography with various areas of concern: the history of salsa, Latin immigration patterns in Montreal, theories of multiculturalism, transnationalism and diaspora, the Latin influence in ballroom dance, Europe

Parallel to the widening gap between high and low income status in Canada has been the increasing number of individuals and families accessing community food banks. In the 1990's, food security reached the national agenda for action, yet no study had described the nutrition and sociodemographic characteristics of a random sample of food bank provision recipients, specifically their nutrient intake throughout the month or at the end of the month when food and money are thought to be most limited. Preliminary studies, at two sites identified the contents of food bank provisions and the clientele to be surveyed. Thereafter, 490 food bank users were randomly selected from a stratified random sample of 57 Montreal area food banks. A dietitian-administered sociodemographic questionnaire and 24-hour dietary recall were completed upon client enrolment at the food banks; following this, three further in-person 24-h recall interviews were conducted, week-by-week over the month. Sixty-two people did not complete all interviews. The 428 people completing four interviews were primarily healthy, well-educated adults (overall mean age 41.5 +/- 12.6 years; men 41.4 +/- 12.2 and women 41.4 +/- 13.0 years) who perceived the food banks as a necessary community service. The frail elderly and single parents with large families did not use food banks. Mean energy intake was similar to the general Quebec population (10.2 and 7.9 MJ for men and women, respectively) and macronutrient intake was stable throughout the month. With the exception of calcium, mean nutrient intakes met recommended levels and were not influenced by income-week nor by energy intake variability. Intakes of several nutrients were related to frequency of food bank use, household size, smoking, education and country of birth. When intakes expressed as food group servings were compared to the number of servings recommended in Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating, no age or sex group met the Milk Products group minimu

The Jewish group offers a picture different in certain ways from other racial and ethnic minorities in Montreal and in Canada. The main period of its history in Canada begins about 1900. In Montreal a small, compact nucleus of Jewish population in the nineteenth century has expanded and developed into a large, comparatively heterogeneous and widely scattered, yet solidly integrated, self-conscious community. The changing ecological pattern of the Jewish community is traced, in relation to the growth of the city of Montreal as a whole* Informal habits, as well as formal structures, reveal the differences in adjustment and assimilation between different elements within the Jewish community, these differences being shown to coincide rather closely with those of successive areas of settlement in the city. Complete assimilation has been achieved by few, if any, of the members of this community; the completely unassimilated type is likewise practically non-existent.

This thesis examines the ways in which a group of male youths from Montreal interpret the world and construct their identities through the lens of hip-hop. The theoretical framework draws mainly from discussions of youth subcultural theory as articulated by the Center for Cultural Studies in Birmingham, as well as current research on hip-hop culture and youth identities. Using narrative inquiry as a methodological framework, this study highlights how the participants' perceive their neighbourhoods through gangster rap culture, and construct their identities according to these perceptions. This study also reveals how the participants' create original rap lyrics as a self-reflexive tool, and how listening to rap music shapes their linguistic expression.

This study is an inquiry into cultural conflict experienced by adolescents of Vietnamese origin in Montreal. It examines the nature of the conflicts as they are experienced by the adolescents themselves, as they are perceived by the parents, and by the teachers, counsellors and principals at the secondary schools they attended. The study also examines the course of the conflicts and the kinds of solutions used to resolve them. Separate semi-structured interviews were conducted with six adolescents, five parents and seven school personnel in two public schools attended by the students. Analysis of the interviews showed that students, parents and school personnel tended to define the problems in different ways and to have very different perceptions of their causes. In those families in which the problems of cultural conflict manifested themselves most severely, parents and children tended to use behaviours leading to a deterioration of relations between them and employed a very limited range of alternatives for conflict resolution.

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This qualitative inquiry describes the linguistic perspectives of eighteen grade six students at Ecole Duncan, a multiethnic primary school (grades K-6) located in Park Extension, an inner-city neighbourhood of Montreal. Employing standard tools of ethnographic enquiry, such as interviews and participant observation, I examined the childrens' perception of the interplay of language and identity, and rooted the inquiry within the theoretical framework of social constructivist learning. The key element of the lived experiences of these children that surface in the data is that their perceptions and experiences are largely determined by a sense of belonging and opportunities to participate in the life of their communities. I conceptualize students' language learning as a social practice, and identity as being socially constructed, contradictory, and subject to change over time. Rampton's concepts of expertise, affiliation and inheritance are used in the theoretical framework. The major assumption of this study is that social factors influence children's identities, which has a reciprocal effect upon their language learning. This inquiry has implications for policy makers, educators and families.