This qualitatively-oriented thesis explores, describes, and interprets the emergence of Quebec's environmental movement, placing it in its proper historical and socio-political setting. The environmental movement was one of the myriad of new social movements that arose in the 1960s and '70's in western nations. Although it transcended national boundaries, development of environmental movements in Europe and North America differed, just as they did at more regional levels, depending on cultural distinctions, the structures of opportunity, and the amount of available resources, among other things. With its Quiet Revolution, Quebec society gained a new pluralism, secularism, and liberalism that gave the rising middle class and the large proportion of educated youth a greater say in decisions and fostered the development of public interest groups, such as environmental groups. These were aided by government grants that became available after the October Crisis in 1970. Between 1970 and 1980, environmentalism in Quebec became a legitimate societal concern as various associations and individuals began working separately and together on urban air and water pollution problems, recycling projects, and transportation and energy issues, among others. The impetus to act on behalf of the province's environment was due in part to the severity and distribution of pollution problems and to the moral and ideological convictions of group leaders and core members of environmental groups. Informal social and communication networks, such as the counterculture, the antinuclear movement, and health-food coops provided the burgeoning environmental movement with ideologies, members, and solidarity. Unlike its parallel in the United States, Quebec's movement had few historical or ideological links with efforts to preserve wilderness and it developed social- rather than nature-protection principles. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This is a study about bankruptcy, a procedure incorporated into Lower Canada's legal institutions in 1839. The object is to analyze from both a social and a legal perspectives the relations between insolvent traders and their creditors during the first half of the nineteenth century. This research is based on a source almost unexploited by historians up to now, the bankruptcy records located in the judicial archives in the district of Montreal. / The economic difficulties of the 1820's and the inefficiency of the existing legal means for debt recovery were among the main arguments invoqued by the traders of Montreal in their demands for the implementation of a bankruptcy procedure. / The result of our research indicate that these demands were not mainly expressed by the wealthiest creditors. The bankruptcy procedure responded more to the needs of ordinary creditors such as artisans, tavernkeepers and bakers whose credit was central to the production and trade of goods. The bankruptcy procedure allowed ordinary creditors to audit and control debtor's transactions, and to constrain other creditors to accept re-payment compromise.

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This dissertation presents a new perspective on the history of conservation in North America. In contrast to historiography that locates conservation-oriented approaches to the North American environment as the product of late-nineteenth-century concerns within Canada and the United States, this study links wildlife conservation in Quebec directly to longstanding European land tenure, estate management, and associational strategies. Through a range of materials including state documents, associational records and personal and family papers, I show how advocates of fish and game protection in the province drew heavily on Old World customs and traditions, particularly those of British landowners, who displayed in their varied social, economic, and political commitments an ongoing engagement with improvement. These 'patrician sensibilities,' I argue, formed the basis of the regulatory system that developed in Quebec during the period 1850-1914, first on the remote salmon rivers of the north shore and Gaspe peninsula, and by the First World War on the bulk of the province's best and most easily accessible hunting and fishing territories. In addition to the regulatory strategies that developed during this period, the dissertation deals with forms and limits of resistance on the part of aboriginal and non-aboriginal subsistence, commercial, and sport hunters and fishers. The dissertation's major contribution lies in its demonstration of the longstanding patterns that underpinned the development of conservation strategies in North America. Class and gender are central to the project, and it also has important implications for our understanding of civil society and state formation.

Labour relations in Montreal during the years 1830 to 1845 were characterized by flux. The encroachment of expanding industrialization brought with it new social phenomena and pressures, new technology, and a fundamental restructuring of employment relationships. Master-servant relations still contained elements of the deeply stratified and paternalistic labour relationships ingrained in the cultural and social fabric of earlier eras, but increasingly began to exhibit the rudiments of purely contractual relationships which would come to define the modern industrial era. Courts came to play an increasingly important role in resolving labour disputes between parties. While historically the law favored the strict contractual and socio-economic interests of masters, courts began to enforce the reciprocal duties owed by masters to their servants. Servants were accorded greater access to the courts to protect their interests, with the knowledge that they had recourse to extra-judicial means of protest if the law was not sufficiently responsive.

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