It seems self-evident that novels and other literary forms profoundly influence the way we think, feel and learn about society. However, while a number of studies have acknowledged the importance of textbooks used within the school curriculum, few have examined novels that are studied within the high school English program. Thus this thesis focuses on gender-bias found in a study of 21 novels identified as those most commonly used in the high schools of the Lakeshore School Board. The results show significant gender imbalance in all categories: the number of female authors, characters, voices, and perspectives. The recommendations that arise from this study are (1) that English teachers be aware of the issue of gender bias when they select novels for their students. (2) that strategies be developed in the classroom to address gender-bias in literature, and (3) that a balanced literature curriculum be developed.

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Purpose. To explore the experiences of healthcare managers at a reformed CSSS (Centres de sante et de services sociaux) in Montreal, Quebec and to document the provincial reforms. The objective is to understand the managers' experiences during a period of transition. / Method. This study consists of two methods: a document review of relevant policies and reforms of Quebec's health and social services. Secondly, qualitative interview methods were used to explore the experiences of seven managers within a CSSS and their attitudes towards the reform. / Results. Managers described the following: a new window of opportunity, importance of leadership in the reform process, distorted communication, environment of trust, and culture of the organisation. / Conclusion. Quebec's health and social services is an ongoing discourse. Distorted communication creates an atmosphere of uncertainty which hinders the reform process. Implications include the need for further research in understanding healthcare professionals and other actors in the reform process.

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This study examined the exposure of the Eastern Screech-owl (Otus asio) to contaminants in apple orchards of southern Quebec. Using a worstcase scenario approach, secondary exposure to three organophosphorus insecticides, (phosmet, azinphosmethyl and phosalone), two anticoagulant rodenticides, (chlorophacinone and diphacinone), and residues of previously applied organochlorines, particularly DDT and metabolites, was assessed. Exposure to PCBs and trace metals was also considered. Small mammal species preyed upon by Screech-owls were captured in orchards for residue analysis on a continual basis for persistent compounds or after insecticide and rodenticide applications. Beginning in the winter of 2000, 98 nest boxes were constructed and installed in woods inhabited by Screech-owls, adjacent to orchards. These boxes were then repeatedly inspected for pellets and prey remains. Estimated exposure of Screech-owls 0-60 hr post-application was 0.641 mg/kg for phosmet and azinphosmethyl and 0.401 mg/kg for phosalone. Exposure to phosmet at this level may warrant concern. The acute poison zinc phosphide is now the primary means of small mammal control in the study area and the possibility of exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides is diminishing. Observed DDE residues were most elevated in the short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) and ranged from <1.00 to 26.29 ug/g (wet wt) in whole-body pools. A Screech-owl egg found in a nest box between two orchards may have been thinned by as much as 19.8%, of concern because thinning maintained at 15.0 - 20.0% has been linked to population decline. Only background levels of PCBs and trace metals were detected. Finally, over 950 Screech-owl case files were also obtained from one Canadian and seven United States wildlife rehabilitation facilities and analyzed for evidence that pesticide exposure was an underlying or contributing cause of admissions.

Montreal serves as an illustration of how loft landscapes outside of Manhattan draw from the landscape discourse of SoHo, but are inscribed with local economic, political and cultural attributes. Two aspects of the reconstruction of loft landscapes are highlighted: the imagery of the loft in the mass media and the role of local residents in interpreting and reconstructing the loft concept in the Montreal rental market. A description of the local impact of economic restructuring on the built environment of the inner city sets the stage for an examination of two groups of residents. The industrial built environment in Montreal suffers from disinvestment and lack of regulation making the rental sector loft a readily available housing choice in the inner city. Undefined and outside of municipal regulations, lofts are domestic spaces in which tenants can construct identities. Artists, who use industrial spaces to combine home and work (Loft Artists) and non-artists, who use appropriate industrial spaces as rental housing (Loft Dwellers) are the two primary groups to occupy these spaces. A comparison between these two groups, their use of space and their identification with the loft concept, makes up the empirical component of the research. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This experiment demonstrated that it is possible to use classroom intervention to change the attitudes of female college students towards theoretical and applied chemistry. A pilot study was used to test the experimental design, develop measuring instruments and obtain some preliminary information on the attitudes of college science students. The experiment was of the pretest, post-test, experimental, control group design with a total sample size of 204 students. The treatment experienced by the experimental group consisted of a modified curriculum that included information about topics found by the researcher to be of interest to women, information about how chemistry benefits human health and the environment, a laboratory manual containing profiles of prominent Canadian women chemists and visits by women chemical engineers. Regression analysis of the data showed a significant positive change in the attitudes of the female students in the experimental group (p $<$.05) and there was some indication that more of them were contemplating a career in the theoretical or applied physical sciences. The experiment indicated the importance of sensitizing college instructors to the needs of female students. A series of recommendations for college instructors and the Ministry of Education resulted from this work.

This anthropological study focuses on people's subjective experiences of mental health problems in Quebec, and highlights the different processes involved in the narrativization and enunciation of the experience of psychiatric disorder. It was completed in Montreal in 2001, and included participant observation in three resources of the Regroupment des resouces alternatives en sante mentale du Quebec (RRASMQ). Nine people of Quebecois origin, users of these mental health services, were interviewed. After a brief survey of the literature concerned with the narrative transformation of experience and its expression in the social realm, this report identifies some of the narrative structures of the illness accounts that were collected for this project. I look, on the one hand, at the various languages used in the articulation of "mental illness", and on the other hand, at the power relations that are activated through the use of those languages. This study tries to determine to what extent it is possible for a sufferer of "mental illness" to empower him/herself through the narrativization and expression of one's experience of mental health problems.

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