This thesis explores the meaning of the Montreal identity from the perspective of Montreal's ethnocultural and linguistic minorities. Generally speaking, it is commonplace for authors in the academic literature on Montreal to describe the city and its identity in terms of its multicultural and cosmopolitan sensibilities. While this forms part of what it means to be a Montrealer, this is not the only significance that this project accounts for. In examining the opinion sections of the Montreal Gazette from the period of September 4th, 2012 to the period of April 7th, 2014 ̶ a period that coincides with the Parti québécois' eighteen months in power under the leadership of Pauline Marois ̶ this thesis reveals that the meaning of the Montreal identity is tied to both the aforementioned multicultural and cosmopolitan sensibilities, as well as a sentiment of exclusion rooted in an ethnic interpretation of the Québec nation. Accordingly, this research also shows how these aspects of Montrealness contribute to the building of a Montreal identity that is meant to be distinct and even opposed to Québec identity.

Diploma thesis "Language policies of Canada: An Evaluation of Trudeau's Policy of Official Bilingualism" deals with Canadian English-French language duality. The thesis describes evolution of Canadian language policies on federal as well as on provincial level. On federal level, long-time prime minister of Canada Pierre Elliott Trudeau has achieved a goal to create fully bilingual federal government; on provincial level, the thesis deals mainly with the province of Québec as it has the most far reaching language legislation in Canada. The thesis evaluates Trudeau's aim to deal with Québec separatism and nationalism by stressing out new pan-Canadian identity of bilingual state reaching "from coast to coast".

Contrastive Study of the Lexicon of the French and the Quebec rap: songs of rappers Nekfeu and Koriass The thesis is concerned with the comparison of the lexicon of French in France and the Quebec French studied on lyrics of songs of the French rapper Nekfeu and the Quebec rapper Koriass. The theoretic part of the thesis attempts to outline the synthesis of lexicological findings which enable us to define the particularities and the differences of both variants. The aim of the practical part is to conduct an analysis of the lyrics of songs of both rappers and to compare the use of particular lexical expressions. These expressions are subsequently examined in referential but also in unconventional, French and Quebec dictionaries. The aim of the study is to conduct a lexical analysis of texts of the corpus and to compare the use of the lexicon between the official French language and its Quebec variant. KEYWORDS Lexicology, French, Quebec French, Rap, Diatopy

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

In many Western societies, support for policies concerning the secularization of the public sphere or the state often seems to be driven by secularized majority populations considered to be largely homogeneous. In this article, by contrast, I draw on the case of the Canadian province of Quebec to show that, as a fundamental element of conflicts over secularism, secularist activism emerges from particular generational dynamics, especially those of the so-called ‘baby boomers’. My main argument is that while the baby boomers’ collective experiences have shaped their secularist outlook, there are a variety of biographical trajectories and engagements with spirituality that the public image of this generation tends to hide. The article is based on biographical and ethnographic research carried out between 2012 and 2018.

No description available.

Quebec platelet disorder (QPD) is a bleeding disorder characterized by a gain of function defect in fibrinolysis. The hallmark feature of QPD is the marked overexpression of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) in megakaryocytes (MK) and platelets. The genetic cause of QPD is a tandem duplication of a ~78 kb region that encompasses the uPA gene, PLAU. As the mechanism of PLAU overexpression is unknown, gene regulatory mechanisms specifically epigenetics were evaluated at the PLAU locus in QPD MK and granulocytes, a QPD unaffected lineage. The aims of the thesis were to assess if QPD is associated with 1) genome wide methylation changes of promoter CpG islands, particularly at PLAU and 2) genome wide changes of active histone modifications H3K27Ac, H3K36me3 and H3K4me2, particularly at the region of PLAU duplication. Methylation and active histone enrichment analysis revealed that in QPD and control subjects, PLAU promoter CpG island was characterized by unaltered hypo-methylation and changes in active histone peak enrichments that were within the realm of having one extra copy of PLAU in both MK and granulocytes. The findings imply that the PLAU CNV mutation does not induce altered promoter methylation status and/or significantly alter active histone markers as the reason for the marked PLAU overexpression in QPD MK. Instead, the rearrangement of an active enhancer element, particularly an H3K27Ac enhancer expressed in MK but not granulocytes, that is upstream of the second copy of PLAU might underlie the marked PLAU expression by differentiated QPD MK. The thesis provides novel insights into the epigenetic regulation of PLAU that will be crucial to identifying the mechanism underlying the aberrant PLAU expression in QPD. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)