With a statistical rise in visible, audible and cultural minorities in Canada, the importance of recognizing the relationship between immigrants, culture and identity as constructed in collective discourse becomes paramount. Through hermeneutic and sociocritical paradigms, this research applies a constructionist approach to qualitatively analyze representations of cultural identities in Canadian and Quebec films projecting intergenerational conflicts within immigrant families. From these analyses, five tendencies were elicited: guilt, displacement, in-betweenness, reflections on Canadian society, and heterogeneous perspectives. While deconstructing cultural identity portrayals remains crucial, it is equally important to study these systems of meaning within production. The research is extended through the appendaged short film,Tracing Shadows, a glimpse into the voices of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. Both textual analyses and the filmic creation demonstrate the symbiotic connection between society and culture, nurtured within collective identity narratives’ depictions of time and space.

This thesis explores the hitherto under-developed relationship between population policy, nationalism and nation-building. It considers how and why the concepts of demography, population and population policy come into play in a sub-state national jurisdiction where the administration of social policy interacts with nation-building objectives as well as other social and political agendas such as support for the family, reduction of poverty, equal opportunities and employment protection. The thesis is designed to provide readers with general observations and preliminary analyses regarding the social and political role of population policy and public discussions thereof in the context of sub-state nationalism in Québec, federal-provincial relations in Canada, and the judicial process that led to the eventual legislation and implementation of Bill 140 An Act Respecting Parental Insurance in Québec. Bill 140, which has come to be known as the Québec Parental Insurance Plan, is a parental leave policy that was legislated in the National Assembly of Québec by two different substate national political parties between the years of 2000 and 2006. It had its origins in the Parti Québécois’ 1996 white paper policies. These family policies, which included affordable day care and the reduction of poverty, especially among women and children, were social democratic in their objectives and were informed by various interest groups. As Bill 140 evolved it developed the explicit objectives of encouraging potential and existing Québécois parents to have children and of providing Quebecers with a provincial parental leave scheme separate from that already administered by the Canadian federal government under the Employment Insurance Act. These objectives, it is argued, differed from those initially set in the province’s 1996 white paper. Bill 140’s attempted implementation in 2001 by the sovereigntist Parti Québécois failed because of unresolved jurisdictional battles with the Canadian federal government but was successfully legislated in 2005 by the federalist Parti Libérale du Québec, after an administrative agreement was struck between the provincial and federal governments. It is the contention of this thesis that the relationship between population policies, nationalism and nation-building objectives is made much more explicit in a sub-state nation where the legislative and administrative boundaries of a political jurisdiction are often contested and jurisdictional battles can serve to highlight issues around national identity and cultural distinctiveness. In Québec, national identity and cultural distinctiveness are most often claimed in the form of linguistic ‘difference.’ This ‘difference,’ furthermore, is often granted public credence in the form of provincially administered social policies that are designed for the purpose of ensuring Québec’s ‘national survival.’ In the context of these broad nation-building objectives, many of which have been the subject of the literature on nations and nationalisms, this thesis explores the extent to which the concepts of population and demography have tended to be overlooked in scholars’ discussions of the reproduction of nationhood. The thesis suggests, therefore, that not only should the reproduction of nations and nationalisms concern us but so too should the policies that concern the reproduction of the nation’s members within a particular national boundary. The thesis concludes by justifying the need for further case studies in this exploratory area of sociology, politics and demography, an area that is currently ripe for further academic investigation.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This research seeks to understand how Québec governments have constructed the relation between national identity and cultural diversity from the 1960s’ Quiet Revolution to the 2010s by analyzing the discursive and historical dynamics that have shaped Québec identity politics in this period. First, it clarifies how national identity and cultural diversity are symbolically constructed in relation to one another by analyzing three key discursive lenses that have shaped the construction of national identity and cultural diversity in Québec since the Quiet Revolution, namely nationalism, pluralism, and secularism. These lenses offer different interpretations of the identity-diversity problematic, suggesting competing imperatives that social actors must balance against one another when constructing the relation between national identity and cultural diversity. Second, this research examines how state actors in Québec have mobilized these lenses through policy initiatives and discursive strategies and tried to influence how members of their community think about national identity and respond to cultural diversity. Québec governments’ approaches to diversity management have shifted significantly in this period, from promoting the French language and intercultural integration in the mid- to late-20th century to focusing on religious difference and rigid secularism in the early 21st century. Contributors to this shift include increasing nationalist anxieties through the 1990s, followed by the reasonable accommodation debate and the Bouchard-Taylor Commission in the 2000s. This analysis highlights the challenges that sub-state nationalists face when constructing the relation between national identity and cultural diversity, including the need to manage the cultural anxieties of the majority group. / Graduate

Extensive research has been conducted on the attitudes of physicians and nurses toward euthanasia. However, little is known on the attitudes of suicide prevention workers (SPWs). The objectives of this study were to: (1) examine the attitudes of SPWs toward euthanasia for a non-descript person versus for a loved one; (2) verify the association between personal factors (experiences, sociodemographics) and attitudes, and (3) explore personal experiences of SPWs in relation to grievous illness. A survey was sent out to all suicide prevention centres across Quebec (n=32). A majority of SPWs (55.7%) held positive attitudes toward euthanasia for a non-descript person and for a loved one (49.5%). Statistically significant differences were found in attitudes among SPWs who had personal and professional experiences. There were no other statistically significant differences in the attitudes of SPWs toward euthanasia for a non-descript person or for a loved one, and any of the sociodemographic factors. Three themes emerged from the qualitative analysis of open-ended question on personal experiences of SPWs: respect of choice, suffering/low quality of life and palliative care. While some findings may be concluded from this study, it is essential that this topic be explored further as research on SPWs’ attitudes on euthanasia is limited. Research outcomes of this study can have important short-term and long-term implications on suicide prevention and training of SPWs to improve services offered to clients.

In this project I explore the creation of female community in the novels of four contemporary feminist writers: Nicole Brossard, Michelle Cliff, Maryse Condé, and Gisèle Pineau. I contend that in their diverse representations of female community, these women writers provide collaborative feminist models of resistance, creative transformation, and renewal. Building on Judith Butler's articulation of agency as variation on repetition, I argue that these writers transform the space of the novel in order to tell these stories of community, revitalizing this form as a potential site of collaborative performance of identity. They offer an alternative vision that is not only feminist and collective, but also transnational, translinguistic, historical, and epistemological - challenging and reconfiguring the way in which we understand our world. I develop the project thematically in terms of coming-of-age through and into female community (what the communities in these novels look like and the relationship between individuals and communities, seen through the process of individual maturity). I then consider the formal construction of female community through the collective narrative voice (both within the novels and outside them, in the form of each writer's collective body of engaged feminist dialogue in interviews and theory). Finally, I explore female community through alternative genealogies and quests for origin (demonstrating the implications of these novels' vision for transforming a more traditional worldview, with transnational communities and the transmission of historical knowledge across generations of women).

With a statistical rise in visible, audible and cultural minorities in Canada, the importance of recognizing the relationship between immigrants, culture and identity as constructed in collective discourse becomes paramount. Through hermeneutic and sociocritical paradigms, this research applies a constructionist approach to qualitatively analyze representations of cultural identities in Canadian and Quebec films projecting intergenerational conflicts within immigrant families. From these analyses, five tendencies were elicited: guilt, displacement, in-betweenness, reflections on Canadian society, and heterogeneous perspectives. While deconstructing cultural identity portrayals remains crucial, it is equally important to study these systems of meaning within production. The research is extended through the appendaged short film,Tracing Shadows, a glimpse into the voices of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. Both textual analyses and the filmic creation demonstrate the symbiotic connection between society and culture, nurtured within collective identity narratives’ depictions of time and space.

El objetivo de esta tesis es contribuir a la formulación de una teoría normativa de la política lingüística, entendiendo que una teoría de este tipo tiene por objeto esclarecer qué formas de política lingüística (no) son moralmente permisibles en una democracia liberal. En lugar de postular una serie de valores liberal-democráticos y deducir de ellos las políticas lingüísticas permisibles, esta tesis opta estudiar dos casos concretos de políticas lingüísticas (los de Québec y Cataluña) para inferir unos criterios generales que tengan validez más allá de estos casos. El marco teórico de la tesis es la revisión de la teoría liberal-democrática en los años 90 del siglo XX por parte de autores como Taylor, Kymlicka, Requejo y otros, y más concretamente lo que Kymlicka llama "culturalismo liberal", según el cual el proteccionismo cultural es moralmente permisible en una sociedad libre y democrática, siempre que respete determinados límites infranqueables. La cuestión clave, en este sentido, es hasta qué punto es posible restringir derechos y libertades básicos como parte de una política lingüística encaminada a la protección de una lengua. Una vez formulado el marco teórico de la tesis, ésta se adentra en los "problemas" sociolingüísticos que dieron lugar a las políticas lingüísticas de Québec y Cataluña, para exponer luego sobre este trasfondo las principales decisiones legislativas en que se encarnan estas políticas lingüísticas. Posteriormente, se analizan las principales áreas de controversia relativas a estas decisiones legislativas, con un análisis pormenorizado de la subsiguiente jurisprudencia del Tribunal Supremo de Canadá y del Tribunal Constitucional y el Tribunal Supremo españoles. De esta misma jurisprudencia se extrae un criterio de proporcionalidad que sirve para discriminar las restricciones de libertades y derechos básicos que podemos considerar moralmente permisibles en una sociedad libre y democrática de otras restricciones que cabe rechazar en todo caso.

This essay is focusing on separatism and nationalism in the Canadian province Quebec. The study has been conducted by using theories concerning nationalism and separatism and later on applying them to this specific case. The aim was to investigate the reasons why separatism has emerged in Quebec and to find out the relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada.  This is to be done both through a historic as well as current perspective in which both literary resources as well as the internet has been used to find reliable information. The essay is also investigating whether Quebec has any real basis for their will to succeed by taking a closer look at international law and relations. The conclusion of the essay showed that language and resentment are two of the most important reasons to why separatism has arisen in Quebec. Nationalism has been strong since Canada was a colony and this shows a deep historical abutment. The study conducted also shows that international laws available are extremely hard to interpret making it hard to ponder upon the question whether Quebec has the right to succeed or not.