French Canadians

views updated May 14 2018

French Canadians

ETHNONYMS: Francophones (outside of Quebec), Québecois

Orientation

Identification. French Canadian is a generic term applied to all descendants of French settlers in Canada. They form two groups: Québecois in the province of Quebec, and Francophones outside of Quebec. The former identify themselves as a distinct society and culture. The latter form a diaspora having a minority status, namely, Acadians in the Maritime Provinces and French Canadian communities in Ontario and the western provinces.

Location. Quebec Province is bounded by Hudson Bay and Ontario on the west, New Brunswick on the east, Labrador and the Arctic Ocean on the north, and New York on the south. Its area is 1,540,680 square kilometers. Geographically, the St. Lawrence lowlands separate the Canadian Plateau from the Appalachians. An Arctic climate, vegetation, and fauna are found in the north; subarctic climate in the center; and continental humid with mixed forest and a growing season of 60 to 160 days in the south.

Demography. The total population is about 6.4 million persons in Quebec and 500,000 outside Quebec. Francophones form 90 percent and Anglophones 10 percent of the population of Quebec. The Francophone population is now mainly urban, living in Montreal and Quebec City metropolitan areas. The remainder of the population of Quebec is sparsely distributed in regional cities of less than 10,000 Persons and in rural areas. Francophones outside Quebec live in small localities and rural areas, but some have migrated Recently to cities.

Linguistic Affiliation. French has been the official Language of Quebec Province since 1974. In the 1970s the status of the French language became an important political issue: Quebec governments adopted linguistic laws. In other Provinces, French Canadian communities must struggle to have their own institutions in order to preserve their language and culture and avoid assimilation. In New Brunswick and Ontario they now have access to French-language governmental services, education, and radio and television. The language spoken in Quebec differs from that in France in its vocabulary and pronunciation. The Quebec government decided in 1979 to translate English technical terms and promote Frenchification of all enterprises in Quebec so that French would be predominant. A special effort was also made to introduce immigrants to the language in order to protect the French character of the province.

History and Cultural Relations

In 1534, a French navigator took possession of the eastern part of Quebec in the name of France. Because of France's involvement in wars, it was not until 1608 that Samuel de Champlain, following the St. Lawrence River, founded Quebec City, the first settlement of the colony named New France. From 1608 to 1760, only ten thousand persons migrated from France to the colony, and present-day French Canadians are almost all descended from these first settlers. New France differed from New England in significant ways. France was a feudal society, which transplanted the seigneurial system, French law, and the Roman Catholic church to New France. The territory was divided between seigneuries headed by a seignor collecting seigneurial dues for granting land to censitaires, or peasant settlers. The New France Economy rested on subsistence agriculture and the fur trade, all furs being exported to France. The territory was then much larger than now, covering the Maritime Provinces, the Great Lakes region, the central part of the United States along the Mississippi River, and Louisiana.

In 1760, New France became an English colony. Since French Canadians formed a distinct society and culture, they resisted assimilation, and in 1774 the English compromised, with the Act of Quebec recognizing French Canadian distinctiveness and affording them the right to live by their laws, religion, and language. From 1774 to 1854, the seigneurial system and the Catholic church dominated the social and economic life of French Canadians. The church allied itself with the seignors and English rulers. This situation was resented by the professional and merchant class, leading to the 1837-1838 revolt, which was put down by the English army. The leaders were killed or jailed and the peasant population demoralized and subordinated to the Catholic church. From 1840 to 1867 the colony had two governments: Upper Canada with Anglophone settlers, and Lower Canada, the French Canadian territory. Each had its own somewhat autonomous parliament to manage its internal affairs. In 1867, a federation of five provinces was founded. Lower Canada then became the province of Quebec. From 1867 to 1949, five other provinces joined Canada. In the federation, Quebec Province maintained its cultural distinctiveness.

A strong nationalist movement seeking more political autonomy for Quebec has developed since 1945. The Duplessis government (1945-1959) obtained its own provincial taxation system. In 1960, a Liberal party government decided to modernize the economic, educational, and health systems, marking the end of the social and political power of the Catholic church and the beginning of a secular society in which the state plays the dominant role. Nationalist aspirations reached their high point in the 1970s. The Parti Québecois was elected in 1976 on a nationalist platform. It lost a referendum to negotiate the independence of Quebec in 1980 but remained in power until 1984. In 1982, the province was excluded from the new constitution of Canada. The Liberal party government was elected in 1984 with the mission to reintegrate Quebec into the Constitutional Act.

Isolated for one hundred years from France, francoquébecois cultural, economic, and political relations have existed since the 1960s and have been extended to all Francophone countries in Europe and elsewhere through the regular participation by the Quebec government in the Francophone Summit for the past twenty years. Québecois have been influenced almost equally by France and the United States, and their intellectual and organizational life is a synthesis of the two. Relations with English Canada have been more limited because of cultural and linguistic differences but also because of strained relations.

Settlements

Two settlement patterns have shaped the Quebec landscape. Since the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries were once the only means of transportation, all farms fronted the river in a pattern called rangs. Social life took place in these rangs and small villages. Settlements spread from the river to interior lands. From 1608 to 1850, the French Canadians lived in the rangs of seigneuries on each shore of the St. Lawrence River between Quebec and Montreal. In the 1840s, Scottish and Irish settlers colonized the eastern townships outside the seigneuries according to the English pattern. In the 1860s, peripheral regions of Quebec were colonized from the seigneuries. During this same period, thousands of French Canadians migrated to work in New England factories where they formed the Franco-American diaspora.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Quebec has been industrialized since the 1920s. Before 1939, more than 20 percent of the population worked in agriculture, industry being mostly textile-and local-market-oriented. World War II accelerated industrialization. Today, Quebec is an industrially advanced society. Since 1960, Quebec governments have encouraged a diversified industrial base of Québecois-owned enterprises through a social-democratic policy (social assistance, free health services, Health and Security Commission) and an interventionist economic policy (statist financial Institutions; direct subventions to industries; nationalization of electricity, automobile insurance, and asbestos companies; construction of dams). Agriculture has been modernized and only 2 percent of the population is now engaged in farm work. The main products are milk, pork, beef, fruits, and vegetables, grains, and greenhouse crops. Forests have attracted pulp and paper companies.

Industrial Arts. French Canadians make traditional and modern crafts. The traditional crafts focus on re-creations of folk objects. The modern is creative and functional. Craft-work is taught in technical schools and organized in associations holding annual expositions.

Trade. Cities and suburbs have shopping centers and American-style stores. There are also open-air markets during the summer for fruits and vegetables, but most people buy their food in supermarket chains. A recent trend, however, is to buy fruits, vegetables, and meat directly from the farm.

Division of Labor. Traditionally, women working on the farm performed a great variety of tasks. Many handled all the farm responsibilities while their husbands lumbered in the forests for months. They also received more education than men and managed the family money. Outside of agriculture, they could work only as teachers, nurses, or industrial workers. This rigid division of labor was challenged by a strong feminist movement during the 1970s. Since 1975, steps have been taken to give women equal access to university education, professions, and traditionally male jobs. The Quebec government has followed affirmative action guidelines for women since 1981, and the feminist movement has been Institutionalized through the formation of a Consultative Council on the status of women in 1977, and a Feminine Condition Ministry in 1979. Important changes have resulted in the division of labor between the sexes in the workplace and in the family, with the younger generation now taking sexual equality for granted.

Land Tenure. Quebec is a capitalist society. Private ownership is the rule for agricultural, industrial, and commercial property. Family farms are predominant with a single farm owner or a partnership between spouses or among relatives.

Kinship, Marriage and Family

Kinship. French Canadians reckon descent bilaterally. Kinship terminology distinguishes the paternal from the maternal line by adding the term paternel and maternel to terms like uncle, aunt, or cousin. First, second, and third cousins are recognized. Genealogical knowledge is an important Social asset in which women excel. In rural areas, women can easily state every kinship tie they have with hundreds of Persons for five or six generations. Residence was traditionally patrilocal for the son inheriting the paternal farm but Neolocal for other sons and daughters. Now it is neolocal for all.

Marriage. Traditionally, men and women had to either marry or remain celibate, taking care of their elderly parents or entering religious communities. Marriage was religious and divorce prohibited by the church. Sexuality was severely repressed and only allowed as a means to produce children. Married couples felt obligated to have a great number of Children to ensure the survival of the French Canadian nation. A radical change has taken place since 1960, with fewer men and women entering religious communities and civil Marriage, birth control, and divorce now the norm. The typical family now has only two children, and 50 percent of new Marriages end in divorce. Sexuality has been liberalized, and a woman's economic status in marriage has been recognized by civil law in marriage contracts and in divorce settlements.

Domestic Unit. Famille-souche, consisting of a married couple, their numerous children, grandparents, and unmarried brothers or sisters on the paternal farm, was the traditional pattern. For sons and daughters leaving the famillesouche, the nuclear family was the rule. The nuclear family with five persons or less is now prevalent, with a growing proportion of single-parent families as a consequence of the large number of divorces. Agricultural families have followed the urban pattern.

Inheritance. Patrilineal land transmission was the rule, with only one son (usually one of the younger ones) inheriting the paternal farm, the other sons having been given land earlier by their father. Women were not allowed to inherit land, though they now can. For inheritance of other goods, English practices have been followed since the nineteenth century.

Socialization. Traditionally, children in rural areas received only a minimal formal education for three to six years. They worked on the farm from the age of twelve to the time of their marriage. Emphasis was placed on capacity to work hard and on respect for adults and church authority. Only a minority had an opportunity to attend the colleges and universities controlled by the clergy. Since 1960, religious educational Institutions have been nationalized, and universal access to Formal education has been promoted. Familial education is more liberal and permissive since families are now smaller. With the changing roles of men and women, a greater emphasis has been put on the socialization of boys and girls free of sexual stereotypes in families and at school.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. The class structure of modern Quebec is complex and consists of several strata: (1) an Anglophone bourgeoisie; (2) a French Canadian middle bourgeoisie having interests in financial institutions, middle-sized industries, and controlling statist economic institutions, which supports the federalist political position with minimal nationalist claims; and (3) a petty bourgeoisie including public-sector managers and employees, professionals, and small entrepreneurs in industry and commerce, which supports the nationalist party. The working class is numerically important and is divided into two groups: workers organized in strong assertive unions that have won acceptable salaries and working conditions, and poorly paid nonunionized workers. In agriculture, family farms are the majority. Farmers are organized and control the sale of agricultural products through quotas. Quebec has more unemployed persons than other provinces; almost 15 percent of the population collects unemployment insurance or social security payments.

Political Organization. Quebec is a province with its own parliament within a federation. According to the Canadian Constitution, the provincial parliament has jurisdiction over educational, health, agricultural, economic, and social policy in the province. Quebec governments have sought additional autonomy from the federal government since the 1940s. The political system is bipartisan with two major political parties and a third and fourth of marginal influence. The dominant political party has been the Liberal party (1960-1976; 1984-1990). A conservative party in power in the 1950s disappeared in the 1970s, replaced by the Parti Québecois, which governed from 1976 to 1984.

The Quebec government makes decisions concerning education, health, and economic matters. Municipalities have power over local matters. All decisions regarding zoning, the environment, transportation, and economic development are centralized at the government level. Municipalities receive a part of their budget from the central government and are grouped into regional units to coordinate decision making. Deputies are important intermediaries between the people and the government. Ministries have delegated some of their power to semi-autonomous commissions like the Health and Security Commission, the Right of Persons Commission, the Agricultural Markets and Agricultural Credit Commission, the French Language Commission, and the Zoning Commission.

Social Control. Quebec operates under two legal systems: French civil law and English criminal law. The provincial court system has three levels: the Ordinary Court, the Provincial Court, and the Superior Court. Since 1981, a provincial Charter of Person's Right predominates over all laws. Quebec citizens can obtain a Supreme Federal Court judgment when they have passed through the three levels of provincial courts. A national police corps has jurisdiction over all of Quebec.

Conflict. Armed conflict has been rare in Quebec history with the exception of the 1837 revolt. In 1970, when a terrorist group kidnapped two politicians, war powers were enacted by the federal government, leading to the arrest of hundreds of persons and the military occupation of Quebec. The main conflicts in Quebec are not ethnic, but protracted conflicts involving unions are a consequence of the unions' aggressiveness in defending their interests. Racism and any kind of discrimination are overtly condemned and they occur only rarely. Québecois are on the whole tolerant and pacific People who will fight for respect but who generally live in peace with other groups.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The Catholic religion occupied a Central place in French Canadian life from the beginnings of New France until 1960. The authority of the Catholic church was not only religious but also social through the religious community's monopolization of educational and health institutions; economic through the wealth of the clergy; political through the partisan position and alliance of the clergy with English rulers and seignors in the nineteenth century and with the conservative federal and provincial governments in the 1940s and 1950s; and ideological because of the church's strong opposition to liberal and democratic ideas, helping those with conservative and elitist ideas to remain in control. With the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the Catholic church lost its social and political influence. Québecois abandoned religious practices and beliefs en masse and rapidly accepted a pluralistic value system. But schools remained confessional, and the governments have lost the battle for the complete secularization of the school system.

Arts. Québecois culture has been flourishing during the last thirty years in literature, poetry, popular songs, theater, cinema, painting, sculpture, and music. The Quebec government encourages arts with subsidies and aid for travel abroad. Cultural relations with France have helped artists to become known in Europe and to build an international reputation. Quebec culture is now celebrated internationally for its Diversity and creativity. Canadian Francophones outside Quebec followed the same path. Acadians have developed their own literature, theater, and popular song, as is the case with Franco-Ontarians and Franco-Manitobans.

Medicine. The Quebec health system was nationalized in 1960, and in 1969 the Health Insurance Commission was created by law to provide free health services for the people. Physicians are paid for their services by the commission. With the aging of the population, a debate has now begun because the costs are constantly increasing. Alternative medical practices are developing, but most are still illegal.

Death and Afterlife. Traditionally, the deceased was displayed at home or later in funeral homes for two days for viewing by kin and friends. A religious funeral ceremony was performed on the third day and a banquet organized after the ceremony. Catholic funerals have been the norm for many years. Recently, cremation was introduced as an alternative with the religious ceremony retained. Beliefs regarding life after death followed the teachings of the Catholic church, which insisted in the 1960s that those who did not conform were condemned to eternal fire. This view was rejected as a manipulative attempt by the church to maintain its waning power.

See alsoAcadians

Bibliography

Anthropologie et sociétés. Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval.

Hamilton, Roberta (1988). Feudal Society and Colonization: The Historiography of New France. Gananoque, Ontario: Langdale Press.

Moniere, Denis (1981). Ideologies in Quebec: The Historical Development. Translated by Richard Howard. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Recherches sociographiques. Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval.

Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française. Montreal: Institut de l'Amérique français.

Ryan, William F. (1966). The Clergy and the Economic Growth of Quebec, 1896-1914. Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval.

Sociologie et sociétés. Montreal: Presses de l'Université de Montréal.

Wade, Mason (1968). The French Canadians, 1760-1967. 2 vols. Toronto: Macmillan.

LISE PILON

Encyclopedia of World Cultures Pilon, Lise

French Canadians

views updated May 14 2018

French Canadians

ALTERNATE NAMES: Cajuns (in the United States)
LOCATION: Canada (mainly Quebec); United States (mainly Louisiana and New England)
POPULATION: 6.5 million in Canada; 2–5 million in the United States
LANGUAGE: French
RELIGION: Roman Catholicism
RELATED ARTICLES: Vol. 2: Canadians; Vol 4: French.

INTRODUCTION

French Canadians are descendants of Canada's colonial-era French settlers. Most live in the province of Quebec, where they account for a majority of the population. French Canadians can also be found in other parts of Canada-notably in the Maritime provinces—as well as in the United States. The past 35 years have seen a strong resurgence of the French Canadians' sense of cultural identity. With this has come a political separatist movement with far-reaching implications not only for Quebec, but for all of Canada and the United States as well.

The French presence in Canada began in 1534, when the explorer Jacques Cartier claimed the Gaspé Peninsula for France; the following year, Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence River. Permanent settlement did not start until the beginning of the 17th century, when Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City in 1608. With the discovery of the Great Lakes, the fur trade flourished and missionaries began to arrive. The French eventually carved out an enormous territory stretching east to the Maritime Provinces, north to the Hudson Bay, west to the Great Lakes, and south to the Gulf of Mexico. Around 10,000 French settlers immigrated to the New World between 1608 and 1756.

By the late 17th century, France and Britain, already at war with each other in Europe, had become rivals for control of the region known as New France. After France's defeat in the French and Indian Wars that began in 1756, Britain won control of New France; and British rule was officially recognized by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. In the region of the present-day Maritime Provinces, the Acadians (French Canadians from the northeast) had already come under British rule by 1713, and roughly 10,000 (out of a total population of about 13,000) were deported in 1755. Many eventually returned to their homeland, while others settled in Quebec and still others, who later became known as Cajuns, settled in Louisiana.

In spite of their British rulers' negative attitudes toward their language and culture, the French Canadians remained a distinct cultural group in Quebec and elsewhere. Contributing factors were the unifying influence of the Catholic Church, the strong tendency to marry within their own community, and the tradition of having large families. When the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia joined to form the Dominion of Canada on 1 July 1867, French Canadians accounted for one-third of the new country's population.

In the 20th century, military service in the two world wars revealed the continuing cultural divisions in Canadian society. British Canadian soldiers mocked the broken English of their French counterparts, and the draft was viewed as an affront to the independent spirit of the French Canadians. After 1945, there were growing demands for political autonomy in Quebec, and, beginning in 1960, the province was swept by the "Quiet Revolution," a wave of political, educational, religious, and economic reform. The influence of the Catholic Church was greatly reduced, and a more modern and secularized French Canadian society emerged.

The movement was justified by important Quebec intellectuals and labor leaders, who argued that the economic difficul-ties of Quebec were caused by English Canadian domination of the confederation. According to leaders of the independent movement, the solution to this problem was to modify or to end the ties with other provinces and the central government. The tension would lead into savaged violence in a matter of years. In 1970 terrorist acts by alleged separatists took place in Canada. The turmoil had its climax when Pierre Laporte, Quebec's minister of labor and immigration, was kidnapped and assassinated. In 1974, French was recognized as Quebec's official language, and the separatist Parti Québécois came to power in the province in 1976. A proposal for political independence from the rest of Canada was defeated at the polls in 1980, but French Canadian separatism has remained a contentious issue for both the province and the nation as a whole.

In a referendum held in October 1992, voters in Quebec narrowly rejected secession from Canada.

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

The 6.5 million French Canadians living in Canada represent about a quarter of the country's total population. The majority—5.1 million—live in Quebec, Canada's largest province. The French Canadians of the Maritime provinces—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island—are unified by their distinctive Acadian background and culture; they account for around 15% of the population in those provinces. There are also French Canadian communities in Ontario and the western provinces, with the greatest populations in Manitoba and Alberta. In addition, there were over 2 million persons of French Canadian descent in the United States as of the 1990 census (the actual number may be as high as 5 million). Most live in Louisiana, where they are known as Cajuns, or in New England.

LANGUAGE

Canada's constitution established both English and French as official languages. About three-fifths of the population speaks English as their first language and around one-fourth identifies French as their primary language. French Canadians are the largest group of Francophones (French speakers) in North America. The main categories of French spoken by Franco-phone Canadians are called Québécois (Quebec French), Acadian French, Brayon French, and Newfoundland French. The majority of French Canadians are concentrated in Quebec, where they represent about 80% of that province's 7,744 million residents. About 15% of the population in the Maritime Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) speaks French, and there are Francophone areas in Manitoba and Ontario. Although French and English both have the status of official languages in Canada, the country is predominantly English-speaking, and Francophones are perennially concerned that their "French island" will be swallowed up in an "ocean of English." While Canada is generally considered a bilingual country, only 16% of the population is actually bilingual. About 61% speak English only and 24% French only.

The vocabulary and pronunciation of Canadian French differ from those of the language spoken in France. Québécois is based on an archaic form of French and contains many English expressions. Many terms are closer to the English than to the French form of the word. For example, "to marry" is marier instead of the French term, épouser. Similarly, "appointment" is appointement instead of rendezvous, and "ignore" is ignorer instead of négliger. Joual, a special dialect spoken in Montreal, shortens so many words by contracting and dropping syllables that it is incomprehensible to most outsiders. For example, the phrase Je ne suis capable is shortened to a single syllable, pronounced "shway."

The Acadians speak a distinctive form of French characterized by many archaic expressions preserved from the 17th-century dialects of western France. Acadian dialects differ from one region to another, and in Moncton, New Brunswick, contact with English speakers has produced a French-English called Chiac. Such hybrids are also generically known as "fran-glais." The Canadian educational system promotes the use of modern, standard French in its French-language schools and discourages the use of both archaic expressions and the mingling of French and English.

FOLKLORE

The oral tradition of the French Canadians was strengthened by colonial laws against the establishment of presses and by the scarcity of French schools, both of which made it important for French Canadians to transmit their culture orally across the generations. Popular characters in French Canadian folklore include a hero figure named Ti-Jean (short for petit Jean , or Little John) and a hunter named Dalbec.

RELIGION

The majority of French Canadians are Roman Catholic, and religion is fundamental in French Canadian life. The influence of the Catholic Church has heavily impacted the French Canadian community through the administration and, on occasion, monopolization of key institutions as health and educational centers. With the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the Catholic Church lost important terrain in its social and political influence. Since that time, the French Canadian community has become more secular. Church attendance has declined, and the influence of the Church on daily life has decreased. The Acadians traditionally combined Catholicism with a belief in the supernatural, including sorcery and spirits, but this phenomenon has been on the wane in recent decades. Despite the deep process of secularization experimented by the French Canadian community, a great deal of schools have remained confessional and governments have lost the battle for the complete secularization of the educational system.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS

French Canadians call Victoria Day, celebrated on the Monday preceding May 25, Dollard Day, preferring to remember a 17th-century French war hero on that date rather than Britain's Queen Victoria. The most important religious holidays for French Canadians are Christmas and Easter. Many—especially those in rural areas—still observe the traditional Christmas celebration, which includes a large midnight supper ( Réveillon ) of tourtières (meat pies), ragaut (stew), and other dishes, served after the family has returned from midnight mass on Christmas Eve. On St. Jean Baptiste Day (June 24), the Québécois celebrate their patron saint with parties, bonfires, and fireworks. The Acadians' patron saint is Our Lady of the Assumption, and Assumption Day (August 15) is their day of celebration.

RITES OF PASSAGE

Most French Canadians observe the major life cycle events, such as birth, marriage, and death, within the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. The government of Quebec, the home of Canada's largest French-speaking population, recognizes common-law marriage in cases where couples have lived together for two years.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

Like their English-speaking neighbors, French Canadians are hospitable, friendly, and polite, and consider good manners important. It is common for men to open doors for women or give up a seat if a woman is standing. French Canadians use the common greeting of Bonjour (Good day) for "Hello" and Au revoir for "Good-bye." Adults use first names and informal forms of address (such as tu rather than vous) only with people they know well, such as close friends or relatives. Both men and women may exchange kisses on both cheeks in a European-style greeting. Close women friends often greet each other by embracing. The American "thumbs down" gesture is considered offensive. French Canadians consider it good manners to keep both hands above the table during a meal. Women rest their wrists against the table, while men lean on their forearms. Elbows, however, are only placed on the table after the meal is over. It is considered bad manners to eat on the street unless one is at a cafe or food stand.

LIVING CONDITIONS

Housing in Canada varies from one region to another, depending on the local availability of building materials. Two out of every three Canadians own their own homes. Single homes are the most common type of dwelling although the current trend is toward greater numbers of multifamily structures. The homes of the Acadians, like most of those in the Maritime Provinces, are mostly built of wood.

Overall, Canadians enjoy excellent health. Canada has one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates—1 out of 100 live births, significantly better than that of the United States. Life expectancy is 74 years for men and 80 years for women. The Canadian national health plan, which has been a focus of attention in the U.S. debate about the future of its own health care system, covers at least three-quarters of all the nation's health-care expenses. Acadians still retain some of their traditional belief in folk medicine, including herbal cures and consultation with traditional healers, who are believed to have the power to cure various illnesses or stop bleeding.

After the United States, Canada has the world's highest per capita use of motor transportation. Private automobiles are used for four-fifths of urban travel, and there is one passenger car for every two persons. Canada's severe winters make road maintenance an ongoing and expensive task. Motorists cope with sub-zero winter temperatures by plugging their cars into battery warmers overnight. The government-owned Canadian Railways (CNR) and privately owned Canadian Pacific provide rail transportation. Water transportation is heavily used for both domestic and international shipping, and international air service is provided by government-owned Air Canada and Canadian Airlines.

FAMILY LIFE

The family unit is the center of society. As in the majority of western developed societies, both parents commonly work outside the home. Even though traditional norms are still valued, non-traditional households have increased considerably over the last 30 years. Currently, about one third of marriages are expected to end in divorce, a high proportion of children are born out of wedlock, and there are many single-parent families.

Until the 1960s, the family lives of French Canadians were heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church. Large families were the norm, because of strictures against birth control and also the desire to bolster the size of the French Canadian community.

Today, the average couple has only two children, and the French Canadian divorce rate is comparable to that among other groups in North America: roughly half of all newly married couples eventually divorce. The increased divorce rate has raised the number of single-parent families.

Traditionally, French Canadian women either performed agricultural labor or worked as teachers, nurses, or factory laborers. Since the 1970s, however, educational and employment opportunities for women have expanded, and women have entered the professions and other traditionally male areas of the economy in increasing numbers. Quebec established an affirmative-action program for women in the early 1980s.

CLOTHING

French Canadians wear modern Western-style clothing. The traditional costume of the Acadians, which is still worn on special occasions, consists of white bonnets and blouses, black skirts, and white aprons for the women and white shirts, black vests, and knee-length black pants for the men. White stockings and black shoes are worn by both men and women.

FOOD

Quebec has a rich, distinctive French-Canadian cuisine. Popular dishes include the tourtière, a meat pie, and ragoût de boulettes et de pattes do cochon, a stew made from meatballs and pigs' feet. Other favorites also include French onion soup, pea soup, and poutine, a traditional dish made with French fries or grated potatoes. Quebec is also known for its maple syrup, and in early spring families enjoy traveling to one of the province's many sugar shacks for a "sugaring off," where local manufacturers sell samples of their products. In addition to candies, cookies, and other sweets, even foods such as ham and eggs are served, all cooked in maple syrup. Children enjoy eating tour-quettes, a natural candy made by pouring boiling maple syrup onto fresh snow. Another typical French Canadian dish is pea soup. It is enjoyed all over Canada, and it is the traditional lunch on Saturday in Newfoundland, usually with dumplings called doughboys floating in it. Its main ingredients are peas, onions, carrots, celery, potato, ham, and bacon.

Tourtiére

1½ to 2 pounds pork, ground or finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, chopped
½ cup hot water
¼ teaspoon celery salt
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
salt and pepper to taste
double 9-inch pie crust, homemade or frozen
Mix the water, pork, and seasonings in a saucepan. Cook over a low flame for 20 to 25 minutes and then cool. (Optional: ¼ cup dry bread crumbs may be added at this point.) Cover the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan with bottom layer of pie dough, add pork filling, and cover with top layer of dough. Seal the crust by pinching the edges together. Preheat oven to 350°f and bake pie about 35 minutes, or until browned.

EDUCATION

Education in Canada is administered by each province individually, although in all cases school attendance is compulsory from the age of 6 or 7 to 15 or 16. Quebec has two parallel systems, one of which is specifically for French-speaking, Catholic students. The Acadian populations of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island are legally guaranteed access to French-language schools in predominantly French-speaking areas.

Most higher education in Canada is government-funded. Laval University in Quebec is Canada's oldest university, and McGill in Montreal is one of its most prestigious. The first fran-cophone university outside Quebec, the University of Moncton in New Brunswick, was established in 1963.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Canada has an extensive francophone communications network. The Canadian Broadcasting System's Radio Canada broadcasts French-language news programs, dramas, films, and sports events, as well as U.S. programs dubbed into French. French Canadian radio stations must allot 75% of their programming to music by French recording artists. Folk and country music are especially popular with Acadians.

Leading contemporary French Canadian authors include playwright Michel Tremblay and short-story writer Mavis Gallant. Perhaps the most renowned French Canadian author of the 20th century was Gabrielle Roy, whose first novel, The Tin Flute (1945), drew a stark portrait that opened the eyes of many in Canada, France, and the United States to the plight of Quebec's urban poor.

WORK

In 1992, 73% of all civilian employees in Canada worked in service-sector jobs, 27.7% in industry, and only 3.5% in agriculture. In 1990 the average income for full-time employment among Canadians 15 years and older was $30,274. The unemployment rate in Quebec is higher than that in other provinces, and it reached 15% during the economic slump of the early 1990s.

Before the 1980s, management positions in Quebec tended to be dominated by English speakers. However, after the separatist Parti Québécois came to power in 1976, many English speakers left the province, and those who remained became part of a new social order in which the socioeconomic gap between the two groups has narrowed substantially. Today, there is a French Canadian bourgeoisie with interests in industry, financial institutions, and other economic strongholds. French Canadians work in the government as both managers and lower-level employees. They work in the professions and as small entrepreneurs. The emerging class of French entrepreneurs has traditionally favored businesses such as construction, in which they could overcome barriers posed by a lack of formal education or the need for extensive verbal contact with English-speaking clients. There is still a French-speaking working class in both unionized and nonunionized fields. Many Quebecois have performed hazardous and health-threatening work in the province's asbestos mines.

Before the 20th century, the French-speaking Acadians in the Maritime provinces participated in a subsistence economy that combined farming, fishing, and forestry. Today, many engage in commercial farming and fishing; this has kept rural areas populated in spite of some migration to the cities.

SPORTS

Hockey, the Canadian national sport, is popular among French Canadians. Every team in the National Hockey League includes French Canadians, and Quebec has had two professional teams since 1972. The Montreal Canadiens—popularly known as the Habitants or Habs—have won the Stanley Cup, awarded to League champions, over 20 times. The exploits of Maurice Richard, the French Canadian hockey star of the 1940s and 1950s, are legendary. His suspension from the Canadiens before the 1955 Stanley Cup playoffs triggered rioting by fans that resulted in an estimated $100,000 worth of damage.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

In addition to the French-language radio and television programming broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Quebec also has a large audience for English-language television and radio programming and magazines. Le Journal de Montréal and La Presse are the most widely read French-language newspapers.

Like Canadians of all backgrounds, French Canadians enjoy the beautiful and varied scenery of their native land on vacation trips, one of Canada's most popular forms of recreation. Many families own small cottages in the woods or at a lake shore, which they visit on weekends and during vacations. Others prefer to travel to distant parts of the country for camping or other outdoor activities.

A time-honored pastime among French Canadian families in Quebec is the "sugaring off " ritual. Early in the spring, they head for the woods to tap maple trees for sap that is then boiled down in cabines à sucre ("sugar shacks") to make maple syrup and maple sugar.

FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES

Traditional crafts among the Acadians include knitting and weaving, and colorful hooked rugs are a specialty.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

The global recession of the early 1990s threw Canada into an economic slump that included double-digit unemployment from 1991 through 1994; this reached its highest level in Quebec, where unemployment was as high as 15%. French Canadians have historically occupied a lower socioeconomic position than Anglophones. Traditionally, they have not been as well educated and have suffered widespread discrimination by the English-speaking majority.

A major concern of French Canadians today is the preservation of their culture and language against the threat of assimilation into English-speaking North America, especially in light of Quebec's decreased birth rate and its large number of immigrants from many different cultures (most of them nonfrancophone). In both Quebec and the Maritimes, the drain of resources caused by emigration to other parts of Canada and to the United States is also a concern.

GENDER ISSUES

Even though during colonial times French Canadian women were revered for their role as mothers, they were denounced as being intellectual inferiors to their men. Their role was to uphold the culture created by the men of New France, not to have any part in defining that culture. As a consequence, large families were the norm. Between 1850 and 1950, owing to a high fertility rate among French Canadian women, the proportion of Francophones in the Canadian population held at 30%. The fertility of the Francophones then dropped below the Canadian average toward the mid 1960s, and today the average couple has only two children.

The transformation of French Canadian society is most clearly seen in the changing role of women. The overwhelming urge to modernize produced a women's movement that has been the most militant in Canada. By the beginning of 2000, over 90% of French Canadian women of childbearing age practiced some form of birth control and abortions became slightly more common in Québec than in the country as a whole. As a consequence, the birthrate in Québec declined sharply from an annual rate of 30 births per 1,000 people in 1951 to 13 per 1,000 in 1991. In addition, during the mid-1990s, almost 44% of all French Canadian infants were born to non-married couples or single mothers, and the divorce rate grew from less than 10% in the late-1960s to over 40% in 1995. Regarding the labor market, from 1961 to 1990 the portion of French Canadian women working outside the home increased from 27% to 44%.

Although Canadian women were given the right to vote in federal elections in 1918 and in the English-speaking provincial elections in the 1920s, it was not until 1940 that Quebec enfranchised women. French Canadian Jeanne Sauvé was not only Canada's first Canadian woman Governor General in 1984, she was also one of the three first women members of parliament to be elected from Quebec, the first woman federal cabinet minister from Quebec, and the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons in 1980.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Behiels, Michael D. Canada's Francophone Minority Communities: Constitutional Renewal and the Winning of School Governance. Ithaca, NY: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004.

The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. 4 vols. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988.

Cunningham, Hilary. Canada. Insight Guides. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

Fraser, Graham. Sorry, I Don't Speak French: Confronting the Canadian Crisis that Won't Go Away. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006.

Gall, Timothy, and Susan Gall, ed. Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.

Gilbert, Paula Ruth. Violence and the Female Imagination: Quebec's Women Writers Re-frame Gender in North American Cultures. Montreal, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006.

Kalman, Bobbie. Canada: The Culture. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 1993.

Labelle, Ronald. "Acadians." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1992.

Lemco, Jonathan. Turmoil in the Peaceable Kingdom: The Quebec Sovereignty Movement and Its Implications for Canada and the United States. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.

Malcolm, Andrew. The Land and People of Canada. New York: HarperCollins, 1988.

Pilon, Lise. "French Canadians." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1992.

Richler, Mordecai. Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country. New York: Knopf, 1992.

Wartik, Nancy. The French Canadians. New York: Chelsea House, 1989.

Watkins, Mel, ed. Canada. Handbooks to the Modern World. New York: Facts on File, 1993.

Weihs, Jean. Facts about Canada, Its Provinces, and Territories. H. W. Wilson Co., 1995.

—revised by C. Vergara

Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life

French Canadians

views updated May 17 2018

French Canadians

PRONUNCIATION: frEHnch cuh-NAY-dee-uhns

ALTERNATE NAMES: Cajuns (in the United States)

LOCATION: Canada (mainly Quebec); United States (mainly Louisiana and New England)

POPULATION: 6.5 million in Canada; 2–5 million in the United States

LANGUAGE: French

RELIGION: Roman Catholicism

1 • INTRODUCTION

French Canadians are descendants of Canada's colonial-era French settlers. Most live in the province of Quebec, where they form a majority of the population. The past thirty-five years have seen a strong rebirth of the French Canadians' sense of cultural identity. It has been accompanied by a political separatist movement with far-reaching implications not only for Quebec, but for all of Canada.

The French presence in Canada began in 1534, but permanent settlement did not begin until Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City in 1608. The French eventually carved out an enormous territory stretching as far east as the Maritime provinces and south to the Gulf of Mexico.

After France's defeat in the French and Indian Wars, Britain won control of New France, formalized by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Under British rule, the French Canadians remained a distinct cultural group. The preservation of their cultural identity was aided by the influence of the Catholic Church, the tendency to marry within their own community, and the tradition of having large families. When the Dominion of Canada was established in 1867, French Canadians accounted for one-third of the new country's population.

After World War II, there were growing demands for political autonomy (self-rule) in Quebec. French was recognized as Quebec's official language in 1974. The separatist Parti Québécois came to power in the province in 1976. A proposal for political independence from the rest of Canada was defeated at the polls in 1980. However, French Canadian separatism has remained a contentious issue for both the province and the nation as a whole.

2 • LOCATION

The 6.5 million French Canadians living in Canada represent about a quarter of the country's total population. The majority—5.1 million—live in the province of Quebec. There are also French Canadians—known as Acadians—in the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. They account for about 15 percent of the population in those provinces. There are also French Canadian communities in Ontario and the western provinces, as well as in the United States.

3 • LANGUAGE

French Canadians are the largest group of Francophones (French speakers) in North America.

The vocabulary and pronunciation of Canadian French differ from those of the French spoken in France. Québécois is based on an older form of French and also contains many English expressions. For example, "to marry" is marier instead of the French term, épouser. Similarly, "appointment" is appointement instead of rendezvous, and "ignore" is ignorer instead of négliger.

The Acadians speak a distinctive form of French characterized by many old-fashioned expressions preserved from the seventeenth-century dialects of western France. In Moncton, New Brunswick, contact with English speakers has produced a French-English called Chiac.

4 • FOLKLORE

The French-Canadian folklore tradition was strengthened by colonial laws that made it crucial for French Canadians to transmit their culture orally across the generations. Popular characters in French Canadian folklore include a hero figure named Ti-Jean (short for petit Jean, or Little John) and a hunter named Dalbec.

5 • RELIGION

The majority of French Canadians are Roman Catholic. Until the 1960s, the church was central to French Canadian life. Since that time, however, the French Canadian community has become more secular. Church attendance has declined, and the influence of the church on daily life has decreased.

6 • MAJOR HOLIDAYS

French Canadians celebrate Dollard Day on the Monday preceding May 25. The day honors a seventeenth-century French war hero. On that same day, the rest of Canada celebrates Victoria Day in honor of Britain's Queen Victoria. The most important religious holidays for French Canadians are Christmas and Easter. Many—especially those in rural areas—still observe the traditional Christmas celebration. It includes a large midnight supper (Réveillon ) of tourtières (meat pies), ragaut (stew), and other dishes. On St. Jean Baptiste Day (24 June), the Québécois celebrate their patron saint with parties, bonfires, and fireworks. The Acadians' patron saint is Our Lady of the Assumption, and Assumption Day (August 15) is their day of celebration.

7 • RITES OF PASSAGE

Most French Canadians observe the major life cycle events, such as birth, marriage, and death, within the traditions of the Roman Catholic church. The government of Quebec, the home of Canada's largest French-speaking population, recognizes common-law marriage in cases where couples have lived together for two years.

8 • RELATIONSHIPS

Like their English-speaking neighbors, French Canadians are hospitable, friendly, and polite. It is common for men to open doors for women or give up a seat if a woman is standing. French Canadians use the common greeting of Bonjour (Good day) for "Hello" and Au revoir for "Goodbye." Adults use first names and informal forms of address (such as tu rather than vous ) only with people they know well, such as close friends or relatives. Both men and women may exchange kisses on both cheeks in a European-style greeting. Close women friends often greet each other by embracing.

9 • LIVING CONDITIONS

Housing in Canada varies by region, depending on the local availability of building materials. Two out of every three Canadians own their own homes. Single homes are the most common type of dwelling although the current trend is toward greater numbers of multifamily structures. The homes of the Acadians, like most of those in the Maritime provinces, are mostly built of wood.

10 • FAMILY LIFE

Until the 1960s, the family lives of French Canadians were heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church. Large families were the norm. Today the average couple has only two children. The French Canadian divorce rate is comparable to that among other groups in North America. Roughly half of all newly married couples eventually divorce. The increased divorce rate has raised the number of single-parent families.

Recipe

Tourtière

Ingredients

1½ to 2 pounds pork, ground or finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, chopped
½ cup hot water
¼ teaspoon celery salt
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
salt and pepper to taste
double 9-inch pie crust

Directions

Mix the water, pork, and seasonings in a saucepan.
Cook over a low flame for 20 to 25 minutes and then cool. (Optional: ¼ cup dry bread crumbs may be added at this point.)
Cover the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan with bottom layer of pie dough, add pork filling, and cover with top layer of dough.
Seal the crust by pinching the edges together. Preheat oven to 350°f. Bake pie about 35 minutes, or until browned.

Since the 1970s, educational and employment opportunities for Canadian women have expanded. They have entered the professions and other traditionally male areas of the economy in increasing numbers. The government of Quebec established a program to encourage employment opportunities for women in the early 1980s.

11 • CLOTHING

French Canadians wear modern Western-style clothing. The traditional costume of the Acadians is still worn on special occasions. Women wear white bonnets and blouses, black skirts, and white aprons. Men wear white shirts, black vests, and knee-length black pants. White stockings and black shoes are worn by both men and women.

12 • FOOD

Quebec has a rich, distinctive French-Canadian cuisine. Popular dishes include tourtière (a meat pie), and ragoût de boulettes et de pattes do cochon (a stew made from meatballs and pigs' feet). Other favorites include French onion soup, pea soup, and poutine, a traditional dish made with French fries or grated potatoes. Quebec is also known for its maple syrup. Children enjoy eating tourquettes, a natural candy made by pouring boiling maple syrup onto fresh snow.

13 • EDUCATION

Education in Canada is administered by each province individually. In all cases school attendance is compulsory from the age of about six to sixteen. Quebec has two parallel systems, one of which is specifically for French-speaking, Catholic students. The Acadian populations of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island are legally guaranteed access to French-language schools in predominantly French-speaking areas.

Most higher education in Canada is government-funded. Laval University in Quebec is Canada's oldest university, and McGill in Montreal is one of its most prestigious.

14 • CULTURAL HERITAGE

French Canadian radio stations must allot 75 percent of their programming to music by French recording artists. Folk and country music are especially popular with Acadians.

Leading contemporary French Canadian authors include playwright Michel Tremblay (1942–) and short-story writer Mavis Gallant (1922–). Perhaps the most renowned French Canadian author of the twentieth century was Gabrielle Roy (1909–83). Her first novel, The Tin Flute (1945), drew a stark portrait of Quebec's urban poor.

15 • EMPLOYMENT

Before the 1980s, management positions in Quebec tended to be dominated by English speakers. However, after the separatist Parti Québécois came to power in 1976, many English speakers left the province. Since then the gap between the two groups has narrowed substantially. Today the French Canadian middle class occupies a prominent position in industry, finance, and other key economic areas. French Canadians work in government and the professions and own small businesses. There is still a French-speaking working class in both unionized and nonunionized fields. Many Quebecois have performed hazardous work in the province's asbestos mines.

Before the twentieth century, the French-speaking Acadians in the Maritime provinces engaged in farming, fishing, and forestry. Today many engage in commercial farming and fishing.

16 • SPORTS

Hockey, the Canadian national sport, is popular among French Canadians. Every team in the National Hockey League (NHL) includes French Canadians. Quebec has had five professional teams since the NHL began in 1917—three in Montreal (Canadiens, 1917–present; Wanderers, 1917–18; and Maroons, 1924–38) and two in Quebec City (Bulldogs, 1919–20; and Nordiques, 1979–95). The Montreal Canadiens—popularly known as the "Habitants" or "Habs"—have won the Stanley Cup, which is awarded to League champions, more than twenty times.

17 • RECREATION

The Canadian Broadcasting System (CBC) broadcasts French-language news programs, dramas, films, and sports events. Quebec also has a large audience for English-language television and radio programming and magazines. Le Journal de Montréal and La Presse are the most widely read French-language newspapers.

Like Canadians of all backgrounds, French Canadians enjoy the beautiful scenery of their native land on vacation trips. Many families own small cottages in the country, which they visit on weekends and during vacations. Others travel to distant parts of the country for camping or other outdoor activities.

A time-honored pastime among French Canadian families in Quebec is "sugaring off." Early in the spring, they head for the woods to tap maple trees for sap that is then boiled down in cabines à sucre ("sugar shacks") to make maple syrup and maple sugar.

18 • CRAFTS AND HOBBIES

Traditional crafts among the Acadians include knitting and weaving. Colorful hooked rugs are a specialty.

19 • SOCIAL PROBLEMS

The social status of French Canadians has historically been lower than that of the English-speaking majority. Traditionally, they have not been as well educated and have suffered widespread discrimination.

A major concern of French Canadians today is the preservation of their culture and language against the threat of assimilation into English-speaking North America. In both Quebec and the Maritimes, the drain of resources caused by emigration to other parts of Canada and to the United States is also a concern.

20 • BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lemco, Jonathan. Turmoil in the Peaceable Kingdom: The Quebec Sovereignty Movement and Its Implications for Canada and the United States. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.

Richler, Mordecai. Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country. New York: Knopf, 1992.

Wartik, Nancy. The French Canadians. New York: Chelsea House, 1989.