Graeme Hamilton - Quebec's English-speaking community is not typically seen as a downtrodden or neglected group. But in the same vein as previous campaigns to have history books include the overlooked contributions of women, aboriginals and African-Americans, a move is afoot to improve the place reserved for the province's anglos in the teaching of history.
Last week at Montreal's Concordia University, a seminar described as the first of its kind gathered academics, teachers and community leaders to address the question, "What place should anglophones have in Quebec's collective narrative?"
Underlying the discussion, sponsored in part by the Department of Canadian Heritage, was the concern that the history taught in Quebec classrooms is too often a black-and-white portrayal of English Conquest and dominance over French-Canadians.
A discussion document noted that despite a call in the 1990s to make the teaching of history in Quebec schools more representative of English-speaking communities, little has changed.
"Generally speaking, in terms of history teaching, many educators still seem to have a hard time viewing anglophones in Quebec's past in a positive light," the paper said.
Lorraine O'Donnell, a historian and coordinator of the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network, considers it a sign of progress that the day-long seminar was not overtaken by language politics.
"The fact is that talking about people's past and about how one belongs to a territory touches on emotion, so that can lead to politics on two sides," she said.
"It could be francophones who are potentially resistant to rewriting their past to include new groups. It could be anglophones who are resistant to acknowledging that the majority perspective is right." Her proposals for making the Quebec history curriculum more Angloinclusive included approaches used in the past to develop women's history and minority history.
Paul Zanazanian, a postdoctoral fellow at Universite Laval who helped organize the seminar, surveyed Quebec history teachers as part of his research. He spoke of "an overwhelming disregard of Anglo-Quebecois realities and experiences in Quebec history classrooms" and said the problem has its roots in deeply embedded memories of the 18th century Conquest of New France.
For example, his presentation to the seminar quoted a history teacher he had interviewed a few years ago named Rene: "I am very much aware, even today in 2008, that they won and we lost the war," Rene told him.
"And there is nothing we can do about that. They are the winners and we are the losers; we are dominated and they are dominant."
Another teacher said he tells his students that the message of post-Conquest Quebec history is that to the winner go the spoils.
Often missing from the narrative is the fact that the English-speaking community over the centuries was not a monolithic elite but a diverse group that included poor Irish labourers and Jewish shopkeepers. And the community's contribution was not limited to keeping French Canadians down; it helped build what Quebec is today.
Changing that "collective memory" is no easy task, Mr. Zanazanian said in an interview. "When it comes to shared historical memories of a group, it defines who they are. It's transmitted from their parents and their families. So you're really hitting a raw nerve if you try to alter the way a group member remembers the past."
Five years ago, Quebec's Liberal government was vilified when the Education Department proposed an updated history curriculum playing down French-English conflict. The education minister of the day was forced to intervene, ensuring that such events as the Conquest, the 1837-38 rebellions and the repatriation of the Constitution would be given greater prominence than initially proposed.
Jocelyn Letourneau, a Universite Laval history professor, had welcomed the initial proposal, saying it would break with the "pessimistic" view of history absorbed by young Quebecers. According to that version, Quebec was "a nation that sought to take its place in the theatre of history and was prevented from doing it by 'the other' and remains an incomplete nation today," he said at the time.
One of Mr. Zanazanian's recommendations is the creation of a resource guide offering an Anglo-Quebec "historical narrative" that teachers could draw on to flesh out the standard texts. He is confident that there would be many francophone teachers who would welcome such a tool. "You can't force people to change their memory, but you can offer them information," he said.
One question raised at the seminar was whether there is really such a thing as an Anglo-Quebec narrative. The phenomenon of defining one's community according to language spoken is relatively recent. For much of Quebec's history, religious and class differences were more important characteristics.
Simon Jolivet, a post-doctoral fellow in history at the University of Ottawa, also took part in the seminar, said the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s was a pivotal moment in dividing French and English.
"There were the French and then there were the others who spoke English. Everyone was grouped together as English, regardless of whether they came from Ireland, the United States or even Russia," he said.
Concordia University history professor Ronald Rudin said the very fact that last week's seminar was held is a sign of progress.
"To have a day in which people in a very comfortable way spoke in both languages about an issue that could easily make people uncomfortable was pretty remarkable," he said.
"At least in terms of the form if not in terms of the substance, things have changed greatly." He said people from both linguistic communities agree that English speakers deserve a place in the history of Quebec.
"When we teach Quebec history, we're talking about a territory and not an ethnic group," he said.