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| {{Short description|French term for Québécois people of full French-Canadian ancestry}} | |||
| ⚫ | {{POV|date= |
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| {{main|Old Stock Canadians}} | |||
| ⚫ | {{POV|date=May 2021}} | ||
| {{Italic title|reason=].}} | |||
| ] was a French explorer who established the earliest French settlements in what is now ].]] | |||
| The ] term '''''pure laine''''' ({{lit|pure wool|genuine}}, often translated as 'old stock' or 'dyed-in-the-wool'), refers to ] of full ] ancestry, meaning those descended from the original settlers of ] who arrived during the 17th and 18th centuries.<ref>{{Cite OED|pure laine}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/taking-stock-of-old-stock-canadians-stephen-harper-called-a-racist-after-remark-during-debate |title=Taking stock of 'old stock Canadians': Stephen Harper called a 'racist' after remark during debate |last=Hopper |first=Tristin |date=20 September 2015 |newspaper=National Post |location=Toronto |access-date=28 January 2017 |quote= "pure laine" (pure wool), a term to describe someone whose lineage is 100 per cent derived from New France settlers.}}</ref> Terms with a similar meaning include '''''de souche''''' (of the base of the tree, or root)<ref name="black nation">{{cite book | title=Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal | publisher=Between the Lines | year=2013 | location=Toronto | pages=255 | isbn=9781771130103}}</ref> and ''old stock'' as in "]".<ref>{{cite web | author=Tu Thanh Ha | title=Of wool and old stocks: When is a Québécois not a Québécois?|date=13 March 2015|access-date=2 December 2015|work=The Globe and Mail|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/of-wool-and-old-stocks-when-is-a-quebecois-not-a-quebecois/article23456248/}}</ref> | |||
| Many French-Canadians are able to trace their ancestry back to the original settlers from France—a number are descended from mixed marriages between the ], ] and ] settlers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Québec History|publisher=Québec City Tourism|access-date=2 December 2015|url=http://www.quebecregion.com/en/what-to-do/activities-attractions/history-heritage/british-and-irish/}}</ref> Unions sharing Roman Catholic faith were approved by the ] in ]. Many ] emigrants in the region, especially after 1763 when Quebec was ceded to Britain, were ultimately assimilated into Francophone culture. | |||
| The ] term '''pure laine''' (also incorrectly rendered in English as '''pur laine'''), literally meaning ''pure wool'' (and often interpreted as ''true blue'' or ''dyed-in-the-wool''), is a politically and culturally charged phrase referring to the people having original ancestery of the ]. Another similar term is '''de souche''' (roughly in English, ''old stock''). | |||
| The term is associated with ] and ], and its usage has been criticized for excluding immigrants from Québécois identity and culture.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Agnew |first=Vijay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hP-YY4mCimcC&pg=PA129 |title=Diaspora, Memory and Identity: A Search for Home |date=2005-01-01 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-9374-5 |language=en|page=129|quote=The term pure laine ('old stock', literally 'pure wool') is sometimes taken to be synonymous with Québécois, a term ... and belonging in recent years in Quebec; many find the idea and its linking with Québécois identity and culture to be racist}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Ox5AAAAMAAJ |title=Under the Gaze: Learning to be Black in White Society |date=1998 |publisher=Fernwood Pub. |isbn=978-1-895686-21-0 |language=en|page=51|quote=So we find that this new racism is produced as part of a general political move that aligns "race" with national and cultural ... a challenge that posits "ethnic groups" as interlopers—not the "pure laine"—who have no right to participate.}}</ref> | |||
| While many French-Canadians are able to trace their ancestry back to the original settlers of ], many are descended from mixed marriages between the ], the ] and ] settlers. When these shared the same Roman Catholic faith (some Indians converted), their unions were approved by the once-powerful Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. Another complicating factor was the settlement of many ] in the region, many of whom were ultimately assimilated into the francophone culture. Recently, Quebec has also enjoyed the benefits of a policy of immigration from French-speaking countries, which has added to, and changed, French-Canadian culture. | |||
| ==History== | |||
| While not inherently ] or offensive, the term can be used in such a way, or interpreted as being so. In a multicultural society, those who emphasise the entitlements of more established residents -- such as pure laine residents of Quebec -- could be seen as discriminating against newer arrivals. As in many societies, ] to Quebec has proved controversial, particularly as regards the presence of non-white ethnic minorities. | |||
| ] (''les filles du roi'') were among the first French women to settle in New France, becoming the ancestors of many claiming ''pure laine'' ancestry.]] | |||
| The genealogy of the ''pure laine'' – dating back to original settlers of ] in the seventeenth century – has been the subject of detailed research.<ref name="Landry_PhD_1992">{{cite thesis | title=Orphelines en France, pionnieres au Canada, les filles du Roi au XVIIe siecle | date=1992 | author=Landry, Yves |location=Montreal}}</ref><ref name="NA pop">{{cite book | title=A Population History of North America | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=15 August 2000 | pages=736 | author1=Haines, Michael R. | author2=Steckel, Richard H. |isbn=0521496667}}</ref> Prior to 1663 the ] recruited women to come to ], then known as ''Ville-Marie.''<ref name="Beaudoin_1996">{{Cite journal|last1=Beaudoin|first1=Marie-Louise|last2=Sévigny|first2=Jeannine|title=Les premières et les filles du roi à Ville-Marie|year=1996|publisher=Maison Saint-Gabriel|location=Montreal}}</ref>{{rp|8}} ] – following the advice of ], ] – sponsored about 800 female immigrants the ] or ''les filles du Roi'' to increase the number of marriages and therefore the population of New France.<ref name="Lanctot_1952">{{Cite journal|last=Lanctot|first=Gustave |title=Filles de joie ou filles du roi |year=1952 |publisher=Les Éditions Chantecler Ltée|location=Montreal}}</ref><ref name="Landry_1992">{{Cite journal|last=Landry|first=Yves|title=Orphelines en France pionnières au Canada: Les filles du roi au XVIIe siècle|year=1992|publisher=Leméac Éditeur Inc.|location=Montreal}}</ref> The Sisters of Notre-Dame facilitated their settling in Ville-Marie. In his 1992 PhD dissertation Yves Landry listed 770 of the approximately 800 by name.<ref name="Landry_PhD_1992"/> | |||
| From the seventeenth century into the twentieth century, French Canadians lived in relative geographic and linguistic isolation.<ref name="Human Genetics">{{cite journal |title=Human Genetics: Lessons from Quebec Populations |author=Scriver, Charles R. |journal=Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics |date=September 2001 |volume=2 |pages=69–101 |doi=10.1146/annurev.genom.2.1.69|pmid=11701644 }}</ref> Their "settlements, internal migrations, and natural population increase" were well-documented<ref name="Human Genetics" /> with "3 million records covering the whole province of Quebec over four centuries."<ref name="GENLIB_2015" /> By 2015 "extended pedigrees of up to 17 generations" were constructed from "a sample of present-day individuals."<ref name="GENLIB_2015" /> In an article published in 2001 in the ], McGill University professor Charles R. Scriver, observed there is "important evidence of social transmission of demographic behavior {{sic}} that contributed to effective family size and population structure."<ref name="Human Genetics" /> Founder populations, like the descendants of the early French immigrants, have an important role in the study of genetic diseases.<ref name="GENLIB_2015">{{cite journal | title=GENLIB: an R package for the analysis of genealogical data| journal=BMC Bioinformatics | date=May 2015 | volume=16 | issue=160 | doi=10.1186/s12859-015-0581-5 | pmid=25971991 | author1=Gauvin, H. | author2=Lefebvre, J. F. | author3=Moreau, C. | author4=Lavoie, E. M. | author5=Labuda, D. | author6=Vézina, H. | author7=Roy-Gagnon, M. | page=160 | pmc=4431039 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="heriditary_disorders">{{cite journal |title=Hereditary Disorders in the French Canadian Population of Québec. II. Contribution of Perche |journal=Human Biology |volume=66 |number=2 |date=April 1994 |pages=225–249 |author1=de Braekeleer, Marc |author2=Dao, To-Nga |publisher=Wayne State University Press |jstor=41464974|pmid=8194845 }}</ref> With an unusually high prevalence of ]s in the subpopulations of Quebec, they became the subject of human genetics research.<ref name="Human Genetics" /> Clusters of hereditary disorders in eastern Quebec in the twentieth century were traced to immigrants from ], France who arrived in the seventeenth century. | |||
| The use of ''pure laine'' is sometimes deprecated <ref name="Charest"> by the Canadian Press, ''The Gazette'', September 19, 2006, retrieved September 20, 2006</ref><ref name="Robitaille">"Les « pures laines » coupables ?" by Antoine Robitaille, ''La Presse'', September 19, 2006.</ref>. Regardless, English-language commentators ] of the '']'' <ref></ref> and ] of '']'' <ref></ref> continue to use the term. Mainstream French-language newspaper ], however, still uses both the terms ''pure laine'' and ''de souche''.<ref></ref> | |||
| Catholic priest and historian ] (1878–1967) was the key figure behind the rise of Quebec nationalism which stressed "territoriality and the use of the Quebec state" in the first half of the twentieth century. Jean Éthier-Blais claimed that among Quebec nationalist intellectuals the twentieth century was Groulx century — "le siècle de l'abbé Groulx."<ref name="Gélinas_1998" /> Groulx's best-known novel ''L'Appel de la race'', challenged the narrative surrounding French-English relationships in Quebec and revisited the history of Canada from a French Canadian perspective.<ref name="Appel Groulx">{{cite book | title=L'Appel de la race | publisher=L'Action française | author=Groulx, Lionel | year=1922 | location=Montréal | pages=278 | isbn=9782762138887}}</ref> In the 1920s following the publication of this novel, French Canadian nationalism "espoused the thought of Lionel Groulx", retained Catholicism and abandoned ]'s pan-Canadian perspective.<ref name="Gélinas_1998">{{cite conference | url=http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/docs/jews/Anti-SemitismandQuebecNationalists.html | title=Notes on Anti-Semitism Among Quebec Nationalists, 1920-1970: Methodological Failings, Distorted Conclusions | date=8 October 1998 | access-date=22 September 2015 | author=Gélinas, Xavier |conference=Studies in Quebec History: Seminar Series of the Department of History of Queen's University |location=Gatineau, Quebec}}</ref> In 1998, Xavier Gélinas, then-Curator at the ] (]: ''Musée canadien de l’histoire''), then known as the Canadian Museum of Civilization, presented a talk at a conference on Quebec history in which he argued that even in the 1980s Groulxism remained as an important ideology among Quebecois.<ref name="Gélinas_1998" /> Groulx's work is considered to be a contributing factor to the ] in 1960 even though the Quebec nationalism of the ''révolution tranquille'' was "a-religious and ethnically pluralistic."<ref name="Gélinas_1998" /> Expressions such as ''Canadiens français pure laine'', ''Québécois pure laine'' or ''révolution tranquille'' became powerful evocative symbols charged with ideology and identity.<ref name="memoires">{{cite book |title=Les mémoires québécoises|author1=Mathieu, Jacques |author2=Lacoursière, Jacques |isbn=2-7637-7229-3 |date=1991|publisher=Presses Université Laval }}</ref>{{rp|18}} Gélinas challenged the thesis of French Canadian historian ] whom he described as ''pure laine''. Delisle's controversial PhD political science dissertation and the book entitled '']'' based on her thesis,<ref name="Delisle_1993">{{cite book|title='']'' (''Antisémitisme et nationalisme d'extrême-droite dans la province de Québec 1929-1939'') |date=1993 |isbn=1-895854-01-6 |author=Delisle, Esther|publisher=R. Davies Pub. }}</ref><ref name="Delisle_1998">{{cite book |title=''Myths, Memories & Lies: Quebec's Intelligentsia and the Fascist Temptation, 1939-1960'' (''Essais sur l'imprégnation fasciste au Québec'') |date=1998 |isbn=1-55207-008-5 |author=Delisle, Esther |publisher=R. Davies Multimedia |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mythsmemoryliesq0000deli }}</ref> argued that Groulx and the newspaper '']'' were ] and supported ].<ref name="Gélinas_1998" /> | |||
| ] President ] has declared ''"There is no obsession for racial purity in Quebec, definitely not. The expression 'pure laine' is absolutely obsolete."'' <ref> by the Canadian Press, ''The Gazette'', September 19, 2006, retrieved September 20, 2006</ref>. | |||
| ==Controversy and Debate== | |||
| These feelings are best illustrated by some people reactions of a recent ] policy proposal debate.<ref>"Citizenship proposal has a price" by ], ''Toronto Star'', October 26, 2007.</ref>. On October 18, 2007, ], leader of the ] submitted a ] in the ] (Bill-195: Quebec Identity Act) in which it is proposed that any future citizenship in a separate Quebec be based on French language requirements, and that people would have to pass a French proficiency test to merit full citizenship. | |||
| The use of ''pure laine'' was brought to the forefront following its ] in the front-page article by ] in Canada's nationally distributed newspaper, '']'' on September 16, 2006, three days after the ] in Montreal.<ref name="Wong">{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060915.wxshooting-main16/BNStory/National/ |title=Get under the desk |first=Jan |last=Wong |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=September 16, 2006 |access-date=September 20, 2006 }}{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In her article entitled "Get under the desk," Wong argued that the frequent and historic use of the term ''pure laine'' revealed a uniquely Québécois brand of racism. "Elsewhere, to talk of racial 'purity' is repugnant. Not in Quebec." Furthermore, she suggested that the school shootings might have been related to the fact that the perpetrators were not old-stock French Québécois and they had been alienated by a Quebec society concerned with "racial purity."<ref name="Charest1">{{citation |url=http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=7e75959e-b11b-4a7f-865d-2ec86fc78f4d&k=53879 |title=Charest seeks Globe apology over notion culture a factor in school shootings |work=Canadian Press via The Gazette |date=September 19, 2006 |access-date=September 20, 2006}}</ref><ref name="Robitaille">{{citation |title=Les ''pures laines'' coupables? |author=Robitaille, Antoine |work=La Presse |date=September 19, 2006 |url=https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/118391/les-pures-laines-coupables |access-date=20 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="vastel">{{citation |title=Le racisme sournois du Globe & Mail |author=Vastel, Michel |work=L'actualité blog |date=18 September 2006}}</ref><ref name="Charest">{{citation|url=http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=7e75959e-b11b-4a7f-865d-2ec86fc78f4d&k=53879 |title=Charest seeks Globe apology over notion culture a factor in school shootings |work=Canadian Press via The Gazette |date=September 19, 2006 |access-date=September 20, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311075939/http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=7e75959e-b11b-4a7f-865d-2ec86fc78f4d&k=53879 |archive-date=March 11, 2007 }}</ref> | |||
| Wong's accusations were denounced by '']'' journalist, Barbara Kay, then-Premier ] and the ]. SSJB President ] declared "There is no obsession for racial purity in Quebec, definitely not. The expression '''pure laine''<nowiki/>' is absolutely obsolete."<ref name="Charest"/> | |||
| This proposed legislation was immediately discredited, having been criticized by many significant politician and commentator in the province (including former PQ Premier of Quebec ].) It can be noted however, that to obtain the citizenship many countries, including Canada, the immigrant has to learn one of the official languages. | |||
| However the term was still frequently used in both English and French media.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ottawa |first=The |url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=6b3b71de-f7b6-442b-83a8-4f6245f23404 |title=''Don't faint, I'm siding with a separatist'' |publisher=Canada.com |date=March 20, 2007 |access-date=2010-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025033605/http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=6b3b71de-f7b6-442b-83a8-4f6245f23404 |archive-date=October 25, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=68973176-3342-4164-b62c-ed7eb0beaace |title=''L'affaire Wong' becomes talk of Quebec'' |publisher=Canada.com |date=September 23, 2006 |access-date=2010-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025040555/http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=68973176-3342-4164-b62c-ed7eb0beaace |archive-date=October 25, 2012 }}</ref><ref></ref> And in 2007, the ] included the recommendation that the use of the expression "''Québécois de souche''" be ended and replaced with the term "Quebecers of French-Canadian origin."<ref name="CBC 2008">{{cite news | url=https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.718919 | title=Leaked accommodation commission report sparks fury in Quebec | work=CBC News | date=May 19, 2008 | access-date=20 September 2015 | location=Montreal}}</ref> The Commission investigated ] of immigrants into Quebec society. | |||
| According to David Austin, author of ''Fear of a Black Nation'' (2013), which was based on Austin's two decades of inquiry including interviews and international archival research,<ref name="black nation" /> | |||
| {{blockquote|Québecois has conventionally been used to signify the descendants of Québec settlers from France, the majority habitants of the province, who are otherwise referred to as ''pure laine'' (pure wool) or Québécois ''de souche'' (of the base of the tree, or root). However, the changing face of Québec's increasingly diverse population challenges the privileged place of those French descendants and calls for a more inclusive notion of what it means to be Québécois or a Quebecer.}} | |||
| ==Similar terms in English== | |||
| ===Old-stock Canadians=== | |||
| {{main|Old Stock Canadians}} | |||
| The ] equivalent to ''pure laine'' is "old stock", referring to the descendants of those original settlers of ] and ] who immigrated in the 17th and 18th centuries. Liberal MP ] used the term in 2014: "If I'm fishing with a friend on a magnificent lake in the Laurentians ... and I see a small boat in the distance ... usually it's two middle-aged old-stock French-Canadians or English-Canadians."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/harper-old-stock-canadians-debate-1.3233615 |title=Harper's 'old-stock Canadians' line is part deliberate strategy: pollster |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=18 September 2015 |website=CBC News |publisher=CBC |access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| Nonetheless, it shows the importance that hardline separatists and ideologues put upon having qualities not unlike those of the mythical '''''pur-laine''''' | |||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
| {{reflist}} | {{reflist}} | ||
| ==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
| *Taras Grescoe. ''Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec''. Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2004. ISBN |
*Taras Grescoe. ''Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec''. Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2004. {{ISBN|1-55199-081-4}} | ||
| {{Wiktionary}} | |||
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| {{Hate in Canada}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 14:25, 11 September 2024
French term for Québécois people of full French-Canadian ancestry Main article: Old Stock Canadians | The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The French term pure laine (lit. 'pure wool' or 'genuine', often translated as 'old stock' or 'dyed-in-the-wool'), refers to Québécois people of full French Canadian ancestry, meaning those descended from the original settlers of New France who arrived during the 17th and 18th centuries. Terms with a similar meaning include de souche (of the base of the tree, or root) and old stock as in "Old Stock Canadians".
Many French-Canadians are able to trace their ancestry back to the original settlers from France—a number are descended from mixed marriages between the French, Scottish and Irish settlers. Unions sharing Roman Catholic faith were approved by the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. Many English emigrants in the region, especially after 1763 when Quebec was ceded to Britain, were ultimately assimilated into Francophone culture.
The term is associated with nativism and ethnic nationalism in Quebec, and its usage has been criticized for excluding immigrants from Québécois identity and culture.
History
The genealogy of the pure laine – dating back to original settlers of New France in the seventeenth century – has been the subject of detailed research. Prior to 1663 the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal recruited women to come to Montreal, then known as Ville-Marie. King Louis XIV – following the advice of Jean Talon, Intendant of New France – sponsored about 800 female immigrants the King's Daughters or les filles du Roi to increase the number of marriages and therefore the population of New France. The Sisters of Notre-Dame facilitated their settling in Ville-Marie. In his 1992 PhD dissertation Yves Landry listed 770 of the approximately 800 by name.
From the seventeenth century into the twentieth century, French Canadians lived in relative geographic and linguistic isolation. Their "settlements, internal migrations, and natural population increase" were well-documented with "3 million records covering the whole province of Quebec over four centuries." By 2015 "extended pedigrees of up to 17 generations" were constructed from "a sample of present-day individuals." In an article published in 2001 in the Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, McGill University professor Charles R. Scriver, observed there is "important evidence of social transmission of demographic behavior [sic] that contributed to effective family size and population structure." Founder populations, like the descendants of the early French immigrants, have an important role in the study of genetic diseases. With an unusually high prevalence of genetic disorders in the subpopulations of Quebec, they became the subject of human genetics research. Clusters of hereditary disorders in eastern Quebec in the twentieth century were traced to immigrants from Perche, France who arrived in the seventeenth century.
Catholic priest and historian Lionel Groulx (1878–1967) was the key figure behind the rise of Quebec nationalism which stressed "territoriality and the use of the Quebec state" in the first half of the twentieth century. Jean Éthier-Blais claimed that among Quebec nationalist intellectuals the twentieth century was Groulx century — "le siècle de l'abbé Groulx." Groulx's best-known novel L'Appel de la race, challenged the narrative surrounding French-English relationships in Quebec and revisited the history of Canada from a French Canadian perspective. In the 1920s following the publication of this novel, French Canadian nationalism "espoused the thought of Lionel Groulx", retained Catholicism and abandoned Henri Bourassa's pan-Canadian perspective. In 1998, Xavier Gélinas, then-Curator at the Canadian Museum of History (French: Musée canadien de l’histoire), then known as the Canadian Museum of Civilization, presented a talk at a conference on Quebec history in which he argued that even in the 1980s Groulxism remained as an important ideology among Quebecois. Groulx's work is considered to be a contributing factor to the Quiet Revolution in 1960 even though the Quebec nationalism of the révolution tranquille was "a-religious and ethnically pluralistic." Expressions such as Canadiens français pure laine, Québécois pure laine or révolution tranquille became powerful evocative symbols charged with ideology and identity. Gélinas challenged the thesis of French Canadian historian Esther Delisle whom he described as pure laine. Delisle's controversial PhD political science dissertation and the book entitled The Traitor and the Jew based on her thesis, argued that Groulx and the newspaper Le Devoir were antisemitic and supported fascism.
Controversy and Debate
The use of pure laine was brought to the forefront following its controversial usage in the front-page article by Jan Wong in Canada's nationally distributed newspaper, The Globe and Mail on September 16, 2006, three days after the shooting at Dawson College in Montreal. In her article entitled "Get under the desk," Wong argued that the frequent and historic use of the term pure laine revealed a uniquely Québécois brand of racism. "Elsewhere, to talk of racial 'purity' is repugnant. Not in Quebec." Furthermore, she suggested that the school shootings might have been related to the fact that the perpetrators were not old-stock French Québécois and they had been alienated by a Quebec society concerned with "racial purity."
Wong's accusations were denounced by National Post journalist, Barbara Kay, then-Premier Jean Charest and the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste (SSJB). SSJB President Jean Dorion declared "There is no obsession for racial purity in Quebec, definitely not. The expression 'pure laine' is absolutely obsolete."
However the term was still frequently used in both English and French media. And in 2007, the Taylor-Bouchard Commission included the recommendation that the use of the expression "Québécois de souche" be ended and replaced with the term "Quebecers of French-Canadian origin." The Commission investigated reasonable accommodation of immigrants into Quebec society.
According to David Austin, author of Fear of a Black Nation (2013), which was based on Austin's two decades of inquiry including interviews and international archival research,
Québecois has conventionally been used to signify the descendants of Québec settlers from France, the majority habitants of the province, who are otherwise referred to as pure laine (pure wool) or Québécois de souche (of the base of the tree, or root). However, the changing face of Québec's increasingly diverse population challenges the privileged place of those French descendants and calls for a more inclusive notion of what it means to be Québécois or a Quebecer.
Similar terms in English
Old-stock Canadians
Main article: Old Stock CanadiansThe English-Canadian equivalent to pure laine is "old stock", referring to the descendants of those original settlers of British Canada and French Canada who immigrated in the 17th and 18th centuries. Liberal MP Stéphane Dion used the term in 2014: "If I'm fishing with a friend on a magnificent lake in the Laurentians ... and I see a small boat in the distance ... usually it's two middle-aged old-stock French-Canadians or English-Canadians."
See also
References
- "pure laine". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- Hopper, Tristin (20 September 2015). "Taking stock of 'old stock Canadians': Stephen Harper called a 'racist' after remark during debate". National Post. Toronto. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
"pure laine" (pure wool), a term to describe someone whose lineage is 100 per cent derived from New France settlers.
- ^ Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal. Toronto: Between the Lines. 2013. p. 255. ISBN 9781771130103.
- Tu Thanh Ha (13 March 2015). "Of wool and old stocks: When is a Québécois not a Québécois?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- "Québec History". Québec City Tourism. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- Agnew, Vijay (2005-01-01). Diaspora, Memory and Identity: A Search for Home. University of Toronto Press. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-8020-9374-5.
The term pure laine ('old stock', literally 'pure wool') is sometimes taken to be synonymous with Québécois, a term ... and belonging in recent years in Quebec; many find the idea and its linking with Québécois identity and culture to be racist
- Kelly, Jennifer (1998). Under the Gaze: Learning to be Black in White Society. Fernwood Pub. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-895686-21-0.
So we find that this new racism is produced as part of a general political move that aligns "race" with national and cultural ... a challenge that posits "ethnic groups" as interlopers—not the "pure laine"—who have no right to participate.
- ^ Landry, Yves (1992). Orphelines en France, pionnieres au Canada, les filles du Roi au XVIIe siecle (Thesis). Montreal.
- Haines, Michael R.; Steckel, Richard H. (15 August 2000). A Population History of North America. Cambridge University Press. p. 736. ISBN 0521496667.
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Further reading
- Taras Grescoe. Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec. Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2004. ISBN 1-55199-081-4