Recent Articles
The Point: a Franco-American Heritage Site in Salem, Massachusetts
Traditional French Songs in Ontario
Fort William, Crossroad of a Fur Trading Empire
The Guigues Elementary School in Ottawa
Centre franco-ontarien de folklore (CFOF)
Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française (CRCCF)
Articles
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Étienne Brûlé, The First Franco-Ontarian
Étienne Brulé, despite being an occasional sidekick to Samuel de Champlain, is an obscure character in the history of New France. He left no writings and we know very little about his life. The accounts of life, as few as they may be, have nonetheless have undergone many changes in the last 400 years. Sometimes presented as a traitor and at other times a hero, people are fascinated by his scandals, his achievements, and the mystery surrounding his death. Today, he is celebrated as the first French settler to have lived in the territory that is now the province of Ontario. Some view him as the founder of the French-speaking community in Ontario.
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Maurice Richard, the Legendary Figure (part 2)
Maurice Richard (1921-2000), the hockey player, was much more than just another run-of-the-mill athlete. Nicknamed ‘The Rocket', the celebrated Number 9 of the Montreal Canadiens, has been written up in all kinds of media: magazine articles and scholarly texts, biographies and souvenir collections, short stories and folk-tales, novels and children's literature, poems and plays. Songs, comic books, sculptures, paintings, films, and television shows have also been dedicated to him. His portrait has appeared on articles of clothing and toys, as well as in all sorts of advertising. Public places have been named in his honour, for without a doubt, Maurice Richard is a Quebec legend.
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Parc national de l’île Bonaventure et du Rocher Percé
Perched at the easternmost tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, Percé, with its unique and awe-inspiring geology, has garnered centuries of attention. With a landscap ecomposed of sheer cliffs, a giant limestone monolith, red soil and a white cape, Percé is an awe-inspiring marriage of sea and mountains that stands out as one of Quebec's natural wonders. Percé's centuries-old human history was marked first and foremost by the fishing industry and then by the tourist trade. Furthermore, the area houses two of Canada's natural heritage crown jewels: breath taking Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island, home to the world's largest colony of gannets. Parc National de l'île-Bonaventure-et-du-rocher-Percé was founded in 1985 to ensure that these exceptional natural assets would be protected for future generations.
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Port-la-Joye – Fort Amherst: A Colonial Outpost in an Island Setting
Port-la-Joye – Fort Amherst National Historic Site of Canada is located near Rocky Point off Route 19 on the south shore of Queen’s County, Prince Edward Island. Visitors to the site will encounter the grass-covered earthworks of Fort Amherst, erected by the British in 1758, as well as an indication of the location of some of the structures associated with the earlier Port-la-Joye – a French colonial outpost and one of the Island’s first permanent European settlements. This includes the excavated foundation of the house belonging to Michel Haché dit Gallant and his wife, Anne Cormier, who were among the first Acadians to settle on Prince Edward Island.
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St. Lawrence Beluga
Since the 1980s, both individuals and communities of researchers have raised their voices in a cry of alarm, calling out for the protection of the St. Lawrence beluga. During this period, this loveable little white whale has become a global symbol of endangered wildlife. Today the beluga is the focus of numerous scientific studies, and although several measures have been put in place to protect it, the species is still in danger of extinction. This, however, has not always been the case. In 1920, for example, a bloody struggle was undertaken to reduce the number of belugas, because at that time, they were considered to be the enemy of the fishing industry. The whales were thought to devour large quantities of cod and salmon and other kinds of fish of commercial value. And so the role of the beluga in the life of the communities established along the St. Lawrence River has changed considerably over time, and what was once a natural resource to be exploited has become a heritage to be preserved.
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The Clergy and the Origins of Quebec Cinema: Fathers Albert Tessier and Maurice Proulx
A handful of priests were among the first people in Quebec to use a movie camera. They were also among the first to grasp the cultural significance of cinema. Two individuals are particularly significant in this regard: Fathers Albert Tessier and Maurice Proulx. Today they are widely recognized as pioneers of Quebec cinema arts. Since 2000, Quebec cinema has been experiencing renewed popularity. Nevertheless, the key role played by the clergy in the development of a cinematographic and cultural tradition before the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s has not been fully appreciated, even though they managed nothing less than a collective heritage acquisition of cinema during a period dominated by foreign productions. After initially opposing the cinema-considering it an "imported" invention capable of corrupting French-Canadian youth-the clergy gradually began to promote the showing of movies in parish halls, church basements, schools, colleges and convents. It came to see film as yet another tool for conveying Catholic values.
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The Origins of the Acadian Flag and National Holiday: the Memramcook and Miscouche Conventions
The ten Acadian national conventions—which took place between 1881 and 1937—still hold great significance today for people interested in Acadian cultural identity, history and heritage. These conventions are largely the foundation of what is modern Acadia today. The first two such events are of particular historical significance, since it was in Memramcook (1881) and then in Miscouche (1884), that the Acadians first asserted themselves as a people with a distinct national identity who were to be distinguished from the French Canadians. It was also then that they adopted national symbols which embodied their unique identity, including a patron saint, national holiday, flag and anthem. At the time, the Acadian elite hoped to unite the people around these symbols and rally the collective strength of the nation to engage in the struggle to obtain recognition of their fundamental cultural, political, social and language rights. These historic conventions were events that forged a major part of the Acadian cultural identity into what it is today.
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