After wwII....help??

Question

Can someone tell me when Who/What I listed below are? When did it occur and Why is it historically important? (benefit/degrade French/English relations)

• The Quiet Revolution

• The Official Languages Act (1969)

• Bill 101

• The Parti Quebecois

• The Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ)

• The October Crisis

• The War Measures Act (1970)

• The Quebec Referendum (1980)

• Signing the Constitution (1982)

• The Meech Lake Accord

• The Charlottetown Accord

• The Bloc Quebecois

• The Quebec Referendum (1995)

Answer 1

Quiet Revolution

The Quiet Revolution (French: Révolution tranquille) was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state (État-providence) and a re-alignment of Quebec's politics into federalist and separatist factions.

The provincial government took over the fields of health care and education, which were in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. It created ministries of Education and Health, expanded the public service, and made massive investments in the public education system and provincial infrastructure. The government allowed unionization of the civil service. It took measures to increase Québécois control over the province's economy and nationalized electricity production and distribution.

Origins

The Quiet Revolution began with the reforms enacted by the Liberal provincial government of Jean Lesage which was elected in the July 1960 provincial election. It is generally accepted to have ended before the October Crisis of 1970, but Quebec's society has continued to change dramatically since then.

Many events are said to have been precursors of the Quiet Revolution. Among them are the Asbestos miners' strike of 1949, the Maurice Richard Riot of 1955, the CBC strike of 1958-59, the signing of the Refus Global by les Automatistes and the publication of Les insolences du Frère Untel, which criticized the near absolute dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. RadioCanada, the newspaper Le Devoir and political journal Cité Libre are also credited with being intellectual forums for critics of the Duplessis regime.

The government of Quebec was controlled by the fiercely conservative Maurice Duplessis, leader of the Union Nationale. Electoral fraud and corruption were commonplace in Quebec. The Union Nationale had the support of most of the Roman Catholic Church clergy, which continued to run most of the province's schools and health care system. Parish priests sometimes quoted the Union Nationale slogan Le ciel est bleu, l'enfer est rouge (Heaven is blue, h**l is red — referring to the colours of the Union Nationale (blue) and the Liberals (red)). The Catholic Church was not unanimously with Duplessis. Some Catholic Unions and members of the clergy, including Montreal Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau, criticised Duplessis but the bulk of the small-town and rural clergy supported the premier.

Because of the small population of Quebec – and Canada as a whole – capital for investment was regularly in short supply. As such, the province's natural resources were mainly developed by foreign investors. As an example, iron ore was explored for and its mining developed by the U.S.-based Iron Ore Company of Canada. Until the second half of the 20th century, the majority of Francophone Quebec workers lived below the poverty line and did not join the executive ranks of the businesses of their own province. Msgr Felix Leclerc described this phenomenon, writing, "Our people are the waterboys of their own country."

In many ways, Duplessis's death in 1959, very soon followed by the sudden death of his successor Paul Sauvé, served as a trigger for the Quiet Revolution. Within a year of Duplessis's death, the Liberal party was elected with Jean Lesage at its head. The Liberals had campaigned under the slogans Maîtres chez nous (Masters of our own house), a phrase coined by Le Devoir editor Andre Laurendeau and Il faut que ça change (Things have to change).

Secularization

The Commission Parent was established in 1961 to study the education system and to bring forth recommendations, which eventually led to the adoption of several reforms, the most important of which was secularization of the education system. Although schools maintained their Catholic or Protestant character, in practice they became secular institutions. Other reforms included mandatory school attendance until the age of 16 and free instruction until the 11th grade.

Despite the Union Nationale's return to power in 1966, the reforms continued. In 1967, CEGEPs were created to offer post-secondary professional public education everywhere in the province. In 1968 the government created the Université du Québec network to achieve similar goals for university-level education.

With the diminishing role of the Church in society, which coincided with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the birthrate among Francophones began to drop significantly, with the rate of divorce rising. Proclamations against the use of birth control by the Church largely went ignored.

Economic reforms

Seeking a mandate for its most daring reform, the nationalisation of the province's electric companies under Hydro-Québec, the Liberal party called for a new election in 1962. The Liberal party was returned to power with an increased majority in the National Assembly of Quebec and within six months, René Lévesque, Minister of Natural Resources, enacted his plans for Hydro-Québec.

More public institutions were created to follow through with the desire to increase the province's economic autonomy. The public companies SIDBEC (iron and steel), SOQUEM (mining), REXFOR (forestry) and SOQUIP (petroleum) were created to exploit the province's abundant natural resources. The Société générale de financement (General financing corporation) was created in 1962 to encourage Quebecers to invest in their economic future and to increase the profitability of small companies. In 1963, in conjunction with the Canada Pension Plan the government of Canada authorized the province to create its own Régie des Rentes du Québec (Quebec Pension Plan); universal contributions came into effect in 1966. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec was created in 1965 to manage the considerable revenues generated by the RRQ and to provide the capital necessary for various projects in the public and private sectors.

A new labour code (Code du Travail) was adopted in 1964. It made unionising much easier and gave public employees the right to strike. It was during the same year that the Code Civil (Civil Code) was modified to recognise the legal equality of spouses. In case of divorce, the rules for administering the Divorce Act were retained using Quebec's old Community property matrimonial regime until 1980, when new legislation brought an automatic equal division of certain basic family assets between spouses.

Nationalism

While visiting Montreal for Expo 67, General Charles de Gaulle proclaimed Vive le Québec libre! in a speech at Montreal City Hall, which gave the Quebec independence movement further public credibility. In 1968, the sovereignist Parti Québécois was created, with René Lévesque as its leader. A small faction of Marxist separatists began terrorist actions under the name Front de Liberation du Quebec.

Official Languages Act (Canada)

The Official languages Act is a law adopted by the Parliament of Canada in 1969 and substantially amended in 1988. The law gives English and French equal status in the government of Canada. This makes them “official” languages, having preferred status in law over all other languages. Although the Official Languages Act is not the only piece of federal language law, it is the keystone legislation of Official Bilingualism in Canada.

Summary of main features

The Act[1] provides, among other things,

    * that Canadians have the right to receive services from federal departments and from Crown corporations in both official languages;

    * that Canadians will be able to be heard before federal courts in the official language of their choice;

    * that Parliament will adopt laws and to publish regulations in both official languages, and that both versions will be of equal legal weight;

    * that English and French will have equal status of languages of work within the federal public service within geographically-defined parts of the country that are designated bilingual (most notably in National Capital Region ,Montreal and New Brunswick), as well as in certain overseas government offices and in parts of the country where there is sufficient demand for services in both official languages. In remaining geographical areas, the language of work for federal public servants is French (in Quebec) and English (elsewhere);

The federal government has set in place regulations establishing linguistic categories (anglophone, francophone, bilingual) for some job functions within the public service. Departments and agencies of the federal government are required to fill these positions with individuals who are capable of serving the public in English, in French, or in both languages. Unilingual public servants are given incentives to learn the other official language, and the government provides language training and offers a “bilingualism bonus.”

Part VI of the Act mandates that English-speaking Canadians and French-speaking Canadians not be discriminated against based on ethnic origin or first language learned when it comes to employment opportunities and advancement. [2].

As well, the law created the Commissioner of Official Languages, an officer of Parliament charged with receiving complaints from the public, undertaking inquiries, and making recommendations regarding the status of the two official languages.

Section 32 of the Official Languages Act authorizes the Governor in Council (i.e. the federal cabinet) to issue regulations defining the geographic regions in which services will be offered by the federal government in the relevant minority language (English in Quebec and French elsewhere)[3].

This provides a legal definition for the otherwise vague requirement that services be provided in the minority official languages wherever there is "significant demand." The definition used in the reg

Answer 2

1. The 1960s in Quebec were marked by "the Quiet Revolution," a period of rapid social, political and cultural change.

2. This Act recognized English and French as the official languages of all federal institutions in Canada

3. In 1977, the Quebec government adopted bill 101, La charte de la langue française, which spells out the fundamental linguistic rights of all Quebecois.

4. A timeline of events from 1967 to 2003, outlining the history of the Parti Quebecois in Quebec's politics.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/st...

5. Timeline of events during the October Crisis in Canada in 1970, when the FLQ kidnapped two public officials and the War Measures Act was invoked.

http://canadaonline.about.com/cs/october...

6. In October 1970, armed forces were sent into Quebec to help the police and the federal government invoked the War Measures Act, temporarily suspending civil liberties.

http://canadaonline.about.com/cs/october...

7. Quebec referendum, called by the PARTI QUÉBÉCOIS (PQ) government, was held on May 20, 1980, to ask the people of Quebec for the power to negotiate a new agreement with the rest of Canada.

8. Constitution Act, 1982: Canada’s New Constitution.

The long road to the patriation of the Canadian constitution began with the formation of Canada itself with the passing of the British North America Act of 1867. This road ended in 1982 with the passing of the Constitution Act in the Canadian House of Commons and the official consent by Queen Elizabeth II. It is, however, the lead up to the signing that makes this event interesting as well as significant.

http://canuckhistory.wordpress.com/2007/...

9. & 10. The Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords

In 1987, a conference was called to try to gain Québec's approval of the Constitution. Québec, which protested the method of repatriating the Constitution Act, 1982, and wanted greater powers had systematically used the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights when passing legislation for several years. The conference succeeded in reaching an agreement and amendments were proposed. However, these amendments were not ratified by all the provinces in the mandatory three-year limit.

After much public consultation, another conference was called in Charlottetown in 1992. This also led to an agreement. The amendments were rejected in a public national referendum later that year, however.

http://www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/con...

11. Bloc Québécois Forms - A new political party is created to contest Canadian general elections on the exclusive issue of sovereignty for Quebec.

The creation of the Bloc Québécois was a direct result of the constitutional turmoil that gripped Canada in the 1980’s. Canada had adopted a new constitution in 1982, but the French-speaking province of Quebec refused to accept its legitimacy.

12. The 1995 Quebec referendum was the second, nearly identical referendum in the Canadian province of Quebec (see 1980 Quebec referendum) that put to public vote the political roles of Quebec and Canada. Specifically, the referendum asked whether Quebec should secede from Canada and become an independent state. One minor difference between the 1980 and the 1995 referendums was that whereas the first vote was on a proposal to negotiate something termed 'sovereignty-association', the second one was on 'sovereignty' along with an optional partnership offer. The referendum took place in Quebec on October 30, 1995, and the motion to pursue Quebec's independence was defeated by an extremely small margin, 50.58% "No" to 49.42% "Yes".