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Conflict and

(Ethno-Linguistic) Diversity:

Canada/Québec

Philippe Couton, Ann Denis, Leslie Laczko, Linda Pietrantonio
and Joseph-Yvon Thériault 1

INTRODUCTION Québec for a special status if not full inde-
pendence – hence our references to
This chapter presents a case study on ‘Canada/Québec’. The intention of this chapter
‘Conflict and (Ethno-Linguistic) Diversity: is to provide a selective overview, not an
3
Canada/Québec’. It consists of five interre- exhaustive analysis. The emphases reflect
lated presentations initially prepared for a the authors’ respective areas of specialization
roundtable by members of the Department of within ethnic relations, as well as the fre-
2
Sociology at the University of Ottawa, quent separation, in both government institu-
which hosted the International Sociological tions and the academy, of studies of First
Association Research Council conference in Nations from those of the two colonizers (the
May 2004. The objective of the roundtable French and the British) and subsequent
was to provide a perspective on Canada’s immigrants. This separation is, no doubt,
ethnic and linguistic diversity, and to stimu- partly due to the differing legal relations of
late further thinking about these issues in a these collectivities with the State and to the
comparative and international context. tendency for it to be mainly anthropologists
Canada’s ethnic structure is complex and who have studied the First Nations. The
multidimensional, combining as it does vari- emphases in this chapter are also informed,
ous axes of differentiation that intersect and we realize, by our location in a bilingual
overlap. In rough historical order, these are (French and English) university, in Canada’s
the cleavage between Aboriginal peoples and capital, which is located just over the border
the dominant society(ies), the historic from Québec, and whose intellectual points
French-English dualism which has left two of reference are in both English and French
distinct settler societies, waves of almost speaking universities, in Québec and in the
continuous immigration, and claims by rest of Canada. Part of the University of