By Marc-André Gagnon
Spreading across North America in the mid-19th century, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day was established by French Canadian nationalist elites to signify the existence of a distinct French and Catholic society through the use of public demonstrations. The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, a patriotic association founded in Montreal in 1842, mobilized resources and used the celebration as a moment of reflection on the unique challenges posed by an anglo-dominant society in an effort to remind French Canadians of their duty to maintain their language, traditions, and faith.
By the 1960s, however, this long-time symbol of the solidarity among members of the “French-Canadian family” started to be contested. With the changing nature of French Canadian nationalism, the rise of the sovereigntist movement in Quebec, and the greater secularization of society, organizers were forced to rethink the celebration. In addition, new actors, in particular the Quebec provincial government, intervened through its funding of the event – with a major turning point being the election of Réné Lévesque’s Parti Québécois in November 1976. Seeking to build support for its vision of civic nationalism, Lévesque’s government issued a decree in May 1977 stating that the traditional Saint-Jean Baptiste Day should be also known as Quebec’s Fête nationale. His government also decided to take a proactive stance in institutionalizing the holiday’s organization and funding through the creation of the Comité organisateur de la fête nationale and the Programme d’aide technique et financière for local events. Once based on private and community initiatives, especially those of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Societies, June 24 celebrations became instrumental at a time when the Quebec nationalist movement was a major focal point of Canada’s political life.
The historiography of Saint Jean Baptiste Day has tended to use cultural analysis to trace the contours of the PQ government’s efforts to build a new tradition around these celebrations[1].Based in part on new archival material from the Mouvement national des Québécois fonds, National Assembly debates, and newspapers, my work explores the public policies around these celebrations. It provides a descriptive analysis of these policies, their consequences on the political debate, and ultimately their demise in 1984. It accounts for how various citizen groups and St-Jean Baptiste organizers participated in shaping these policies, especially after the 1977 celebrations.
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Back in April, Ontario’s minority Liberal government announced the return of the spring bear hunt, which had been eliminated in 1999. In doing so, the government cited “public safety and human-bear conflicts” as a primary motivation for the decision. This has led to a rather heated debate over the effectiveness of a hunt to curb these incidents – with hunters arguing it would be an effective form of wildlife management and opponents claiming that the hunt would not make a noticeable difference in the number of incidents between people and bears.
