Lionel Groulx
Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada | |
---|---|
Died | May 23, 1967 Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada | (aged 89)
Nationality | Canadian |
Alma mater | Sainte-Thérèse Seminary (BA) Saint-Sulpice Seminary (Montreal) (Theological studies) Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (PhD, ThD) University of Fribourg (Literature studies) Université Laval (MA) Université de Montréal (Litt.D) |
Motto | Misericordia Domini in æternum cantabo (Ps 88) |
Lionel Groulx (French:
Biography
Early life and ordination
Lionel Groulx, né Joseph Adolphe Lyonel Groulx, was the son of Léon Groulx (1837–1878), a farmer, a lumberjack and direct descendant
He was ordained to the priesthood on 28 June 1903.[3]
Study of Confederation
Groulx was one of the first Quebec historians to study Confederation: he insisted on its recognition of Quebec rights and minority rights, although he believed a combination of corrupt political parties and French Canadian minority status in the Dominion had failed to deliver on those promises, as the
His main focus was to restore Quebeckers' pride in their identity by knowledge of history, both the heroic acts of New France and the French Canadian and self-government rights obtained through a succession of important political victories: 1774, the Quebec Act recognized the rights of the Quebec province and its people with respect to French law, Catholic religion and the French language; in 1848, responsible government was finally obtained after decades of struggle, along with the rights of the French language; in 1867, the autonomy of the province of Quebec was restored as Lower Canada was an essential partner in the creation of a new dominion through confederation.[4]
Lionel Groulx called the Canadian Confederation of 1867 a failure and espoused the theory that French Canada's only hope for survival was to bolster a French State and a Roman Catholic Quebec as the means to emancipate the nation and a bulwark against English power. He believed the powers of the provincial government of Quebec could and should be used, within Confederation, to better the lot of the French Canadian nation, economically, socially, culturally and linguistically.
His curriculum and writings de-emphasized or ignored conflicts between the clergy and those who were struggling for democratic rights, and de-emphasized any conflicts between the "habitants" or peasant class and the French-Canadian elites. He preferred the settled habitants to the more adventurous and, in his view, licentious
In 1928, the Université de Montréal insisted that Groulx sign a paper saying that he would respect Confederation and English-Canadian sensibilities as a condition of receiving a respectable salary for his teaching work. He would not sign, but finally agreed to a condition that he would limit himself to historical studies; he resigned from the editorship of L'action canadienne-française soon after, and the magazine ceased publication at the end of the year.[6]
Lionel Groulx's major writings include the novel L'Appel de la race (1922); Histoire de la Confédération; Notre grande aventure (1958); Histoire du Canada français (1951), and Notre maître le passé.
Writings on New France
In order to inculcate pride in a nation he considered degraded by Conquest, Groulx engaged in national myth-making, celebrating the days of New France as a golden age and elevating
He also developed a Quebec history curriculum that glorified
Ligue d'action française
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Conservatism in Canada |
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At the Ligue d'Action française, Groulx and his colleagues hoped to inspire revival of the French language and French Canadian culture, but also to create a think tank and public space of reflection, so that the French Canadian nation's elites would find ways to remedy French Canada's underdevelopment and exclusion from big business.
Some collaborators of the review thus actively participated in the development of the HEC business school. Others were actively involved in the promotion of the Church's Social doctrine, an official Catholic answer to socio-economic distress that was meant to prevent the appeal of socialism and improve capitalism.
Groulx's conservative Catholicism was not very appreciative of other religions, although he also acknowledged that racism was not Christian, and he maintained that Quebec should aspire to be a model society by Christian standards, including intense missionary action. [Le Canada français missionnaire, Montreal, Fides, 1962].
Catholic social teaching
This Catholic social doctrine later became part of the 1930s
During the
Groulx and other intellectuals settled into a partial alliance with
Economic protectionism
Groulx was later remembered both for his strong case in favour of economic reconquest of Quebec by French Canadians, defense of the French language, and pioneer work as the first chair of Canadian history in Quebec (Université de Montréal; see Ronald Rudin, Making History in Twentieth Century Quebec, University of Toronto Press, 1997.
Later influence
Through his writings and teaching at the university and his association with the intellectual elite of Quebec, he had a profound influence on many people (such as Michel Chartrand and Camille Laurin). However, many of the young intellectuals he influenced often did not share his conservative ideology (such as his successor at the University of Montreal). Groulx's traditionalist, religious form of Québécois nationalism, known as clerico-nationalism, influenced Quebec society into the 1950s.
In June 2020, in the wake of global anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests, a petition was launched by Montréalers asking the city government to rename the Lionel-Groulx métro station after the African-Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.[9] Peterson grew up in the Little Burgundy area of Montreal where the station is located.[10] A counter petition also circulated, asking Montreal to retain the name, claiming that deleting Groulx's name from the station would be “a consent to amnesia and a reshaping of our past.” The City kept the status quo, assserting that a moratorium on changing station names had been in place since 2006.[11]
Accusations of anti-Semitism
Accusations of anti-Semitism were made by Canadian author Mordecai Richler and French-Canadian historian Esther Delisle in the 1990s against several pre-World War II Quebec intellectuals, including Groulx.[12]
In 1933, writing under the pseudonym Jacques Brassier in the article "So That We May Live..." [Pour qu'on vive..."], published in the journal L'Action nationale [National Action], Groulx states his opposition to anti-Semitism. In the section "The Jewish Problem" [Le problème juif], he states, "Antisemitism is not only not a Christian solution [to the Jewish problem], it is a solution that is negative and ridiculous." ["L'antisémitisme, non seulement n'est pas une solution chrétienne; c'est une solution négative et niaise"] (trans. Robinson 101).[13] Apologists for Groulx have cited that quotation.[14] However, the following sentence of the article has Groulx go on to give his unequivocal support to the boycott of Jewish businesses in Quebec: "To resolve the Jewish problem, it would suffice if French Canadians regained their common sense. There is no need of extraordinary legislation; no need for violence of any sort. We will only give our people the order, 'Do not buy from the Jews'.... And if by some miracle our order were understood and complied with, then in six months the Jewish problem would be solved, not merely in Montréal but from one end of the province to the other" (trans. Robinson 101-102). Thus, put into context, although he stops short of advocating the legislation of outright anti-Semitic policies and supporting violence against Jews, Groulx supported systemic anti-Semitism by giving French Canadians the "order" to boycott Jewish businesses to solve the "Jewish problem" in Quebec.
Citing Groulx's assertion that anti-Semitism is "negative and ridiculous," some scholars have downplayed allegations of anti-Semitism against Groulx. In a speech given in 1999, the historian Xavier Gélinas argues that Groulx did not support "racial anti-Semitism," which "confronts Jews for being Jews." While acknowledging the problematic and anti-Semitic nature of Groulx's rhetoric, Gélinas claims that it represents "cultural anti-Semitism" that singles out Jews because of the "principles and customs that they are deemed, rightly or wrongly, to believe in and to practice" and are "opposed to the traditional nationalist vision of Quebec."[15]
References
- ^ "Canadian Encyclopedia". Archived from the original on 11 August 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
- ^ "L. Groulx, Notre maître, le passé, 1924, pp. 71-76". Archived from the original on 10 March 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ^ "Groulx Lionel". agora.qc.ca (in French). Retrieved 28 January 2023.
- ^ La Confédération canadienne, Montréal, Quebec 10/10, 1978 (1918)
- ^ "Lionel Groulx". Olympedia. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
- ^ Mason Wade, The French-Canadians 1760–1967, vol. 2, p. 894.
- ^ Olivar Asselin, ..L'Oeuvre de l'abbé Groulx.., 1929.
- ^ Lionel Groulx, Constantes de vie (Montréal: Fides, 1967), p. 111 and Éric Amyot, Le Québec entre Pétain et de Gaulle: Vichy, la France libre et les Canadiens Français, p. 173 (Editions Fides, 1999)
- ^ Mignacca, Franca (20 June 2020). "Montrealers call for Lionel-Groulx Metro station to be renamed after Oscar Peterson". CBC News. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
- ^ Farmer, Bonnie (2016). Oscar Lives Next Door: A Story Inspired by Oscar Peterson's Childhood. Owlkids Books Inc.
- ^ Schwartz, Susan (1 September 2020). ""Petition pushes on to rename métro station in honour of Oscar Peterson"". The Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
- ISSN 1916-0925.
- ^ Brassier, Jacques (April 1933). "Pour qu'on vive..." L'Action Nationale: 238–247 – via BANQ.
- ^ Caldwell, Gary. "The Sins of the Abbé Groulx". Literary Review of Canada. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ Gélinas, Xavier (1998). "Notes on Anti-Semitism Among Quebec Nationalists, 1920-1970: Methodological Failings, Distorted Conclusions".
Further reading
- Beaudreau, Sylvie. "Déconstruire le rêve de nation: Lionel Groulx et la Révolution tranquille." Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française 56#1 (2002): 29–61.
- Courtois, Charles-Philippe. Lionel Groulx : L'intellectuel le plus influent de l'histoire du Québec. Montréal, Éditions de l'Homme, 2017, 528 p.
- Frégault, Guy. Lionel Groulx tel qu’en lui-même (Leméac, 1978)
- Gagnon, Serge. Quebec and Its Historians: 1840 To 1920 (1981)
- Senese, Phyllis M. "Catholique d'abord: Catholicism and Nationalism in the Thought of Lionel Groulx." Canadian Historical Review 60#2 (1979): 154–177.
Primary sources
- Trofimenkoff, Susan Mann, ed. Abbé Groulx: Variations on a Nationalist Theme (1973), 256pp; 15pp introduction followed by long extracts in English translation
External links
- Bibliography on Lionel Groulx
- Groulx ancestral-historical memoirs, family Grou
- Several texts on or about Groulx including a substantial text on the historiographical debate on the charges of Anti-Semitism made against Lionel Groulx
- Notes on Anti-Semitism Among Quebec Nationalists, 1920-1970. Methodological Failings. Distorted Conclusions