Lionel-Adolphe Groulx was a Roman Catholic priest, historian and Quebec nationalist

Quebec nationalism

Quebec nationalism is a nationalist movement in the Canadian province of Quebec .-1534–1774:Canada was first a french colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America...

.

Early life and ordination

Groulx was born at Chenaux, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the son of a farmer and lumberjack, and died in Vaudreuil, Quebec. After his seminary training and studies in Europe, he taught at Valleyfield College in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is a city in southwestern Quebec, in the Regional County Municipality of Beauharnois-Salaberry. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 39,672. Situated on an island in the Saint Lawrence River, it is bordered at its western end by Lake Saint Francis, with the Saint...

, and then the Université de Montréal

Université de Montréal

The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...

. In 1917 he co-founded a monthly journal called Action Française

L'Action nationale

L'Action nationale is a French-language monthly published in Quebec, Canada.The magazine publishes critical analysis of Quebec's linguistic, social, cultural and economic realities...

, becoming its editor in 1920.

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 Manitoba conflict

Manitoba Schools Question

The Manitoba Schools Question was a political crisis in the Canadian Province of Manitoba that occurred late in the 19th century, involving publicly funded separate schools for Roman Catholics and Protestants...

 exposed. Groulx believed that only through national education and the Quebec government could the economic and social inferiority of French Canadian

French Canadian

French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...

s be repaired. Groulx was quite successful promoting his brand of ultramontanism

Ultramontanism

Ultramontanism is a religious philosophy within the Roman Catholic community that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope...

.

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

Responsible government

Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy...

 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

Confederation

A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...

 [La Confederation canadienne, Montreal, Quebec 10/10, 1978 (1918)].

Lionel Groulx called the Canadian Confederation

Canadian Confederation

Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...

 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 coureurs de bois.

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.

Lionel Groulx's major writings include "Histoire de la Confédération", "Notre grande aventure", Histoire du Canada français (1951), and Notre maître le passé.

Writings on New France

In order to inculcate such pride in a nation he considered degraded by Conquest, he engaged in national myth-making, celebrating the days of New France as a golden age and elevating Dollard des Ormeaux

Adam Dollard des Ormeaux

Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, , also known as Adam Daulaut, Daulac, or simply as Dollard des Ormeaux, was a colonist and soldier of New France...

 into a legendary hero. He has been described as the first French Canadian historian to consider the period of the French regime superior to that of the English rule that followed it, evaluating the Conquest as a disaster rather than the common nineteenth century view of it as a blessing that saved Quebec from the atheist terror of the French Revolution.

He also developed a Quebec history curriculum that emphasized the heroism of New France

New France

New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...

, the challenge British Conquest posed to the survival of the "Canadiens", and how this challenge was met by lengthy political struggles for democratic rights. He particularly insisted, as had many before him, on the Quebec Act of 1774 as the official recognition of his nation's rights. He bore particular affection for the undertaking of Robert Baldwin

Robert Baldwin

Robert Baldwin was born at York . He, along with his political partner Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, led the first responsible ministry in Canada, regarded by some as the first truly Canadian government....

 and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine

Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine , 1st Baronet, KCMG was the first Canadian to become Prime Minister of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible government in Canada. He was born in Boucherville, Lower Canada in 1807...

, that in 1849 successfully restored the rights of the French language along with the obtention of responsible government, thus thwarting the assimilation plans of Lord Durham's policy of forced Union between Upper and Lower Canada. (See Lord Elgin)

Ligue d'action française

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 Action liberale nationale

Action libérale nationale

The Action libérale nationale was a short-lived provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. It was founded during the Great Depression and led by Paul Gouin. The ALN played an important role in the foundation of the Union Nationale.-Origin and beliefs:The party was created in 1934 by...

 (ALN) party, a new party that intellectuals close to Groulx and the defunct Action française appreciated. When Maurice Duplessis

Maurice Duplessis

Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis served as the 16th Premier of the Canadian province of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and 1944 to 1959. A founder and leader of the highly conservative Union Nationale party, he rose to power after exposing the misconduct and patronage of Liberal Premier Louis-Alexandre...

's victory became apparent, some instead accepted to cooperate with his government and its reforms. But Groulx, and with him a large number of intellectuals, chose to oppose him.

This led to their partial alliance with Liberal Party of Quebec Leader Adelard Godbout, who served as Premier from 1939 to 1944. They soon broke with him on account of his submission to the federal Liberals

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

. Yet in 1944 they opposed Duplessis again, this time placing their hopes in another new party, the Bloc populaire Canadien, led by André Laurendeau

André Laurendeau

Joseph-Edmond-André Laurendeau was a journalist, politician, co-chair of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and playwright in Quebec, Canada. He is usually referred to as André Laurendeau. He was active in Québécois life, in various spheres and capacities, for three decades...

. Future Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau

Jean Drapeau

Jean Drapeau, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as mayor of Montreal from 1954 to 1957 and 1960 to 1986...

 was part of this young party, which soon suffered the same fate as the previous third party, the ALN. After the 1948 election, the Bloc populaire Canadien disappeared.

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 (Universite de Montreal; see Ronald Rudin, Making History in Twentieth Century Quebec, Toronto University Press, 1997). Rudin underscores Groulx's founding role in scholarly History with the development of the Montréal History Department. Groulx founded the Institut d'histoire d'Amérique française in 1946, an institute located in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 devoted to the historical study of Quebec and of the French presence in the Americas and the publication of La revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française, still today arguably the main publication for professional historians in Quebec. His main intellectual contribution was to create a rapprochement between nationalism and the Catholic religion, blunting the hostility between them that had existed in the nineteenth century.

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 including Michel Chartrand

Michel Chartrand

Michel Chartrand was an union activist and leader from Quebec.Born in Outremont and trained as a typography and print worker, Chartrand become involved in union activism in the 1940s...

 and Camille Laurin

Camille Laurin

Camille Laurin was a psychiatrist and Parti Québécois politician in the province of Quebec, Canada. MNA member for the riding of Bourget, he is considered the father of Quebec's language law known informally as "Bill 101".-Biography:Born in Charlemagne, Quebec, Laurin obtained a degree in...

 although the many young intellectuals he influenced often did not share his conservative leanings, such as his personalist successor at the Université de Montréal, Guy Frégault

In November 2005, Michel Bock

Michel Bock

Michel Bock is a Canadian historian, who specializes in the history of Franco-Ontarian communities and cultures. His book Quand la nation débordait les frontières: les minorités françaises dans la pensée de Lionel Groulx was the winner of the 2005 Governor General's Award in the French language...

 won the Governor General’s Literary Award in the category of Non-fiction for the book Quand la nation débordait les frontières : les minorités françaises dans la pensée de Lionel Groulx (When the nation overflowed its borders: the French minorities in the thoughts of Lionel Groulx).

Collège Lionel-Groulx

Collège Lionel-Groulx

Collège Lionel-Groulx is a Canadian general and vocational college located in Sainte-Therese, Quebec. The college has about 5,200 full-time students and 2,000 continuing education students.-History:...

, Avenue Lionel Groulx, and Montreal Metro station Lionel-Groulx

Lionel-Groulx (Montreal Metro)

Lionel-Groulx is a station of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located in the Saint-Henri area of the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is a transfer station between the Green Line and Orange Line.The station...

 are named in his honor.

Delisle-Richler controversy

There are allegations of antisemitism made by Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

 and Esther Delisle

Esther Delisle

Esther Delisle Ph.D. is a French Canadian historian and author of historical works from Quebec.Born and raised in Quebec City, she completed her BA and MA in political science at Université Laval in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, and taught political theory at a Quebec CEGEP and worked as a researcher for...

against several pre-WW2 Quebec intellectuals, including Groulx.

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