Of the total population of Quebec, nearly half are descendants of the 10,000 original French settlers. Québécois constitute more than four-fifths of Canada’s total Francophone population. About one-tenth of Quebecers are Anglophones of British descent. Another tenth of the population is of neither French nor British descent and includes aboriginal peoples (Indian [First Nations] and Inuit), eastern Europeans, Portuguese, Greeks, Haitians, and Asians (notably from Southeast Asia). In 1974 French was made the official language of Quebec, and this was reaffirmed and strengthened in Bill 101, the Charter of the French Language, in 1977.
The aboriginal peoples that were Quebec’s first inhabitants are usually classified into three main linguistic …show more content…
An overwhelming majority of the population still claims to be Roman Catholic, while only a small proportion belongs to Protestant denominations. During the period of New France (1534–1763), Roman Catholicism was the official religion, and French Protestants were prevented from settling in the colony. After 1760 freedom of religious practice was authorized by the British government. In the early 19th century the French Canadian Catholic church gained recognition from the British authorities, and its leaders were permitted to increase the number of religious orders by the 1880s. The church built, funded, and administered all of the educational, social, and health institutions required by Quebec’s Roman Catholic population. During the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and early ’50s, a large number of Irish Catholics migrated to Canada, some of whom settled in Quebec. With the coming of other nationality groups before World I and after World War II—notably Italians, Germans, Poles, Portuguese, Filipinos, and Haitians—the proportion of Roman Catholics increased. As a result of the arrival of Jews in the early 20th century and after World War II and the influx of Asians and Africans since the 1970s, all of the world’s principal religious denominations are represented in Quebec. Not until the 1960s was the Catholic Church’s influence over the governance of the province substantially reduced. There is considerable historical debate as to whether that influence was positive or negative. Formal separation of church and state occurred in 1998 with the replacement of the dual Catholic and Protestant school systems with French- and English-language school systems. This step confirmed that religion is no longer a dominant social or political force in
The aboriginal peoples that were Quebec’s first inhabitants are usually classified into three main linguistic …show more content…
An overwhelming majority of the population still claims to be Roman Catholic, while only a small proportion belongs to Protestant denominations. During the period of New France (1534–1763), Roman Catholicism was the official religion, and French Protestants were prevented from settling in the colony. After 1760 freedom of religious practice was authorized by the British government. In the early 19th century the French Canadian Catholic church gained recognition from the British authorities, and its leaders were permitted to increase the number of religious orders by the 1880s. The church built, funded, and administered all of the educational, social, and health institutions required by Quebec’s Roman Catholic population. During the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and early ’50s, a large number of Irish Catholics migrated to Canada, some of whom settled in Quebec. With the coming of other nationality groups before World I and after World War II—notably Italians, Germans, Poles, Portuguese, Filipinos, and Haitians—the proportion of Roman Catholics increased. As a result of the arrival of Jews in the early 20th century and after World War II and the influx of Asians and Africans since the 1970s, all of the world’s principal religious denominations are represented in Quebec. Not until the 1960s was the Catholic Church’s influence over the governance of the province substantially reduced. There is considerable historical debate as to whether that influence was positive or negative. Formal separation of church and state occurred in 1998 with the replacement of the dual Catholic and Protestant school systems with French- and English-language school systems. This step confirmed that religion is no longer a dominant social or political force in