TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH LANGUAGE REPORT
May 16, 1991
l want to thank all the members of the Michener Awards Foundation for the scholarship which you have granted me. These four months have been most profitable and made it possible for me to put together a very real resource.
It is still difficult for me to measure the whole impact that these four months of study and reflection will have on my work, but l know already that they have allowed me to greatly improve my comprehension of this country. The knowledge that l have acquired during this period will be useful during the months and the years to come.
Those among you who have been involved in this field of journalism know at what point there is little time for reflection or study in depth of a subject. The study-leave fellowship of the Michener Foundation provides us with this possibility. It is in this area that the scholarship is particularly precious and even essential.
My project of a book on the limits of multiculturalism in a multi-racial Canada has developed – l will even say progressed – since l submitted my request to you a year ago. In this critical period that the country has experienced, l have had in my research to place a very great importance on the look at the whole question of the construction of a new concept of nation.
The plan of the book that l had submitted to you in May 1990 remains largely the same (see the plan of the book in the attached material) but the chapters on research into the Canadian or Quebec identity have taken on a much greater importance than in the initial project.
In these four months of study l have devoted about two months to reading of academic-type material (see the bibliography) and in doing this, the aim was to give me the most rigorous possible theoretical basis of analysis. In the last weeks of my study-leave, l have started to do research of the more journalistic type, such as interviews with the ‘players’ involved and the analysts of Quebec and Canadian society (see list of interviews). It is this part of the research that is still left for me to complete before undertaking the final writing of my book.
l have also had the opportunity of participating in two university conferences. From February 28 to March 2, 1991, l participated under the title of rapporteur, at St. John’s College at the University of Winnipeg at a conference called ‘Twenty Years of MultiCulturalism; Successes and Failures‘. On April 28, 1991, l presented a paper entitled ‘Can Quebec Nationalism Be An Obstacle to the Integration of Immigrants?‘ at the University of Quebec in Montreal, to the staff of a conference organized by Le Centre Maghrébin de recherche et d’information. The proceedings of these two gatherings will be published in the months to come (see the programs of the two meetings; text presented at the University of Quebec at Montreal and press clippings).
Thanks to the Michener Foundation fellowship, my book project is taking form. l wish to be able to have the writing finished for the summer of 1992 and l hope to be able to send you a copy in the fall of 1992. Between now and then, l will send you, when they are published, proceedings of the two conferences in which l have participated.
Once again, thanks so much to all of you.
Gisèle Lalande
Outremont, Quebec
May 16, 1991
The Michener-Deacon Fellowship is granted annually to a mature journalist for four months’ leave to allow the recipient time to complete a project that serves the public interest and enhances the journalist’s competence.