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 multi-culturalism 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
Multi-Culturalism; 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.