Story of Us and Quebec’s history course

Minorities can relate to politicians’ dissatisfaction with CBC docudrama, Jack Jedwab writes

The CBC TV release of the documentary Canada: The Story of Us has been criticized for overlooking important people and events in its effort to portray the country’s history.

Although the full series has yet to be aired, elected officials and educators in Quebec have called for the CBC to apologize for the docudrama, which they accuse of reducing 150 years of New France into a single episode in the 10-part series.

Quebec observers also maintain that the series’ depiction of such key French historic figures as Samuel de Champlain and Pierre-Esprit Radisson is offensive.

The purported lack of attention to history of Canada’s indigenous peoples led one Bloc Québécois MP to insist that the series is not “inclusive at all,” as it denies the contribution of two of three founding peoples of Canada.

In response, the CBC insists that leading authorities were consulted on the indigenous and Quebec content.

The dissatisfaction over omissions in the Story of Us is something to which many members of Quebec minorities can relate.

Ironically the concerns over inclusion being raised by certain Quebecers about the CBC series sound strikingly similar to the frustrations expressed in 2016 when a new high school history curriculum was introduced in Quebec.

Without minimizing the importance of the CBC docudrama, the province’s history curriculum is the basis for teaching nearly all high school students about how Quebec depicts its “story of us.”

When the Quebec government introduced the curriculum, leaders of Quebec minorities legitimately complained that indigenous peoples and anglophone and ethnic minorities were practically invisible.

Quebec officials reacted slowly. Eventually, the Ministry of Education expanded somewhat the indigenous content. But the modifications stopped there, leaving only a scant few references in the ministry-prescribed history textbooks and teaching materials to the province’s linguistic and ethnic minorities.

In defending the curriculum, officials said there was widespread consultation and noted that there was even an anglophone educator on the committee that approved the curriculum.

Respected Quebec history educators Christian Laville and Michele Dagenais have said that the history in the new curriculum focuses very narrowly on the French-Canadian nation, its heritage and its aspirations as interpreted by the authors of the curriculum.

Other Quebecers are not part of this story, they say. This despite the fact that there is ample material about diversity that could be used.

A good start would be the website of Quebec’s Ministry of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness, where several publications on the contribution of cultural communities to Quebec society are noted.

Jean-Marc Fournier, Quebec’s Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, called upon the CBC to explain how it supports a production whose title speaks of “us,” but leaves many people asking: “Where are we?”

That’s the same question many indigenous, minority linguistic and ethnocultural educators asked when they first saw the province’s new history curriculum. It’s still an open question. And yet to date those responsible for the curriculum have offered no explanation for why they chose not to reflect the province’s diversity.

Regrettably the conclusion to which many have come is that it’s simply not important enough.

For its part, the CBC is saying it will make some adjustments to the pedagogical guide that accompanies The Story of Us. It’s still not too late to make adjustments to the Quebec history program so that members of minorities who are frequently reminded we’re all Quebecers can feel that their contributions are truly reflected in our shared story.

Members of Quebec’s minority communities have not asked for an apology for being omitted from the province’s history curriculum. All they’ve wanted from the start is for provincial officials to apply the same standard they demand of the CBC when it comes to inclusion in Quebec’s story of us.