> > I was shocked at the unSamness of "stupid frenchies," but I really didn't realize it wasn't true until the "It was beautiful" after the explosion. Yes, I believed the explosion. But rejoicing in the death of a Quebec driver after such a long time is so unlike Sam.
>
> Of course, if you recall Sam's "Adventures with Sam and Darleen in Canada" from a little while back, he DID experience some anguish about French Canadian drivers.
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> Oh yeah, and "Je me souviens" means "I remember." They're remembering some heroic battle or something (essentially Quebec's equivalent of the Alamo, except it doesn't exist anymore).
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> Mar"You remember? Not for long, buster!"kus K.

Not quite. Though you're probably right that there are quite a few Quebecois who believe "I remember" stands as a continual reminder of the humiliating oppression of French-Canadians by various external forces -- i.e. by the British, by the rest of "English Canada", and by the "swamp-tide" of global American culture. A collectively shared memory of identity is essential to any healthy society, but *this* kind of interpretation strikes me as oppressively bitter in itself. And it is not in keeping with the motto's original spirit.

Quebec's current provincial motto, "Je me souviens," is known to have been conceived in ~1880 by Eugène-Étienne Taché, the architect of the governmental House of Parliament. He inscribed the motto above the main door in 1885, but it did not become official until 1939. It is not precisely certain what Taché meant by the statement. However, by placing it in the context of where he engraved the slogan, it's fairly obvious what he intended...

Taché chose to decorate the front façade of l'Hôtel du Parlement with a history of Quebec. He made bronzes representing Amerindians, explorers, missionaries, military figures and governors of Nouvelle France, as well as English figures such as General Wolfe, Dorchester, and Lord Elgin. Other decorative elements evoke many other events of the past, and Taché even set aside space for the heros of generations to come. Thus the motto placed above the door summarizes the intentions of the architect: "I remember... and will remember everything which this montage can reveal."

About 25 years later in 1908, Taché conceived of yet another motto to express the idea of multi-cultural Canadian identity and unity: "Née dans les lis, je grandis dans les roses." ("Born under the fleur-de-lis of France, I grew up with the English rose.") Even though this slogan has a separate origin from the Je me souviens slogan, it's clear that the architect of both the Parliament buildings, and of these mottos, never intended French Canadians to grow up despising their English heritage, nor English Canadians to ever neglect their equally French legacy.