The Quiet Revolution
Quebec secularises in a single decade
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Quebec is the French-speaking province of Canada, and until 1960 its civic life was in practice run by the Catholic Church. Church attendance in Quebec fell from among the highest in the Western world to among the lowest within roughly one generation — one of the fastest secularisations documented anywhere. The language law of 1977 reversed a long anglicisation. Referendums on separation in 1980 and 1995 were both defeated, the latter by under one percentage point, and the question shaped Canadian politics for thirty years.
For children
Quebec went within a few years from a society in which the church ran schools and hospitals to a modern state running them itself. French was made the sole official language of the province, and a movement for separation from Canada grew.
Sources
- Dickinson & Young, A Short History of Quebec (4. utg., 2008)
- Charte de la langue française (1977)
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