Canada

CANADÀ. - Region of North America.

I. GEOGRAPHY

With this name, originally (16th century) limited to the lands along the St. Lawrence colonized by the French and held by them until 1763 (Treaty of Paris), is meant today the entire body of the territories of North America north of the 49th parallel and of the 5 Great Lakes, with the exclusion of Alaska alone.

The immense domain, covering an area little less than the whole of Europe, naturally embraces regions that are very different in the forms of the terrain, the climate and the aspects of the landscape, and yet are very vast. The western part, traversed by the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Ranges, high, rugged, with a climate varying according to altitude and still essentially a land of forests, contrasts with the central regions represented by the great midland plains, with a markedly continental climate, but favorable to cultivation. To the southeast are found the St. Lawrence basin, a lake district (where Canada reaches its lowest latitude) and the Atlantic territories, where the continental mass is articulated into peninsulas and islands, and where European colonization began. A place apart is occupied by the narrow coastal strip on the Pacific, with its rich island fringe, characterized by a maritime climate analogous to that of the British archipelago; the rest, comprising the boundless belt of ice-covered lands that crown the polar basin, is almost entirely depopulated, not so much because of its scant economic value as because of its climatic conditions.

The plant landscape, which in this last zone is reduced in substance to the tundra, gives way, farther south, to the forest that stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic over about 1/4 of Canada (at least 330 million hectares, an area equal by itself to more than 10 times that of Italy) and constitutes one of the country's greatest resources. Still farther south, in the interior zone poorer in rain, the forest is succeeded by the prairie, most fertile, today transformed into a magnificent grain-growing and livestock-raising district. Other conspicuous resources are represented by fishing (also in inland waters; 160,000 people are employed in it), by fur-bearing animals (for which Canada indeed enjoys a world primacy; to hunting, now in decline, artificial breeding has been added); and, above all, by the treasures of the subsoil, not only varied and abundant, but scattered in many places. For nickel, platinum and asbestos, Canada ranks first among world producers; gold, silver, cobalt, copper, radium, uranium, etc. are also extracted; if oil production is modest, the reserves of coal and iron are conspicuous, and those of water power are immense. It is no wonder, therefore, that Canada has seen, in the last century, a rapid development of industries, which, although very young, have already reached an enviable prosperity (in the first place those of timber, food, chemicals, etc.): alongside and perhaps even more than agricultural production, industrial production today makes Canada one of the richest regions of the world. Economic expansion has been favored, besides by the abundance of space, by the magnificent natural waterways at its disposal, by the roads, canals and railways (transcontinental), which could easily be built, and by the easy communications that the double maritime front allows Canada in its dealings with other countries.

The population, which is concentrated especially, as in the earliest times, in the southeastern provinces (St. Lawrence basin and Atlantic region), and which tends to spread toward the midland districts between Lake Winnipeg and the Rockies, where recent agricultural colonization is expanding, has more than doubled in the last fifty years (it was about 400,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the 19th century, and 5 million or slightly more at the beginning of the present one); nevertheless, with its 13,000,000 inhabitants (1947), it barely exceeds that of the urban nucleus of New York alone. Of these, barely 126,000, between Indians and Eskimos, represent the first masters of the continent; 3,500,000 descend from the French colonists who settled on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes; 6,100,000 are of English origin, grown in number especially in the 19th century; the rest are immigrants of various nationalities, headed by central-eastern Europeans (in 1941 citizens of Italian origin were reckoned at 112,625). More than half of this population lives in urban centers: of these one (Montréal) now exceeds a million, one (Toronto) is approaching it; and six others exceed 100,000 inhabitants (Winnipeg, Vancouver, Hamilton, Ottawa, Québec, Windsor).

Canada was a federation of 9 provinces and 2 territories, constituted in 1867 and recognized in 1926 as a dominion forming part of the British Commonwealth. By virtue of the agreement of 11 Dec. 1948, the island of Newfoundland (which constituted a separate dominion, on which since 1927 Labrador also depended), was constituted as a new province of the Canadian dominion. Legislative power belongs to a bicameral Parliament (a Senate of 102 members for life, chosen by the government, and a House of Commons or Chamber of Deputies, of 252 members elected for 5 years by direct general suffrage), while the king exercises executive power through the governor general and the government. The provinces then have, each, for local affairs, their own parliamentary government.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. CIVIL HISTORY

1. Under the French regime (1534-1763)

The discovery of the Canadian coastline was probably made in 1497 by two Venetians in the service of Henry VII of England, John and Sebastian Cabot, but they left no trace of their passage. In 1524 another Italian, the Florentine Giovanni Verrazzano, reached the Canadian coasts, but this time in the name of the King of France, Francis I, and he gave the name New France to the lands discovered. However, the true discoverer of C. was a French sailor, Captain Jacques Cartier, who was the first to take possession of it in the name of the King of France in the year 1534 (Gaspé, 24 July) and explored its interior (1535-36) as far as Québec (Stadacona) and Montréal (Hochelaga). From that time that land took the name C., from the Huron word Kanata: Great Country. The first attempt at colonization (1541-43), carried out by Cartier under the direction of François de Roberval, could not, because of the wars in which France was then engaged, be continued until 60 years later by Samuel de Champlain, who, in 1608, founded Québec and extended the discoveries and explorations of his illustrious predecessor. The struggle against the Iroquois and that against the English colonies of the seaboard, as well as the selfishness of the trading companies (Company of Rouen and of the Merchants, 1614-20; Company of Caen or of Montmorency, 1621-27; Company of the Hundred Associates, 1627-63), to which the king had entrusted the dominion of the country, which they administered by means of a governor, appointed on their presentation by the king and assisted by a kind of council, hindered the progress of the colony from its very beginning. Nevertheless, in 1663 a new era of prosperity dawned with the replacement of the companies' government by royal government, and the appointment of an intendant alongside the governor (the celebrated Talon was the first) and of a sovereign council, to which was added the wise policy of the French minister Colbert. Québec, Trois-Rivières (1634), Montréal (1642) and Frontenac (1672), today Kingston, became the most important centers of the colony, while travelers and missionaries extended the dominion and power of France. The European wars fatally diverted the attention of the mother country; so that England and its colonies of the Atlantic seaboard took advantage of the Seven Years' War (1756-63) to seize C. Québec capitulated on 18 Sept. 1759 and Montréal on 8 Sept. 1760, while Acadia (Nova Scotia), another province of New France, founded in 1605 at Port-Royal (today Annapolis, N. E.), had already been conquered in 1710. The Treaty of Paris of 19 Febr. 1763 sanctioned the definitive cession to England of C. and of Acadia together with Louisiana (the third and last province of New

France, founded on the Mississippi in 1699, whose western part had already been given to Spain in 1762 by secret convention). By the same treaty France lost two other possessions in the Atlantic: the islands of Newfoundland and of Cape Breton; of all of New France it retained nothing more than the islands of St. Pierre and of Miquelon.

2. Under the British regime (1763)

From that time the new English colony, estimated at 80,000 inhabitants, passed under an absolute regime. Moreover a royal proclamation of 7 Oct. 1763 endangered the nationality of the conquered country, replacing French laws with English ones and practically excluding Catholics from public offices by imposing the "test" oath. Fortunately the British authorities gradually softened their intolerance. The Quebec Act of 1774 restored the French laws and dispensed with the "test" oath. On the other hand the American Revolution (1774), which led to the declaration of independence of the United States (1776) and to the emigration to C. of the monarchists of this new Republic (about 15,000 settled in the province of Québec and mainly in that of Ontario between 1782 and 1785), no less than the unpopularity of the Legislative Council and the discontent of the Canadians with the Quebec Act that had instituted it, provoked in 1791 the creation of two constitutional governments, one for the province of Lower C. and of Québec (French), the other for that of Upper C. or of Ontario (English), each consisting of a governor, an elective Chamber and a Council appointed for life. Meanwhile, in order to stifle the French-Canadian nationality, the British Parliament decided, under the pressure of the fanatics and of the interested parties both of C. and of England, to unite the two provinces under a single governor. On 23 July 1840 it passed the Bill of Union which instituted a single government, composed of the governor, an Executive Council (chosen by the Crown), a Legislative Council first for life and then, from 1853, elective, and an elective Assembly. However the Bill failed in its anti-racial aim because the politicians of Québec joined with the reformers (liberals) of Ontario in demanding a responsible government, which in fact they obtained in 1849. From that time the other English colonies of North America, themselves also struggling for political independence, aimed at union with C. Thus two of the maritime provinces,

New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, decided to form a federation with the Canadian provinces of Québec and Ontario. London approved this federal pact, and on 1 July 1867 the four provinces were solemnly erected into a confederation under the official name of Dominion of C. with Ottawa as capital. Subsequently the federal government purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company the north-western territories, where, in 1870, it created the autonomous province of Manitoba. In 1871 British Columbia, a province of the Pacific seaboard, in turn entered the federation, followed soon after, in 1873, by Prince Edward Island. Following this, England believed the opportune moment had now come, in 1880, to annex to C. all the possessions of North America with the exception of Newfoundland. From these new annexations were born in 1905 the provinces of Alberta and of Saskatchewan, then, in 1912, the organized territories of Yukon and the three unorganized districts of the North West: Mackenzie, Franklin and Keewatin. In 1948 the island of Newfoundland pronounced in favor of union with C.

III. RELIGIOUS HISTORY

1. The antecedents (1534-1650)

Anthony and William the Breton, who are supposed to have been secular priests and chaplains of Jacques Cartier in 1535-36, are the first two ministers of worship known in the history of Canadian Christianity. Their immediate successors appeared in another part of New France, in Acadia, and only in 1605; at the time of the founding of Port-Royal, where the abbot Nicolas Aubray (d. 1605) was replaced in 1610 by Jacques Fléché (d. 1611), then by the Jesuits Ennemond Massé and Pierre Biard, who, in 1613, abandoned that house to found the missionary station of St. Saviour on Mount Desert Island. Unfortunately its destruction and that of Port-Royal, which occurred the same year, deprived Acadia of priests, just as it was already deprived of churches.

2. The mission (1615-18) and the apostolic vicariate (1658-74)

Fortunately Quebec, founded (1608) in the heart of Canada, offered greater security and stability. Thus in 1615, at the request of the founder Champlain, sent by the Pope, four Franciscans arrived there from the province of Paris: Fr. Denis Jamet, superior, Joseph Le Coron, Jean Dolbeau and the lay brother Pacifique Duplessis. From then on, thanks to the zeal of these pioneers and that of the Jesuits, called to their aid in 1625, Catholicism was able to establish itself in Canada. In 1629 the conquest of Quebec by the English forced the missionaries to leave the mission.

In 1632, the year Canada was restored to France, the Company of the Hundred Associates, which administered the colony, permitted only the Jesuits to return, but the Franciscans continued in Acadia, under the governorship of Lieutenant La Tour, the ministry begun in 1619, while Fr. Joseph of Paris, the famous Gray Eminence, entrusted to his confreres

Capuchins, at the request of his protégé the lieutenant De Rasilly, the mission of Port-Royal. Thus, through the continuous increase of colonists and missionaries, the mission of C. regained vigor. In 1635 the Jesuit college was founded at Québec, the first of its kind in North America; in 1639 the first religious women arrived there, the Augustinian nuns of Dieppe for the care of hospitals and the Ursulines of Tours for the education of youth. At Montréal (Villemarie), founded in 1642 by Maisonneuve, the institute of the Sisters of Our Lady arose in 1653, founded by the venerable Marguerite Bourgeois (v.); in 1657 a community of nursing sisters was added, the Hospitalières of the Hôtel-Dieu, and in the same year the priests of St. Sulpice took over the spiritual direction of the new city. Meanwhile the missions among the Indians progressed, watered by the blood of the martyrs Jogues, Brébeuf and companions.

The year 1658 marks a new stage for the church of C.: on April 11 a decree of Propaganda Fide erected all of New France into an apostolic vicariate, and on June 3 a brief of Alexander VII named as its first titular, with the episcopal title of Petra, the venerable François de Montmorency-Laval (v.). The departure of the Sulpicians for Montréal and the founding of the seminary of Québec in 1663 constitute the first religious events of this period, which culminated with the return of the Franciscans in 1670.

3. The diocese (1674-1819)

In 1664 the king had requested the erection of the diocese of Québec, but only in 1670 was it decided by decree of Propaganda Fide and executed by pontifical bull of October 1, 1674. The diocese, of which Msgr. Laval, d. 1708, became the first bishop, comprised all of New France, that is, all the French possessions of North America. From then on, thanks to royal aid and the tithes paid by the faithful, the parishes increased and the life of the Canadian church took on a more regular development. The cession of New France to England (1763) slowed this development. In fact the peace treaty, while guaranteeing full liberty to the Catholic Church, left a pretext for Protestant fanaticism with a clause that subordinated such exercise to compatibility with English laws. On the other hand, C. had already for three years lost its bishop, Msgr. Henri du Breil de Pontbriand (June 1760). However, although England did not then recognize the hierarchy organized by Rome, the Canadian clergy, by virtue of the religious liberty guaranteed by the treaty, insisted on giving a successor to Msgr. Pontbriand. Finally, after long negotiations, the British government let it be understood to the candidate, the abbé J. O'Briand, who had gone to London to negotiate the question, that they would close their eyes, provided that his consecration took place outside C. and that he did not assume the title of bishop of Québec in the exercise of his episcopal ministry. Therefore, after the pontifical appointment, Msgr. Briand was consecrated in France on March 16, 1766, and to ensure continuity for the Canadian episcopate, he obtained from Clement XIII, on April 13, 1766, with the approval of the British authorities, the faculty to appoint an auxiliary with the right of succession. He then made his entry into the country, where the governor received him as superintendent of the Roman Church.

Despite this official return to complete religious liberty, fanatical high officials, and above all the Anglican bishop of Québec, whose see had been erected in 1793 and who claimed, by virtue of the Anglican laws, the right to govern the entire Canadian church, did not fail to create numerous obstacles. But the ability and prudence of Msgr. Plessis (11th bishop of Québec, 1806-25) succeeded in triumphing and in obtaining official recognition of his title and in setting the Canadian church on the path toward complete hierarchical organization.

4. The archdiocese and the ecclesiastical provinces from 1819 to our own day

On May 30, 1817 the erection of the apostolic vicariate of Nova Scotia (ancient Acadia) took place; on January 12, 1819, Québec was elevated to an archdiocese and the vicariates of Upper Canada (Kingston) and of Prince Edward Island were erected, followed in 1820 by those of Montreal and of the North West district, St. Boniface. However, out of prudence, only after the elevation of Québec to a properly so-called ecclesiastical province (12 July 1844) did the archbishops of that city begin to bear their title publicly. From then on, to the six suffragan dioceses of Québec: Kingston (1826), Charlottetown (1829), Montreal (1836), Toronto (1841), St. John and Halifax (1842), were added those of St. Boniface and Arichat (1844), Ottawa (1847), etc., which soon formed new ecclesiastical provinces. Halifax (1852), Toronto and St. Boniface (1870), so that in 1909 the first plenary Council of Québec came to be convened. Thus, thanks to the fruitfulness of the French-Canadian families and to the immigration of fellow believers — Irish, Italians, Germans, etc. — as well as to the arrival of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1841 and the return of the Jesuits in 1842 and of the Franciscans in 1890, whose communities had died out in Canada following the Anglican laws that forbade the acceptance of new members; thanks furthermore to the rise of religious congregations, parish schools, colleges and seminaries, as well as to the zeal of the Canadian clergy, the Catholic Church gained greater vigor and spread into every province and territory of the confederation. In 1886 Québec had a cardinal, and an apostolic delegation was established at Ottawa in 1899. In 1908, finally, Canada, given its perfect organization, passed from the jurisdiction of Propaganda to that of the Consistorial Congregation. Eight apostolic vicariates still remain under Propaganda: Hudson Bay, James Bay, Gronard, Keewatin, Labrador, Mackenzie, Prince Rupert, Whitehorse.

IV. RELIGIOUS STATISTICS

1. Catholic Church

In 1947, out of a population of 12,582,000 inhabitants, there were 5,032,800 Catholics (about 70% French-Canadians, 12% Irish, 28.50% Germans, 2.40% Italians, 1.4% Indians and Eskimos). At the beginning of 1949 the ecclesiastical organization was as follows: 13 archdioceses, 12 metropolitan and one immediately subject to the Holy See; 33 dioceses and 8 apostolic vicariates, plus one abbey nullius and the apostolic exarchates for the Ruthenian faithful of the Byzantine rite, thus divided: Central C. (Winnipeg), Eastern C. (Toronto), Western C. (Edmonton). The faithful of the Eastern rite number more than 300,000. The apostolic delegate resides in Ottawa. Five Catholic universities recognized by the State (of which Laval University in Québec is the oldest, 1854) provide higher education, for which young people prepare in more than 50 classical colleges and minor seminaries under the direction of the secular and regular clergy. Every parish has its own primary school supported by the faithful. In 1931, 10,309 priests, of whom 3,689 were regulars, exercised the sacred ministry in 4,335 parishes and mission stations, not counting the 500 Canadian missionaries in the Holy Land, Africa, the Indies, China, Japan and the Antilles. In 1937 there were in C. 220 religious communities, of which 140 were female, with a total of more than 40,000 members.

2. Protestant sects

Under French rule Protestantism could not establish itself in C., because the king forbade its activity the better to protect the Catholic religion, which was that of the State. But with the advent of British rule and the great immigration of the United States Loyalists, Protestantism penetrated there especially in Ontario and the Maritime provinces, and gave rise to the erection of an Anglican bishopric in Québec in 1793. Today Canadian Protestantism is divided into more than 77 sects, of which the most numerous in 1941 were the United Church (2,204,875), the Anglican (1,751,188), the Presbyterian (829,147), the Baptist (483,599), the Lutheran (401,153). There are also 139,629 Greek schismatics.

(1615-59). Evreux 1909; id., L'Eglise du C. depuis mgr De Laval jusqu'à la conquête, 5 vols., Québec 1911-14; O. Jouve, Les Franciscains et le C.: l'établissement de la foi, 1615-20, ibid. 1915; A. Gosselin, L'Eglise du C. après la conquête, ibid. 1916-17; A. J. Morice, Histoire de l'Eglise catholique dans l'Ouest canadien, 2nd ed., St. Boniface 1921-23; H. A. Scott, Au berceau de notre histoire, in Mémoires de la Société Royale du C., 3rd series, 1922, 3rd section, pp. 39-74; C. de Nant, Pages glorieuses de l'épopée canadienne : une mission capucine en Acadie, Montréal 1927; R. Corrigan, Die Kongregation de Propaganda Fide und ihre Tätigkeit in Nord-Amerika im 17. Jahrhundert, Munich 1928; S. J. Case, A bibliographical guide to the history of the Christianity, Chicago 1931, pp. 170-72; I. Caron, La nomination des évêques catholiques de Québec sous le régime anglais, Ottawa 1932; A. G. Dought, Sources for the history of the Catholic Church in the Public Archives of C., in Catholic historical review, 19 (1933-34), pp. 148-66; G. Goyau, Les origines religieuses du C., 3rd ed., Paris 1934; H. Lemay, The Friar Minor in French and British North America, in The Franciscan educational conference, 17 (1936), pp. 151-82. — Statistics: Dénominations religieuses par origines raciales [1931], Ottawa 1933; C. Gautier, Le catholicisme au C., analyse des statistiques du recensement de 1931, ibid. 1934; A. De Barbezieux, L'Eglise catholique au C.: précis historique et statistique, 4th ed., Montréal 1934; Huitième recensement du C., Ottawa 1941; Le C. ecclésiastique, 63 (Montréal 1949); Annuario Pontificio, Vatican City 1949.

Corrado Morin

V. ART

Having become a nation only in recent times, Canada does not have an ancient artistic tradition; moreover, its political and geographical conditions have not allowed it an independent physiognomy on the international artistic scene. Drawn to the United States of America and to the British dominion, it has expressed in its artistic forms a close dependence on the two civilizations, English and American.

Of painting, prior to independence from French rule, one notes some hint in productions of a religious character for churches and convents of the more populous centers, deriving from those imported for the most part by the French missionaries and repeated in popularizing schemes of no great significance. There were a few other manifestations of an indigenous character, with references to Indian iconography, and the first notable painter of this current was the Irish immigrant Paul Kane (1810-71), of whom works remain in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Interest soon turned, however, to European works of art, of which there were excellent Italian, French, Flemish and English examples in the collection of Laval University, collected by Joseph Legaré, who was also a good painter, during the French Revolution and on his travels in Europe. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the first artistic societies were formed in Canada, of which the Mont-Art (1880), the most important, still exists today. Thus the first exchanges of artists began, and to the immigration of many Europeans — among others the Prussian Jacobi, the Englishman Fowler, the Frenchman Berthon, the Dutchman Krieghoff — there corresponded an equal emigration of Canadian artists to Europe, especially to Paris and London. From this came interesting consequences, and not the least was that which around 1920 gathered into the "Group of Seven" the young Harris, Jackson, Lismer, Johnston, Macdonald, Horsman Varley and Carmichael, with the aim of reweaving in a contemporary idiom the fabric of the great wild landscapes of Ontario that had already been an inspiration to Tom Thomson, singer of Canadian nature.

Sculpture had, unlike painting, a more genuine character in the statues of worship and in the first popular manifestations of sacred art. But for it too one must reach the early nineteenth century to find an eminent figure of an artist. Such was Philippe Hebert, who sculpted the statue of Samuel de Champlain in Québec and that of Maisonneuve in Montréal. An author of celebratory sculptures was also W. S. Allward, of whom there remain in Vimy (France) the monument to the Canadian fallen and in Brantford that to Graham Bell. Among others A. Phimister Proctor distinguished himself, born in Bosanquet, in Ontario, who was much esteemed in the United States. To him are owed the two lions placed in front of the Public Library on Fifth Avenue in New York and other sculptures in the same city and in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa which, together with the Art Gallery of Toronto and that of Montréal, constitutes the public artistic heritage of Canada.

Canadian architecture began, one may say, with a certain consistency, at the time of the Canadian Academy of Arts

(1880), which comprised a group of nine architects. Previously, brief attempts more functional than anything else gave constructions in which originality is rather to be sought in the adaptation due to the particular conditions of the climate. Of a generally utilitarian character, private architecture had no significant episodes. More notable may be considered certain public buildings of the major cities, where a succession of easy fashions imported from time to time neoclassical, Georgian, neo-Gothic types of the Victorian era. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the American influence took over, from which only a few maritime and inland localities sporadically escaped, e.g. Halifax, which preserves traditional indigenous characteristics in the Province building, Montréal and Toronto.

Giovanni Carandente

VI. LITERATURE

While the United States now has a clearly defined literature, the same cannot be said of C., even though this vast country, at least partly bilingual, presents certain characteristics that ensure a position of its own for its literary production in both the English and the French language.

The nature and human environment of C. are reflected in the lyric poetry of Isabella Valency Crawford (not without dialectal touches) and especially of Archibald Lampman (1861-1914). Among the prose writers, particular mention should be made of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, creator of the typical figure of the clockmaker Sam Slick, and of William Kirby (1817-1906), author of a historical novel entitled Le chien d'or or the golden Dog.

In the field of French-Canadian literature, certain accounts and historical works by Jesuits have particular importance, among them the Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle France by Fr. Charlevoix. A true French-Canadian poetic production begins with O. Crémazie (1827-79); also worthy of mention are L. Fréchette (1839-1908), who in the Légende d'un peuple sang the fortunes of his land in epic fashion, and, among the prose writers, J. Marmette, H. R. Casgrain and especially J. P. Tardivel (1851-1905).

Echoes of nineteenth-century English poetry (Browning, Shelley) and characteristically local themes are also found in more recent poetry. Among modern writers may be noted W. W. Campbell, W. C. Bliss and Ch. G. D. Roberts. Writers of adventure tales are W. Wallace and Ch. V. Gordon. Writers in the English language and in the French language are influenced, over the course of time, by the evolution of their respective literatures. Among modern writers in the French language, A. Lozeau, E. Nelligan, A. Dreux, P. Morin, and A. Desilet have established themselves, among others.

V. also: INGHILTERRA (letteratura).

VII. SCHOOL SYSTEM

Since 1943 the Canadian school has been assuming an increasingly national character, which is accentuated not only by pedagogical regionalism in the individual provinces, to which ample freedom of teaching is left that includes, in addition to the traditional subjects, practical instruction in home economics, hygiene, sewing and cultivation of the land, but principally by the teaching of Canadian History inserted into the curricula in 1943; compulsory physical education at all school levels is an indication of this national spirit. The Canadian school, however, lacks stability, because of the aforementioned regionalism, and strong differences occur in the school-cultural heritage of the children and pupils. There is a felt need to create a ministry of Education, which is for the moment replaced in a certain way by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, which seeks to exercise at least a flexible school unification and keeps the provinces informed by means of its Annual Survey of Education in C. - In the individual provinces Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan, the schools are inspected by means of the appropriate supervisory commissions Board or school trustee; in the province of Québec control is exercised by a superintendent of public instruction assisted by a council of 35 members divided into two groups, one Catholic and one Protestant, which thus correspond to the two religions of the province. In all the provinces parents are left free to promote minority schools, Minority schools, if they do not intend to send their children together with the confessional majority of the place. School attendance is compulsory from ages 8 to 14; religion, despite the confessional character of the school, is free, and the text of Catholic teaching is the catechism, while in the Protestant confession it is the Bible.

The Canadian school is divided into that of English language and that of French language, inasmuch as the French population is guaranteed in the "Royal Privilege" from 1763, among other things, the right to establish schools in the mother tongue. The schools are divided into elementary (compulsory) lasting 7 or 8 years, then integrated by the High schools. Secondary schools follow, with a great variety of programs. Higher education is provided by 20 universities; 6 of which are controlled by the State. - See Pl. XXXVII.

Stumpf Miroslav