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Je me souviens

Je me souviens (in French ) is the official motto of the Province of Quebec, in Canada. The translation of the French phrase in English is "I remember".

Origins

In 1883, Eugène-Étienne Taché, architect and Assistant Commissioner for Crown lands, had the motto carved in stone below the coat of arms of Quebec which appear above the Quebec Parliament building's main entrance door. The motto was then on officially used by the government even though the coat of arms themselves were only officially adopted in 1939.

All around the Parliament building, are today 24 statues of historical figures. Originally, they included founders (Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain and de Maisonneuve), clerics (de Laval, de Brébeuf, Marquette and Olier), military men (de Frontenac, Wolfe, de Montcalm and de Levis), Amerindians, French governors (D'Argenson, de Tracy, de Callières, de Montmagny, d'Aillesbout, de Vaudreuil) and, in the words of Tâché, "some English governors the most sympathetic to our nationality (Murray, Dorchester, Prevost and Bagot) and Lord Elgin, who was given a special place for he was seen as an important player in obtaining "responsible government". Taché purposely left blank spaces to allow future generations to add their own statues.

Meaning

Taché does not appear to have left any document explicitly stating the intended meaning of the motto. He did however write a letter to Siméon Lesage, deputy Minister of Public Works, dated April 9, 1883, showing what he intended to accomplish with the statues on the building's façade. His contemporaries do not appear to have had troubles interpreting the motto's meaning. The first interpretations of the motto's meaning that can be cited are those of historian Thomas Chapais and civil servant Ernest Gagnon.

Thomas Chapais, during a speech given for the occasion of the unveiling of a bronze statue honouring de Lévis, on June 24, 1895, said: "[...] the province of Quebec has a motto of which she is proud and which she likes enough to carve it to the frontons of her monuments and palaces. This motto has only three words: "Je me souviens"; but these three words, in their simple laconism, are worth more than the most eloquent speeches. Yes, we remember. We remember the past and its lessons, the past and its misfortunes, the past and its glories.

In 1896, Ernest Gagnon wrote: "[the motto] admirably sums up the raison d'être of Champlain and Maisonneuve's Canada as a distinct province in the confederation.

In 1919, seven years after Taché's death, historian Pierre-Georges Roy underlined the symbolic character of the three-word motto: "which says so eloquently in three words, the past as well as the present and the future of the only French province of the confederation. This sentence will be cited or paraphrased several times afterwards.

Various people have tried to find where Taché had taken these three words. Ethnologist Conrad Laforte suggested that it might have from the song Un canadien errant , or maybe Victor Hugo's poem Lueur au couchant Writer André Duval thought that the answer was easier than that and closer to everyone's eyes: in the hall of the Parliament's building one walks into just after passing through the door above which the motto is carved, are the arms of the Marquess of Lorne whose motto was Ne obliviscaris ("Do Not Forget"). Consequently, he believed "the motto of Quebec to be at the same time the translation of the Marquess of Lorne's motto and the answer of a French-Canadian subject of Her Majesty to the said motto.

Research published in English language sources, before 1978, lead to the same results as those published in French ones, regarding its origin, the number of words it has and its interpretation. The 1934 biographical notice of Taché written by the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors read:

"M. Taché is also the author of the beautiful poetic and patriotic motto which accompanies the official coat of arms of the Province of Quebec — “Je me souviens” — the full significance of which cannot perhaps be readily expressed in English words but which may be paraphrased as conveying the meaning “We do not forget, and will never forget, our ancient lineage, traditions and memories of all the past”."

The encyclopedias and quotation dictionaries, those of Wallace, Hamilton, Colombo or Hamilton and Shields, all provide the same information as the French-language sources.

In 1955, historian Mason Wade added his opinion on the meaning of the motto by writing: "When the French Canadian says “Je me souviens”, he not only remembers the days of New France but also the fact that he belongs to a conquered people.

Post-1978 controversy

In 1978, Je me souviens was put on Quebec's licence plates, where it replaced the touristic motto La Belle Province, meaning "The Beautiful Province". According to historian Gaston Deschênes, this event marks the beginning of a period during which various attempts at reinterpreting the meaning of the motto were made in the mainstream media of Canada.

On February 4, 1978, Robert Goyette signed an article entitled "Car owners argue over motto" in The Montreal Star. This article attracted the attention of a reader, Hélène Pâquet, who replied 11 days later in an open letter entitled "Je me souviens, just part of it":

Sir,

According to an article (Feb. 4), there is confusion about the Quebec motto. As you mentioned, it was written by E. E. Taché. “Je me souviens” is only the first line, which may be the cause of the confusion. It goes like this:

Je me souviens/Que né sous le lys/Je croîs sous la rose.
I remember/That born under the lily/I grow under the rose.

I am a granddaughter of Eugène Étienne Taché. My aunt, Mme Clara Taché Fragasso of Quebec City, is the only surviving daughter of E. E. Taché. I hope that this enlightens some of your readers.

H. Pâquet, St. Lambert.

The lily and the rose were referring to the floral emblems of the kingdoms of France and England. This new piece of information had a long life in the media before it was first investigated by Deschênes in 1992. Between 1978 and the present, the idea that the motto carved in stone on the Parliament Building, used officially by the government since, then put on Quebec's licence plate in 1978, was incomplete, and had a lesser known second part, spread widely.

When contacted by Deschênes in 1992, Hélène Pâquet was unable to specify the origin of text she was referring to in her letter. Her statements were not conformable to those of her father, Lieutenant-Colonel Étienne-Théodore Pâquet Jr., who on March 3, 1939, wrote in a letter to John S. Bourque, Tâché's son-in-law, and Minister of Public Works, that "the one who synthesized in three words the history and traditions of our race deserves to be recognized as much as Routhier and Lavallée who composed the "O Canada".

The origin of the second part is today known to be a second motto, created by the same Eugène-Étienne Taché, many years after the first one, and originally destined to be used on a monument honouring the Canadian nation, but which was never built. The monument was to be a statue of a young and graceful adolescent girl, an allegoric figure of the Canadian nation, bearing the motto: "Née dans les lis, je grandis dans les roses / Born in the lilies, I grow in the roses". While the project was never realized, the idea was "recycled" in a commemorative medal for the 300th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City, created by Taché, on which is written "Née sous les lis, Dieu aidant, l’œuvre de Champlain a grandi sous les roses" ("Born under the lilies, God helping, Champlain's work has grown under the roses")

Other uses

This motto was used by a group of citizens in early 2000s, the défusionnistes, who were protesting the "unilateral" agglomeration of certain municipalities into a regional super-city (see Municipal reorganization in Quebec). They put bumper stickers onto their cars proclaiming Je me souviendrai des fusions forcées ! ("I will remember the forced mergers!").

Je me souviens is also the motto of the Royal 22^e Régiment.

Notes

References

Deschênes, Gaston. " La devise « Je me souviens »", in L'Encyclopédie de l'Agora, online since September 14, 2001, updated on May 20, 2006
Gouvernement du Québec. " La devise du Québec", in the site Drapeau et symboles nationaux of the Government of Québec, updated January 14, 2008
Albert, Madeleine and Gaston Deschênes. "Une devise centenaire : Je me souviens", in Bulletin de la Bibliothèque de l’Assemblée nationale, 14, 2 (April 1984), p. 21-30. (online)
Magnan, Hormisdas (1929). Cinquantenaire de notre hymne national "O Canada, terre de nos aïeux" : les origines de nos drapeaux et chants nationaux, armoiries, emblèmes, devises, Québec, 68 p. (online)
Gagnon, Ernest. "Notes sur la propriété de l’Hôtel du gouvernement à Québec" in Rapport du Commissaire des Travaux publics pour l’année 1895-1896, Documents de la session, 1896, 1, doc. 7, p. 115-116.