Fernand Ouellet

rdf:langString Fernand Ouellet

rdf:langString Fernand Ouellet OC FRSC (6 November 1926 in Lac-Bouchette, Quebec – 28 June 2021 in Toronto, Ontario) was a French-Canadian author and educator. He was educated at Université Laval and gained a PhD in 1965. Ouellet taught at Université Laval, Carleton University, and the University of Ottawa in 1961–1985, prior to joining the History Department at York University in 1986. Throughout his career, he used techniques imported from economics and psychology to challenge the foundations of Quebec nationalism. His contributions to the historiographical debates over the British Conquest and the 1837 Rebellion have been especially controversial. In particular, he drew attention to the role played by women in Quebec society. More recently, he has accused fellow historians of trying to "normalize" Quebec's past, so as to provide a stronger justification of sovereignty. In response, French-speaking historians have been hostile to his suggestion that French-Canadians are the agents of their own difficulties. These historians, instead of dwelling on economic shortcomings, have stressed the deep roots of modernity, a position that Ouellet strongly rejected. In a nutshell, Ouellet insisted that Quebec's history offers "more support for the thesis of backwardness than for that of modernization." He died on 28 June 2021 in Toronto.