() is the official

motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, and translated literally into English means: "I remember." The exact meaning of this short sentence is subject to several interpretations, though all relate to the history of the Quebec people. The motto can be found on all Quebec

licence plate A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British, Indian and Australian English), license plate (American English) or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for ...

s, among other things.

Origins

Étienne-Paschal Taché Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché (5 September 1795 – 30 July 1865) was a Canadian medical doctor, politician, and Father of Confederation. His family had a long history in New France, but suffered serious financial reverses due to the Seven Y ...

is credited with having popularized the phrase. In 1883, his son Eugène-Étienne Taché, Assistant Commissioner for

Crown land Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

s in Quebec and architect of the provincial Parliament building, had the motto carved in stone below the

coat of arms of Quebec The coat of arms of Quebec () was adopted by order-in-council of the Government of Quebec on 9 December 1939,Deschênes, Gaston.
La devise « Je me souviens »
, in , online since September 14, 2001, updated May 20, 2006, retrieved August 19, 2008

Meaning

Taché appears not to have left an explanation of the motto's intended meaning but he wrote a letter to the deputy minister of public works, Siméon Lesage, that showed what he intended to accomplish with the statues on the building's façade and described what they were intended to remind people of. All around the Parliament building, there are 24 statues of historical figures. They originally included founders (

Jacques Cartier Jacques Cartier (; 31 December 14911 September 1557) was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first Europeans, European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, wh ...

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; 13 August 1574#Fichier]For a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see #Ritch, RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December ...

, and Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, de Maisonneuve); clerics ( de Laval, de Brébeuf, Marquette, and Olier); military figures ( de Frontenac, Wolfe, de Montcalm, and de Levis); First Nations Peoples; French governors ( D'Argenson, de Tracy, de Callières, de Montmagny, d'Ailleboust, de Vaudreuil); and, in the words of Taché, "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 Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive br ...

". Taché left empty spaces to allow future generations to add their own statues. His contemporaries, however, offered their own interpretations, including historian

Thomas Chapais Sir Joseph Amable Thomas Chapais, (; March 23, 1858 – July 15, 1946) was a French Canadian author, editor, historian, journalist, professor, and politician. Life and career Born in Saint-Denis, Quebec (then Canada East), the son of Jean ...

and civil servant Ernest Gagnon. Chapais, during a speech given for the occasion of the unveiling of a bronze statue honouring de Lévis, on June 24, 1895, said: In 1896, Gagnon wrote that the motto "admirably sums up the of Champlain and Maisonneuve's Canada as a distinct province in the confederation." In 1919, seven years after Taché's death, the 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 would be cited or paraphrased several times afterwards. Various scholars have attempted to discover the source of Taché's words. The ethnologist Conrad Laforte has suggested that they might derive from the song , or possibly

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

's poem "". Writer André Duval thought the answer was simpler and closer at hand: In the hall of the Parliament building in which the motto is carved above the door, are the arms of the Marquess of Lorne whose motto was ("do not forget"). Consequently, Duval 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 before 1978 led to the same conclusions regarding the motto's origin, the number of words it has and its interpretation. A 1934 biographical notice about Taché reads: Encyclopedias and quotation dictionaries, including those of Wallace, Hamilton, Colombo, and Hamilton and Shields, all provide the same information as the French-language sources. In 1955, the historian Mason Wade wrote: "When the French Canadian says , he not only remembers the days of New France but also the fact that he belongs to a conquered people."

Replacement of

In 1978, replaced the tourism-oriented motto ("the beautiful province") on Quebec's vehicle registration plate. According to the historian Gaston Deschênes, this event marks the start of a new period of attempts to reinterpret the meaning of the motto 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, a granddaughter of Taché who replied on February 15 in an open letter entitled . It reads in part: The passage refers to the and the Tudor rose, as the

floral emblem In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used t ...

s of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

respectively. The idea that the motto had a lesser known second part spread widely. This new piece of information had a long life in the media before it was investigated by Deschênes in 1992. When Deschênes contacted Hélène Pâquet in 1992, she was unable to specify the origin of text she quoted 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 Samuel 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 "

O Canada "O Canada" () is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which French- ...

". 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: " / 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 Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

, created by Taché, on which is written ("Born under the lilies, God helping, Champlain's work has grown under the roses").

Other uses

appears on the badge of the Royal 22^e Régiment, a francophone

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation. In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...

of the

Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

. The first version of the badge was designed in 1914.

Notes

References

; English * Deschênes, Gaston.
Je me souviens
, in ''HistoryWire'', March 26, 2009 * Deschenes, Gaston. "Gaston Deschenes on the motto mystery: deciphering the true meaning of Quebec's famous slogan, Je me souviens", in ''The Beaver: Exploring Canada's History'', February 1, 200

; French * Deschênes, Gaston. " ttp://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/fr/article-518/La_devise_qu%C3%A9b%C3%A9coise_%C2%ABJe_me_souviens%C2%BB.html La devise québécoise « Je me souviens », in , February 1, 2011 * Deschênes, Gaston.
La devise « Je me souviens »
, in , online since September 14, 2001, updated on May 20, 2006 * Gouvernement du Québec.

, in the site of the Government of Quebec, updated January 14, 2008 * Albert, Madeleine and Gaston Deschênes. "Une devise centenaire : Je me souviens", in , 14, 2 (April 1984), p. 21-30.
online
) * Magnan, Hormisdas (1929). , Québec, 68 p.
online
* Gagnon, Ernest. "Notes sur la propriété de l'Hôtel du gouvernement à Québec" in {{lang, fr, Rapport du Commissaire des Travaux publics pour l'année 1895-1896, Documents de la session, 1896, 1, doc. 7, p. 115-116. Mottos Provincial symbols of Quebec French words and phrases