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AbstractIn this article we will examine the linguistic dimension of cultural issues by questioning the recognition of linguistic diversity in Québec's school milieus. In particular, we will present Language Awareness programs developed in Europe (Candelier, 2003b; Perregaux et al., 2003) and recently implanted in British Columbia and Québec (Armand et Dagenais, 2005), which aim to prepare students to live in culturally and linguistically diverse societies. After addressing the links between these programs and intercultural and citizenship education, we will outline the main principles to respect in order to avoid bias during their implantation. Finally, drawing on the recent work of the Council of Europe (Common European Language Reference Framework, 2001; Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe, 2007a), we will take a larger look at the question of plurilingual education in Québec.

The Eurosceptic discourse seeking to stigmatize the “Brussels office manager”, who makes his decisions without taking into consideration the views of European Union citizens, has been thriving for the past twenty-five years. The Maastricht Treaty is at the source of this discourse. In 1992/93, the Treaty struggled to obtain the support of Europeans. Its adoption signaled the end of the permissive consensus according to which all that is European is automatically celebrated as progressive, ending a period of faith towards the European project. Persistently since then, the “democratic deficit” critic has settled itself in the European public space in its various forms, according to different states: “illiberal” democracies, governments elected on a European defiance platform, popular movements, etc. Do we need less Europe in order to gain a better Europe, as less Eurosceptic approaches claim? Europhobia remains active, now concentrating on sovereignty transfers, which are not compensated by appropriate democratic logic. In light of these observations, the question now becomes: is the European model of democracy really in crisis? How can we improve representative democracy? What to make of direct democracy? Is it a false good idea? For all of these questions, legal answers exist. The following text invites the reader to contemplate such answers

The search for ways to guard against danger goes back to Antiquity and the High Middle Ages, but it never resulted in the practice of insurance.Maritime insurance was invented by the merchants of the cities of Northern Italy, primarily those of Genoa. It then spread to the rest of Europe, first to the lberian Peninsula and present-day Belgium in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, then, in the next two centuries, to France and the German states, and especially to the Law Countries and England. London became the hub of maritime insurance in the eighteenth century.In the meantime, fire insurance and life insurance developed. They were purely speculative at first but they grew into recognised commercial activities, practiced by genuine business (private companies, mutual societies, public institutions).By the end of the eighteenth century, European had considerable experience in insurance audits techniques.

Keywords: Assurance incendie, assurance maritime, assurance vie, capitalisme commercial, histoire de l’assurance, pays européens, risque, sécurité, Fire insurance, marine insurance, life insurance, commercial capitalism, history of insurance, European countries, risk, security

This article examines the peregrinations and exile of ecologist Pierre Dansereau, one of the most active but least-known players in the field of scholarly migration studies in Quebec. At once a “retour d'Europe” and a “retour d'Amérique”, Dansereau possessed all the assets and privileges to embody the ideal migrant researcher. His ability to create temporary, non-binding affiliations went hand in hand with his extraordinary activity as a scientific and cultural facilitator. We show that, although the so-called “retours d'Amérique” adopt a more pragmatic or careerist approach than the “retours d'Europe”, some of them have nonetheless had a transformative experience on the spot, and a trying one on their return. For Dansereau, re-establishing roots in Quebec was difficult after years spent in European and, above all, American universities, whose cultural diversity and scientific scope contrasted with those he knew at home. The trajectory of Dansereau, whose exile experience was shaped by his scientific ambitions, his institutional roots and Quebec's socio-political evolution, invites us to nuance the polarity between the “peaceful” returns from America and the much more “tormented” ones from Europe. It also sheds light on the case of those contemporaries who, instead of answering the call of the apostolate of competence in the 1960s, experienced the Quiet Revolution afar.

The atlantic crisis is as old as the Alliance itself, but is has now acquired a critical nature in that in affects deeply the relations of the two major countries : The United States and the Federal Republic of Germany.This crisis lies at the crossroads of an evolution in the international context which has stirred up doubts regarding American protection, and of a change in generation which expresses itself in different ways on either side of the Atlantic.The concepts of "comparative vulnerability" and of "mutual fear of decoupling" are used in an attempt to apprise the situation. A study of the search for a German and a European identity and of the Western responses to events in Poland has led the author to make a few recommendations regarding a new policy of the Atlantic Alliance towards Eastern Europe.