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Le Devoir reported this week that a nationalist group called the Coalition pour l’histoire has the ear of Ms. Malavoy as she looks to alter the history curriculum. The coalition, whose members include the head of the anti-English Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, has appealed directly to the minister in an effort to derail an advisory committee created last month by the Education Department, the newspaper reported.

The coalition accuses the Education Department of spending too much time promoting multiculturalism at the expense of teaching key moments in “the history of the Québécois nation.”

Purely political and partisan ends

Ms. Malavoy has come under fire from some historians, who accuse her of politicizing the teaching of history. An association representing 300 teachers wrote in Le Devoir Thursday that it appeared history instruction was being put to “purely political and partisan ends.”

The minister refused to answer questions about her plans for history courses when asked Thursday. But in an interview with Le Soleil last fall she spelled out her thinking about a history and citizenship course introduced under the Liberals.

“The issue of sovereignty has kind of been avoided,” she said. “God knows that in Quebec the national debate has marked our recent history a lot, and it must be seen in depth and not through a series of themes that are not necessarily as important and less tied to our own identity.” She said students need to better understand what divides federalist and sovereigntists.

Francine Charbonneau, the Liberal education critic, said there is a clear agenda behind the PQ’s moves on the instruction of English and history.

“I would say they are bringing national politics into our primary and secondary schools. …There is a vision being imposed that worries me,” she told RDI.

National Post

ghamilton@nationalpost.com