Gérard Bouchard to speak on “Democracy and Diversity: the New Challenges”
Gérard Bouchard, the prominent Quebec historian and sociologist who co-chaired the Bouchard-Taylor Commission will deliver this year's McNaughton Lecture on public policy at McGill's Faculty of Law on March 3, 2010, in the Maxwell Cohen Moot Court, starting at 18:00.
Prof. Bouchard's topic, "Democracy and Diversity: the New Challenges" will address current features of public discourse about identity in Quebec. In this lecture, Bouchard will explore the ways in which the idea of identity can be made compatible with pluralism and interculturalism (the philosophy of exchanges between cultural groups within a society).
Bouchard believes that it is important for all Quebeckers to re-affirm their commitment to the values of a liberal democracy and argues that there is no radical opposition between liberalism and the notion of a national identity.
The Macnaughton Lecture will be introduced by Charles Taylor, who co-chaired the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences. The Commission was launched by Premier Jean Charest in 2007 to examine the social accommodation of religious and cultural minorities in Quebec.
Gérard Bouchard's lecture is open to the public, but please RSVP to confirm your presence before Feb. 26, 2010 by email at alumnioffice.law [at] mcgill.ca () or by phone at (514-398-7934.
About the lecturer
Gérard Bouchard is a lecturer in the Département des sciences humaines at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Dynamics of Collective Imaginary. Professor Bouchard holds a master's degree in sociology from Université Laval (1968) and a doctorate in history from the Université de Paris (1971).
About this lecture series
The lecture is part of the Alan Aylesworth Macnaughton Lecture series on contemporary issues of public policy. A lawyer and Canadian parliamentarian, Senator Macnaughton, BA'26, BCL'29, LLD'92, was Speaker of the House of Commons, founder of the Canadian World Wildlife Fund, and a member of the Faculty of Law Advisory Board.