Je Me Souviens (film) - Meaning

Meaning

Taché appears not to have left an explanation of the motto's intended meaning. He did however write a letter to Siméon Lesage, showing what he intended to accomplish with the statues on the building's façade and describing what they were intended to remind people of.

All around the Parliament building, are 24 statues of historical figures. They originally included founders (Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain and de Maisonneuve), clerics (de Laval, de Brébeuf, Marquette and Olier), military men (de Frontenac, Wolfe, de Montcalm and de Levis), Amerindians, French governors (D'Argenson, de Tracy, de Callières, de Montmagny, d'Aillesbout, de Vaudreuil) and, in the words of Tâché, "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". Taché purposely left blank spaces to allow future generations to add their own statues.

His contemporaries, however, did not have any trouble interpreting its meaning. The first interpretations that can be cited are those of historian Thomas Chapais and civil servant Ernest Gagnon.

Thomas Chapais, during a speech given for the occasion of the unveiling of a bronze statue honouring de Lévis, on June 24, 1895, said: "…the province of Quebec has a motto of which she is proud and which she likes enough to carve it on her monuments and palaces. This motto has only three words: "Je me souviens"; but these three words, in their simple economy of expression, are worth more than the most eloquent speeches. Yes, we remember. We remember the past and its lessons, the past and its misfortunes, the past and its glories."

In 1896, Ernest Gagnon wrote: " admirably sums up the raison d'être 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 will 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 Un Canadien errant, or possibly Victor Hugo's poem Lueur au couchant. 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 Ne obliviscaris ("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:

"M. Taché is also the author of the beautiful poetic and patriotic motto which accompanies the official coat of arms of the Province of Quebec — “Je me souviens” — the full significance of which cannot perhaps be readily expressed in English words but which may be paraphrased as conveying the meaning “We do not forget, and will never forget, our ancient lineage, traditions and memories of all the past”."

Encyclopedias and quotation dictionaries, including those of Wallace, Hamilton, Colombo or Hamilton and Shields, all provide the same information as the French-language sources.

In 1955, the historian Mason Wade added his opinion by writing: "When the French Canadian says “Je me souviens”, he not only remembers the days of New France but also the fact that he belongs to a conquered people."