The demographics of Quebec constitutes a complex and sensitive issue, especially as it relates to the National question. Quebec is the only one of Canada's provinces to feature a francophone (French-speaking) majority, and where anglophones (English-speakers) constitute an officially recognized minority group. According to the 2011 census, French is spoken by more than 85.5% of the population while this number rises to 88% for children under 15 years old. According to the 2011 census, 95% of Quebec's people are able to conduct a conversation in French, with less than 5% of the population not able to speak French.
Indigenous peoples in Quebec total eleven distinct ethnic groups. The one Inuit community and ten First Nations communities number 141,915 people and account for approximately two per cent of the population of Quebec, Canada.
Côte-Nord the region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, from Tadoussac to the limits of Labrador, leaning against the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean to the west, the North Shore penetrates deep into Northern Quebec, Quebec, Canada.
Saint-Augustin is a municipality and settlement in Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada, known by its large English-speaking population as St. Augustine. Its territory stretches along the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, whereas the settlement itself is located on a peninsula in the Saint Augustin Bay at the mouth of the Saint-Augustin River. On the opposite shore of this river is the Innu settlement of Pakuashipi.
La Romaine, also known as Unamenshipit in Innu-aimun, is an Innu First Nations reserve in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada, at the mouth of the Olomane River on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It belongs to the Innu band of Unamen Shipu. Being an enclave within the Municipality of Côte-Nord-du-Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent, it is geographically within Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality but administratively not part of it. Directly adjacent to the reserve is the community of La Romaine consisting of a small French-speaking population.
Elisapie Isaac is a Canadian Inuk musician, broadcaster, documentary filmmaker, activist, and actress. She spent her childhood in Salluit, Nunavik, Quebec, and moved to Montreal in 1999 to pursue communication studies in order to become a journalist.
Pakuashipi is an Innu community in the Canadian province of Quebec, located on the north shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the Côte-Nord region. It is on the western shore of the mouth of the Saint-Augustin River, opposite the settlement of Saint-Augustin. It is not an Indian reserve, but an Indian settlement within the Municipality of Saint-Augustin, occupied by the Innu band of Pakua Shipi. Although they hold no formal legal title to the land at this time, negotiations are still ongoing to determine their indigenous rights.
Maude Smith Gagnon is a Québec poet.
Natasha Kanapé Fontaine is an Innu poet and actress. Born in Pessamit, Quebec, Fontaine first became noticed in 2012 as part of the Montreal poetry scene. Her first poetry collection, Do Not Enter My Soul in Your Shoes, earned her the 2013 Prize of the Society of Francophone Writers of America; her second, Manifeste Assi, was released in 2014 and debuted at the Étonnants Voyageurs festival. In 2016 she was a guest of honour at the Rimouski Book Fair, alongside Deni Ellis Béchard; the same year, the National Film Board of Canada announced funding for 3 projects as part of the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Canada, including #Legacies150, a photo-essay series Fontaine is contributing to.
The Pessamit Innu Band, which the official name is bande des Innus de Pessamit, is an Indian band of the Innu First Nations in Quebec, Canada. Its members primarily live on the Indian reserve of Pessamit in the Côte-Nord, the north shore of Saint Lawrence River, which is also the seat of the band. In 2017 it has a registered population of 3,953 members. It is governened by a band council called Conseil des Innus de Pessamit and it is affiliated with the Mamuitun Tribal Council. The band was previously known as Bersimis and Betsiamites.
Serge Bouchard was a Canadian anthropologist, writer, and media personality. Bouchard studied contemporary life in Canada from an anthropological perspective; his subjects ranged from Innu hunters to Quebec truck drivers. Through his frequent appearances in the media, Bouchard's commentary reached both a popular and scholarly audience. He received the Prix Gérard-Morrisset in 2015 and a Governor-General's Award in 2017.
Naomi Fontaine is a Canadian writer from Quebec, noted as one of the most prominent First Nations writers in contemporary francophone Canadian literature. She is a member of the Innu nation.
Marcelline Picard-Kanapé, a.k.a.Marcelline P. Kanapé, is considered one of the great specialists in education among First Nations in Canada, distinguishing herself since the 1950s. She was the first Innu teacher in Quebec, the first Aboriginal person to serve on the Conseil supérieur de l'éducation, and the first female Innu chief.
Shauit is a Canadian singer-songwriter, who blends traditional First Nations music, primarily in the Innu-aimun language, with pop-rock and reggae music.
Kuessipan is a Canadian drama film, directed by Myriam Verreault and released in 2019. An adaptation of Naomi Fontaine's eponymous novel, the script was co-written by Fontaine and Verreault. Its plot centres on Mikuan and Shaniss, two young Innu women in Uashat-Maliotenam, whose friendship is strained when Mikuan falls in love with a white man and plans to move away.
The Étamamiou River is a river in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada.
Joséphine Bacon, is an Innu poet from Pessamit in Quebec. She publishes in French and Innu-aimun. She has also worked as a translator, community researcher, documentary filmmaker, curator and as a songwriter for Chloé Sainte-Marie and Alexandre Belliard. She has also curated an exhibit at the Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal, Quebec and teaches at Kiuna Institution in Odanak.
Rita Mestokosho, born 1966 in Ekuanitshit (Mingan), is an indigenous writer and poet, councillor for culture and education in the Innu nation.
Marie-Christine Lévesque was a Canadian art director, author and editor. As an art director she won the 2005 Applied Arts Award for the cover design of 9 Vues. Her partner was Serge Bouchard and she co-authored books with him including Elles ont fait l’Amérique : De remarquables oubliés, tome 1 and Le peuple rieur. Hommage à mes amis innus, the latter of which won the 2018 Le Prix Victor-Barbeau award. Her writings explored the lives of North American people from the 16th century to the 19th century and the Innu people.
Carole Labarre is an Innu writer from Pessamit, Quebec, Canada. She is most noted for her novel L’or des mélèzes, which was a shortlisted Governor General's Award nominee for French-language fiction at the 2023 Governor General's Awards.
