France

U of T and France’s national research institution partner on joint research centre

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 13:58:00 +0000

U of T and France’s national research institution partner on joint research centre

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 04/24/2023 - 09:58

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Denis Walsh and Marc Johnson are among the U of T researchers working on joint projects with French researchers through a collaboration with France’s Centre national de la recherche scientifique (supplied images)

Tabassum Siddiqui

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Arts & Science

France

Global

Graduate Students

Philosophy

Research & Innovation

U of T Mississauga

The ��Ƶ and France’s Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) are developing a joint CNRS International Research Centre (IRC) – expanding a seven-year-old partnership that allows researchers to work across continents and a wide range of fields.

When created, the new centre will operate as a hub for U of T-CNRS collaborations, bring in new resources for global collaborations, offer opportunities for network-building and provide strategic guidance for growing projects.

U of T President Meric Gertler and Jean-Luc Moullet, CNRS deputy CEO for innovation (signing on behalf of Antoine Petit, CEO and chairman of CNRS), will meet at U of T this week to sign a letter of intent during a visit by Sylvie Retailleau, France’s minister of higher education and research.

“CNRS is one of the world’s leading research institutions – they represent and support so many different areas of research and science, and that breadth and depth has been critical to our partnership,” said Alex Mihailidis, associate vice-president for international partnerships.

“This IRC will expand that collaboration to further develop existing and promote new areas of research and deepen collaborations between our two countries.”

For more than 80 years, CNRS – one of the most renowned public research institutions in the world – has been nurturing interdisciplinary research projects in France, Europe and internationally. Encompassing over 33,000 researchers and more than 1,000 laboratories in partnership with universities and other higher education institutions, CNRS brings together more than 120,00 employees and 200 professions that advance knowledge by exploring the living world, matter, the universe and the functioning of human societies.

Antoine Petite, CEO of CNRS, and U of T President Meric Gertler renewed an MOU in April of 2022 (supplied image)

“The CNRS and U of T strategic partnership aims to tackle global challenges of the 21st century. We are thrilled to work together in order to create an international research centre,” said Alain Schuhl, deputy CEO for science at CNRS. “It will further enhance the scientific co-operation by catalyzing new innovative collaborations between researchers and fostering interdisciplinary research to address social challenges.”

The existing partnership between U of T and CNRS was first established in 2016, and has resulted in 30 jointly funded PhD student exchanges, 11 joint research projects and a Twin Research Scholars program to date.

Marc Johnson, a professor of biology at U of T Mississauga and director of the Centre for Urban Environments, has been working on a joint project with CNRS since 2019 that studies adaptation in white clover – a plant species native to Europe but invasive in North America – in four garden sites in Canada, the U.S., France and Sweden.

“To do this type of work, you need to do it at a large scale – you need to be able to work across continents,” Johnson said. “And this collaboration with CNRS has made all of this possible – we would not have been able to do it without them.”

Lucas Albano

As part of the project, Lucas Albano, a PhD student in Johnson’s lab, travelled to Montpellier, France, last year to work with CNRS researchers Cyrille Violle and François Vasseur of the Centre D'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, who are experts in the functional ecology of plants.

Albano called the experience “very rewarding,” noting that it came on the heels of nearly three years of remote collaboration due to the pandemic.

Denis Walsh, a professor in the department of philosophy in the Faculty of Arts & Science who focuses on biology, has also been working on a successful research collaboration with CNRS colleagues. Focused on the notion of biological agency, the project involved Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne PhD student Louis Virenque travelling to Toronto and U of T PhD student Auguste Nahas visiting Paris.

“It’s been absolutely indispensable to [Nahas’s] research – he has spent quite a bit of time in Paris and there’s a tradition in France of studying the philosophy of science historically,” Walsh said. “So, spending time there exposes him to this really distinctive, very vibrant and productive way of doing the philosophy of science.”

The expansion of the partnership between U of T and CNRS will help to grow the scope of future collaborations within more fields of study, Walsh adds.

“When meeting with CNRS recipients a while ago, there was fantastic enthusiasm from everybody about the richness of these interactions. So, it’s generally understood that this is a really unique kind of project where we draw connections across cultures, and there are many disciplines that could benefit from this kind of partnership.”

The deepening of ties between U of T and CNRS comes as Retailleau visits Ottawa on April 24 to meet with François-Philippe Champagne, the federal minister of innovation, science and industry, to revive the France-Canada Joint Committee on Science and Technology. In each of the next three years, the committee will be identifying areas of bilateral strategic importance to fund joint calls for proposals.

“This type of partnership is essential for creating the next generation of leaders – these are the people that are going to be leading science and policy and our economy for decades, and we need to invest in them properly,” Johnson said.

“The first round of the CNRS investment showed the benefits of trying to increase the mobility of PhD students – and if we double down on that, I think both of our institutions can become leaders in the innovation economy.”

Olivier Latry, organist at Notre Dame, to perform at St. Basil’s Church and give master class to U of T students

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:50:11 +0000

Olivier Latry, organist at Notre Dame, to perform at St. Basil’s Church and give master class to U of T students

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 11/18/2019 - 09:50

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Olivier Latry, the titular organist at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris since 1985, will perform a concert Friday in honour of the 100th anniversary of the installation of the organ at St. Basil's Church (photo by Ansgar Klostermann/RMF via Flickr)

Topic

University of St. Michael's College

After fire destroyed much of Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this year, Paris and the world were relieved to discover that the landmark’s 19^th-century Cavaillé-Coll organ – one of the most powerful and moving organs in the world – had survived the blaze.

Now, seven months after the fire on April 15, one of the few people in the world to play regularly the Notre Dame organ will be performing at the University of St. Michael’s College. Olivier Latry, the titular organist at Notre Dame since 1985, will visit St. Basil’s Church to play in honour of the 100^th anniversary of the installation of the church’s organ.

Latry will also be giving a master class to students from the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Music a few hours before the sold-out Friday event, which is co-sponsored by the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

“I’m very honoured to be chosen to come for the 100-year anniversary,” Latry says, noting that Notre Dame’s organ will inevitably influence his performance in St. Basil’s.

“I’ve spent two-thirds of my life at Notre Dame,” says Latry, whose January album recorded in the iconic church was the last recording made on the Notre Dame organ before the fire.

“I’m always thinking about the organ and, when I’m somewhere else, I try to reconstruct the sound that I have in Notre Dame on the organ that I will play.”

The Casavant Frères organ Latry will play at St. Basil’s was first installed in 1919. The instrument is one of the few organs in Toronto to be built according to the ideals of the French Symphonic style, which also characterizes the organ at Notre Dame.

“St. Michael’s is thrilled to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the installation of the organ at St. Basil’s, which has been at the heart of our campus community since we opened our doors on Clover Hill in 1856,” says St. Michael’s President David Sylvester.

The organ at St. Basil’s Church at the University of St. Michael’s College (photo courtesy of University of St. Michael’s College)

Since its installation, the St. Basil’s organ has provided an accompaniment to some of the most important moments in academic and liturgical life for the St. Michael’s community, including convocation and invocation masses, presidential installations, weddings, funerals – and, of course, the regular weekday and Sunday mass.

“The instrument Olivier Latry will play marries the academic and liturgical sides of our community. We look forward to welcoming members of our larger university and city community to enjoy Latry’s performance on Nov. 22, a day on which the church celebrates the Feast Day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music,” Sylvester says.

Rev. Morgan Rice, the church’s current pastor, says St. Basil’s is “an enormously important part of not just the spiritual life of St. Michael’s, but also the community life of St. Michael’s.”

Students can often be found at the church gathering for events or volunteering with social outreach programs such as Out of the Cold, which provides food and hospitality to members of the homeless population in Toronto.

The longest continuously operating building on the U of T campus, St. Basil’s Collegiate Church first opened its doors in 1856, the day before the opening of the St. Michael’s campus at Clover Hill, its current location. The parish has been administered since its founding by the Basilian Fathers, the same teaching order that helped to found St. Michael’s.

In addition to their presence in college classrooms as professors, the Basilians have remained a central presence at St. Michael’s through their work at the church, providing another point of connection with staff, faculty and students. “I hope that Basilian presence on campus through our ministry at St. Basil’s will continue for many years to come,” Rice says.

Latry’s Nov. 22 performance will follow a special interview with John Paul Farahat, director of music and principal organist at St. Basil’s. Farahat, who has performed on the Notre Dame organ himself, directed a rebuild in 2017 of the St. Basil’s organ by Casavant Frères and the Alan Jackson Company. The rebuild involved lowering a section of the façade enough to allow the rose window on the south side of the church to be visible from the floor.

Farahat had two goals for the rebuild of the St. Basil’s organ: “First, to create an instrument for worship and prayer that was viable for the next generation, and second, to make an instrument well suited to French repertoire.”

The lowering of the organ’s façade was intended to create “a visual component to that [beautiful sound],” Farahat says, adding that a priority during the rebuild was creating “an exceptional teaching instrument for organ students in general.”

Farahat says the organ has become a resource to U of T students studying organ performance, as well as professors and music directors who come from all over the city to play the instrument.

While Latry is chiefly known as a principal organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral, he is also a professor of organ at Conservatoire de Paris. As such, his visit to St. Michael’s will incorporate both his liturgical and educational roles.

In addition to his evening concert at St. Basil’s, Latry will provide high-level personalized instruction to four students from U of T’s Faculty of Music, who will have an opportunity to join him in the organ loft Friday morning for a two-hour master class.

Faculty of Music Associate Professor Kevin Komisaruk says the master class will give these students “a rare chance to experience customized instruction from one of the world’s most experienced and accomplished professionals.

“Latry is a world celebrity among organists,” says Komisaruk, who has also been an organist at St. Basil’s. “It is always a transformative thrill for students who get a chance to see themselves in their role models.

“We are deeply grateful that St. Basil’s has consistently shown such grace and openness in supporting the pedagogic development of our students by allowing them to practise, study and perform at this historic instrument.”

One of the students in Latry’s master class is Stefani Bedin, an associate organist at the church who is also pursuing a doctor of musical arts in performance degree.

“Olivier Latry is one of the custodians of the esteemed French organ tradition, so I particularly look forward to hearing his comments on the French organ repertoire,” Bedin says. “It is wonderful that the collaboration between St. Basil’s, the University of St. Michael’s College and the wider community has made this truly exceptional event possible.”

Latry’s repertoire for the concert will include both sacred and concert pieces meant to showcase the organ’s French symphonic qualities, but the technical virtuosity is an expression of a simple desire.

“It’s nice to share my passion,” Latry says. “You are always touched by the sound of the organ. You will always find something which touches you. I think that related to the music which was composed for the instrument, there is a lot to discover and there’s a lot also to enjoy.”

More than anything else, that enjoyment is what he hopes to provide during his St. Basil’s performance.

“I would say to the people: Just come and listen and enjoy.”

France bestows Ordre des Palmes académiques on two U of T faculty members

Romi Levine — Wed, 01 May 2019 20:37:38 +0000

France bestows Ordre des Palmes académiques on two U of T faculty members

Romi Levine Wed, 05/01/2019 - 16:37

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From left: Consul General of France, Mark Trouyet, associate professors Ron Levi and Paul Cohen and Brigitte Proucelle, cultural, education and sciences adviser at the French Consulate (all photos by Dhoui Chang)

Romi Levine

Topic

Global Lens

Awards

Faculty of Arts & Science

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Political Science

Adding to their already long list of accomplishments, the ��Ƶ’s Ron Levi and Paul Cohen can now call themselves knights of the French Republic.

At a ceremony on Friday at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, the two associate professors were named Chevalier (knight) dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques – an honour granted to those who have made major contributions to French education and culture.

The title was first created by Napoleon I in 1808, becoming a decoration in 1866 under Napoleon III. It is France’s oldest non-military decoration, France’s Consul General Marc Trouyet told ceremony attendees.

“It is indeed a privilege to honour two such distinguished professors for their ability to liaise to and with France, its history and society,” he said.

Levi is an associate professor of global affairs and sociology, the director of global strategy at the Munk School and the George Ignatieff Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also cross-appointed with the Faculty of Law and the department of political science.

Cohen is an associate professor of history who helped to launch the Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World in the Munk School, where he was director until 2017.

“On behalf of the entire university, I would like to congratulate Ron Levi and Paul Cohen on receiving this extremely prestigious recognition,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “Through their excellence in research, teaching and public engagement, they embody many of our goals and values as a world-leading institution, helping forge strong international partnerships and serving as a model of global citizenship.”

Paul Cohen, Janice Stein and Ron Levi at Friday's ceremony at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

“When you look at these two colleagues, they bring an intellectual tradition to the work that they do and to the partnerships they have developed with France and with our partnering universities in France,” said Janice Stein, political science professor and Munk School’s founding director, who added that their accomplishments represent the essence of the school’s interdisciplinary work, crossing “physical and intellectual borders.”

French language, history and culture were an important part of both Levi and Cohen’s lives from a young age.

Levi grew up in Quebec in an Egyptian-Jewish household where French was his mother tongue, but he and his family also spoke Hebrew, English and Arabic.

“French as a language was always part of the story, but France as a location was also part of the story,” he told U of T News. “My mother probably knows the arrondissements of Paris better than she knows even the city she lives in – Montreal.”

In both his personal and professional life, Levi embodies what he calls “global France.”

“Global France is really to start imagining France beyond its territory as ideas about France and ideals of France that circulate and that inform how people imagine France but also the rest of life and the rest of the world,” he said.

Levi said this perspective can be used to apply French intellectual traditions, like those of famed sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, to understanding the world outside of France – from social relations to international law.

Global France is also realized by connecting educational institutions in France with schools and scholars around the world, he said.

Levi helped to create a dual master’s degree program between the Munk School and France’s Sciences Po (The Paris Institute of Political Studies).

“The strategy there is to say that partnership can recruit not only Canadian and French students, but also students from other countries who can see the links between Canada and France and can also knit their own story of global France in the process,” he said.

Paul Cohen receives his Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques honour

While Cohen spent much of his childhood in New York, he told U of T News that he grew up travelling between France and the U.S.

Cohen’s family was “saturated by history,” he said – particularly his mother’s side of the family – who is French.

“My grandfather and great grandfather were both passionate about history,” he said.

His fascination with history stayed with him through his studies, into his first teaching role at Université Paris-8, and at U of T, where he has been since 2005.

France still plays an important role in Cohen's life. “It’s a place where I still have deep connections – both familial and friends and professional connections – and it's a place I feel engaged with as a citizen.”

In 2007, Cohen helped to launch the Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World, which was created as part of an initiative launched by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since its inception, “it has ensured that U of T is a great, exciting place where interdisciplinary conversations take place on all matters French and francophone,” he said.

“I'm very proud and very happy. I worked very hard – and a lot of people worked very hard within U of T in the French, history and other departments.”

Cohen said he is “honoured and humbled” to receive the l’Ordre des Palmes académiques, as part of “a long and distinguished list of people.”

Both Cohen and Levi said they were honoured to receive the distinction together.

“Being able to receive this honour at the same time as an incredible colleague at the Munk School, Paul Cohen, is not only to put me in amazing company but it is also to provide evidence – a demonstration effect of the strong relationship between the ��Ƶ, the Munk School and France,” Levi said.

Could France's election spell the end of the EU? U of T expert weighs in

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 13:35:28 +0000

Could France's election spell the end of the EU? U of T expert weighs in

geoff.vendeville Thu, 04/20/2017 - 09:35

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Posters for the candidates in the French presidential election are displayed outside the city hall in Rouen (photo by Frédéric BISSON via Flickr)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Author legacy

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Subheadline

U of T political scientist Randall Hansen offers his perspective on the French presidential election

With the first round of voting in the French presidential elections starting Sunday, the latest polls show that the race remains tight.

It has all the makings of an unusual election. The unpopular current president, François Hollande, isn't seeking re-election – a first for an incumbent in modern French history.

In another twist, neither candidate of the two main parties appears to be ahead. Instead, a recent poll suggested that independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and the far-right's Marine Le Pen were on top.

If no candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the vote initially, a run-off between the top-two candidates will be held in May.

U of T News talked to Randall Hansen, a political science professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the director of the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies in the Munk School of Global Affairs, about the key issues in France and how the election might affect the future of the European Union.

It looks like neither candidate from the established parties on the left or the centre-right will win. Does that mean a shift away from politics as usual?

It will not be politics as usual. It will, we hope, be a situation in which a young, dynamic, pro-European president has no majority in the National Assembly, and not much of a basis in any party. The reduction of presidential terms from seven years to five, to match the National Assembly elections taking place in June, was meant to avoid this outcome.

In the worst-case scenario, we have either a candidate of the far-right or – though this is less likely – a candidate of the far left that plans to destroy the European Union.

What are the most important issues in this election?

They are the economy – above all youth unemployment – security and the European Union.

How could it affect the European Union? Is a Frexit likely?

It all depends on the result. If, which seems likely, the two-ballot system (France has a majoritarian, two-ballot system at the presidential level) keeps Le Pen out of the Élysée Palace and puts Macron in, then there is no chance of France leaving the EU.

If Le Pen wins, the chance increases, but it is not a certainty. She will not have a majority in the National Assembly, and it will block any withdrawal bill. She will then, like Charles de Gaulle, try to go over their heads with a referendum. If a French ‘leave’ wins, which is again unlikely, France would leave the EU, and there would be no EU.

If Mélenchon, the far-left candidate, were to win at the second ballot, the same dynamics would play out.

When Marine Le Pen’s father made it to the presidential run-off in 2002, there was a public outcry that led to his defeat. What do you expect will happen if she advances to the second round?

There will be no outcry. Everyone expects it and the markets have priced it in.

The outcry would follow a victory. There is little chance of that unless Mélenchon makes it to the second ballot. It would then be very likely that she wins but not certain.

There are reports of more fake news and Russian meddling in this election. Are these concerns valid?

Entirely. Russia has funded the Front National and far-right parties across Europe for years. Russian-funded organizations have spread lies about Macron in an effort to benefit Le Pen. It’s illegal and disgusting, but it’s standard fare and a classic weapon of the weak.

How will the shooting on the Champs-Élysées affect the election?

It might increase support for Le Pen or Fillon, and possibly push her into pole position at the first ballot, but I doubt the effect will be decisive at the second; all the other factors already discussed are more important. Security is already ‘priced into’ this election. The only caveat is that polls have proved themselves highly unreliable, and we’ve had surprise outcomes in the US (where Trump won) and in Austria and Netherlands (where the far-right did worse than expected).

Tragedy in Nice: “Fundamental French values are under attack” says U of T’s Paul Cohen

lavende4 — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 13:08:24 +0000

Tragedy in Nice: “Fundamental French values are under attack” says U of T’s Paul Cohen

lavende4 Mon, 07/18/2016 - 09:08

Cutline

Floral tributes on the Promenade des Anglais to victims of the Nice attack (David Ramos/Getty Images)

Terry Lavender

Author legacy

Terry Lavender

Topic

Global Lens

France

Terrorism

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World

On July 14, Bastille Day, 84 people were killed and hundreds injured when a man drove a truck down the crowded Promenade des Anglais in Nice during a fireworks celebration. Paul Cohen, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs’ Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World, is currently in Paris. He spoke to U of T News about the attack.

Why is France being subjected to so many terrorist incidents?

It’s firstly important to recall that other countries have been targeted more frequently and at greater cost than France: Turkey and Iraq notably. Other western countries have been the theatre of recent attacks too – think of the United States or Belgium. Without a fuller picture of the clandestine networks that might still be in place in France or elsewhere, or a better understanding of the social, cultural or psychic mechanisms that drive solitary attackers like the perpetrator of the Orlando attack, I would suggest that a better question would be to inquire about the broader context: the tectonic reshaping of the Middle East in the wake of the United States’ invasion and occupation of Iraq, the brutal Syrian civil war and the emergence of Daech, the departure of substantial numbers of citizens of western countries (including France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, as well as the US and Canada) to fight with ISIS, and the return of a certain number determined to commit attacks, and the military engagement of American and French forces (on a limited basis) in the Syrian conflict to combat Daech.

At this stage in the police investigation, we know very little about the perpetrator of the attack in Nice, his motivations, or his connections to accomplices, and it is altogether too early to determine whether this latest attack is connected to what took place in Paris last year – and in the event that it is, to evaluate the nature of this link.

Do you think there is any special significance in Nice being the target?

Again, at this point in the investigation, it’s too early to speculate about the attacker’s motivations in choosing the Promenade des Anglais.

The choice of target certainly holds powerful significance for French people: a public space that stands at the heart of public life in Nice, built to serve as a glamorous backdrop for moneyed tourists from France and around the world, a landscape for Old World Mediterranean leisure.

Less well known perhaps to English-speaking audiences is that Nice lies in the heartland of the extreme-right National Front party. Its longtime mayor and current president of the urban agglomeration, Christian Estrosi, has long made security and law-and-order issues the central plank of his leadership – as mayor, he vastly expanded the municipal police presence, installed elaborate videosurveillance systems, and took tough measures against what were identified as public order issues. Estrosi, along with Eric Ciotti, the deputy who represents Nice in the National Assembly, have also repeatedly interrogated whether French people of North African descent are fully legitimate members of the national community. In this, they are among those on the right who flirt with the border that separates them from the National Front. Estrosi, Ciotti, and other leaders on the right (as well as far right) have already seized on the attacks to criticize the Socialist government’s alleged weakness in the face of the terror threat.

Is there any significance in the attack taking place on Bastille Day, besides the opportunity to impact a large number of people gathered together?

Again, it’s simply not possible to speculate on the attacker’s motivations or choice of date and location.

For French people, however, it is clear that July 14 holds special significance: as a national holiday, one that gestures back to the Revolutionary origins of French Republicanism; as a moment when French people perform the third value in the great revolutionary triptych “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, in open-air public dances organized in village squares or the courtyards of firefighters’ barracks, in free outdoor concerts and fireworks displays like the one struck last night. Even without speculating on the reasons and motivations for the attack, for many French people, in the wake of Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks, it appears that fundamental French values are under attack: freedom of speech; laïcité (the French concept that roughly translates as “separation of Church and State”); festive forms of public sociability; and peaceful coexistence of social and cultural diversity.

Will this have an effect on France's economy? Its culture? Its values?

Even as we mourn and measure the terrible loss of human life, it is also important to emphasize that terrorism of this nature does not pose an existential threat to the political or economic systems of the nations in which they unfold. Recall for example that France has a long experience with terrorism, stretching back to anarchist violence in the late nineteenth century, violent far-left groups like Action Directe and terrorist cells piloted from Iran via Lebanese Hezbollah in the 1980s, the series of bombings that struck Paris in the 1990s in the context of the Algerian civil war, or what remains bloodiest phase of postwar terrorism that was the work of the Organisation Armée Secrète (constituted by disaffected French army officers and white settlers angered by France’s withdrawal from Algeria at the end of the Algerian War). It is likely that French tourism will suffer (tourist numbers in Paris over the past year appear to have declined in the wake of last year’s attacks, for example); but the economic risks of, say, Brexit, austerity measures, or a broader global slowdown are far greater.

The potential for political leaders to mobilize the fear of terrorist attacks to call for further restrictions on civil liberties, and granting police, intelligence services and magistrates greater authority, are likelier to have long-term effects: by reshaping the terms of public debate, and perhaps leading to changes in the constitutional, legal, procedural or policing frameworks for maintaining law and order. The search for a balance between civil liberties, rule of law and security is a universal challenge for open democracies like France (or Canada for that matter) – the events of the last 19 months have forced the French to face them in particularly painful and urgent ways.