By: Nicolas Belliveau
The news in November 2018 that Doug Ford and his provincial government were ceasing the project to build a French-language university in Toronto and eliminating the position of the provincial commissioner for French language affairs was met with backlash.
However, situations like these aren’t novel. French education and culture have been the target of marginalization for hundreds of years. Ford adds to this long list of discriminatory acts, as his decision to cut services and protections to Franco-Ontarians has underlying anti-francophone sentiment and is a violation of minority language rights in Canada.
But why should we care about this? After all, with just over 620,000 people, the French-speaking community in Ontario makes up just 4.5 per cent of its total population.
Growing up French-Canadian in Ontario, practicing and maintaining the language my ancestors tirelessly fought to preserve has proven difficult. Additionally, the limited number of French secondary schools meant that I had to enroll at an English secondary school — adding to the challenge of keeping my mother tongue.
However, Francophones are still Canada’s largest minority with Ontario home to the most populous French-speaking community outside of Quebec. But most importantly, the French language is a right that is protected by the Constitution and language laws.
This didn’t come easily. Throughout all of Canada’s history, francophones have fought for the right to French education and with Ford’s new agenda, the battle appears to be ongoing.
Merely a century ago, the provincial government passed and enforced Regulation 17 throughout Ontario, which restricted the teachings in French beyond grade 2 and limited French teachings to one hour per day in primary schools. After 15 years of enforcement and prohibiting a whole generation from learning French, the law was finally repealed in 1927.
By ending the project for the development of a French university, Ford is reopening a door into the past that most French-Canadians thought was over. The ideology that once disregarded Franco-Ontarians’ identity and equality is now resurfacing, under the new disguise of Ford’s policies.
And what is Ford’s reasoning behind these radical changes? Although Ford has yet to comment on the matter, government officials have cited the province’s $15 billion deficit as being the motivation for these cost-cutting actions.
However, the cost for the French Language Services Commissioner and the university tally up to a total of just $15 million per year. And as of now, Ford’s government has yet to meet the targeted amount of savings, leaving experts to question whether a thorough program review was carried out.
When looking at these realities, it is hard to believe the government’s narrative of the provincial deficit being the sole incentive for premier Ford’s changes, and not worry about an anti-francophone sentiment underlying Ford’s fiscal agenda.
What’s more unsettling is that Ford’s new policy changes cuts into Canada’s Constitution and the protections and rights of French-Canadians.
The functions of a language commissioner prove to be essential in promoting and protecting a language. Not only do they monitor the government for any infringements upon minority language rights, the French language commissioner acts as a liaison between the provincial government and Franco-Ontarians.
By getting rid of the French Language Services Commissioner, Ford is destabilizing the rights and protections of minority francophones and undermining the institutions that promote one of the ‘supposed’ official languages of this country.
I acknowledge that Ontario is already home to three bilingual universities and that the francophone minorities account for just 4.5 per cent of Ontario’s population. Additionally, I acknowledged that the Ford government has created the position of senior policy adviser on francophone affairs following the elimination of the French Language Services Commissioner.
The realities of the mistreatment of francophones throughout history along with the benefits of the French services and protections that Ford is eliminating would make it illogical for one to not consider this as anti-francophone sentiment. To be idle while the government carelessly partakes in these divisive political tactics is a disservice to our ancestors and to all minorities.
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I’m not an expert in French. I don’t think I even knew a word of French until I started kindergarten. And even then, at my Anglophone school, in an Anglophone city, we students were only so involved in developing what was for most of us a second language. We’d do an hour here, an hour there, learning the basic vocabulary that you’d expect of a group of five year olds. And this basic education continued through our elementary years.
By the time my classmates and I reached high school and had the opportunity to choose classes, I was surprised to find that many of them jumped at the chance to give up French for good. Whether it was because they struggled with it or just lacked interest, they had no qualms at closing the door and never looking back.
I was perplexed at their choice. Maybe it was because I just loved the sound of the language or the writers we studied.
But it seems I was, and am now, in the minority. Of the 33 million people who live in Canada, just over 17 per cent speak both official languages. And predictably enough, almost 60 per cent of those bilingual people live in Quebec.
What people seem to very easily forget is that Canada is a bilingual country. After all, the French established a permanent settlement years before the British ever did. Quebec may be the only solely francophone province now, but Canada’s history has a strong sense of connection with all things French.
So how is it that people are so disillusioned? It’s been over 40 years since the Official Languages Act made the two languages equal under the law, but since then, if anything we’ve lost enthusiasm in pursuing our two native tongues. French immersion programs are widespread, but bilingualism is on the decline.
Meanwhile, Quebec is hanging on to its language rights for dear life. A recent criticism of an Italian restaurant menu in Quebec created “pastagate,” a scandal that made the province a global laughingstock. The Office Quebecois de la langue francaise ordering that the restaurant remove the word “pasta” from its menu may seem extreme, but such strict measures are just a demonstration of how strongly the office wants to preserve the linguistic integrity of its province.
It’s true that Canada is a widely multicultural nation, and perhaps it’s unreasonable to ask that newcomers to our country learn both official languages. But for people still in school, those with the chance or even the requirement to study French, it’s time to embrace bilingualism. Being fluent or at least comfortable in Canada’s two languages can open doors with jobs all over the country, or even elsewhere in the francophone world. And if nothing else, it serves the purpose of preserving our national heritage. So embrace it, Canada. And vive la langue francaise.
