Ottawa, June 3, 2005
French schools: Self-realization in and through the Community
Speaking notes Summit of educational stakeholders in the implementation
of Section 23 in French-speaking minority communities
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to greet you all and say how pleased I am to be attending this summit, which brings together so many people who are deeply committed to achieving a great ambition: full implementation of section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I am also pleased that all the movers and shakers in Francophone communities are represented here. Your strength is your solidarity. I would particularly like to recognize the organizing committee, which has worked tirelessly to orchestrate this big bang for French language education.
I want to tell you that you have my interest, my support and my enthusiasm. I am well aware of all the effort you are putting into developing an effective strategy and action plan. This morning’s workshops and round tables showed that there is no shortage of ideas or energy. This bodes well for the future.
Introduction
The last few years have been a period of struggle. There have been numerous hurdles, and the victories have been hard won—often in court.
Successive commissioners of official languages have all backed these struggles. We have supported the lawsuits, commissioned studies1 and called on the government to adopt a comprehensive approach to community development. In this context, the announcement of the Action Plan for Official Languages is a big step forward. We must all continue working to ensure the vision expressed in the Action Plan is carefully implemented.
After a long hard winter, we are finally seeing signs of the springtime for education promised by section 23 of the Charter. It is time to sow the seeds of hope. It cannot be repeated too often that section 23 is “designed to correct, on a national scale, the progressive erosion of minority official language groups and to give effect to the concept of the ‘equal partnership’ of the two official language groups in the context of education.”2
But French language minority education faces serious challenges. You know about them because you are spearheading the campaign to build a fair and complete educational system.
I don’t need to underscore what French schools mean to us all. They are the places where our young people prepare themselves, like a runner training for a marathon. It is where they develop strength, stamina, skill, and also knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses in order to face the upcoming difficulties. Like the runner, they regard the marathon of life with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. In addition to teaching the technical skills children need in order to graduate, the schools must help them act as citizens and, in this case, to turn the fact that they are Francophones or Acadians living in a minority setting into a strength.
So I would like to say a few words about the basic goal of this summit, about the importance of rallying to make it a success, and the role I intend to play in this exciting project.
I. The basic goal
The basic goal is to develop a complete, formative educational system. We must create an educational continuum.
To fulfil the promise of section 23, we must establish favourable conditions for a complete education, from early childhood to the post-secondary level and beyond to adult education and continuing education. Time permitting, I would have much to say on all the work that remains to be done on education past the secondary level, but that will be for another day.
In my opinion, the cornerstones of this educational continuum must be access, quality and continuity. These objectives underpin all your efforts. They are fully defined in the integrated plan that you are being asked to develop and adopt. It is a true Marshall plan for schools. It offers a comprehensive vision of a school system that helps communities rebuild and grow.
The key idea in this vision is equality in education, but it must be a remedial equality. It must bring social progress, dignity and mutual respect. By reducing inequality of opportunity, the creation of a full French language educational system will strengthen our social fabric. It will enable all children to achieve their potential both in and through their community.
While this educational system must be equal to the majority system, it cannot simply be a mirror image. It must respond to the specific needs of each community. The aim is not a simple or formal equality but a rich and complex equality. It must be a system that embraces diversity and pluralism. This mission for identity is the fundamental aim of the education rights enshrined in the Charter.
II. The importance of rallying our forces
The six priorities identified to complete the French language school system accurately define the problem. The main challenge is clear: increase the percentage of eligible students while improving school facilities and the quality of teaching.
Recruiting rights-holders is of critical importance from a demographic point of view. In the long term, it will sustain the vitality of the communities and their institutions.
Developing recruitment plans requires close collaboration among all stakeholders, not only in the schools and the communities, but also at the federal and provincial or territorial level. The language provisions contained in the agreements on early childhood that have just been signed by the federal government and some provinces are a step in the right direction.
When General Motors cuts jobs at a large plant, that isn’t a problem just for the workers and the trade unions: it is a crisis for the community, the province and the country. The same applies to French schools: the future of the communities depends on them. French schools must develop and they must produce more and better. And everyone must contribute to their growth.
Although stakeholders in education, and especially the school boards, are the driving force in this growth, implementation of the plan also requires an all-out collective, community effort. In addition to developing facilities and technology, resourcing and making pedagogical improvements, commitment and leadership are required—in short, a broad mobilization.
Supporting schools also means providing more support for parents in mixed marriages; it means improving transition programs, increasing early childhood assistance, drawing on cultural and recreational organizations, the media and Francophile groups; and it means attracting immigrants. Schools must live in symbiosis with the community.
The strategy you are looking at today is only the start of a process. It is an architectural plan. The major phases of construction will come in the months ahead. The first step will be to adjust the objectives of the plan to the reality on the ground and to each community’s experiences. We hope that all the communities will subscribe to the same goals but that each will chart its own course. They will be free to find innovative solutions that they can share.
The fact that you are here today means you are up to the challenge. At the end of your deliberations, the adoption of a memorandum of understanding for the implementation of section 23 of the Charter will send a clear signal to the federal government and the provincial and territorial authorities concerning their obligations.
This memorandum will be proof of your moral commitment. It will be a banner of your demands, your solidarity and your convictions. If you do a good job, all the productive forces in the communities will rally behind you.
III. The Commissioner of Official Languages
As you know, for years I have been calling on our governments to assume greater responsibility and show more leadership. The Government of Canada, especially the Department of Canadian Heritage, must step out of the shadows and take a prominent role on the national scene in promoting section 23. They must support your efforts in concrete ways and galvanize their provincial and territorial partners. Of course, this implies that they will continue to implement the Action Plan for Official Languages with greater energy by enforcing better accountability and reporting. As you know, tangible results can be slow to materialize.
Like you, I have long been concerned about full implementation of section 23. It was in the hope of someday seeing a summit like this one that I invited education and community stakeholders to a brainstorming session in September 2002. The report on the proceedings3 outlined a basis for a national plan for the implementation of section 23. I am very pleased that you have picked up some of the points discussed on that occasion.
Much has been accomplished since then, and I undertake to champion the strategy you adopt. The time has come to give communities all the tools they need in order to build. And the first of these tools is education. As the revolutionary Danton said: “After bread, education is a people’s primary need.” Education in French allows the communities to build; it is a simple matter of social equity.
Education in French is a provincial and national issue. We must work together to reduce frustrating and costly court cases, and indeed to eliminate the need for them. Let us adopt a sustainable development plan for education for our communities. That is what I will say to our leaders.
The future is being built today. Let us invest in creativity and success. Let us have confidence in all the talents within our communities. You must work for equal opportunity, linguistic duality and sharing. That is what I will say to our leaders.
Having more children educated in French means fostering diversity, a plurality of voices and innovation, for no knowledge-based economy can flourish in conformity and uniformity. This is true for business, the arts, the sciences, public administration and all areas of human endeavour. And it is doubly true for democracy.
I have a dual responsibility: on the one hand, to encourage the communities to be fully engaged; and on the other, to persuade the authorities, primarily the Government of Canada itself, of the real priorities. This also requires considerable financial support to enable the stakeholders in education to launch and follow up on implementation of the plan. When you need me, I will be there. That is my commitment to you.
Conclusion
In closing, I would like to thank you. Your commitment and tenacity should be applauded. For years, you have devoted yourselves body and soul to the development of French education in minority communities. And now you are being asked to do more.
Be optimistic and be proud. You know how successful you have been in bringing new generations of students into the warm embrace of your community schools. Remember that you have already achieved the impossible: in less than 20 years, you have changed the course of educational history in your respective provinces.
You have been the soul of this reform. Again and again, you have proven that Archimedes’ famous principle applies to you: “Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world.” Is that not the ambition of education stakeholders to this day, to move great masses by means of little ones?
We must work together if we wish to be strong and capable of ensuring full implementation of education rights. Let us roll up our sleeves. The integrated action plan that you adopt will be our lever, and the future begins today.
Thank you.
1 See Martel, Angéline, Official Language Minority Education Rights in Canada: From Instruction to Management, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 1991; School Governance: The Implementation of Section 23 of the Charter, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 1998; Motivations for School Choices by Eligible Parents Outside Quebec, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 1999; Accomplishing the Mission of French-Language Education under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Report on the Proceedings, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 2002.
2 Mahé v. Alberta [1990] 1 S.C.R. 342, p. 364.
3 Accomplishing the Mission of French-Language Education under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Report on the Proceedings.
