Moncton, August 13, 1999
Vitalité de la langue française au Canada
Speech delivered to the members of the Fédération canadienne
France-Canada and the Association nationale France-Canada
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
Check against delivery
Mr. President, Mr. Ambassador, Members of the Cultural Commission, and dear Friends:
I became Canada's Commissioner of Official Languages less than two weeks ago, and my presence this afternoon in Moncton among the members of the Fédération canadienne France-Canada and the Association nationale France Canada is particularly significant, as I feel it is not merely a happy coincidence, but also a symbol.
What I would like to do today is paint a picture of Francophone vitality in Canada: vitality of the language of Molière and Tremblay, and also of the French speaking communities that stretch from one ocean to the other. Before doing so, however, I should discuss the role of the Commissioner of Official Languages and explain why the conference organizers did me the honour of asking me to address this gathering.
French and English have lived side by side in Canada for several hundred years. As you know, the first French settlers arrived in Acadia at the beginning of the 17th century. Quebec City was founded in 1608 and Ville-Marie, established in 1642, would later become Montreal. These first immigrants from Brittany, Poitou and Normandy put down deep roots in Acadia and along the banks of the St. Lawrence before spreading out to form settlements all over North America, especially in western Canada, which they began to explore in the 1700s.
French has thus been one of this country's languages for four centuries. And it was joined here by English. At about the same time that Port Royal was founded in Acadia, the English were settling the coasts of Newfoundland. Beginning in 1760, thanks to the English and Scots, soon joined by the Irish and other groups, English echoed across the banks of the St. Lawrence, and then spread throughout Canada. For many of these settlers - large numbers of whom had come from the 13 American colonies of the U.S. - English was already the language of North America.
Two sizeable nations, both proud of their cultural and linguistic heritage, thus established themselves, first in the eastern part of the continent, and then throughout Canada. How they have coexisted since then has often constituted the very fabric of Canada's history.
After World War II, and especially in the 1960s, Canadians felt the need to redefine the nature of this coexistence between Anglophones and Francophones. Accordingly, the government of the time created the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism or, as it is familiarly known by experts and historians, the "B and B Commission." This body made a seminal contribution to the history of Canada, and its work led to the 1969 adoption of the Official Languages Act.
The Official Languages Act created the position of Commissioner of Official Languages. It is the duty of the Commissioner, and I quote,
"...to take all actions and measures within the authority of the Commissioner with a view to ensuring recognition of the status of each of the official languages and compliance with the spirit and intent of this Act in the administration of the affairs of federal institutions, including any of their activities relating to the advancement of English and French in Canadian society."
As you will note, although the Commissioner's jurisdiction is restricted to the federal level, it is nonetheless very broad, as it deals with both the intent and the spirit of the law, and aims ultimately at promoting French and English in Canada.
This mandate has evolved in the 30 years since the office was created, with the various incumbents adapting it to the circumstances of the times. An update of the Official Languages Act, passed by Parliament in 1988, further extended certain powers. In terms of this evolution, what then, are the duties of the Commissioner of Official Languages?
The Commissioner is primarily an ombudsman, what in France what would be called a "protectrice du citoyen." When dealing with the federal authorities, any Canadian citizen who feels his or her language rights have been denied or infringed on may complain to the Commissioner, who will then conduct an investigation and submit an opinion to the institution in question. In most cases, federal institutions act on the main recommendations and the injustice is rectified.
More comprehensively, the Commissioner monitors the linguistic health - if I may use the expression - of the federal government, ensuring that Canadians are served in the official language of their choice in accordance with the provisions of the Act. She also sees that, where permitted by law, public servants are able to work in the language of their choice, and asks the federal authorities to remedy any shortcomings identified.
Lastly, the Commissioner is in a way the soul and conscience of what we call our "linguistic duality" - that is, the resolve enshrined in the Constitution and ratified by our successive federal governments to make French and English the official languages of Canada. This is not mere lip service: the ultimate objective of the Act is to allow all French- and English-speaking Canadians to feel at home anywhere in this country, and, insofar as possible, create conditions enabling them to live in their own language.
The Official Languages Act, from which I will quote once more, is unequivocal in this regard, stating that the federal government is committed to:
"...enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada and supporting and assisting their development; and fostering the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society."
This reference to minority communities is important, as minorities cannot exist in a vacuum. Linguistic majorities obviously exist in Canada. In Quebec, almost 85 percent of the population is French-speaking, and that population has created a uniquely prosperous and dynamic Francophone culture: indeed, I'm sure you are all very familiar with its many accomplishments.
As we all know, the province of Quebec is the second largest French-speaking region in the world, after France. Montreal ranks only below Paris in the number of Francophone residents, ahead of both Lyon and Marseilles. Quebec business people, artists, and writers have made a vibrant, creative mark on this corner of the continent that unites their French heritage and their North-American environment.
Elsewhere in Canada, most of the population is English-speaking, although major concentrations of French speakers can be found, especially in New Brunswick and Ontario. What is less well known, especially outside the country, is that there are linguistic minority communities in all Canadian provinces and territories that have decided to continue to live and flourish in their own language. I would like now to discuss those communities.
In Quebec, of course, the linguistic minority is Anglophone. It has existed for almost two and a half centuries. History allowed this community to establish itself, grow and prosper in relatively favourable conditions. Since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, Anglo-Quebecers have had to find a new footing and different ways of integrating into the life of their province. Most have made the transition well. Given that fact, I'm sure you will permit me to focus on French-language communities in the nine other provinces and three territories.
These minorities were established as the country was settled. First came the Acadians, whose strong roots and unique culture and customs made a lasting impression on Canada's Atlantic seaboard. This morning Mr. Thériault described the saga of Acadian settlement. I know that later we'll be talking about the economy of New Brunswick, where most Acadians live, and also about tourism in Acadia. By the end of this meeting, I'm sure we'll all have a much more intimate and colourful picture of Acadia, one made even more charming by the warm hospitality of our hosts.
Franco-Ontarians constitute another large, dynamic Francophone minority. I'm sure you'll understand my particular fondness for that community, as I was born and have lived most of my life in Ontario. The French were the first Europeans to venture into what today is called Ontario. Samuel de Champlain, Étienne Brûlé, and Jean Nicolet were among the first to bring their language into this immense region. In 1615, the first missionary arrived in Huronia, along the shores of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, and large French settlements existed in the Great Lakes region by the 17th century, in particular, Fort Pontchartrain in the Lake Erie region.
In the 1800s, a major wave of French immigrants made their way up the St. Lawrence and established themselves in the Ottawa Valley west of Montreal, as well as in Northern Ontario. These Franco-Ontarians made a vital contribution to the province's mining industry. Today's half-million Franco-Ontarians live in all parts of the province, especially in the East, around Ottawa; the North, around Sudbury; and in greater Toronto. Canadian-born Franco-Ontarians have been joined over the past few decades by thousands of French-speaking immigrants from Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East, creating a Francophone community with as many different accents as ethnic origins.
Western Canadian Francophones can be found in all the western provinces, from Manitoba to British Columbia. They number almost 200,000 and live in smaller communities. Their roots are among the oldest in that part of the country, even that part of the continent. French explorers, the first to reach the Rockies, were followed by missionaries and settlers; these groups lived harmoniously with the Native peoples of the Canadian Prairies, and even forged a French-speaking, Catholic Métis nation out of the French and Native populations. Up until the 1830s, these Francophones, whether Métis or not, formed most of the population of this vast territory, and some even dreamed of establishing a French-speaking Métis republic.
Since that time they have largely been supplanted, and have had to demonstrate an unwavering attachment to their language and culture in order to continue to develop in the midst of a huge ocean of English speakers lying in the shadow of the United States.
Our "walkabout" from east to west has highlighted the prolific, unbroken string of accomplishments made by Francophones in this country over four centuries - an epic reflected even in our place names. Crossing Canada by car or train, you can go from Grand'Terre in Newfoundland to Maillardville in British Columbia, by way of Mont Carmel in Prince Edward Island, Lac des Bois in Ontario, Rivière de la Paix in Alberta, Rivière de la Plume in the Yukon, and Grand Lac des Esclaves` in the Northwest Territories. More of the same French flavour is found in names like Grosses Coques in Nova Scotia, Petit-Rocher in New Brunswick, Cap aux Oies in Quebec City and Lac de la Miette in the Rockies, not to mention Île aux Coudres, Lac des Petits Poissons Blancs and Rivière Rouge!
Unfortunately, life is not always as poetic as geography. These linguistic communities have often had to fight against social, political and economic conditions that interfered with their growth and development. It would take much longer than the time we have remaining to discuss the lack of understanding they have often encountered, particularly from certain provincial governments; and the problems inherent in their existence, especially in the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
Instead, I would prefer to stress their determination to remain French and to pass the torch of language and culture to future generations. Here they have a certain number of advantages.
The first is numbers. Outside Quebec, there are one million Francophones all together. This is not negligible, especially given the fact that most live concentrated in areas such as eastern and northern Ontario and Acadia, especially here in New Brunswick. This fact makes for the critical mass necessary for the establishment of solid social and economic institutions.
The second asset is that most French-speaking communities are now responsible for managing their own educational institutions. This has not been accomplished painlessly. Although the right to school governance was given to Francophone parents by the Constitution Act, 1982, implementation met with a great deal of resistance, and it took the direct involvement of the Supreme Court of Canada to compel the educational authorities in the English-speaking provinces to give full effect to this right.
As for postsecondary education, a number of mostly bilingual institutions in several provinces provide university-level courses in French, and this network - the "Réseau national d'enseignement universitaire en français" - is constantly being expanded, amplified and improved. It is one of the Canadian Francophone community's proudest achievements.
The network is the brainchild of the "Regroupement des universités de la francophonie hors Québec," an association of 13 colleges and universities outside Quebec that provide all or part of their curricula in French. In 1997 the organization, realizing that the geographic distribution of Francophones presents considerable difficulties as regards university education, came up with the idea of the network. Considerable progress has already been made and it is expected to be fully operational within a few years.
The network provides an electronic link among the members of the group with a view to offsetting their lack of resources, especially financial resources, by the intensive use of new communication technologies. This allows existing institutions to enhance their expertise and offer services that it would otherwise be impossible to provide. In the short term, it also means that university programs in French may be delivered to Francophone communities not being served by an existing establishment.
Nine academic priority areas have been targeted by the network, among them, administration, education and engineering. The most basic and diverse needs of our communities will thus be better served. In short, the Réseau national d'enseignement universitaire en français is a modern, intelligent response by Francophone minorities to the challenges represented by geographic spread and the size of the country in which they live.
Another point favouring minority Francophone communities is the remarkable progress some of them have made on the economic front. This progress accompanied the development of education. Studies show that, at comparable levels of education, Canadian Francophones today have incomes more or less equal to their Anglophone counterparts. I'm pleased to say that Franco-Ontarian women earn slightly more, on average, than Ontario women as a whole. Of course, given the fact that there is still much work to be done on the education front, especially as regards university-level studies, and as functional illiteracy rates are still too high in some communities, there is still some catching up to do.
Canada's Francophone communities are also well served by a wide range of information media. Radio-Canada, which has long broadcast radio and television programs throughout the country, has recently been joined by the TVA network. TV5 and TFO are also active in many parts of Canada, and a rapidly growing network of community radio stations brings local news and culture in French to hundreds of cities and towns from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
I couldn't round out this brief overview of the media without saying a word about French newspapers and magazines outside Quebec, which are sufficiently numerous to form the Association de la presse Francophone. And, last but not least, the Internet and distance-learning have built bridges where geography has been too generous!
When talking about the French language in Canada, one cannot ignore a phenomenon that has taken on major importance over the past few decades: the increasing appreciation for things French, and the ability to speak French, of our fellow Anglophone citizens. The very symbol of this evolution is one of the great Canadian success stories, generally called "French immersion."
And what is French immersion, exactly? Well, in many Canadian schools, English-speaking children attend part or most of their classes in French. In other words, they learn math, chemistry and social studies in French, in schools that are often English. After a few years in this system, these children are sufficiently fluent to use French on the job market, and more particularly, to adopt an open, sympathetic attitude toward the language of Gabrielle Roy - an attitude that will, in years to come, constitute an important condition for the growth of French in Canada.
We can therefore say that French and French-speaking communities are alive and well in Canada, both in Quebec and in the other provinces. This does not, of course, mean that the fight for its growth and development has been won and we can now rest on our laurels. It would be unfortunate if I had given you that impression. In fact, on a predominantly English-speaking continent, faced with the spectre of the U.S. cultural steamroller, some battles have been won, but the war - if you'll forgive me such violent imagery - is still being fought.
I used the word "steamroller." This steamroller however, is a subtle, seductive, even friendly one. It has such names as Hollywood, rock music, American television, and Star Wars. In Canada, perhaps even more than in other parts of the world, these immensely powerful manifestations of popular U.S. culture are constantly beckoning, and bring the Anglo-American language in their wake.
But, to get back to our Francophone minorities, at the same time as they are facing new problems and leaving their small communities to join the melting pot of increasingly anonymous, English urban centres, they are forging new tools for survival and growth. These tools are literacy, education, economic development, the media, communication technologies, and new health and social institutions. They also include an abundant, dynamic network of community cultural and social associations and support from the federal government and, more and more, from certain provincial governments as well.
The main instrument, however, and that on which all the rest are founded, is the will and determination to continue to live in French, come what may, in this country and continent of ours.
I would therefore like to conclude on a note of hope, but also of vigilance. As always throughout their history, Francophone communities in Canada know that their survival depends on their persistence, effort, and resolve. Today, as in the past, they are determined to continue that fight.
Thank you for your attention.
