Special Feature: The 25^th anniversary of the Charter

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms spawns a new generation

by Scott Verity Stevenson

Even a very narrow cross-section of young Canadians unearths a rich diversity of roots and viewpoints. If it took one, then two, national railways to unite us in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, clearly our two official languages cross the Canadian divides of this era.

From Vancouver Island to Lac St-Jean, the Acadian Shore to Sturgeon Falls; from Gaelic to English to French to Spanish; from minority to majority and vice versa; from hope to concern to optimism: four University of Ottawa students represent just some of the divides between us today—and speak the languages that unite us.

Amy Morris, Brigitte Noël, François Picard and Kate Stokes are all involved, bilingual senior undergraduate students with strong sensitivities to language. They were first interviewed for the Office of the Commissioner’s video, One Charter, Two Languages, A Thousand and One Voices, on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

A generation after the Charter was adopted, its offspring share a belief in bilingualism, pride in Canadian languages and a commitment beyond their generation to French as a first or second language.

Growing roots in British Columbia

“When you look at so much of the world, it’s rare to see just one language,” said Kate Stokes, in her third year majoring in history and minoring in Canadian studies. “In Canada, we’re a nation of immigrants. Personally, I think it’s wonderful if everyone can be comfortable in their language.

“I have a lot of [Francophone] friends who speak to me in English and I respond in French, to practise. It works well.”

Kate Stokes grew up in Sidney, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, where French roots still have some growing to do. She became bilingual by participating in a core French program from kindergarten through Grade 12, a two-month study exchange in Québec City, then a work exchange at Île-Perrot outside Montréal. Today, she takes some courses at the University of Ottawa in French and writes submissions in French “as much as I’m able to do.” She is motivated to learn French by “a thirst for being able to understand outside of your normal realm—realizing there are worlds out there incomprehensible to you.”

Travelling by train to Québec City in winter as a 15-year-old must have been a shock in itself. “That was a real immersion in the Canadian experience,” she said. “I’d never experienced -40 degrees before!”

Her exchange involved studying at Collège St-Charles Garnier during the months of February and March with Rosemarie Tremblay-Lemay, who then spent two months with Stokes studying at Parkland Secondary School in Sidney.

Family roots inspire a love for language as well. Kate Stokes’ grandmother Lucille (Dubord) Donnelly was a Franco-Albertan, her father took Gaelic immersion in school in Ireland, and her parents, Francophiles from different continents, met in their youth while travelling in France.

Ms Donnelly hadn’t passed French on to her children “because she wanted her husband to understand his kids,” Stokes said. That was in the 1950s—before the Official Languages Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms established and strengthened a new bond from sea to sea.

French, the language of the majority in Quebec

Growing up in Alma, Quebec, in the Lac St-Jean region, François Picard learned little of the Canadian Charter or the Official Languages Act. “Growing up in Quebec, we heard more about Bill 101.”

In Alma, the majority of the population is Francophone, but Picard nonetheless had the good fortune to study intensive English from Grade 6 through three years of high school, after which he also learned Spanish. Now a member of the minority language community in Ottawa, he advocates official bilingualism for the city. “It’s a little absurd that the national capital isn’t bilingual.”

Picard said his parents, Francophones from New Brunswick, speak basic English and can get along in part thanks to their university education. His grandparents, also Francophone, are from New Brunswick and Quebec.

Picard’s English was strengthened by family in New Brunswick and British Columbia, where French was spoken at home, but he also got to practise outside the home, at the corner store for example.

He chose the bilingual University of Ottawa because he wasn’t entirely comfortable enough in English for an English-language university, but he wanted the opportunity to “put my English to the test.” It has undoubtedly improved: he is vice-president of communications of the University of Ottawa’s student federation, whose prerequisite for members of the board is bilingualism, and he lives with his English-speaking girlfriend.

Deep pride in Ontario

Brigitte Noël’s father learned to be proud of his French the hard way: he was bullied for his French accent growing up in Windsor, Ontario. “It was very, very difficult,” she said. “He was harassed at school. He became very proud. Wherever he had raised us, he would have taught us French.”

In mostly French-speaking Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, and with a completely Francophone family, Brigitte Noël had no trouble keeping her first language—or her father’s pride in French. “It’s not just important to learn French. It’s not just French, but the pride that comes with it,” said Noël, who is studying communications and is vice-president of student affairs of the University’s student federation. “It’s important to learn the language’s history. Learning a language is fine, but when there’s not a lot associated with the language, it’s not worth very much.”

Struggling in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia, even the Acadian Shore, is not such an easy place to preserve one’s French.

“In our towns, all the business you do is in English; French is being left to the wayside,” said Amy Morris, who is Acadian, but for whom “English is my stronger language.”

“Everyone in my extended family is bilingual. In my nuclear family, we speak only in English.”

Although Morris’s parents are both Acadian, her mother grew up mostly in French and her father in English, due to his mother growing up in the United States.

Acadian French may predominate through Morris’s family tree, but the language of the majority in Nova Scotia is overpowering. “You can’t keep marrying within these villages. Acadians are becoming assimilated within Nova Scotia.”

The next generation: A focus on French and bilingualism

What of the future, then, for these four Charter-generation youth?

“I want my children to be bilingual,” said Morris, of Nova Scotia. “I’ll speak to them in French to ensure they’re bilingual.”

“For sure I want them to be Francophones, to be able to speak in French, and to be proud to do so,” said Brigitte Noël, of Ontario. “Learning English and other languages is also important. I don’t want it to be one or the other, English or a third language.”

“I know there are some people who are interested in learning only one language,” said Kate Stokes, of British Columbia. “In my small town there aren’t many kids studying French and English now. When it’s French versus woodworking, they’re choosing the trades.

“I definitely want to learn more languages as I go along,” she said. “It’s absolutely important if you can understand another language. I would love [my own family] to have as many languages as possible.”

If François Picard has children, “They will definitely learn French. It’s an asset to learn both languages.”

French has “a bright future ahead of it. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to fight for it though,” he added.

The Official Languages Act was first adopted in 1969, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, protecting English and French even further, in 1982.