Greenstone persists and signs: the Franco-Ontarian flag will no longer fly permanently over the city. The local municipal council decided Monday evening to maintain its policy adopted last February, following the recommendations made in a report in favor of the status quo.
During a meeting which took place on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, the municipal council reaffirmed its decision to only hoist the green and white flag a maximum of five days per year. However, this official symbol of the province has been floating permanently on Greenstone since 2015.
As recommended in the report, elected officials nevertheless committed to allocating financial support to Franco-Ontarian festivals, as well as providing multilingual signage and welcome signs in the new “community centers and playgrounds.”
But these measures do not fool the Assembly of the Francophonie of Ontario (AFO), which says it is “outraged” and intends to “find ways to resolve this impasse”. “The municipality has inflicted a significant affront on the Ontario Francophonie,” the president of the AFO, Fabien Hébert, reacted in a press release on Tuesday.
He accuses the City of having made an action marked by “Francophobia” sweeping aside “more than 400 years of Franco-Ontarian history.” “Instead of seeking rapprochement with the Franco-Ontarian community, the Town of Greenstone has instead chosen to turn its back on us. »
Mobilized since the adoption of the new flag arrangement policy last February, the Association des Francophones du Nord-Ouest de l’Ontario had nevertheless proposed to raise funds to purchase two flagpoles “intended for communities, including Aboriginal “. But this option, which aimed to permanently raise the Franco-Ontarian flag while being part of the “reconciliation” approach advocated by the municipality, was ruled out.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.
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