The committee of citizens campaigning for the change of name of the University of Moncton says it is very disappointed by the decision of the study group of the Acadian institution, which decided not to move.
Both the university and the city take their name from Robert Monckton (1726-1782), a high-ranking officer in the British colonial army. The man is partly responsible for the deportation of Acadians and abuse against the Mi’kmaq. Leaders in this community also support the idea that the university should change its name. Monckton worked to arrest Acadians, burn their villages and organize the deportation by boat of 1,100 people. The “k” in his name has disappeared in today’s spelling.
“It is not the official languages law that will counter assimilation” in New Brunswick, argues the co-spokesperson of the movement, Lise Ouellette. For her, symbols matter more than ever. A well-known public woman, Lise Ouellette was for a long time director of the Edmundston campus of the New Brunswick Community College. She considers that Acadians owe it to themselves to respect their collective identity. And according to her, changing the name of their academic institution is part of it.
“We are very disappointed with the reaction of the university,” he also told the Duty Jean-Marie Nadeau (no relation to the author of this text), the other co-spokesperson of this citizens’ committee. “Several citizens, personalities and practically the entire artistic community are in favor of changing the name. »
Monckton, an anti-French symbol
For them, former governor Robert Monckton forever remains the strong symbol of historical opposition to the French language and the culture that accompanies it. It therefore makes no sense that the main French-speaking institution of higher education in Acadia continues to bear his name.
Jean-Marie Nadeau says he is both “disappointed and surprised” by the decision of the University Council to resolve the question of changing the name “without offering the community the opportunity to participate in a reflection” on the question. “In principle, a university encourages debate, it is not there to muzzle it. Pretending as if Moncton was a simple geographical description doesn’t hold water, everyone knows where it comes from. And the only French university, the one which affirms the importance of Acadia, should have an English name? So let’s see! »
Over the past 50 years, nearly 200 American universities and colleges have changed their names, not to mention institutions in Germany, New Zealand and elsewhere. “The University report itself gives solid arguments for the name change,” said Mr. Nadeau. Moreover, he continues, these universities had seen fit to set up public consultations, a process that the University of Moncton “rejected out of hand in its report” on the issue. It’s already a problem, he judges.
“It took Ryerson University 10 years [maintenant connue sous le nom d’Université métropolitaine de Toronto] to change your name. We certainly don’t want it to take 10 years! » says Lise Ouellette, determined to push her action in this direction even further.
The Acadian University pleaded in favor of a “contextualization of the name Moncton/Monckton” to explain its origin. When the university was founded in 1963, it would have been “clearly too risky to choose a name that reflects its Acadian and French-speaking mission,” admits the committee campaigning for the change of the name of the institution. But today, there is nothing to support this erasure of an identity in defiance of the community, believes Jean-Marie Nadeau.
A question of costs?
One of the main arguments cited by the University of Moncton to refuse a name change is that of costs. Inflated and overestimated costs, believe those who would like the Acadian institution to change its identity without delay. This is precisely the argument always used by opponents of French in New Brunswick, recalls Jean-Marie Nadeau. “This is an unfounded and very dangerous argument, which uses the main argument of anti-bilingualism activists – costs – to justify rollbacks. »
For him, this is an argument that does not hold water. “In 2023, this argument is no longer valid. While the slogan of the University’s new strategic plan is “Heading for the future,” it is turning to a frankly backward-looking approach to justify the status quo,” underlines Mr. Nadeau. In addition, the Acadian university claims to be committed “to the transformation of society” and to support the decolonization of Canadian institutions: abandoning the name of Moncton is clearly part of this path, he notes.