A Quebecer tries to obtain her French nationality by asserting the rights of her settler ancestors who refused to leave New France after the British conquest.
“Since I was little, I have been immersed in French culture. I have always felt more French than Canadian. I don’t have a feeling of belonging to Canada,” says Suzanne Lachance, who lives in Longueuil.
The idea of obtaining French nationality is not new for this 72-year-old woman. In fact, she has been thinking about it since the 1980s, when François Lubrina, former representative of French people abroad, launched a petition for France to recognize the nationality of former French people in Canada. Twenty thousand people put their signatures on it, including Mme Luck.
In 2009, another Quebecer, Marie Mance Vallée, also filed the same request. But the file was rejected on the pretext that France ceded its territory to the British with the Treaty of Paris of 1763.
- Listen to the interview with Suzanne Lachance and historian Édouard Baraton on Mario Dumont’s microphone at QUB:
Proofreading
Today, thanks to a French historian based in Quebec, Édouard Baraton, Suzanne Lachance sees hope in the development of her approach.
As part of his doctoral thesis focusing in particular on the question of reintegration into French nationality, Mr. Baraton analyzed the texts dealing with these questions from 1763, when France ceded New France to the British.
Édouard Baraton, historian
Photo Martin Alarie
“In the decisions of the time, the French authorities affirmed that the “natural French” populations had retained their “naturalness”, just like their descendants. However, French law requires respecting this achievement, contradicting the ministerial response of 2010 [dans le dossier de Marie Mance Vallée]», affirms the historian.
Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV had indicated in two Charters that “the descendants of the French who will get used to the said country […] will be considered and deemed French naturals, and as such will be able to come and live in France whenever they wish […]without being required to take any letter of declaration or naturalness”.
Long process
Confident, Suzanne Lachance therefore decided to completely relaunch herself in the obtaining process in recent years, out of principle and to reconnect with her French roots.
“It’s very long, because you have to have a genealogist to certify the family tree which goes back to 1763 or even my legal file,” explains Mme Lachance, who is a descendant of Antoine Pépin known as “Lachance”, a Norman from Le Havre who immigrated to New France in 1652.
The latter must also “have either retained or acquired clear cultural, professional, economic or family ties with France”, we can read in article 21-14 of the French Civil Code, concerning the acquisition of the French nationality.
Thanks to her personal investment as president of the Association Québec-France Montérégie, she believes she meets this condition.
“Now, my file is submitted to the French consulate in Montreal, now it is to the French Minister of Justice [Éric Dupont-Moretti] to make a decision,” says Mme Luck.