After 15 years of struggle, parents from Clarence-Rockland, a municipality located east of Ottawa, are demanding that the construction of a French-speaking public secondary school become a “priority” of the Ontario government. Their children are currently forced to turn to the Catholic system, to travel dozens of kilometers or to abandon their language.
“When I arrived in Rockland, it must have been for the cohort of my second son, who is now in his second year of university,” says Josée Chalifoux, former president of the parents’ council of the Carrefour jeunesse school.
Fourteen years later, the Council of Public Schools of Eastern Ontario (CEPEO) still only administers this school in the territory of the majority French-speaking municipality. Franco-Ontarians who wish to continue their school career in their language in secondary school cannot therefore be served “in secularism”, laments Mme Chalifoux, since the only French-speaking establishment in the city is Catholic.
However, a “secondary campus” was gradually opened at Carrefour jeunesse, where a cohort of 11e year will be welcomed from the next school year. But the need for a true French-speaking public secondary school remains “glaring”, according to the CEPEO, which has made this project a “priority”.
“A lot of new people are settling in our region,” indicated in March the new president of the establishment’s parents’ council, Lindsay Doucet, in an interview with Duty. “And not everyone wants their children to attend Catholic schools. It’s important to have a choice. »
“Easier” in English
For memy Chalifoux and Doucet, there is no question of their children not studying in French. But due to the lack of a public school in their language, other families turn to the city’s Catholic establishment – or integrate the English-speaking system “to attend a secular system which is closer to home”, says Mme Doucet.
“The absence of a French-speaking public secondary school in Clarence-Rockland means that students must go to the Gisèle-Lalonde public secondary school in Orléans [dans l’est de la ville d’Ottawa]. Otherwise, they go to English-speaking schools,” confirms the CEPEO. Louis-Riel secondary school, another option a little further away and the only establishment where children can enroll in a sports-study program, is not accessible by school transportation for the residents of Clarence-Rockland. It is therefore the parents who must ensure the travel of their children.
“It’s easier to go to English, and it’s sad,” laments Mme Doucet. Because to continue their secular secondary education at the Gisèle-Lalonde school, the children must “travel kilometers and kilometers” by bus. This establishment has also been “at full capacity for several years now” due to the increase in the population of this French-speaking bastion, according to Mme Chalifoux, who also sits on the council of this school.
The multiple journeys required “a lot, a lot of patience” from the mother, whose offspring play sports and theater, in addition to being enrolled in the Harmonie program. “I didn’t want to penalize them because we didn’t have a high school in our region. […] This poses a significant dilemma for families in Eastern Ontario. »
Discouraged by years of unsuccessful struggle, Josée Chalifoux decided to move to Orléans in 2023. “They are brilliant students who have […] exceptional people, who have never been able to do that in their community,” says Lindsay Doucet with sadness. Her eldest daughter will go to Gisèle-Lalonde next year, but the mother hopes that the requested school will be built within five years, so that her two youngest children “can continue their education in [leur] community “.
In the hands of the provincial
Mme Doucet struggles to understand why the project, although declared a “priority” by the CEPEO, has still not seen the light of day. Land in the northeast of the city was reserved in 2014, then purchased by the school board in 2019 to build the school. “But the first shovelful of earth has still not arrived,” laments Mme Chalifoux.
According to the two women, there is no lack of support from the City or the CEPEO. Rather, they believe that it is now up to the Ontario government to release the funds. In its budget presented last week, Queen’s Park did not announce funding for the construction of a school in Clarence-Rockland. But the CEPEO is still “hopeful” to obtain funds, emphasizing that “the provincial budget does not make specific announcements regarding the construction of new schools.”
” There is […] other communities that have an urgent need,” recognizes Mme Doucet. But “we’ve been waiting for long enough. We want to be the priority! »
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.