As part of the month and day of March 20, which underlined the global Francophonie in a certain indifference, a few events were scheduled for the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie canadienne.
One of the themes chosen to launch the festivities can be summed up in the slogan: Minority adult. Indeed, one of the spokespersons for the event, the Franco-Quebec comedian and actor of Congolese origin Eddy King, invited high school students to take their place. One cannot help but make the connection with the challenges experienced by the animator himself and the members of cultural minorities.
While it is commendable to inspire Francophone youth to aspire to better things, the levers necessary for their development must still be at their disposal. Recently, several events that received little media coverage and occurred among Canadian Francophone minorities invite us to reflect on the unequal treatment of these communities outside Quebec.
We can think of the crisis over the project to abolish French immersion in New Brunswick schools, decried as much by the SANB (Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick) as by associations of English-speaking parents.1 or the difficulties for the province’s Francophone health network (Réseau de santé Vitalité) in maintaining essential services. There were also all the obstacles surrounding the establishment of the first French-only university in Ontario (Université de l’Ontario Français), which almost never opened its doors. And what about the recriminations of the FFCB (Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique) on their right of access to employment in French.2
When we watch the short film Pretty French produced by the other spokesperson for the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie, the Fransaskois singer-songwriter Alexis Normand, we realize all the constraints experienced by the Francophone community of Saskatchewan, the identity crisis between two linguistic realities and the specter of assimilation3.
While fiery and even fratricidal debates on the reform of the Official Languages Act are raging in Ottawa, it is relevant to question the roots of the French fact in Canada and Quebec.
Historically, French Canadians in Lower Canada have long been disadvantaged in terms of access to education as well as positions of political and economic power compared to the minority of British ancestry. In short, they faced systemic discrimination.
Little is said about it, but there are several earlier or contemporary examples of minorities dominating the power elite in a given region. These obviously include the consequences of European colonization, but also the struggles and power struggles in places like the United Kingdom (for example, Northern Ireland), the Middle East (Sunnis in Iraq before war) or Asia-Pacific (Japan then China). And for a minority to be able to influence an entire society, it is generally useful to have the support of a big brother or an external power, as can be seen in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Let’s come back to the francophones of Quebec who find themselves in a unique context where they represent a majority within their province, but a minority within the Americas. One could say that they were and still are in the majority in the minority, in addition to having been isolated in the absence of any outside help. To the great surprise, it is in this context that a multitude of actions have been triggered over the centuries which have made it possible to extract gains and ensure the survival of an entire people.
From rebellions to the Quiet Revolution, a secret organization was even formed in the 1920s called the Order of Jacques Cartier or “the Patent” to counterbalance the Orangemen, the Mason brothers and even the Ku Klux Klan who advocated Anglo superiority. -Saxon. Launched in Ontario and Quebec, and made up of well-known public figures such as Jean Drapeau and Bernard Landry, this secret society has had ramifications even in French-speaking minorities in Canada, such as in New Brunswick, where it is strongly believed that it led to the Emergence of a series of socio-economic emancipation measures within the framework of the “Equal Opportunities for All” policy promoted by the first Acadian elected premier of the province, Louis J. Robichaud. The whole thing is recounted by filmmaker Phil Comeau in an enlightening documentary4 5.
It is important to remember the historic advances and the audacity of many individuals in their struggles for their rights to really take their place. Nowadays, the Francophonie is full of great cultural diversity and it is important to bring to life this other international language, French, which is shared by more than 300 million speakers in the world.
As Eddy King said in one of his interviews, let’s first communicate the love of the French language. It is a fact that cultural minorities and indigenous communities still face great challenges, but who better than a majority minority people who have experienced systemic discrimination to transcend the boundaries of intolerance and continue to build a original and unique company in America?