Before the end of the year, the alternating visits between the Prime Ministers of France and Quebec will resume and this meeting to be held in Quebec will represent an opportunity to be seized. Let’s hope that it will mark the kick-off of a true French-speaking and international counter-offensive.
Between now and the Francophonie summit in Paris scheduled for 2024, together, let’s aim to rally as many countries as possible around an ambitious Action Plan for the “discoverability” of French-speaking local content, as called for by the columnist Jean-Benoît Nadeau.
And at the same time, despite the failures of QUB in Quebec and Salto in France, let’s try to set up a platform that will bring together initiatives from all over the French-speaking world, from Africa to the Maghreb, from Asia to Europe. and in the Americas. From TV5MONDEplus which already includes several public channels from the North and which deserves to be much better known.
That this great rallying takes place for the cause of multilingualism as well as the influence of French. The cultural offer in French is rich and multiple and it is, consequently, on the request that it is necessary to work to make it attractive. On the algorithms that replace our booksellers and our record stores, analyze our tastes and influence our choices, on the metadata that allow the multinationals of the web to decide for us and which have become an obstacle to discoverability.
Our Prime Ministers will be able to draw inspiration from the winning strategy developed by Lucien Bouchard and Lionel Jospin and used during the fight for cultural diversity from 1998. Based on the work already carried out jointly by France and Quebec (report awarded in 2019), as well as those of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), UNESCO, the European Union and the OECD.
Everything is in place: it’s time for decisions. We must conclude and move.
In our case, in Quebec, in complementarity with Bill C-11 about to be adopted in Ottawa and in France, based on what the European Union has already put in place as measures. This does not prevent either France or Quebec from assuming their own responsibility and their own competence vis-à-vis French and their respective cultures. And act accordingly.
Last November, we appealed to Prime Minister Legault on the eve of the Francophonie summit to be held in Djerba1. We encourage it to take “leadership to ensure the sustainability of the French language in Quebec and around the world” as well as for the “discoverability” of French-language content on major platforms, mainly American ones.
We should be pleased with the commitments made at the time by the Premier of Quebec, who was one of the most present and active Heads of State at this summit.
In July 2012, our national capital, Quebec, welcomed more than 2,000 young Francophones from 93 countries, during the first World Forum of the French language. This idea of the visionary Abdou Diouf, then Secretary General of La Francophonie and implemented by the diplomat Michel Audet, was a resounding success. The most pressing appeal from young people concerned the urgency of producing and making accessible French-language content. The vast consultation of thousands of young Francophones by the OIF has confirmed this expectation, which has not yet been met.
Today, 11 years later, the OIF has finally fully understood this urgency to act together by celebrating today, March 20, International Day of La Francophonie, the wealth of cultural content contained in its space under the theme “321 million French speakers, billions of cultural content!” » 2.
Of course, beyond the figures, there are facts, daily practices, major geopolitical and geocultural developments that should encourage us to act quickly.
A language cannot survive confinement. It never circulates better than with its speakers. We cannot want the influence of the French language and at the same time close our borders to those who speak French, who study in French, who create in French, who do business in French!
Finally, the role of civil society, bringing together all the actors of cultural ecosystems in national coalitions in some thirty countries, including several French-speaking countries, and that of their International Federation, whose secretariat is based in Montreal, is essential and has proven its worth. .
Without them nothing will be possible. They are at the heart of the solution.
Faced with the eminent risk of our marginalization, we, Quebecers and Francophones around the world, are leading an energetic counter-offensive against the digital barbarians so well described by Alain Saulnier.3. Hurry up.
3. The digital barbariansby Alain Saulnier, Ecosociety, 2022