One of the only bilingual candidates in the race for mayor of Ottawa, Mark Sutcliffe, has already won the hearts of influential members of the Francophone community. A letter of which The duty has obtained copy invites the community to a fundraising activity even before the candidate has presented a French-language platform. But according to some experts, his support for the Franco-Ontarian cause is far from certain, just like among his opponents.
The former journalist is one of two candidates who split from the pack in the race for mayor of Ottawa. He is the main opponent of Catherine McKenney, an adviser since 2014 in the federal capital.
Like almost all candidates, Catherine McKenney, who uses the pronoun iel, does not speak French. This did not prevent him from taking the lead, according to two surveys by the firm Mainstreet. The most recent, carried out in September, gives him a lead of more than 10 percentage points over his main opponent.
Mark Sutcliffe can, however, count on the support of Ronald Caza, one of the best-known figures in French Ontario by virtue of his defense of Hôpital Montfort in the late 1990s. On September 23, the lawyer, a longtime acquaintance of the nominee, sent a letter asking 25 community members to attend a fundraising dinner. “Our future as a Francophone linguistic minority in the city is at stake,” the letter reads.
The lawyer’s letter leaves University of French Ontario professor Linda Cardinal “a little indifferent”. The former member of the Movement for an officially bilingual capital predicts that there will be “more continuity than change” after the election. “Mark Sutcliffe speaks a little French, but does he have any sensitivity towards French speakers? she asks herself.
“We don’t hear French spoken during the campaign,” notes Anne Mévellec, professor of political studies at the University of Ottawa.
If elected, Catherine McKenney intends to carry out an audit to determine the flaws in the services provided in French by the City. They don’t have any other elements on the matter in their platform. “I think a lot about French since my election in 2014,” he says, however.
Mark Sutcliffe must for his part publish a complete French-language platform around October 7. He has so far proposed increasing recreational and municipal services in French in Ottawa. “I want to make sure that young people have the opportunity to learn French,” he says. Neither, however, presented major reforms to the City’s language policies.
The politics of compromise
The City of Ottawa’s bilingualism policy is a key text in the French-speaking life of the capital: it notably governs the offer of municipal services in French and the place of the language at City Hall.
After a long fight to make the federal capital a bilingual city, in 2017, 16 years after its creation, the policy was enshrined in the law establishing the municipality. The municipal council can thus no longer repeal it, but it can weaken it. University of Ottawa professor Gilles LeVasseur describes the agreement as the “ultimate compromise” between the municipality and the Francophone community of Ottawa.
According to some members of the community, however, the policy could be improved or, at the very least, better implemented. According to Linda Cardinal, under a provision of derogation, unilingual Anglophone executives can “easily” be hired by the City even if their position must in principle be bilingual. “The mayor can say: ‘We haven’t found a competent person, so we would like to hire a unilingual Anglophone’”, she illustrates.
Catherine McKenney participated in several meetings of the municipal council resulting in the hiring of a unilingual Anglophone manager. “We only hire a [unilingue] Anglophone only after serious reflection,” he said. As mayor, he promises to ensure that the clause providing for the hiring of bilingual executives whenever possible is more respected.
Mark Sutcliffe, for his part, thinks that the City of Ottawa must give more importance to the hiring of bilingual executives. The former journalist, however, could not specify whether his French-language platform would contain an element on the subject.
Linda Cardinal was among those who hoped that the official recognition of bilingualism by the City of Ottawa would lead to better protection of French in the municipal apparatus. The policy has instead remained unchanged ever since. “If we ensured that the spirit of the policy was respected and that we did not use mechanisms to derogate from it, that would be good”, argues Anne Mévellec for her part.
Éric Barrette, president of the Ottawa board of the Association canadienne-française de l’Ontario, does not expect any major changes to the policy. “You have to be patient and realistic,” he says.
” Everything can happen “
Even if his candidate of choice is not first in the polls, Me Ronald Caza believes that “anything can happen”. Lawyer Benoît Hubert, co-author of the letter sent to several members of the Franco-Ottawa intelligentsia, believes that it is important for Francophones in the capital to assert their interests to Mark Sutcliffe, especially since he is is an opportunity to be seen as “allies who supported him when he needed [de nous] “.
Catherine McKenney, meanwhile, maintains that she is always accessible and that she would never participate in an activity requiring a donation to be heard. “When we put our residents first, we can build a city hall that works for people, not just for influential donors,” he says.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.