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History

Acadia

The first French colony on North American soil was founded in 1604 on the shores of the Bay of Fundy at Port Royal, Nova Scotia. According to the 1671 census, the colony had 320 people. By 1714, the population had risen to 2,500 and by 1755 to 16,000. After the deportation of 1755, Acadians were widely scattered throughout the continent, settling particularly in the English-speaking colonies of the east coast of the United States, and in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Quebec in Canada.

It is estimated that at the turn of the 19th century there were 8400 Acadians in the Atlantic provinces and that these Acadians, along the coast where they lived, formed many communities on the fringes of the existing dominant society. While there is little doubt that because of their isolation they could not profit fully from a developing market economy, they were, nonetheless, able to develop their own culture and with the help of the clergy, an Acadian elite evolved that contributed to the development of colleges, convents, hospitals and charitable organizations.

From this contextual background emerged the stirrings of Acadian nationalism in the last decades of the 19th century. This was particularly true in New Brunswick, the principal centre of Acadian life in the Atlantic provinces, and where, by 1911, Acadians made up 28 percent of the population. Acadian nationalism, which began as cultural demands, soon turned to economic claims with elite Acadians striving to find solutions to problems of poverty, social inequality, and the lower educational attainment among Francophones.

With the 400th anniversary of the French presence in North America, the Acadians are inviting the world to a celebration of their eventful and rich history.

Francophone Ontario

Francophones settled in Ontario, particularly in the Detroit area and on the shores of the Georgian Bay from the beginning of the 18th century. However, the rapid expansion of Franco-Ontarian colonization did not begin until after 1850 when French Canadians from the valley of the St. Lawrence River moved westward. They settled in the Ottawa Valley all the way to Ottawa, in the Niagara Peninsula, in the Midland and Penetanguishene region, the Lake Nipissing region; and, at the beginning of the 20th century in regions more to the north where they now make up a large part of the population. Organized as they were around parishes, Franco-Ontarians developed a basically rural economy and while they joined in the growing capitalist economy in certain regions, few of them occupied management positions.

The Franco-Ontarian community organized itself principally around the family and the Catholic Church. French-language parishes proliferated, many schools were created, and a cultural life developed first in Ottawa then in other parts of the province. Such gains soon caused reactions in the British and Protestant majority who perceived them to be a threat. Tensions were exacerbated by increasing European immigration.

In 1912, the teaching of French in Ontario was forbidden, capping a series of repressive measures taken against French as a language of instruction. Dozens of trials were held. The Francophone community reacted with vigour such as women teachers organizing clandestine classes in their homes, without pay. It was not until 1927 that bilingual schools able to resume their activities.

It is against this backdrop of struggle for French schools in Ontario that Franco-Ontarian demands gained impetus. The struggle led to the development of a solid close-knit network which was responsible for the recent gains made by Franco-Ontarians and led to the January 1, 1998 establishment of twelve Francophone school boards to serve the 100,000 Francophone students in the province.

Recently, the Franco-Ontarian community rallied around Ottawa’s Montfort Hospital after the Ontario Government announced it would be closed down, in August 1997. This legal and political struggle ended early in 2001, when the Government chose not to appeal a decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal stating the order to close the hospital was illegal.

The French Fact in the West

Motivated by the desire to explore the continent and drawn by the fur trade, many Francophones came to the Prairies at the beginning of the 17th century. However, the real colonization only began with the arrival of the clergy in the 1820s. Father Provencher and Father Dumoulin, followed by the Oblates and the Grey Nuns towards the middle of the century, helped to create many Francophone enclaves in what eventually became Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. In British Columbia, French Canadians who, in 1838, were approximately 60% of the population of European origin, played an important role in provincial colonization. Their importance increased even more with the arrival of religious missions in 1840. A number of colonies were established, including the Red River colony which quickly became the centre of French life west of Ontario. The first French school was set up in 1819. As well, other institutions, sufficient in number to allow the community to grow, were established.

Francophone Metis along the shores of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers in Manitoba were the first Francophones present in the Canadian Prairies during the first half of the 19th century. The Metis gained self-affirmation by their resistance to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s monopoly and their resistance to the Government of Canada when Manitoba was created in 1870, and again later in 1885. Their relative importance to Francophone life in the West diminished gradually following these events and the accompanying repression to which they were subjected.

Francophone communities in the West grew with Francophone migration from Quebec. This began as an agricultural migration towards the Prairies in the middle of the 19th century, accelerating from 1880 to 1890, and ending during the first fifteen years of the twentieth century. The Catholic clergy played a central role as colonization was often the result of Catholic missionary initiatives. The deliberate policy of ensuring that Francophones settled in all parts of the Canadian West led to the establishment of Francophone centres in many different areas. Francophone communities grew, particularly in Saskatchewan, but also in Alberta where many French Canadian parishes were established. In the mountain regions of British Columbia and the Yukon, conditions allowed for little or no agriculture. Therefore, immigrants to those areas toward the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20 th century were attracted mostly by the potential for forestry and mining.

The desire for self-affirmation on the part of French-speaking people in the West took different forms. However, the struggle was fiercest in matters involving schooling and language. Western Francophones were also very active in ensuring the development of French-language radio and by the end of the 1950s they had already established four private French-language radio stations entirely financed by their communities.

The French Fact in the North

Before Confederation, the Hudson’s Bay Company was a dominant factor in the everyday life of people in the North. Francophones were active explorers of the northern territories and contributed to the development of the lucrative fur trade routes. Beginning in 1870, the discovery of gold deposits attracted thousands of prospectors including many French Canadians.

In 1869, the Hudson’s Bay Company ceded its territories to the new government. A large part of Quebec and Ontario and all of the western region of the country became known as the Northwest Territories. As time went by, these territories lost more and more land to the new provinces and their subsequent expansions, as well as to the Yukon Territory in 1898 and to Nunavut in 1999.

Canada’s decision to extend its borders out West forever changed the socio-political face of the region and the dominant culture became British. In 1892, the Northwest Territories formally adopted English as its only official language and in 1901 it became compulsory that English be the only teaching language. It was not until 1984 that the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly re-established French as an official language.

In the Yukon, French-language instruction was finally allowed in 1984. In 1990, Francophones in the Yukon created the first French-language school and began to manage their own school system.

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