Franco-Ontarian Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Franco-Ontarians or Franco-Ontariens are francophone (French-speaking) residents of the Canadian province of Ontario. According to the 2001 Canadian census, there were 548,940 francophones in Ontario, comprising 4.8 per cent of the province's total population. Franco-Ontarians constitute the largest French-speaking community in Canada outside of Quebec.Although the majority of Franco-Ontarians are descended from traditional French-Canadian lineages in Quebec, the Franco-Ontarian community does include smaller populations from other French-speaking areas as well, including Acadians, Métis, Haitians and African and Asian francophones.
The Franco-Ontarian population is concentrated primarily in Northeastern Ontario, in the cities of Sudbury, North Bay and Timmins and a number of smaller towns, and in Eastern Ontario, in Ottawa, Cornwall and many rural farming communities.
Toronto also has a large francophone community -- the third largest in raw numbers behind Ottawa and Sudbury, in fact -- although due to the city's size Toronto's franco-ontarian community is only a small percentage of the total population, and is thus nowhere near as influential as it is in many smaller communities. There are also smaller pockets of francophone population elsewhere in the province, including communities such as Penetanguishene and Welland, and almost every community in Ontario has at least a few franco-ontarian residents.
In most communities, franco-ontarians are a minority, although they may be a large and influential minority. However, some smaller communities are in fact majority franco-ontarian. These include Hearst, Kapuskasing, West Nipissing, St. Charles, Clarence-Rockland, Champlain, Alfred and Hawkesbury.
The French presence in Ontario dates back to the establishment of the Mission of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons at Midland in 1649. Southern Ontario was, in fact, part of Quebec until Quebec was split into The Canadas in 1791.
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2 Government 3 Education 4 Media 5 Culture 6 The Franco-Ontario Flag 7 Controversies 8 Famous Franco-Ontarians |
The dialects of French spoken in Ontario are similar to but distinct from Quebec French. Due to the large English majority in the province, many English words are simply used in place of the proper French words when speaking French. One example is "un truck" or "un pickup" to refer to a pickup truck, when the standard French word is "camion".
This also occurs in Quebec French, to a lesser extent, although in recent years Quebec speakers have made a more concerted effort to reduce their use of anglicisms.
Although Ontario as a whole is not officially bilingual, the Ontario government's French Language Services Act of 1986 designates 23 areas of the province where provincial ministries and agencies are required to provide local French-language services to the public. An area is designated as a French service area if the francophone population is greater than 5,000 people or 10 per cent of the community's total population.
The French Language Services Act applies to provincial government services only. It does not require municipal governments to provide bilingual services. Municipal governments may choose to provide French language services, however.
The following census divisions are designated areas in their entirety:
The judicial system in Ontario is officially bilingual in all areas, although in some parts of the province a legal matter involving francophones may have to be transferred to another region where francophone services are more readily available. A francophone who wishes to be served in French by the judicial system cannot be refused this transfer if he or she cannot be served locally in French.
There are 44 municipalities in Ontario which are officially or functionally bilingual at the municipal level. Most of these are members of the Association des municipalités francophones de l'Ontario, or AFMO.
In the past, the Ontario government was often much less supportive of and often openly hostile toward the franco-ontarian community. Regulation 17, passed in 1912, forbade French-language instruction in Ontario schools. This was eventually rescinded, and Ontario now has eight French-language Catholic school boards and four French-language public school boards. Each of these school boards serves a significantly larger catchment area than an English-language school board in the province, due to the smaller francophone population.
Ontario has two exclusively francophone community colleges, La Cité collegiale in Ottawa (with a second campus in Hawkesbury) and Collège Boréal in Sudbury (with additional campuses in several Northern Ontario communities, and one in Toronto.) A third college, Collège des Grands-Lacs in Toronto, ceased operations in 2002. Its programs and services are now the Toronto campus of Collège Boréal. There is also a francophone college of agricultural technology in Alfred.
Ontario does not have any exclusively francophone universities. It does, however, have two universities which offer instruction in both English and French, Laurentian University in Sudbury and the University of Ottawa. As well, York University in Toronto has a bilingual federated college, Glendon College, although the university is otherwise an anglophone institution.
Ontario has one francophone daily newspaper, Le Droit in Ottawa. However, 17 other communities in Ontario are served by francophone community weekly papers, including L'Express de Toronto and Le voyageur in Sudbury.
The province has three Radio-Canada television affiliates, CBOFT in Ottawa, CBLFT in Toronto and CBEFT in Windsor, which have transmitters throughout the province. All three stations are identical in their programming except for local news. CBOFT produces all three newscasts.
The provincial government operates TFO, which has transmitters in 18 communities, but is otherwise available only on cable.
TVA, TV5 and RDI are available on all Ontario cable systems, as these channels are mandated by the CRTC for carriage by all Canadian cable operators. Where there is sufficient local demand for French-language television, Ontario cable systems may also offer French-language channels such as TQS, MusiquePlus and RDS, although these channels only have discretionary status outside of Quebec.
On radio, the franco-ontarian community is served primarily by Radio-Canada's La Première Chaîne, which has originating stations in Ottawa, Toronto and Sudbury, with rebroadcasters throughout Ontario. Espace Musique, Radio-Canada's arts and culture network, currently broadcasts only in Ottawa, Toronto, Sudbury and Paris, although Windsor is scheduled to begin receiving this service in 2005.
Non-profit francophone community stations exist in several communities, including Penetanguishene, Hearst, Kapuskasing, Cornwall and North Bay. A new station, CKIE, will begin broadcasting in Toronto in 2005. Most campus radio stations air one or two hours per week of French-language programming as well, although only CHUO at the University of Ottawa and CKLU at Laurentian University are officially bilingual stations.
Francophone commercial radio stations exist in Sudbury, Timmins and Kapuskasing. Ottawa francophones are served by the commercial radio stations licensed to Gatineau, and many other Eastern Ontario communities are within the broadcast range of the Gatineau and Montreal media markets.
The primary cultural organization of the franco-ontarian community is the Association canadienne-française de l'Ontario, or ACFO, which coordinates many of the community's cultural and political activities.
Eight professional theatre companies offer French language theatrical productions, including four companies in Ottawa (Théâtre du Trillium, Théâtre du Vieille 17, Vox Théâtre and Théâtre la Catapulte), one in Sudbury (La Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario) and three in Toronto (Théâtre Corpus, Théâtre La Tangente and Théâtre français de Toronto). There are also numerous community theatre groups and school theatre groups.
Annual music festivals include La Nuit sur l'étang in Sudbury and the Festival Franco-ontarien in Ottawa.
Ontario has seven francophone publishing companies, including Sudbury's Prise de parole and Ottawa's Editions Le Nordir.
Through its proximity to Gatineau, Ottawa is the only Ontario community which has consistent access to French-language films. However, Cinéfest in Sudbury and the Toronto International Film Festival both include francophone films in their annual festival programs, and community groups in many communities offer French film screenings when possible.
See also List of French Canadian writers from outside Quebec.
Ironically, in 2003 a controversy arose in Sudbury when the city government voted against flying the flag at Tom Davies Square for St. Jean Baptiste Day, claiming that it would be inappropriate for the city government to display on public property a symbol representative of only a portion of the city's population.
In the late 1980s, several Ontario towns and cities (most notably Sault Ste. Marie) were persuaded by the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada to declare themselves English-only in the wake of the French Language Services Act and the Meech Lake Accord debate. This was considered by many observers to be a direct contributor to the resurgence of the Quebec sovereignty movement in the 1990s, and consequently to the 1995 Quebec referendum.
It should also be noted that franco-ontarian may also include people born in Ontario whose heritage is French-Canadian, but who are raised as anglophones. The preservation of French language and identity in Ontario has been one of the major challenges facing the franco-ontarian community in recent years, with some franco-ontarians becoming virtually assimilated into Ontario's English-language mainstream. This is not to suggest that all franco-ontarians who speak English are assimilated, as many are in fact fluently bilingual. However, as with many linguistic minority groups, the pressure toward assimilation does exist and is viewed as potentially having long-term consequences for the health and vibrancy of the franco-ontarian community.
Quebec writer Yves Beauchemin once controversially referred to the franco-ontarian community as "warm corpses" who had no chance of surviving as a community. However, the Quebec government provides significant financial assistance to franco-ontarian cultural groups and organizations, as it believes that it has a responsibility to assist in supporting and protecting French-language minority communities throughout Canada.
On October 19, 2004 a Toronto lawyer successfully challenged a traffic ticket on the basis that the city had not posted bilingual traffic signs in accordance with the 1986 French Language Services Act. The city of Toronto is currently expected to appeal this decision. The results of that appeal may significantly change the nature of municipal responsibilities concerning services to their franco-ontarian residents, but the appeal may also overturn the decision as a legal error since the Act had not previously been deemed to cover municipal government services.
This is an Article on Franco-Ontarian. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Franco-Ontarian Language
Government
The following census divisions are not fully designated areas, but have communities within their borders which are designated for bilingual services:
The Office of Francophone Affairs is the government agency responsible for ensuring that French language services are provided. Francophones who live in non-designated areas can also receive French language services by directly contacting the Office of Francophone Affairs in Toronto, or in the nearest designated community. The cabinet minister currently responsible for the Office of Francophone Affairs is Madeleine Meilleur.Education
Media
Culture
The Franco-Ontario Flag
The Franco-Ontarian flag consists of two bands of green and white. The left portion has a solid light green background with a white fleur-de-lys in the middle, while the right portion has a solid white background with a stylized green trillium in the middle. The green represents the summer months, while the white represents the winter months. The trillium is the floral symbol of Ontario, while the fleur-de-lys represents the French heritage of the Franco-Ontarian community.
The flag was designed in 1975 by a group of university students in Sudbury, and flown for the first time at Laurentian University. It was officially recognized as the emblem of the Franco-Ontarian community in the Franco-Ontarian Emblem Act of 2001. Controversies
Famous Franco-Ontarians