Francophone Minorities: From a Homogeneous Representation to the Construction of a Plural Identity

Notes

• I wish to thank ARCS'S anonymous readers for their very precise comments. I also want to thank Doug Werden for his numerous remarks and questions.
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• For examples, see the journals: Reflet: Revue ontaroise d'intervention sociale; Francophonies d'Amérique; Revue de l'Université de Moncton.
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• Even in “classics” about those debates, the discussions do not take into account the intersections of the politics of bilingualism and multiculturalism for Francophones communities. See the works of Will Kymlicka, Charles Taylor, James Tully, and the more recent works of Joseph H. Carens, Yasmeen Abu-Laban.
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• Robert M. Campbell, “Canadian Studies at the Millennium: The Journey Continues,” Journal of Canadian Studies 35, no. 1 (2000): 5–26.
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• Richard Cavell, “Theorizing Canadian Space: Postcolonial Articulations,” in Theoretical Discourse, Discours théoriques, ed. Terry Goldie, Carmen Lambert, and Rowland Lorimer (Montréal: Association d'etudes canadiennes, 1994).
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• Immigration and the Vitality of Canada's Official Language Communities: Policy, Demography and Identity (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 2002). http://www.ocol-clo.gc.ca/imm_recom-f.htm. Accessed 15 March 2006.
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• Action Plan for Official Language: The Next Act: New Momentum for Canada's Linguistic Duality (Privy Council of Canada, 2003). http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/olo/default.asp?Language=E&page=action&doc=cover_e.htm. Accessed 16 July 2007.
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• Strategic Plan to Foster Immigration to Francophone Minority Communities. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (Francophone Minority Communities Steering Committee, 2006). http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pub/plan-minorities.html. Accessed 10 November 2006.
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• Annual Report 2007 (Commissioner of Official Languages, 2007). http://www.ocol-clo.gc.ca/archives/ar_ra/2006_07/2006_07_e.pdf. Accessed 5 July 2007. The elimination of the funding for the Court Challenges program in September 2006 also raises deep concerns for Francophone minorities and Acadians, among many other groups.
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• A Sharper view: Evaluating the Vitality of Official Language Communities (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, 2006). http://www.clo-ocol.gc.ca/archives/sst_es/2006/vitality_vitalite/vitality_vitalite_e.pdf. Accessed 9 July 2007.
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• Forum: 1) Our population over 1 million in 2017 (FCFA, 2007). http://www.fcfa.ca/home/index.cfm?id=339. Accessed 9 July 2007.
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• On the concept of a rightful way of belonging, see Hakan G. Sicakkan and Yngve Lithman, Changing the Basis of Citizenship in the Modern State: Political Theory and the Politics of Diversity (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005), p. 71.
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• Jocelyn Maclure, “Between Nation and Dissemination: Revisiting the Tension between National Identity and Diversity,” in The Conditions of Diversity in Multinational Democracies, ed. Alain-G. Gagnon, Montserrat Guibernau, and François Rocher (Montréal: IRPP, 2003), p. 43.
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• The expression “marginalized” is borrowed from Linda Cardinal. She uses the expression “clandestinité.” Linda Cardinal, “Ruptures et fragmentations de I'identité francophone en milieu minoritaire: un bilan critique,” Sociologie et sociétés 26, no. 1 (1994): 71–86.
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• Christina Cameron, “The Spirit of the Place: The Physical Memory of Canada,” Journal of Canadian Studies 35, no. 1 (2000): 77. This generalization presents a reductivist vision of the identity and falls into the stereotypes of a Canadian identity.
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• For an example of analysis taking into account differences within a social group, see Caroline Dick, “The Politics of Intragroup Difference: First Nations Women and the Sawridge Dispute,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 39, no. 1 (2006): 97–116.
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• Découvrez la colline: Guide pour une visite autonome à l'extérieur (Commission de la capitale nationale. [s.l.], [s.d.]).
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• Jane Jenson, “Mapping, Naming and Remembering: Globalization at the End of the Twentieth Century,” in Integration and Fragmentation, ed. Guy Laforest and Douglas Brown (Kingston: Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, 1992).
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• See the change of the name Association canadienne-française de l'Ontario for Assemblée de la Francophonie de l'Ontario. Also the Association multiculturelle francophone de l'Alberta.
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• French-Speaking Population in Alberta: French mother-tongue population: 62,241 (2.1%) Population with a knowledge of both official languages: 202,905 (6.9%) Total Population: 2,941,150 Source: Census 2001: Profile of Languages in Canada: English, French and Many Others (Statistics Canada. 2001). Catalogue number: 96F0030XIE2001005. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/lang/contents.cfm. Accessed 19 March 2006.
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• Edmund Aunger, “Dispersed Minorities and Segmental Automony: French-Language School Boards in Canada,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 2, no. 2 (1996): 196. See also Michael D. Behiels, Canada's Francophone Minority Communities: Constitutional Renewal and the Winning of School Governance (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004).
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• See Appendix 1 for the text of section 23.
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• Special Study: Rights, Schools and Communities in Minority Contexts: 1986–2002. Toward the Development of French Through Education, an Analysis (Angéline Martel, Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2001). http://www.ocol-clo.gc.ca/archives/sst_es/2001/rights_droits/rights_droits_2001-e.htm#. Anchor-Moreove-47059. Accessed 15 November 2006.
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• My translation. La combat des communautés minoritaires pour avoir leurs écoles (Radio-Canada, 2006). Radio-canada.ca/regions/manitoba/Dossiers/271004ecolefrancaise_9929.shtml. Accessed 12 March 2006.
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• Mahé c. Alberta, 1990 1 RCS 342.
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• It is necessary to clarify that it is not because a person is Catholic that she/he is against diversity and plurality. This distinction is used because this is how the two camps constructed each other.
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• Paul Dubé, “De la parole aux actes: plaidoyer pour l'hétérogène à l'école de la minorité francophone,” in L'Alberta et le multiculturalisme francophone: Témoignages et problématiques, ed. Josée Bergeron and Claude Couture (Edmonton: Centre d'Études canadiennes de la Faculté Saint-Jean and Association multiculturelle francophone de l'Alberta, 2002), p. 94.
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• See Appendix 2 for the diversity of immigration.
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• My translation. Átienne Alary, “Des parents veulent la parité entre le secteur catholique et public à Edmonton,” Le Franco, week of 24—30 March 2006. http://www.lefranco.ab.ca. Accessed 5 April 2006.
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• My translation. Ibid.
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• Although it might seem trifling at first, there was a major struggle over how to decide if someone could vote for the public or the Catholic school board. On the surface, the question to separate the two groups was, “Are you a Catholic?” However, this made it impossible for a Catholic to vote for a public school board member even if that voter wanted to send his or her child to the public system. Only recently, after several years of fighting, has this system been changed.
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• Phyllis Dalley, “Le multiculturalisme et l'école de la minorité francophone au Canada,” in L'Alberta et le multiculturalisme francophone: Témoignages et problématiques, ed. Josée Bergeron and Claude Couture (Edmonton: Centre s'Etudes canadiennes de la Faculté Saint-Jean and Association multiculturelle francophone de l'Alberta, 2002), p. 129. My translation.
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• Another example of the tensions is the following. In the 1990s, the Alberta Ministry of Education consulted with Francophones, Anglophones, and Native groups regarding the teaching of social sciences from K to 12th grade. The Direction of French Education supports intercultural education. This dimension was underlined as essential at the time of the consultations. During her interviews with Francophone teachers, Laura Thomson discovered that they all support “… intercultural dimension within the French school in minority context.” (My translation. Laura Thomson, “L'enseignement de la francophonie mondiale: La situation actuelle dam les écoles secondaires francophones en Alberta,” M.Ed. Faculté Saint-Jean, University of Alberta, 2001]:87.) However, she also notes that actions do not necessarily follow: “[L]ack of training, of information and of collaboration from the minority group” are major obstacles for the teaching of a plural Francophonie. (My translation. Ibid, p. 139.) As an analysis of the French programs of social studies of Alberta, this source shows “that there is little place granted to the world francophonie in the school syllabus.” (My translation. Ibid, p. 2.)
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• My translation. Gilles Bourque and Jules Duchastel, L'identité fragmentée (Montréal: Fides, 1996), p. 42.
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• Homi K. Bhabha, Nation and Narration (New York Routledge, 2002), p. 4.
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• Jean Lafontant, “Les défis du multiculturalisme francophone en Alberta,” Texte inaugural préparé pour la conférence: Les défis du multiculturalisme francophone en Alberta (Edmonton: Faculté Saint-Jean, University of Alberta, 2001).
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• Josée Bergeron and Claude Couture, L'Alberta et le multiculuralisme francophone: Témoignages et problématiques (Edmonton: Centre d'Études canadiennes de la Faculté Saint-Jean and Association multiculturelle francophone de l'Alberta, 2002), p. 16.
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• Angus, “Locality and Universalization: Where Is Canadian Studies?” p. 31.
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• Claude Couture and Jean-Fraçois Cardin, Histoire du Canada Espace et différences (Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval, 1997).
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