It was a fashionable moment for francophones outside Quebec. Like when journalist Denise Bombardier insulted us – twice – on “Everyone talks about it”, saying that we had “almost disappeared”. Or every time Don Cherry cried out about the “French guys” on “Hockey Night in Canada.”
On a sleepy August afternoon last year, my socials lit up – CTV’s “The Social” was about us – about us! francophones in Canada! On TV!
We were electrified.
“Dothe French language must be protected in Canada?” asked “The Social”.
Well there. YES !
Inspired by an American rant published by Cult MTL, the since-deleted panel was led by contributors worthy of pause and praise. And yet, as often happens when Canada meets to discuss its two solitudes, Francophones outside Quebec have been eclipsed from the conversation — a powerful reminder to claim our voice, or live in the oblivion of Canada’s national consciousness.
The offer of “The Social” was a narrow and confusing definition of the Canadian Francophonie, centered on Quebec “tribalism”, postulating that French will be fine, because “there is a whole country called France” and pitting Francophone and Indigenous communities against each other in a hunger game for language rights.
Even public intellectual John Ralston Saul joined in the conversation, saying the panelists did not understand the challenges faced by minority language communities in Canada.
Yes.
The best. At worst, like many in Canada, they didn’t know we existed. We are the ones that “English Canada has forgotten”.
And even, here we are.
Where we live, we are not Quebec and we are certainly not France. We live on lands that we must not claim, but which have claimed us for centuries – working to be better allies with Indigenous communities as they reclaim land and language.
Where we live, speaking French is a political gesture. The same goes for the way we speak it, in tandem with English, Michif and Cree, Dioula and Kikongo, Arabic and Amazigh, Creole, a myriad of languages, all coming out of our languages as we embrace the constellation of our identities.
Where we live, we fight. French might not survive for generations to come. Our salvation lies in greater francophone immigration to our provinces, in modernizing the Official Languages Act, in funding our universities in Ontario and Alberta, and in defending the hard-won gains of generations that preceded us.
Where we live, we remind our young people that “we are, we will be” — we are, we are going to anchor them in centuries of French-speaking history, offer them a lingua franca that brings them closer to a global Franco-village.
Canada has forgotten us. As a result, “The Social” did the same.
From pop culture to political discourse, there should be nothing about us without us. The question — should French be protected in Canada? – still deserves to be answered. By us — the stubborn, the proud, the determined — in the wilderness of the Canadian Francophonie.
CA Movie
