GREF Conference: A Look Back (Part 2 of 2) Last week I had the pleasure of being a guest panelist at the biannual GREF conference, a national congress that brings teachers, educators and administrators in French language education from across Canada together in one room.
The theme of the workshop that I attended at the GREF conference* was “French-language education, mainstay of the Francophonie as a political lever on the regional, national and global stage”. Obviously I cannot disagree with this concept. Two years ago, we were celebrating the 100 anniversary of the infamous Regulation 17, which prohibited the teaching of French in Ontario’s schools. We can use the word “celebrating” because it was from this very important fact in our country’s history, which had far-reaching political repercussions, that French-Canadians in Ontario learned to mobilize and create instruments of public information (such as the newspaper Le Droit) and other groups, such as the ACFÉO, which became the ACFO and later the AFO*. We need only look back on all the school crises in Ontario (Penetanguishene, Cornwall, Sturgeon Falls, to name only a few) to realize that education is not just a political lever; it’s also political. Even the Montfort Hospital crisis has important connections with education, since it also had to do with training new doctors, in French. And now the Montfort has acquired the status of a university hospital. Indeed, one could easily argue that Ontario’s Francophonie has often made great leaps forward following political crises, in most cases education-related crises.
So are we in crisis today? I have to wonder if we aren’t going through another latent, quiet crisis. Of course, we have new institutions, acquired at great cost, particularly in the field of education. Our colleges and our school boards are still very new. We have the opportunity to exercise a direct influence, notably through those institutions, on the course of the history of Ontario’s Francophonie. But those institutions cannot address all the challenges of the day by themselves. And the challenges are legion: the falling birth rate, the identity issue, changing demographics, French spoken in school (outside the classroom), specialized services, acquisition of new schools (especially in Central-Southwestern Ontario) and, of course, the shortage of French-language programs at the postsecondary level. This list of challenges is far from complete.
And this is precisely the point I wanted to make. Perhaps it is time to take a moment to review all these challenges together – or at least a good number of them – and come up with a joint action plan, with specific timeframes and responsibilities assigned to those who must take action, in a decompartmentalized fashion, for the sake of the Franco-Ontarian community. What’s more – and I know I’m going to stir up some controversy here – I believe it’s time we also had a discussion with the immersion schools, which are our partners and natural allies. With all those parents who are only looking out for their children’s well-being – and enriching Ontarian society – by sending their children to immersion schools, we have to question ourselves when they say that they often feel, because of their own school boards, like second-class citizens, in Canada, a country where we share two official languages.
So we have opportunities to seize. Ontario has already made great strides by adopting the Inclusive Definition of Francophone (IDF). Nearly half of all the Francophones in the Greater Toronto Area were not born in Canada. That creates serious, wide-ranging issues, particularly in education. The world is shrinking. There are now 220 million French-speakers in the world. In 2050, there will be 880 million of us, and 80% of those Francophones will be in Africa. Indeed, it is high time French Ontario took its place in that world, to ensure that Ontarian society has every chance of collective enrichment. As an important aside, I commend our colleges for the inroads they are making on the African continent. It is certainly motivating on a personal level, but I am confident that it will also generate great returns, both financial and societal, for Ontario.
Hence I believe that the time may be ripe for discussions, in the form of estates general or another, led this time by the government or in close cooperation with the government. The RÉFO, the FESFO and the AFO have set an example by holding estates general on French-language postsecondary education in Ontario, with great success. I promise to give this matter further thought and return to it in the future.
*This website is in French-only
