Statistics Canada has its definition, but in the field, French -speaking identity is an ocean of nuances. Between mother tongue, learned language, community participation and immigration, what characteristics give the right to identify as French -speaking when you live in a minority environment?
Is being French-speaking or speaking French is enough to determine an identity?
“For some yes, for some no,” nuances the actor Pascal Justin Boyer, animator of the documentary the last French Canadian.
The host, born in Quebec and having grown up in Ontario, considers himself today as “Montrealers”, since he resides in Montreal. “But if tomorrow I am redrawing in Ontario, it is sure and certain that I will put my beautiful Franco-Ontarian slippers,” he says.
But then, who can give or appropriate one of the French -speaking identities of the country when you live in a minority situation?
“It’s so complicated to answer this question,” he admits.
Beyond the postal code
Pascal Justin Boyer gives two definitions. The first: “If your postal code is in Ontario and you speak French, you are Franco-Ontarian”.
The other is more a “heart” affair: “Have you frequented a school, do you know your story, do you participate in the events, do you militate?”
Was a time, the border of French Canadian identity was quite precise: French-speaking, Catholic “and probably inscribed in a parish, a French-speaking community”, explains the Acadian of origin Joseph Yvon Thériault, professor of sociology of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
Today, the genealogical definition or that of a person of “French -speaking language that inhabits Canada […] A lot of problems poses, ”he continues.
The original definition does not apply to everyone. Many French -speaking people from Canada come from immigration or learned French later in their lives.
“I would identify the French -speaking today like the one who has a link with the French -speaking community. Either he went to school in French, or he has French-speaking parents, or he works in French, or he participates in the Franco-Ontarian or Acadian community. ”
The position of the French Canadian Youth Federation (FJCF) is clear: people who identify themselves as French speakers are. No need to campaign.
“We have evolved in our definition of the Francophonie,” explains its president, Simon Thériault. If we want to ensure the future of our Francophonie, we want to make sure that we continue to be proud to speak French. I think we have to be inclusive. “
“Francophones on the outskirts”
According to Pascal Justin Boyer, several organizations expand the definition of people included in the Francophonie, “a question that is not discouraged by the figures”. “We will not hide that if we want it to last, this beautiful trip from La Francophonie to Canada, we count a lot on immigration,” he said.
In reality, in certain communities, “Francophones and newcomers will live in“ juxtaposition ”, observes Pascal Justin Boyer. We accept that they are there, but they are not really there in its own right, which is a little problematic. ”
Immigrants often have the impression of being seen as “Francophones on the outskirts”, reports the associate professor of sociology at the University of Moncton, Leyla Sall. He met people who considered himself “customers, as an adjustment variable”.
The sociologist makes the difference between the definitions of the general population and the official definitions, which are, in his opinion, “much more inclusive”.
“There is a kind of schizophrenia, a double speech. In practice, there is ethnic nationalism which is very present, but in the official, symbolic definitions, there, it is very inclusive. ”
“Identities are not fixed over time,” said the Federal Acadian deputy Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault. The French language is a common point, but there is also culture and history. For newcomers, “the host community has a role to play in sharing our culture, making it accessible to newcomers”.
Acadian ambiguity
“We are a lot in self-identification. New arrivals, English speakers who learn French are welcome to say Acadians if they want to contribute to Acadia, “said the president of the National Society of Acadia (SNA), Martin Théberge.
In his eyes, the definition of the federalty that Acadians are French speakers living in Atlantic Canada is “not the right one”.
“It excludes lots of people. Language is not the only decisive, he observes. We are certainly a French -speaking people, but not all individuals are. ” He takes the example of English speakers who lost French, but identifying himself as Acadians because of their family origins.
The rector of the University of Sainte-Anne, in Nova Scotia, Kenneth Deveau, adheres to this “open and inclusive” vision: “The person must first self-identify, but after there is a double recognition, the community must also recognize it.”
“It is not easy, because the Acadian identity has deep historical and traumatic roots” which go back to the big disturbance and the deportation and which are transmitted through the generations, “he explains.
At the SNA, Martin Théberge wants to carry an opening message: immigrants and learners of French “can become Acadians if they want. This trauma may not be theirs, but it has made it possible to create the values of today to which they adhere. ”
“Acadians, there is great ambiguity. We can be defined by the territory: the Acadians are those who speak French and who are integrated into the Francophonie network in the Maritimes. Or we can define Acadia from the memory of the deportation. She is in Louisiana, among the Acadians of the United States, among the Acadians of Quebec, ”analyzes Joseph Yvon Thériault.
For the anecdote
Joseph Yvon Thériault remembers the time when Bernard Lord, a child of an English-speaking father and a French-speaking mother, was Prime Minister of New Brunswick. “Never would have an Acadian said that Bernard Lord was not a French-speaking Acadian,” he said.
At the same time, Ontario had as Prime Minister a certain Dalton McGuinty, brother of the current Federal Minister of National Defense, David McGuinty. The two have an English-speaking father and a Franco-Ontarian mother. “”[Dalton McGuinty] did not identify ourselves as French -speaking, but we could have appropriated it […]. I was wondering why the Franco-Ontarians did not appropriate it. ”
For politicians, Joseph Yvon Thériault believes that it is preferable to wait for them to define themselves as having a bond of belonging to a French-speaking community. “But that does not mean that the community cannot make advances so that they do it.”
Choose French
Rachel Barber, doctoral student in geography at Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ontario, is currently doing a research course in France. In a French -speaking school in North Bay and at Laurentian University, she studied in French from the 1st year to the baccalaureate. The one who fully identifies himself as a Franco-Ontarian launched an album of songs in French.
However, she has English as a mother tongue and is the only person in her family who speaks French.
Her school career allowed him “to really understand, what is the Franco-Ontarian identity and heritage,” she says. She remembers having chosen her own identity during an event of the Franco-Ontarian Youth Federation (Fesfo): “It was really at this time that I understood the slightly more claiming part of La Francophonie.”
She accepts that others can have different criteria. So that one can identify as a French-speaking, but not necessarily as Franco-Ontarian or Acadian. Identity, according to her, “is really a personal question”.
