C'est l'temps was a

Franco-Ontarian Franco-Ontarians (french: Franco-Ontariens or if female, sometimes known as ''Ontarois'' and ''Ontaroises'') are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2016, the Government of O ...

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a stat ...

movement in the mid-to-late-1970s over the lack of

Ontario government The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the p ...

services in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

. Over two dozen people were arrested, as activists monopolised police time on trivial traffic infractions, refused to pay fines, and sabotaged computer systems. The movement led to a significant increase in French-language service accessibility and the Ontario justice system becoming officially bilingual in 1984 and then the French Language Services Act in 1986.

Background

In 1967, Ontario Premier

John Robarts John Parmenter Robarts (January 11, 1917 – October 18, 1982) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th premier of Ontario from 1961 to 1971. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Early life Robar ...

pledged to offer services in French following the

Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (french: Commission royale d’enquête sur le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme, also known as the Bi and Bi Commission and the Laurendeau-Dunton Commission) was a Canadian royal commissio ...

, however, by the early 70s, and despite Robarts' successor

Bill Davis William Grenville Davis, (July 30, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Ontario from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the member of provincial Parliament for Peel in the 1959 provincial ...

, almost no progress had been made on the issue. At the same time, the separatist movement was gaining momentum in

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

, and regional French-Canadian identities began to assert their individuality.

Goals

The movement made six key demands: # An end to unilingual arrests and fines # An end to unilingual licence plates # Bilingual judicial forms # Bilingual driver's licences # Bilingual trials # Bilingual municipal regulations

References

{{reflist, 1

Background

Goals

References

Archives