Franco-Manitobans (french: Franco-Manitobains) are French Canadians or Canadian
francophones
French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the la ...
living in the
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Winn ...
. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 40,975 residents of the province stated that French was their mother tongue. In the same census, 148,810 Manitobans claimed to have either full or partial French ancestry. There are several Franco-Manitoban communities throughout Manitoba, although the majority are based in either the
Winnipeg Capital Region
The Winnipeg Metropolitan Region (formerly called the Winnipeg Capital Region and the Manitoba Capital Region) is a metropolitan area in the Canadian province of Manitoba located in the Red River Valley in the southeast portion of the province of ...
.
The first francophones to enter the region were fur traders during the late 17th century, with the first French settlers arriving in the subsequent century. Francophones constituted the majority of the region's non-
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
population until the mid 19th century, when anglophones became the linguistic majority. In 1869, the
Red River Colony
The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hudson's Bay ...
as a bilingual province of Canada. However, the provincial government moved to revoke the linguistic rights accorded to francophones late 19th and early 20th centuries. Restoration of these linguistic rights did not begin until 1970, when French was made an official language of its public education system. The linguistic rights of Franco-Manitobans was also furthered as a result of several decisions made by the Supreme Court of Canada during the 1970s to 1990s.
Demographics
According to the 2016 Canadian Census, the number of people that reported French as a mother tongue in Manitoba was 46,055 (or 3.7 per cent of the population), making it the most common mother tongue in the province after English, German, and Tagalog. The majority of Franco-Manitobans are bilingual in English and French, with only 1,485 respondents (0.1 per cent of Manitobans) in the 2016 census reporting they only had proficiency in the French language. There were 108,455 Manitobans or 8.6 per cent of the population that reported to be bilingual in English and French, although the following figure includes Manitobans that speak French as a
second language
A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
.
Nearly three quarters of all Franco-Manitobans (74 per cent of the population) were born in the province. Approximately 15 per cent of francophones in Manitoba were born in Canada outside of Manitoba; while the remaining francophones that reside in the province were born outside the country. Among French-speaking Manitobans that were born abroad, approximately 57 per cent originated from Africa, and 28 per cent originated from Europe.
In the 2016 census, 148,810 Manitobans reported having partial or full French ancestry.
Communities
Francophone communities in Manitoba is concentrated in
southern Manitoba
Southern Manitoba is the southernmost area of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Southern Manitoba encompasses the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, Westman Region, Central Plains Region, Eastman Region, and Pembina Valley Region, as well as the M ...
Red River of the North
The Red River (french: rivière Rouge or ) is a river in the north-central United States and central Canada. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota, it fl ...
towards Lake Manitoba. Four out of five francophones in the province residing in either the
Winnipeg Capital Region
The Winnipeg Metropolitan Region (formerly called the Winnipeg Capital Region and the Manitoba Capital Region) is a metropolitan area in the Canadian province of Manitoba located in the Red River Valley in the southeast portion of the province of ...
. Approximately 58 per cent of all francophones reside in the Winnipeg Capital Region, while 22 per cent reside in Eastman Region. Approximately 90 per cent of all Franco-Manitobans live within an hour's drive from
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
Sainte Rose du Lac
Sainte Rose du Lac (often abbreviated Ste Rose du Lac) is an unincorporated urban community in the Municipality of Ste. Rose, Manitoba, Canada.
Prior to 1 January 2015, it was designated as a town. It is located approximately 50 km east-so ...
, and St. Laurent. Including the capital, there are 15 communities in the province that are officially designated as bilingual areas.
History
The first French speakers to visit Manitoba occurred in the 1660s, with French fur traders and explorers exploring the region around Hudson's Bay. However, the first attempts by francophones to settle the area did not occur until the 1730s, with French explorer
and his sons establishing a permanent presence in southern Manitoba. A number of francophone fur traders married ''à la façon du pays'', wedding
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land (french: Terre de Rupert), or Prince Rupert's Land (french: Terre du Prince Rupert, link=no), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin; this was further extended from Rupert's Land t ...
Red River Colony
The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hudson's Bay ...
, and declared a
provisional government
A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...
; refusing entry to Canadian government surveyors and resulting in the
Manitoba Act
The ''Manitoba Act, 1870'' (french: link=no, Loi de 1870 sur le Manitoba)Originally entitled (until renamed in 1982) ''An Act to amend and continue the Act 32 and 33 Victoria, chapter 3; and to establish and provide for the Government of the Pro ...
passing an Act that made the English language the sole official language of the province.
In the same year, the province moved to eliminate its separate school system, used predominantly by the francophone Catholic population of Manitoba. The resulting issue, the
Manitoba Schools Question
The Manitoba Schools Question () was a political crisis in the Canadian province of Manitoba that occurred late in the 19th century, attacking publicly-funded separate schools for Roman Catholics and Protestants. The crisis was precipitated by a se ...
, became a contentious national issue between
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
French Canada
French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...
'', in addition to section 23 of the ''Manitoba Act''.
However, French language instruction was formally banned from the province from 1916 to 1947; although instruction of the language continued in some schools illicitly. French was reintroduced as an official language of the public education system in 1970, with Franco-Manitobans given the right to control and manage school boards independent from their anglophone peers in 1993. During the 1970s, the provincial government established the ''Bureau de l’Éducation française'', and the office of the Deputy Minister of French Education to oversee French language education.
The province's public francophone schools is administered by the Franco-manitoban School Division, which had an enrolment of nearly 5,400 children throughout 23 schools during the 2015–16 academic year.
Post-secondary
There is presently no independent publicly-funded francophone
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...
or university in the province, although the publicly-funded
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.affiliated university, the
western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada†...
CKSB-FM
CKSB-FM (89.9 MHz) is a public radio station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It carries Radio-Canada's Ici Musique network, airing a mix of adult album alternative (AAA), classical music and other genres.
...
CKXL-FM
CKXL-FM (91.1 MHz) is a French-language community radio station licensed to Saint Boniface, Manitoba and serving the Winnipeg Capital Region. It broadcasts a public radio format that has 80% Manitoba content. It uses the branding ''Envol 91 F ...
Le Cercle Molière
Le Cercle Molière is a theatre company in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
History
The theatre company has operated since 1925. Its activities include a four-play subscription season, a youth production that tours Manitoba schools, a high school th ...
. It is the oldest French-language theatre organization in Canada.
The
Festival du Voyageur
The Festival du Voyageur is an annual 10-day winter festival that takes place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The event is held during each February in Winnipeg's French quarter, Saint-Boniface, and is western Canada's largest winter festival. It ...
, held annually since 1970 in Saint-Boniface, is a major celebration in the Franco-Manitoban community.
Ici Radio-Canada
ICI or Ici may refer to:
Companies and organisations
* ICI Homes, builder, Florida. US
* Former UK Imperial Chemical Industries
** ICI Australia, later Orica
* Independent Curators International, New York City, US
* Indian Concrete Institute
* I ...
Acadians
The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...
,
French-speaking Quebecer
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
,
Franco-Albertan
Franco-Albertans (french: Franco-Albertains) are francophone residents of the Canadian province of Alberta. Franco-Albertans may also refer to residents of Alberta with French Canadian ancestry, although publications from the government of Alberta ...
,
Franco-Columbian
Franco-Columbians (french: Franco-Colombiens) are French Canadians or Canadian francophones living in the province of British Columbia. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 71,705 residents of the province stated that French is their mother ton ...
,
Franco-Newfoundlander
Franco-Newfoundlanders, also known as Franco-Terreneuvians in English or ''Franco-Terreneuviens'' in French, are francophone and/or French Canadian residents of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.Franco-Ontarian,
Franco-Yukonnais
Franco-Yukonnais () are French Canadian or French speaking residents of Yukon, a territory of Canada. French has full official language status in the Yukon.
Demographics
The Canada 2016 Census identified 1,575 residents of the territory as franc ...