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
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 Fren ...
from Ontario. In 2016, the Government of Ontario calculated that there are approximately 622,415 francophones residing in the province. The majority of Franco-Ontarians in the province reside in Eastern Ontario, Northeastern Ontario, and Central Ontario, although small francophone communities may be found in other regions of the province.
The first francophones to settle in Ontario did so during the early 17th century, when most of it was part of the '' Pays d'en Haut'' region of New France. However, French settlement into the area remained limited until the 19th century. The late 19th century and early 20th century saw attempts by the provincial government to assimilate the Franco-Ontarian population into the anglophone majority with the introduction of regulations that promoted the use of English over French, for example Regulation 17. During the late 1960s and 1970s, because of the Quiet Revolution, Franco-Ontarians established themselves as a distinct cultural identity – having only identified as French Canadians before. Francophone rights were furthered in the 1970s as a result of ''
C'est l'temps
C'est l'temps was a Franco-Ontarian civil disobedience movement in the mid-to-late-1970s over the lack of Ontario government services in French. Over two dozen people were arrested, as activists monopolised police time on trivial traffic infractio ...
'', a Franco-Ontarian
civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...
movement that pressured several provincial departments to adopt bilingual policies.
The provincial government passed the '' French Language Services Act'' in 1986 which recognized the French language as a "historic language of Ontario," and as an official language of the province's education system, judiciary, and legislature. However, the Act did not make the French language an official language in its entirety; with other provincial services only made available in French in designated communities and regions with a significant Franco-Ontarian population.
Definition
The term ''Franco-Ontarian'' has two related usages, which overlap closely but are not identical: it may refer to francophone residents of Ontario, regardless of their ethnicity or place of birth, or to people of French Canadian ancestry ''born'' in Ontario, regardless of their primary language or current place of residence. In June 2009, the provincial government expanded the definition of a francophone as a person whose
mother tongue
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
is French, or a person that has a different mother tongue but still uses French as the primary language at home. The term ''Ontarois'' is used sometimes to distinguish French-speaking Ontarians, while the general term for Ontarian in French is ''Ontarien''. The use of the term ''Ontarois'' follows the convention that a francophone minority is referred to with endings of -ois.
In popular usage, the first meaning predominates and the second is poorly understood. Although most Franco-Ontarians meet both definitions, there are notable exceptions. For example, although Louise Charron was the first native-born Franco-Ontarian appointed to the bench of the
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
, she was preceded as a francophone judge from Ontario by Louise Arbour, a Quebecer who worked in Ontario for much of her professional career as a lawyer and judge. As a result, both women have been referred to as "the first Franco-Ontarian Supreme Court justice", although the technically correct practice is to credit Charron, Franco-Ontarian in both senses, with that distinction.
Conversely, two of the most famous
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
musicians from Ontario,
Avril Lavigne
Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. At age 16, she signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records. Her debut studio album, ''Let Go (Avril Lavigne album), Let Go'' (2002), is the ...
and
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with tw ...
and other Canadian francophone communities, and the pressures toward assimilation into the English Canadian majority that the community faces. As a result, the complex political and sociological context of ''Franco-Ontarian'' can only be fully understood by recognizing both meanings and understanding the distinctions between the two.
Demographics
Franco-Ontarians constitute the largest French-speaking community in Canada outside Quebec. According to the province of Ontario, there are 622,415 francophones in Ontario, making up 4.7 per cent of the province's population. However, the figure is derived from the province's "Inclusive Definition of Francophones" (IDF), which includes respondents from the
2016 Canadian Census
The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census. ...
who reported French as their mother tongue and respondents whose mother tongue was not French but have proficiency in the language and use it as their primary language at home. Prior to the introduction of IDF in 2009, a respondent's mother tongue was the main measure used by the government to determined the number of francophones in the province. There were 568,345 Ontarians, or 4.3 per cent of the population, that reported having French as a mother tongue in the 2016 census, making it the most common mother tongue in the province after English.
The majority of Franco-Ontarians are bilingual in both French and English; a minority (40,045 respondents) reported having proficiency in only the French language and limited or no knowledge of English."Census Profile, 2016 Census"
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...
. In the same census, more than 1.52 million Ontarians, or 11.49 per cent of the province's population, reported having proficiency in the
French language
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 ...
; while 11.2 per cent of the population reported to be bilingual in French and English. However, that figure includes both Franco-Ontarians and Ontarians who speak French as a second language.
Approximately 16.1 per cent of francophone Ontarians identified as a visible minority. More than half of Ontario's francophone visible minority population reside within Central Ontario (including the
Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...
), with 37.8 per cent residing in Eastern Ontario, and the remaining 5.7 per cent in other areas of the province.
In 2016, 59.5 per cent of francophones in Ontario were born in province, while 19.6 per cent originated from Quebec, and 16.4 per cent came from all other provinces or territories in Canada. However, the percentage of those born in the province varies between region, with 85.3 per cent of francophones in Northeastern Ontario being born in Ontario; whereas only 39.6 per cent of francophones in Central Ontario were born in the province. Approximately 4.5 per cent of francophones in Ontario were born outside Canada. Around 35 per cent of francophones born outside Canada were born in Africa, while 28 per cent were from Europe, 20 per cent were from Asia, and 17 per cent were from other countries in the Americas. Francophone immigrants account for 15 per cent of all immigrants into Ontario, and nearly a third of all immigrants into Central Ontario. Approximately 17.4 per cent of immigrants to the province between 2011 and 2016 were francophone.
Communities
Franco-Ontarians may be found in all areas of Ontario. Approximately 43.1 per cent of francophones in province reside in Eastern Ontario, with 268,070 francophones living in that region. Francophones comprise approximately 15.4 per cent of Eastern Ontario's total population. More than 68 per cent of francophones that live in Eastern Ontario reside in its Champlain region, an area that encompasses Cornwall, Hawkesbury,
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
and Pembroke (all of which are adjacent to or near the Ontario-Quebec border).
However, Northeastern Ontario is the region that has the highest proportion of francophones, with the 122,360 francophone residents of the region making up 22.6 per cent of the region's population. Central Ontario (including the Greater Toronto Area) also has a large population of Franco-Ontarians, with 191,375 francophones residing in that region. The remaining regions' Franco-Ontarian populations are 33,555 in
Southwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...
and 7,055 in
Northwestern Ontario
Northwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the ...
Midland
Midland may refer to:
Places Australia
* Midland, Western Australia
Canada
* Midland, Albert County, New Brunswick
* Midland, Kings County, New Brunswick
* Midland, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Midland, Ontario
India
* Midland Ward, Kohima, Nagal ...
) in 1649, and another settlement in Sault Sainte Marie in 1668. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the
military of New France
The military of New France consisted of a mix of regular soldiers from the French Army (Carignan-Salières Regiment) and French Navy ( Troupes de la marine, later Compagnies Franches de la Marine) supported by small local volunteer militia units ...
established a number of fortifications and garrisons in the region, including Fort Frontenac (in present-day
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
Joseph-Geneviève de Puisaye
Joseph-Geneviève, comte de Puisaye (6 March 1755 – 13 September 1827) was a minor French nobleman who fought as a counter-revolutionary during the French Revolution, leading two unsuccessful invasions from England. He later led a group of Fren ...
led a small group of royalists from France to settle lands north of York (present day Toronto).
French migration into Canada West/Ontario did not accelerate until the second half of the 19th century, farmers from
Canada East
Canada East (french: links=no, Canada-Est) was the northeastern portion of the United Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new ...
/ Quebec began to migrate in search of fertile land in Eastern Ontario, and along the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
north of
Lake Nipissing
Lake Nipissing (; french: lac Nipissing, oj, Gichi-nibiinsing-zaaga’igan) is a lake in the Canadian province
Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under ...
and
Lake Huron
Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...
. A large number of French Canadians were also drawn to Northern Ontario during this period, with the discovery of nickel in
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sudbury Reef, Queensland
Canada
* Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes)
** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...
, and gold in Timmins.
In an attempt to alleviate anti-French sentiments, in 1885 George William Ross, the provincial Minister of Education, mandated the requirement of English to be taught in francophone schools for two hours in the first four years of elementary school, and for four hours in its final four years.
20th century
1901–1950
The late 19th century, and early 20th century saw the Ontario government much less supportive of, and often openly hostile toward the Franco-Ontarian community. In an attempt to protect Franco-Ontarian language rights, the ''Association canadienne-française d'Éducation de l'Ontario'' (ACFÉO) was formed in 1910, who typically opposed the English-only initiatives launched by the Orange Order of Canada, and Irish Catholics led by Michael Fallon, the
Bishop of London, Ontario
The Roman Catholic Diocese of London ( la, Diœcesis Londonensis) is a Latin rite suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toronto in Ontario, southeastern Canada.
The present episcopal see of the Diocese, St. Peter's Cathedral, was built in ...
. However, French Canadian migration throughout Ontario continued, with sawmills and papermills in
Kapuskasing
Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another railw ...
Oshawa
Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...
and Windsor attracting French Canadian laborers during the 1920s.
In 1912, the provincial government passed Regulation 17, which limited the use of the French as the primary language of instruction to the first two years of elementary school. However, enforcement of the regulation was abandoned in 1927, when it became apparent to the provincial government that the regulation perpetuated inferior schooling of pupils in the province. Instead, a new policy permitting French-language schools instruction was introduced, with French given legal status in Ontario's education system, and the bilingual University of Ottawa Normal School was officially recognized. The regulation formally remained in the statutes of Ontario until 1944, when the regulations were revised.
Although the regulation itself was rescinded in 1927, the government did not fund French language high schools. As a result, francophones had to pursue high school education in English, pay tuition to private high schools (which few Franco-Ontarian families could afford), or simply stop attending school after Grade 9. Due to the lack of funding, several generations of Franco-Ontarians grew up without formal education, with the dropout rate for francophones high during this period. Franco-Ontarians thus opted for jobs which did not require reading and mathematical skills, such as mining and forestry, and were virtually absent from white collar jobs. Sociologically, it meant that education was not a value transmitted to younger Franco-Ontarians. Further, those that did have higher levels of education often pursue job opportunities in larger cities, particularly Ottawa or even Montreal, which can create a barrier to economic development in their home communities. As well, even today many students of Franco-Ontarian background are still educated in anglophone schools. This has the effect of reducing the use of French as a first language in the province, and thereby limiting the growth of the Franco-Ontarian community.
Quebec writer
TFO
TFO is a Canadian French language educational television channel and media organization serving the province of Ontario. It is owned by the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority (OTELFO), a Crown corporation owned by the ...
.
Following the advice of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, Ontario's premier John Robarts made French an official language of the provincial legislature in 1970. While the
Victoria Charter
The Victoria Charter was a set of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada in 1971. This document represented a failed attempt on the part of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to patriate the Constitution, add a bill of rights to it and entr ...
was being negotiated between the provincial premiers and the federal government, Robarts agreed that the province would recognize Franco-Ontarians rights to access provincial public service in the French language, and for French-speakers to receive the services of an interpreter, if needed, in Ontario's courts. However, plans to adopt these measures were abandoned after negotiations for the Victoria Charter collapsed. His successor, Bill Davis instead opted to simply provide legal services in French, with the issuance of bilingual drivers licenses and government documents.
A civil disobedience movement made up of Franco-Ontarian wanting to further accessibility rights for French-speakers emerged in 1975, known as ''
C'est l'temps
C'est l'temps was a Franco-Ontarian civil disobedience movement in the mid-to-late-1970s over the lack of Ontario government services in French. Over two dozen people were arrested, as activists monopolised police time on trivial traffic infractio ...
''. Members of ''C'est l'temps'' refused to pay tickets issued in only in English, pressuring the provincial judiciary to act in a bilingual manner. As a result of the protest, the Ontario's Attorney General,
Roy McMurtry
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
authorized the first French-language provincial court proceeding in 1976.
Other departments in the government of Ontario also began to adopt policies of bilingualism, and policies for French services, such as the
Ministry of Health Ministry of Health may refer to:
Note: Italics indicate now-defunct ministries.
* Ministry of Health (Argentina)
* Ministry of Health (Armenia)
* Australia:
** Ministry of Health (New South Wales)
* Ministry of Health (The Bahamas)
* Ministry of ...
in 1979, and the
Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services is the ministry in Ontario, Canada responsible for services to children and youth, social services such as welfare, the Ontario Disability Support Program, and community service programs to ad ...
in 1980. French was formally made an official language of the provincial judiciary in 1984. In 1986, the provincial '' French Language Services Act'' was passed by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, where it recognized French as a "historic language in Ontario," an official language in its courts and in education, as well as the "desirable use" of French in its provincial institutions including the Legislature. However, the Act itself did not make the province bilingual, instead designating a number of communities where French-speakers constitute a majority or significant minority, as an area where provincial services are required to be provided in French and English.
The following legislation saw pushback from several anglophone Ontario towns and cities, most notably
Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie is a cross-border region of Canada and the United States located on St. Marys River, which drains Lake Superior into Lake Huron. Founded as a single settlement in 1668, Sault Ste. Marie was divided in 1817 by the establishment of ...
, which was persuaded by the
Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
to declare themselves "English-only" in the wake of the ''French Language Services Act'' and the Meech Lake Accord debate. This was considered by many observers to be a direct contributor to the resurgence of the Quebec sovereignty movement in the 1990s, and consequently to the 1995 Quebec referendum.
21st century
On October 19, 2004, a Toronto lawyer successfully challenged a "no left turn" traffic ticket on the basis that the sign was not bilingual in accordance with the 1986 ''French Language Services Act''. The judge in ''R. v. Myers'' ruled that the traffic sign was not a municipal service, but instead was regulated under the provincial ''Highway Traffic Act'' and therefore subject to the bilingual requirements of the ''French Language Services Act''."R. v. Petruzzo, 2011 ONCA 386 (CanLII)" CanLII, May 17, 2011. As this was a lower court ruling, it did not affect any other court. However the implication of the decision was that many traffic signs in bilingually designated areas of Ontario would be invalid. It was feared that the ruling would have a similar effect as the Manitoba Language Rights ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada, in this case forcing municipalities to erect new bilingual road signs at great expense and invalidating millions of dollars in existing tickets before the courts. The City of Toronto appealed the ruling. At the appeal hearing both parties asked the court to enter a plea of guilty. A guilty verdict was entered even though no arguments were made by either side on the merits of the case. The situation created a legal vacuum for several years, during which numerous defendants used the bilingual signage argument to fight traffic tickets. The precedent was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal in a 2011 case, ''R. v. Petruzzo'', on the grounds that the ''French Language Services Act'' specifically states that municipalities are not required to offer services in French, even in provincially regulated areas such as traffic signage, if the municipality has not specifically passed its own bylaw governing its own provision of bilingual services.
Ontario's Minister of Francophone Affairs,
Madeleine Meilleur
Madeleine Meilleur (born November 22, 1948) is a Canadian nurse, lawyer and former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2016. She represented the riding of Ottawa—Vanier. ...
, became the province's first cabinet minister to attend a
Francophonie
Francophonie is the quality of speaking French. The term designates the ensemble of people, organisations and governments that share the use of French on a daily basis and as administrative language, teaching language or chosen language. The ...
summit in 2004, travelling to Ouagadougou with counterparts from Quebec, New Brunswick and the federal government. Meilleur also expressed the hope that Ontario would someday become a permanent member of the organization. On November 26, 2016, Ontario was granted observer status by La Francophonie.
On January 10, 2005,
Clarence-Rockland
Clarence-Rockland is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell on the Ottawa River. Clarence-Rockland is located immediately to the east of Ottawa and is considered part of the Prescott and Russell County.
...
private member's bill
A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...
in May 2011 to have the provincial Commissioner of French Language Services report to the full
rather than exclusively to the Minister of Francophone Affairs.
2010s
On April 26, 2010, the Ontario government designated September 25 as Franco-Ontarian Day. This date was chosen as it represented the anniversary of the official raising of the Franco-Ontarian flag in 1975. On 22 February 2016, premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne formally issued an apology on behalf of the government of Ontario to Franco-Ontarians for the passage of Regulation 17, and its harmful impact on its communities. The motion for the government to present an official apology to the Franco-Ontarian community was first presented by
Glenn Thibeault
Glenn Edward Thibeault (born October 23, 1969) is a former Canadian politician. He was Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2015 to 2018 who represented the riding of Sudbury. He served as a cabinet minister in the govern ...
Ministry of Francophone Affairs
The Ministry of Francophone Affairs (french: Ministère des Affaires francophones) in the Canadian province of Ontario is responsible for the provision of government services to Franco-Ontarian citizens and communities.
It was originally founde ...
from a full ministry to a government office, and cancelling funding announced by the prior government of Kathleen Wynne for the creation of the French-language university. After extensive backlash to the announcement, Ford reversed course, announcing that the commissioner position would be retained and that the office of francophone affairs would be restored to a full government ministry. The actions led to one Franco-Ontarian MPP, Amanda Simard, leaving his caucus to sit as an independent. During this period, governments in Quebec began to fly the Franco-Ontarian flag as a gesture of solidarity. The flag was hoisted at Montreal City Hall on November 23, and at the National Assembly of Quebec on December 1.
Ford later cancelled funding for the new Francophone university, created by the previous government."Doug Ford backtracks after days of backlash over cuts to francophone institutions" ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
On September 21, 2020, Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed an amendment to the ''Franco-Ontarian Emblem Act, 2001'', first proposed by Progressive Conservative MPP,
Natalia Kusendova
Natalia Kusendova is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 provincial election. She holds Bachelor of Science Degrees in Human and Molecular Biology from the University of Toronto, and in Nurs ...
using Laurentian's degree-granting authority, was chartered as a fully independent university in 2021.
Politics
The
Ministry of Francophone Affairs
The Ministry of Francophone Affairs (french: Ministère des Affaires francophones) in the Canadian province of Ontario is responsible for the provision of government services to Franco-Ontarian citizens and communities.
It was originally founde ...
is a department of the government of Ontario responsible for the provision of provincial services to the Franco-Ontarian community. Caroline Mulroney is the provincial cabinet minister responsible for the Francophone Affairs portfolio. The French language has been recognized as an official language of the
since 1970. In 2016, the government of Ontario was granted observer status to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, permitting the provinvicial government to submit requests to the organization's ministerial conferences, and participate in certain meetings held by the organization. Ontario is one of four governments in Canada that participates in the ''Francophonie'', with the federal government of Canada and the provincial governments of New Brunswick and Quebec being full-fledged members of the organization.
Access to services
Although French is an official language in Ontario's education system, legislature, and judiciary, the province as a whole is not officially
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
and its other provincial services do not provide English/French bilingual service throughout the entirety of the province. However, the provincial French Language Services Act requires all provincial ministries and agencies to provide French-language services within 26 designated municipalities and regions.
An area is designated as a French service area if the francophone population is greater than 5,000 people ''or'' 10 per cent of the community's total population. Due to the 5,000 population threshold, large cities that are actually overwhelmingly anglophone with virtually no francophone population proportional for the size of the city, are nevertheless still subject to the Act. Francophones who live in non-designated areas can also receive French language services by directly contacting the Office of Francophone Affairs in Toronto, or in the nearest designated community. The most recent addition to the list of designated areas is the city of Markham. It was named in June 2015, and after the three-year implementation period provided for by the French Language Services Act, officially became a bilingual service centre in 2018. Enforcement of the French Language Services Act is conducted through the office of the provincial French Language Services Commissioner.
The following
census divisions
Census divisions, in Canada and the United States of America, United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-lev ...
Greater Sudbury
Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the List of the largest cities and to ...
* City of
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
* Sudbury District
* Timiskaming District
* City of Toronto
The following census divisions (denoted in light blue on the map) are not fully designated areas, but have communities within their borders which are designated for bilingual services:
*Municipality of
Tecumseh
Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
Ignace
Ignace is a township in the Kenora District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada, located at Highway 17 (Trans Canada Highway) and Secondary Highway 599, and on the Canadian Pacific Railway between Thunder Bay and Kenora. It is on the shore of Agi ...
Niagara Region
The Regional Municipality of Niagara, also colloquially known as the Niagara Region or Region of Niagara, is a regional municipality comprising twelve municipalities of Southern Ontario, Canada. The regional seat is in Thorold. It is the southern ...
Mississauga
Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...
Laurentian Valley
Laurentian Valley is a township municipality in Renfrew County in eastern Ontario, Canada. It borders on the Ottawa River, the city of Pembroke and the town of Petawawa.
This township was created on January 1, 2000, from the former townships o ...
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...
North Glengarry
North Glengarry is a township in eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. It is a predominantly elderly invaded rural area located between Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal and Cornwall.
Communities
The township ...
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
Markham Markham may refer to:
It may also refer to brand of of clothing which originates from South Africa which saw it's establishment in 1873.
Biology
* Markham's storm-petrel (''Oceanodroma markhami''), a seabird species found in Chile and Colombia
* ...
The ''French Language Services Act'' only applies to provincial government services, and does not require services operated by the municipal government to provide bilingual services, although several municipalities have done so at their own discretion. There are presently 44 communities in Ontario whose municipal government and services are bilingual in English and French. Most of these are communities are members of the
Francophone Association of Municipalities of Ontario
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, size = 250px
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, or ''AFMO''.
Judicial access
The provincial judicial system is officially bilingual in English and French, with access to a French-speaking justice viewed as a quasi-constitutional right in Ontario. The official languages of the provincial courts was set in s. 125 of the ''Courts of Justice Act'', with s. 126 of the same act outlining the specific rights afforded to a French-speaking party. French-language access within Ontario's judicial administrative offices is also required in designated communities under the ''French Language Services Act''. Francophone linguistic rights are further reinforced for criminal cases as those tried under the Criminal Code, a federal statute, have the right to be tried in either English or French as specified in section 530 of the Code.
However, in practice the courts function primarily in English. Francophones in some parts of the province have noted some difficulty in actually accessing French language services, especially in civil litigation matters; for example, francophones in the justice system have sometimes faced unnecessary and expensive delays in their judicial proceedings, or been forced to proceed in English even if they were merely functional but not fluent in the language, due to gaps in the system's ability to actually provide full French services. Acting upon a number of complaints received from the French Language Service Commissioner, the Attorney General of Ontario launched a committee in 2009 to address French language rights in the judicial system.
Education
Elementary and secondary
Legislation on educational instruction in the French language was first passed in Upper Canada under the ''Upper Canada School Act, 1797'', which provided for schools that used English or French as an instructional languages. The use of French as the primary language of instruction was later limited to the first two years of elementary education in Ontario, from 1912 to 1927. In 1927, its enforcement was dropped with the province again permitting French-language instruction past Grade 2. The present public French-language elementary and secondary school system originates from education reforms implemented by the province in 1968. French-language rights for resident elementary and secondary school students in Ontario are afforded through the provincial ''Education Act'' and Section 23 of the ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms''.
Public education
State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...
in the Ontario is managed by the provincial Ministry of Education, which sets the guidelines and curriculum for both its English and French language public school systems. There were 103,490 students enrolled in Ontario's public francophone elementary and secondary schools during the 2015–16 academic year.
In addition to language, public education in Ontario is also split between a
secularized
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
, and
separate school
In Canada, a separate school is a type of school that has constitutional status in three provinces (Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan) and statutory status in the three territories ( Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut). In these Canadi ...
Ontario is home to several public post-secondary institutions that operate either as francophone, or as bilingual English and French institutions. There were approximately 21,300 students enrolled in a post-secondary francophone program/institution in Ontario during the 2015–16 academic year.
Ontario has two francophone post-secondary
colleges
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 ...
Collège des Grands-Lacs
Collège des Grands-Lacs ( "Great Lakes College") was a francophone College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1995 as Ontario's third college specifically serving the Franco-Ontarian population, a ...
, or AFO, which coordinates many of the community's cultural and political activities.
Franco-Ontarians retain many cultural traditions from their
French Canadian
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 Fren ...
ancestry. For example, unmarried elder siblings ''dansent sur leurs bas'' (dance on their socks) when their younger siblings get married. Catholic Franco-Ontarians attend ''messe de minuit'' (midnight mass) on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...
. Many Franco-Ontarians also enjoy late night feasts/parties on Christmas Eve, called ''
on June 24th as the national holiday for French Canadians.
Franco-Ontarian identity
The concept of Franco-Ontarians as a distinct cultural identity emerged during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Prior to this time, virtually all French Canadians were understood as a single unified cultural group regardless of which province they lived in, with Quebec serving as the " citadel" of French Canada.
However, the
Le Nordir
Le Nordir was a Canadian book publishing company, active from 1988 to 2012. Based primarily in Ottawa, Ontario, the company specialized in Franco-Ontarian literature, publishing primarily poetry, theatrical plays and non-fiction.
The company was e ...
, 1999. .
Symbols
Franco-Ontarian Flag
The Franco-Ontarian flag consists of two bands of green and white. The left portion has a solid light green background with a white
fleur-de-lys
The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol.
The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...
in the middle, while the right portion has a solid white background with a stylized green trillium in the middle. The green represents the summer months, while the white represents the winter months. The trillium is the floral symbol of Ontario, while the fleur-de-lys represents the
French-Canadian
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 Fr ...
Franco-Ontarian Day is celebrated on September 25, the anniversary of the first raising of the Franco-Ontarian flag in Sudbury in 1975.
In 2010, the Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs
Madeleine Meilleur
Madeleine Meilleur (born November 22, 1948) is a Canadian nurse, lawyer and former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2016. She represented the riding of Ottawa—Vanier. ...
to have Franco-Ontarian Day officially recognised by the province. The bill, the Franco-Ontarian Day Act, 2010, passed unanimously and received royal assent in May 2010.
festival programs a lineup consisting entirely of francophone films, and community groups in many smaller communities offer French film screenings from time to time, sometimes in conjunction with the
touring program of Quebec films. Francophone films also air on TFO, Radio-Canada and cable channels such as Unis and
Super Écran
Super Écran is a Canadian premium television network owned by Bell Media. It airs a mix of commercial-free films and television series. Films are primarily sourced from the United States and Canada, while the television series mostly consist of ...
.
Literature
Ontario has seven francophone
publishing
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
companies, including Sudbury's
Prise de parole
Prise de parole ("Speaking Out") is a Canadian book publishing company. Located in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, the company publishes French language literature, primarily but not exclusively by Franco-Ontarian authors.
History
The company ...
Lola Lemire Tostevin
Lola Lemire Tostevin (born June 15, 1937 in Timmins, Ontario) is a Canadian poet and novelist. Although not widely known among the general public, she is one of Canada's leading feminist writers, and a prominent figure in Canadian literary analysis ...
,
Daniel Poliquin
Daniel Poliquin (born December 18, 1953) is a Canadian novelist and translator. He has translated works of various Canadian writers into French, including David Homel, Douglas Glover, and Mordecai Richler.
Poliquin and his hometown of Ottawa ar ...
French-language
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 ...
Festival Franco-Ontarien
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival con ...
in Ottawa. Notable figures in Franco-Ontarian music include
Marcel Aymar
Marcel Aymar (born in Meteghan, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian musician, composer, writer and actor. He moved to Sudbury, Ontario in 1972 as a teen and was a founding member of the popular Franco-Ontarian group CANO, playing guitar.Kuzyk, Jane. "That ...
,
En Bref En Bref is a Canadian folk-rock musical group. Based in Sudbury and North Bay, Ontario, the band consists of vocalist and guitarist Yves Doyon, guitarist Martin Laforest, bassist Scott Aultman and drummer Shawn Sasyniuk.
,
Chuck Labelle
Jean-Guy (Chuck) Labelle (born 18 March 1954) is a Franco-Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who performs francophone New Country-Rock music. He is from Mattawa, Ontario. His first album, ''Chuck'', reached Gold status after two years and hi ...
Brasse-Camarade
Brasse-Camarade was a Canadian francophone rock group from Ontario, in the 1990s.
The band's two core members, brothers François and Pierre Lamoureux, were born in Sudbury, and later lived in Toronto, Ottawa and Penetanguishene before moving t ...
,
Swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
,
Konflit Dramatik Konflit, formerly Konflit Dramatik, are a Canadian rap rock band, most prominent in the 2000s. One of the most prominent Franco-Ontarian musical groups of their era, the band had a varying lineup over its lifetime with vocalist Christian Berthiaume ...
Damien Robitaille
Damien Robitaille (, born June 1981) is a Canadian musician from the village of Lafontaine, Ontario in the Georgian Bay area, two hours north-west of Toronto. He is a Franco-Ontarian musician whose career is mainly based in Quebec, where he has l ...
TFO
TFO is a Canadian French language educational television channel and media organization serving the province of Ontario. It is owned by the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority (OTELFO), a Crown corporation owned by the ...
La Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario
La Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario is an art gallery in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Originally launched in 1974 by artists associated with the Cooperative des artistes du Nouvel-Ontario, the gallery was first established as part of La Slague, a local ...
is an art museum whose collections and exhibitions are centred around Franco-Ontarian artists.
Le Voyageur
''Le Voyageur'' is a weekly community newspaper in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, serving the city's Franco-Ontarian community. The newspaper was launched on June 12, 1968, shortly after the demise of the region's earlier francophone community newsp ...
'' in Sudbury, ''
L'Action
''L'Action Tunisienne'' (sometimes abbreviated to L'Action) is a former Tunisian Francophone newspaper founded by Habib Bourguiba and published from November 1, 1932 to March 19, 1988. Working for the Destour party, at first, it later became pa ...
Le Journal de Cornwall
Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York converge. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry and is Ontario's easternmost city.
...
'' in Cornwall. Important historical publications include Ottawa's ''Le Progrès'', which was launched in 1858 as the province's first francophone newspaper,Paul-François Sylvestre "Premier journal francophone de l’Ontario" ''
On radio, the Franco-Ontarian community is served primarily by Radio-Canada's Ici Radio-Canada Première network, which has originating stations in Ottawa ( CBOF), Toronto ( CJBC), Sudbury ( CBON) and Windsor ( CBEF), with rebroadcasters throughout Ontario. '' Ici Musique'', Radio-Canada's arts and culture network, currently broadcasts only in Ottawa ( CBOX), Toronto ( CJBC-FM), Sudbury ( CBBX),
Kitchener-Waterloo
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo (KWC or Tri-Cities), and the townships of North Dumf ...
(CJBC-FM-1) and Windsor (CJBC-FM-2), with an additional transmitter licensed but not yet launched in Timmins.
Non-profit francophone community stations exist in several communities, including Penetanguishene ( CFRH), Hearst ( CINN), Kapuskasing ( CKGN), Cornwall ( CHOD), Ottawa ( CJFO) and Toronto ( CHOQ). Many
campus radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produce ...
stations air one or two hours per week of French-language programming as well, although only CHUO at the University of Ottawa and CKLU at Laurentian University are officially bilingual stations.
Francophone commercial radio stations exist in Sudbury ( CHYC), Timmins ( CHYK) and Sturgeon Falls/North Bay ( CHYQ); all three stations are owned and operated by Le5 Communications, and air distinct locally targeted morning shows while operating for the remainder of the day as a shared region-wide simulcast with each station originating some of the common programming. Ottawa francophones are served by the commercial radio stations licensed to
Gatineau
Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...
, and many other Eastern Ontario communities are within the broadcast range of the Gatineau and Montreal media markets. One station in Hawkesbury ( CHPR) airs a few hours per week of locally oriented programming, but otherwise simulcasts a commercial station from Montreal.
in Toronto, which previously had rebroadcast transmitters throughout the province but remain available provincewide on basic cable. Both stations carry identical programming directed from Radio-Canada's master control in Montreal, except for local news and advertisements. CBOFT produces a newscast for broadcast only in the Ottawa area, while CBLFT produces another serving the rest of the province. The network formerly also operated
CBEFT
CBEFT was the Radio-Canada owned-and-operated television station serving Franco-Ontarians in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Previously licensed as a standalone television station, it later operated as a semi-satellite of Toronto station CBLFT-DT. I ...
in Windsor, which was shut down in 2012.
The provincial government operates
TFO
TFO is a Canadian French language educational television channel and media organization serving the province of Ontario. It is owned by the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority (OTELFO), a Crown corporation owned by the ...
, a sister channel to TVOntario, which is available provincewide via mandatory carriage on basic cable or satellite packages and via online streaming; it formerly also transmitted over the air in selected communities with significant francophone populations, but this was discontinued in 2012. In 2003, TFO produced and aired ''
Les Bleus de Ramville
''Les Bleus de Ramville'' (The Blues of Ramville) is a Canadian television series, which premiered on TFO in January 2012.
Set in the fictional town of Ramville near North Bay, Ontario, the series focuses on Gordie, Julie, Maureen and Christian, ...
, Elle Fictions and RDS, although these channels only have discretionary status outside Quebec and are typically offered only on a
digital cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...
tier rather than in basic cable packages.
Notable Franco-Ontarians
See also
*
French Canadians
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 Fren ...
Franco-Nunavois
This is a list of notable people who are from Nunavut, Canada, or have spent a large part or formative part of their life in that territory.
A
* Eva Aariak, former Premier of Nunavut
* Susan Aglukark, singer-songwriter
* Leona Aglukkaq, MP, Min ...