The Sault Ste. Marie language resolution was a government motion passed on January 29, 1990 by
Sault Ste. Marie City Council, the governing body of the city of
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 ...
,
Ontario,
Canada, which resolved that
English was the sole working language of city government. The resolution ignited a national controversy which made the city a flashpoint in the
Meech Lake Accord debate.
The Sault Ste. Marie resolution was not the first of its kind in Ontario, but Sault Ste. Marie was the largest municipality to pass such a resolution and bore the brunt of the controversy.
The resolution was struck down by a court ruling in 1994, and ceased to have legal effect.
In 2010,
John Rowswell
John Rowswell (May 18, 1955 – August 31, 2010) was a Canadian politician who served as the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario from 2000 to 2010. He was first elected in the 2000 municipal election, defeating Steve Butland, and in 2006 he was r ...
, a subsequent mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, apologized to French Canadians across the country for the resolution.
["Les excuses de Sault-Sainte-Marie"]
Radio-Canada
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
, January 28, 2010.
Background
Sault Ste. Marie was founded by French-speaking missionaries in 1623 but had become overwhelmingly English-speaking by the twentieth century.
In response to a French-language education controversy which began in 1987 when a group of
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 On ...
families lobbied to have a new French school opened in the city, the Sault Alliance for the Preservation of English Language Rights (SAPELR) was formed and began circulating petitions to have this resolution passed by council. The group worked in concert with 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 ...
(APEC), a lobby group which was concurrently campaigning against the provincial government's
French Language Services Act. Although that law dealt only with provincial government services, APEC's strategy was to convince municipalities that they would be required to provide services in French, regardless of cost or benefit, in an attempt to convince the municipalities to pass this type of resolution. As a result of the schooling controversy, the SAPELR petition quickly garnered over 25,000 signatures.
The resolution was widely seen as retaliation for Quebec Premier
Robert Bourassa
Robert Bourassa (; July 14, 1933 – October 2, 1996) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd premier of Quebec from 1970 to 1976 and from 1985 to 1994. A member of the Liberal Party of Quebec, he served a total of just un ...
's move to
override the Supreme Court of Canada ruling that declared parts of
Bill 101 unconstitutional. Bill 101 had declared French as the only official language of Quebec.
Text of the resolution
Whereas the City of Sault Ste. Marie is composed of many different ethnic groups, languages and cultures;
And whereas the City of Sault Ste. Marie has always shown respect for each of these cultures by providing preferential treatment for none;
And whereas the City of Sault Ste. Marie has throughout its history had one common working language for all of its written and oral communications, which is English;
And whereas the preferred common language of commerce, business, trade, science and normal everyday activities is English;
Now therefore be it resolved that the Corporation of the City of Sault Ste. Marie in the interests of maintaining goodwill, harmony and sound and responsible fiscal management continue as it has in the past to accept the use of English as the official language of communication with its citizens and with all levels of governments, thereby demonstrating the concept of equality for each ethnic, cultural and language group in its jurisdiction.
And further resolved in accordance with the Provisions of the Municipal Act of Ontario Part VII and more specifically Section 104a of Said Act the Council of the Corporation of the City of Sault Ste. Marie declares English to be the official language of the said Corporation.
Resolution passes
On January 27, 1990, the city's daily newspaper, the ''
Sault Star
''The Sault Star'' is a Canadian broadsheet daily newspaper based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It is owned by Postmedia.
In 2015, the newspaper had a daily paid circulation of 7,577 weekdays and 7,763 on Saturdays. Its total circulation includi ...
'', reported that council would debate the language resolution two days later. This triggered the attention of the national media, and with reporters from all across Canada in town to cover the debate, the resolution passed council 11-2.
Controversy
Many political figures, including
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993.
Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political sci ...
,
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
and Ontario premier
David Peterson, who had strongly condemned Premier Bourassa's use of the notwithstanding clause, expressed their opposition to the city's move. Both Peterson and his successor as premier,
Bob Rae
Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...
, refused to meet with mayor
Joe Fratesi Joe Fratesi is the former mayor and former chief administrative officer of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Serving as Sault Ste. Marie's mayor from 1986 to 1996, he was the longest-serving mayor in Sault Ste. Marie's history, breaking the record that W. ...
on several subsequent occasions, even to discuss unrelated matters.
In particular, the resolution was seen as a slap in the face to
Quebec, where it was widely viewed as racist. (One
Environment Canada
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ( ...
meteorologist sent out a weather report for Sault Ste. Marie in which the forecast called for "a chance of flurries and
Nazis", leading to her suspension.) Council defended the resolution, suggesting that Quebec's language laws and its refusal to abide by the Supreme Court ruling also constituted racism.
Council was also criticized for seemingly turning its back on the city's own history; although in modern times francophones are only a small percentage of the city's population, the city's history is intimately connected to early
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 ...
missionary and
voyageur
The voyageurs (; ) were 18th and 19th century French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs via canoe during the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including the ' ...
exploration of the
Great Lakes area. Some commentators also jokingly suggested that the resolution would require the city to change its name to St. Mary's Falls.
Entertainers weighed in on the controversy; on their 1991 album ''
Road Apples'',
The Tragically Hip criticized the resolution in the song "Born in the Water":
Smart as trees in Sault Ste. Marie
I can speak my mother tongue
Passing laws, just because
And singing songs of the English unsung
How could you do it?
How could you even try?
When you were born in the water
And you were raised up in the sky?
Aftereffects
Fratesi, who was viewed by Sault Ste. Marie voters throughout the controversy as standing up for the city's interests, was re-elected mayor in a landslide in 1991. He later became embroiled in a
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
controversy in 1995 when he applied for the job of chief administrative officer of the city, while still sitting as mayor.
Quebec Premier Bourassa later passed
Bill 86, which amended that province's language laws in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling, so the controversy died down.
On June 30, 1994, a court ruling struck down the English-only resolution as ''
ultra vires'' the council's authority. On August 9, 1999, a resolution was brought forward under a new city council to strike down the resolution. The city's solicitor advised that the resolution was out of order given that a court had already struck down the resolution. Attempting to do what it could, the council then unanimously passed the following resolution:
Moved by Councillor Derik Brandt
Seconded by Councillor Sam Lepore
Whereas the "language resolution" was struck down by the courts because it was beyond the City’s authority; and
Whereas it is not legally possible to rescind a resolution that has already been struck down by the courts;
Be It Resolved that a notation be added to the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of City Council of January 29, 1990 to include the following beside item 5(e); N.B. "This resolution was struck down by the courts on June 30, 1994 and therefore has no effect."
The effect of the resolution was to amend the minutes containing the English-only resolution to note that the resolution had been struck down.
As recently as 2007, ''
The Gazette
The Gazette (stylized as the GazettE), formerly known as , is a Japanese visual kei Rock music, rock band, formed in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa in early 2002.''Shoxx'' Vol 106 June 2007 pg 40-45 The band is currently signed to Sony Music Recor ...
'' in
Montreal referred to the town of
Hérouxville
Hérouxville (formerly called Saint-Timothée d'Hérouxville) is a parish municipality in the Mékinac Regional County Municipality in the administrative region of Mauricie, in the province of Quebec, Canada. Its watershed is mainly part of the B ...
, then embroiled in a controversy around
reasonable accommodation of immigrants, as Quebec's "own Sault Ste. Marie".
Don Macpherson
Donald G. McPherson (born April 2, 1965) is a former National Football League and Canadian Football League quarterback. He spent seven seasons in the NFL and CFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Oilers, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and Ottawa Roug ...
"The town of Herouxville is our own Sault Ste. Marie"
''The Gazette
The Gazette (stylized as the GazettE), formerly known as , is a Japanese visual kei Rock music, rock band, formed in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa in early 2002.''Shoxx'' Vol 106 June 2007 pg 40-45 The band is currently signed to Sony Music Recor ...
'', January 30, 2007.
On January 28, 2010, 20 years less a day after the original resolution was passed, then-Sault Ste. Marie Mayor
John Rowswell
John Rowswell (May 18, 1955 – August 31, 2010) was a Canadian politician who served as the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario from 2000 to 2010. He was first elected in the 2000 municipal election, defeating Steve Butland, and in 2006 he was r ...
apologized to French-Canadians across the country for the resolution of the prior council.
[
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References
{{reflist
Municipal government of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
1990 in Canada
Bilingualism in Canada
Political history of Ontario
Language law
Franco-Ontarian history