New French-language foundation hopes to foster ‘love and reading’
Writer Dany Laferrière and journalist and political analyst Marc Laurendeau are among Quebec personalities who have launched a new foundation to promote the French language.
La Fondation pour la langue française had its official launch Monday at the Maison LudgerDuvernay, the head office of Montreal’s Société St-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal.
It is the only charitable organization recognized by Revenue Canada as being entirely dedicated to the promotion of the French language in Quebec and the rest of Canada, according to a communiqué from the organization.
Its goal is not only to promote the French language, but also to afford an opportunity for rapprochement between allophones and the Quebec community, said Laferrière, the honorary president.
“We need to make French more attractive for all kinds of people, because we need to love the language we speak,” he said.
Board members are: actress and singer Marie-Anne Alepin; Robert Ladouceur, head of the business incubator InnoHub La Centrale; Michel Lamontagne, a consultant and business administrator; event planner France Langlais; lawyer Maxime Laporte, president of the Société St-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal; Laurendeau; Francine Séguin, professor emerita at HEC Montréal; and André Vincent, president and director of Assomption Vie, headquartered in Moncton,NB.
More board members are to be added soon, the communiqué said.
The Fondation pour la langue française derives from a foundation created by the Société St-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal, the Fondation Langelier, and it has two distinct funds: The Langelier Fund supports projects of the francophone and Acadian communities, while the French Language Fund is for launching and managing its own projects in Quebec.
The French Language Fund is to focus for now on three projects, according to the foundation: One is the Carrefour interculturel de francisation et d’immersion, intended to improve the quality of the French language.
The Carrefour, which will have some funding from the Office québécois de la langue française, is to offer workshops and outings, along with other activities, to allophone workers in the digital, culture and communications industries and the tourism, hotel and restaurant sectors.
A second project will feature francisation activities for nonfrancophone elite athletes in sport federations with training centres in greater Montreal and players with such large clubs as L’Impact.
A third is aimed at the business world and is to feature conferences at various sites as well as videos made public through social media.
“Love and reading are at the heart of what we’re saying: also pleasure and celebration,” said Laferrière, a member of the Académie française.
“The Fondation pour la langue française must, first of all, have to do with celebration and pleasure and, in that way, enliven society.”