Franco-ontarians to get new university
As Quebec marks 40 years of Bill 101, some observers predict the end is nigh — or at least a gradual drift into folklorism — for the first founding European tongue of the nation. While it may be true that French is on the decline across Canada, there is one place where a trend suggests otherwise. Statistically speaking, the use of French is slightly on the rise in Ontario, if we can believe the corrected Statscan numbers.
One recent development in particular reflects the vitality of the Franco community in Canada’s largest province: There’s such a demand from francophones to study in French the province plans to create a new university, with an announcement rumoured this week. (Meanwhile, in Quebec, anglophones are opting more and more for French-language universities, causing concern for English institutions in the province.)
In terms of raw numbers, it’s hard to get a fix on just how many francophones there are in Ontario. It all depends on the definition various agencies use. According to a 2014 fact sheet from the Office of the French Language Services Commission of Ontario, 611,500 people “identify” as francophone, or roughly 5 percent of the population. By that group’s definition, the population has now grown to 622,000, according to 2016 census data.
The number of Ontarois who actually speak mostly French at home is considerably less, 490,715, according to the 2016 census numbers, and that figure includes many who declare English as their mother tongue.
Regardless of the precise numbers, the fact is francophones in Ontario have been fighting for years for a French language university to serve the largest single bastion of population, which is known as CSO, or Central-southwestern Ontario.
Ontario already has two sizeable bilingual universities, University of Ottawa in the nation’s capital, and Laurentian University in Sudbury, two small religious universities in those same cities, plus three small campuses of the Université de Hearst in Northern Ontario localities.
These institutions cover the northern and eastern stretches of the province which account for about 63 percent of the francophone population. That leaves the remaining 35 per cent or so in CSO, the most rapidly expanding component of the Franco population, without a university within a reasonable distance.
Toronto, for example, has nearly 60,000 francophones, more than half of whom were born outside Canada, mostly coming from French-speaking areas of the world like the Maghreb.
Three of four francophone students in the Toronto area, for example, according to a Franco-ontarian rights group, are compelled to attend an English language university because of the absence of programs in French.
A report from for the French language services commission paints the picture in rather dark tones: “According to projections, nearly half of the province’s francophone population will be living in CSO. Access to French-language postsecondary education must expand to deal with this situation and to close the yawning gap in program availability, which paves the way for assimilation.”
A group headed by former Official Languages Commissioner Dyane Adam has been examining the question of a new French university in Ontario for the past year. Of local note, one of the members of that group is Glenn O’farrell, a Quebec City lawyer and broadcasting executive who now runs Télévision française de l’ontario (TFO). That’s the Ontario-government-funded ($31 million) French-language TV network. (Can you imagine the Quebec government funding a Télé-anglo-québec?)
The report which sparked the creation of the committee recommended a future university be associated with the existing College Boréal network of community colleges — similar to CEGEPS — and be located in Toronto. The target date to get the new university ready to welcome students is 2020.
Premier Kathleen Wynne has been discrete up to now as to what form a new university might take — new bricks and mortar, or expansion of programs within an existing university. York University, for example, already offers a range of degrees in French.
Whatever the new French U ends up being, it will be a triumph for the feisty Franco-ontarian community — and a small victory for French in Canada.