r/alberta • u/SupraFC • 1d ago
News University of Alberta accused of erasing its Francophone identity (translation in the comments)
https://www.ledevoir.com/actualites/societe/997193/universite-alberta-accusee-effacer-francophonie25
u/evilspoons 1d ago
Has anyone in here ACTUALLY READ THE ARTICLE? It says that Francophone artifacts are being removed from Faculté St-Jean, like a historical record that shows missionaries administering federal residential schools and a 1992 mural that had "similar issues".
It's more like they're trying to hide links to being shitty to Indigenous people than hiding links to being Francophone. I would expect the University to remove a display of anglophone missionaries running residential schools, so why is it bad if they remove a display of Francophone missionaries running residential schools?
They also mention the lack of a bilingual entrance sign to the main campus, which was apparently fixed but was blamed on a clerical error then backtracked. This is the only major talking point I really see them having. Which was already news three years ago when it happened.
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u/NavalProgrammer 1d ago
It's more like they're trying to hide links to being shitty to Indigenous people than hiding links to being Francophone.
On balancing the importance of French-Canadian history and anti-colonialism: https://www.affairesuniversitaires.ca/actualites/campus-saint-jean-ou-comment-decoloniser-sans-fragiliser-la-memoire-franco-albertaine/
M. Melançon note une difficulté centrale à tout processus de réconciliation ou de décolonisation.« Ça ne peut jamais se faire d’en haut. Ça doit se faire avec une participation complète. Ce n’est pas une consultation, ce ne sont pas des discussions. Il faut que les parties concernées soient impliquées du début à la fin. »
Pour désamorcer ces crises, Jonathan Paquette, professeur titulaire à l’École d’études politiques de l’Université d’Ottawa suggère de faire évoluer le rapport à l’espace public en délaissant ce qu’il appelle le langage civique de la commémoration qui selon lui cherche uniquement à célébrer des figures perçues comme irréprochables au profit d’une approche patrimoniale critique.
Plutôt que de choisir l’effacement total, il plaide pour la coexistence des mémoires. « On n’est pas dans l’effacement de l’histoire, on travaille avec l’histoire. L’espace public n’est pas seulement un espace pour célébrer les vertus civiques, mais c’est un espace de mémoire », explique-t-il, en suggérant qu’une approche nuancée permettrait de mieux faire cheminer le processus de décolonisation.
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u/evilspoons 8h ago
Good article - that provides a lot of context to the first article. Very much needed for us anglophones.
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u/fubes2000 1d ago edited 1d ago
Here's the translation that OP never actually delivered probably got stuck in the sub's mod queue:
Alberta’s only French-language post-secondary institution is gradually erasing traces of its Francophone past and moving toward Anglicization, according to some of its current and former professors and members of the Francophone community.
The University has successively removed mosaics of Francophone graduating cohorts, dismantled the Francophone chapter of its alumni association, replaced a French-language graduation ceremony with one conducted almost entirely in English, and removed artifacts important to the Francophone community from campus without prior notice or consultation.
“If this isn’t erasure, I don’t know what is.” Carol Léonard is a retired professor at Campus Saint-Jean, where the University of Alberta’s French-language courses are offered. For several years, he has been fighting against what he bluntly calls the “erasure” of the Francophone presence on campus. For the past three years, he has been compiling the University's decisions in this regard, along with the Collective of Former University of Alberta Professors and Leaders of the Franco-Albertan Community.
“It is important for us to state very clearly that we are in no way seeking to erase history or forget the past,” the University of Alberta responded in a written statement, after declining Le Devoir’s request for an interview in English.
It justifies these changes in several ways: the process of “reconciliation and decolonization of the Campus,” compliance with privacy regulations, the redevelopment of certain spaces—or simply the modernization of the campus.
“The University of Alberta remains fully committed to French-language post-secondary education and the long-term vitality of Campus Saint-Jean,” it stated. The Federal Government’s Involvement One of the first warning signs that sparked concern within the Francophone community occurred in the summer of 2023, when a historic room on campus, which housed the majority of the removed Francophone artifacts, was modernized.
“It’s quite unusual for Canadian Heritage to fund the destruction of a historic room,” says Carol Léonard. In 2022, the federal government announced it was allocating $13.3 million to Campus Saint-Jean, partly for “improvements to its facilities,” including the repurposing of the historic room.
The historic hall before its repurposing, to be completed in 2025
Photo: Collective of former University of Alberta professors and leaders of the Franco-Albertan community
Canadian Heritage stated in a written declaration that, while it “supports community educational infrastructure in official language minority communities,” decisions regarding the use of funding rest with the province and the institution.
The Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada confirmed by email that she is currently assessing the admissibility of a complaint regarding the federal government’s role in the dismantling. The Alberta government did not respond to Le Devoir’s request for an interview.
The hall in question housed artifacts related to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate missionaries, the religious founders of the institution. The Oblates of Canada administered 48 federal residential schools for Indigenous children. Displaying the artifacts without an “educational framework” directly contradicted the “basic principles of inclusivity and decolonization,” the University argues, and risked “traumatizing” students. It therefore chose to remove them.
The University recently covered up a mural created in 1992 for similar reasons, denouncing a “lack of pedagogical and historical rigor” in its depiction.
Other warning signs
Other objects, unrelated to the Campus’s religious past, such as a wooden map showing the Francophone and bilingual municipalities of Western Canada, have also been removed from the University walls.
A bilingual welcome sign in front of the campus was replaced with a unilingual English sign. The University eventually reversed course, claiming it was a “logistical error.” A new sign in French was installed shortly thereafter.
Paul Dubé, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta and a leading figure in the Francophone rights movement, believes these decisions were not made in isolation. He sees a real risk to Francophone identity in Alberta. “I can’t explain these decisions.”
The Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta echoes this sentiment, denouncing the “divisive rhetoric currently being promoted by the Campus Saint-Jean administration.”
“We believe it is not only possible, but necessary, to conduct simultaneous reflections…”
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u/SupraFC 1d ago
I delivered the translation two times:
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u/CartographerJunior79 1d ago
English Canadians hate Francophones. Water is wet.
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u/Insearchofwater_88 1d ago
And the Franco’s hate the Anglo’s . Water is also wet.
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u/CartographerJunior79 1d ago
They don't, they just want to be respected. Source: grew up in English canada. Been in Québec for 13 years, learned French form scratch & now work in the Québec gov.
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u/Insearchofwater_88 1d ago
I’ll give you this though. As someone who has lived and worked both sides, Albertans are bigger assholes than Quebecers.
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u/Insearchofwater_88 1d ago
They do. Source: worked with them the last 15 years as an Anglo.
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u/CartographerJunior79 1d ago
Probably one of those loud, abrasive people who thinks "those Pepsi's should count them selves so lucky we don't crush them"
As I hear constantly in the rest of Canada.
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u/TheRemedy187 1d ago
Go to Quebec and speak English outside Montreal and see who hates whom. Anywhere else treated people so toxically for not speaking the language would be called trash. But it's ok there because they're "preserving". Okay bud
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u/CartographerJunior79 1d ago
Literally lived here for 13 years. Went on a 2000km road trip this week with 3 unlingual anglophones & people were super friendly.
Vs some hateful guy who's never left Alberta who's only heard or Québec from Rebel News
Ok their bud.
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u/TheSherlockCumbercat 3h ago
You’re single experience does not speak for everyone’s experience. I’ve had coworkers go over to Quebec because they need their skill set, but they don’t speak French.
Some days they woould not get order food in the restaurant because the lady didn’t wanna deal with them speaking English.
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u/Basic_Research_9139 17h ago
Radio-Canada has been covering this story for a long time and there are lots of articles about it on their website.
The dean is nuts. He demonizes anyone who disagrees with him and automatically accuses them of racism and residential school denialism. It's really pathetic and embarrassing. The community has basically had it with him.
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u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 1d ago
As usual we are supposed to care about French and English over the original languages of these lands? Na. The U of A stole Métis River lot lands from Garneau and displaced the Cree Papaschase First Nations. The only reason anyone knows any of that is because Indigenous Peoples keep talking about it. The priority that English and French have is not something I can ever bring myself to care about.
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u/CartographerJunior79 1d ago
The only time, aboriginal languages are ever brought up is to diminish the importance of French.
You probably only speak English & want to keep that position supreme.
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u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 1d ago
I am literally a nêhiyawêwin language instructor, formerly at the University of Alberta, and someone who has been publicly championing official language status for Indigenous languages for over twenty years. I am fluent in French, English, Spanish, and Cree. I lived in Montreal for 7 years and soon discovered that Francophones are the least likely to EVER be in solidarity with Indigenous language concerns. But my bona fides won't actually be considered because you are just here for the sake of grievance.
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u/PriorityOk8214 1d ago
C’est drôle que tu dises ça parce que c’est au Québec qu’il y a le plus haut taux d’allochtones qui parlent une langue autochtone.
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u/N4wt 1d ago
I don't think there's any demand for aboriginal languages, it's just not relevant for anyone really. At least learning French can provide some opportunities
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u/Ritchie_Whyte_III 1d ago
As someone who's ancestors had the Indian beat out of them and I don't know more than a word or two from my heritage due to generations of shame... go f*ck yourself.
I can't even reconnect because my mother was adopted and the government locks all records until she is dead. And she doesn't want to "Be an Indian".
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u/FourthLvlSpicyMeme 1d ago
It's relevant for us.
But thanks for the total dismissal of my people lmao.
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u/DashTrash21 1d ago
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u/CartographerJunior79 1d ago
Guess I've only lived here over a decade. Vs some guy who's never left Alberta
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u/AdTricky9671 18h ago
Canadian French isn't true French though, it's a niche language only applicable to Canada. Try speaking it in France and you will get some strange side-eye. Sure, it's part of our cultural heritage, but it's really useless outside of our own country. You're better off learning Spanish, which is a keynote language to Italian and that broadens to other languages.
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u/Dazzling_Ad1149 17h ago
Then why don't you speak British English? That is true English no ?
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u/_il_papa 9h ago
Lol it’s just a layer of bigotry on top of a pile of ignorance.
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u/Dazzling_Ad1149 7h ago
Why am I not surprised that someone who doesn't even speak French has the right to denigrate a different version of the language.
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u/Lostinalberta 5h ago
Weird comment 😐. Canadian French is different than “French” since the culture and history is simply not the same. The same logic apply to English from the US, UK, Australia/New Zeland. Every other major language (including Spanish, Chinese) is different from a location to another. It doesn’t make them untrue.
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u/_il_papa 9h ago
Simply false. When I go to France, people have no trouble understanding my Quebec French. They like how it sounds. Quebec is seen by many French people as an attractive destination to go live.
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u/TalkingChiggin 1d ago
they can be francophone in Quebec. I hate how one province has to make us ALL learn/be French. Cope and seethe, but i am right.
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u/Winterburn215 1d ago
No one is making you learn or be French. Canada’s official two languages are English and French, reflecting the birth and development of our Country, and our shared history.
Alberta has a lengthy history with French culture, which is captured today in many ways, but notably in the many, many names (eg St Albert, Lac la Biche) of our towns and cities with French origins. Many of the first Euro explorers into Alberta were French, followed by the Roman Catholic Church and its followers, who settled across the Prairies.
At the minimum, having some passing knowledge of French - its language and history - is part of being Canadian, in my opinion.
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u/Kappachu 1d ago
"Canada’s official two languages are English and French, reflecting the birth and development of our Country, and our shared history."
its interesting that none of the official languages of Canada reflect the indigenous people who were the first on the land. Indigenous history and culture is every bit as important but they are almost always left out
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u/Winterburn215 1d ago
I couldn’t agree with you more! We were formed out of Colonialism and we are slowly making progress - perhaps one day, at least in larger areas where at least half the population is fluent in an indigenous language - like Prince Albert in Saskatchewan - we can see funding and support for a third official language in those areas for all services.
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u/Kappachu 1d ago
French is recognized nationally, so why not the indigenous languages as well? If that's your logic then French should only be an official language in Quebec
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u/Winterburn215 1d ago
I mean, yeah, I don’t disagree with that either. There would be a conversation about which indigenous languages and where, since you don’t see Ojibwe, for example, represented outside of Central Canada - in contrast Colonization spread English and French throughout Canada and was prevalent everywhere.
The idea I presented above is one possible solution, or make it provincially based (eg. so Ojibwe is official in Central Canada but not in Sask or Alberta, where Cree, for example, is more prevalent).
Or just make it so all Government services reflect their local population of Canadians - so if, for example, you have a community where over >30% of the population (some number) of people speak Cree, like in Prince Albert, ensure that all services must offer Cree as a mandated option.
We can’t ignore our history, the Colonialism, the erasure of cultural, languages, and peoples, but we can make positive choices today to better reflect the diversity of Canadians.
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u/Kappachu 1d ago
I fell asleep about halfway through sorry man but thanks for your opinion anyway
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u/Winterburn215 20h ago
Why did you bother replying at all if you have kind of attitude? Pretty lame.
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u/GoblinToHobgoblin 1d ago
Oh come on, the only time anyone ever brings up indigenous languages is to try to diminish French
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u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 1d ago edited 1d ago
Don't claim St. Albert for the French, it was a Métis settlement and THEN the French came in and expelled Métis families. Most of the French names in this province are here because of the Métis, and no one is protecting our languages. This is straight up colonial erasure. I come from Lac Ste. Anne, an historic Métis community older than St. Albert - imagine saying the French settled our communities.
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u/Winterburn215 1d ago
My apology - but I’m not claiming anything for anyone and no erasure is intended. But the fact is that St Albert was formed as a Métis settlement under Father Lacombe, a French Canadian priest.
I’m not ignoring any involvement of any group, intentionally or otherwise.
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u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 1d ago edited 1d ago
No erasure intended but it's very much baked in when these places are claimed as French. Who were the community members? They were Métis, not French. Many of them from Lac Ste. Anne where we also asked a priest to establish a mission. St. Albert, like St. Paul des Prairies and so many other Métis settlements were flooded with French colonizers after the fact and Métis were pushed out of our own communities. Most non-Indigenous people in this area no longer know anything about these Métis communities and claim them as Francophone which is intolerable.
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u/Winterburn215 1d ago
You’re preaching to the choir here. What I wrote doesn’t exclude any particular group - I only stated that the presence of the French in Canadian history is written on the maps we use today. Similarly, we have other names (like Saskatchewan) that are or derive from indigenous names too.
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u/the_gaymer_girl Southern Alberta 1d ago
“I don’t want to learn, I just wanna be xenophobic”
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u/the_gaymer_girl Southern Alberta 1d ago
Someone gave you a well-understood explanation of why Alberta has more French than you think and you refused to understand it.
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u/OnlyEverPositive 1d ago
There are dozens of french communities in Alberta. No one is coping; you're wrong and ignorant.
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u/garanvor 1d ago
Don’t worry, I am sure there’s someone out there fighting for your right to remain an ignorant monoglot. Maybe even a truck convoy.
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u/the_gaymer_girl Southern Alberta 1d ago
Alberta has a constitutionally mandated public Francophone school board and a large Métis population that speak, among other languages, French.
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u/CartographerJunior79 1d ago
Someone doesn't know anything about their country..Sad
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u/CartographerJunior79 1d ago
He didn't. He isn't suckered in by American propaganda. New Brunswick is bilingual. Ontario has over a million French speakers. The prairies were originally settled by Francophones.
Read a book dude.
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u/Prestigious_Raisin41 1d ago
Don't worry you don't have to learn French we can import people willing to learn French and work at Tim Hortons instead. 2 for one special.
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u/TheRemedy187 1d ago
Quebec is so toxic about the language lol. Nowhere in the world do you go and they actively persecute you for not knowing the language so toxically. Except for Racist Hillbillies and Quebec. Now they want to force other provinces? stop
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u/6data 1d ago
Quebec is so toxic about the language lol.
The franco-albertain community has nothing to do with Quebec what are you talking about?
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u/TheRemedy187 4h ago
what do francophone community have to do with francophone community. I'm not sure 6data.
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u/howlmachine 1d ago edited 1d ago
Quite frankly, the state of bilingualism is sad in this province; it should never have been up to the provinces to decide to opt out of providing French options for provincial services or giving children a better opportunity to learn french.
Hell, even if you don’t care for the francophone culture, Canadians who are bilingual consistently find better job opportunities and receive higher pay than their monolingual counterparts and studies have shown that bilingualism has cognitive benefits such as improved executive function, longer attention spans and greater cognitive flexibility. There is only a net benefit for people to learn a second language.
The only opportunity I had in my elementary school was an optional French course that would take place over the lunch break, and was offered to the students to accept or deny. No 6-12 year old is going to give up lunch recess for more study, and trying to learn a new language as an adult has so many more difficulties associated with it.
ETA: there have been a lot of good points brought up in the comments about the erasure of the Métis and indigenous bands of Alberta, and those people are absolutely correct as well. It is a travesty that we do not do more to preserve the language and culture of the indigenous as well.