by Cecil Maranville, Fred Nance, David Palmer, John R Schroeder
Manitoba's Francophone Perspective on Quebec
French explorers once
roamed the vast Canadian wilderness, setting up communities not only in
Quebec but in villages scattered across Canada. None outside Quebec was
more dynamic than the French-speaking enclave of St. Boniface. But bigotry,
sometimes sanctioned by provincial officials, wreaked havoc on this Francophone
community, and the example of what happened here is cited as a prime reason
why some French Canadians believe Quebec should become an independent country.
Simply put, the fear is that Canada's
English-speaking majority could eventually overwhelm the language and
culture of Francophone Canadians. French-speaking Canadians who were
pupils in St. Boniface in the 1940s And 1950s still vividly recall
how their language was banned and how they were forced to hide their
textbooks when provincial school inspectors came around to ensure that
nobody was being taught French.
Today there are 4,400 students studying
in French at 22 schools run by The Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine,
but many French-speakers fear the modest gains they have made in the
recent past could be wiped out if Quebec secedes.
The November election in Quebec
is as much a vote of confidence in the Canadian dream of a bilingual
nation from coast to coast as on whether to elect a government committed
to holding another referendum on Quebec secession.
If Quebecers re-elect their secessionist
government on November 30, they may soon be asked to cast their votes
on the same issue put to them three years ago in a referendum that
came within an ace of splitting Canada apart.
Although Manitoba was admitted into
Canada as a bilingual province in 1870, the right to French-language
education was not guaranteed and was abolished 20 years later. In Quebec,
what is now known as the "Manitoba Schools Question" was seen as the
most significant loss of French rights in non-Francophone Canada.
