French language celebrated
City and other NWT communities marking annual occasion
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Friday, March 20, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
French-speaking city councillor Linda Bussey said the Franco-Tenois flag used to fly on top of city hall but this year it has a more prominent location on the flag pole in front of the building.
Linda Bussey, a French-speaking city councillor, stands in front of the Franco-Tenois – the NWT's francophone banner – which is raised annually outside city hall in recognition of the Rendezvous des Francophonie, a period from March 13 to March 22. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
Bussey said NWT's Francophone banner - which was named for the acronym TNO (Territoires du Nord-Ouest) and features a polar bear and the Fleur-de-lis spliced with a snowflake - makes an appearance at the municipal headquarters every year in recognition of the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie. The nine-day national event - which began March 13 - is marked by thousands of events in communities across the country and runs through the United Nation's French Language Day, celebrated today.
Bussey said she's been in the city for 20 years after a five-year-stint in Iqaluit but grew up in Quebec. She said she's come to feel at home in the territory and feels quite comfortable speaking French, the language her mother spoke to her when she was young.
"I have a good network of people that can speak French," she said. "It's excellent. I was raised in a household where my father spoke to us in English and my mother spoke to us in French. I'm very thankful for having had my parents raise me in two languages."
She said bilingualism has afforded her opportunities to travel, meet people and to work in a variety of different positions she might have missed out on if she only spoke one language.
"I was on the French school board ... when Allain St. Cyr was built," she said. "I'm always amazed at the number of people that speak a language other than French who put their kids in a French speaking school."
Suzette Montreuil, president of the Commission Scolaire Francophone, said the city's French community is vibrant and growing which she said helps to make Francophiles feel at home.
"It gives you a chance to talk to people with a similar kind of background," she said. "The (French language) events are really important to have access to people that you know. And if you go to them it will be expected that you speak French so there's always a hesitation if you're one of many (English speakers) but if it's a Francophone event it's quite normal if you speak French."
Montreuil said the city is flush with French speakers from countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She said French speakers have had to fight hard for their rights and that things have begun to change since 2006 when the Federation Franco-Tenois won a ruling saying that the GNWT's French -language services were inadequate. The fight continues, she said, as French-speakers wait to learn if the Supreme Court of Canada will hear the organization's appeal asking that the French schools be able to decide who attends their schools.
"When you look at education and even the access to services ... we've had to work really hard to change the policy of communicating in French," she said. "We deposited our request to appear before the Supreme Court, and we expect to know by May or early June whether we will be allowed."
Montreuil said there are a number of events held in Yellowknife and around the territory marking the French-recognition event including the raising of the flag at city hall, a Francophone night and traditional Francophone brunch at the snow castle, a fitness competition in Hay River, a paper mache workshop in Yellowknife tomorrow, a flash mob in the city on March 28 and a maple stand in Inuvik on the same day.
Bussey said she thinks French is a beautiful language, both poetic and powerful.
"It's got that Latin flavour," she said. "Sometimes when I am in staff meetings and I get very passionate, I'll put a French word in there. I think it's because the words are so meaningful. They have a drive to them."
She said having many languages spoken in the territory is a good thing.
"Having another language is having another culture," she said. "We embrace diversity. It's makes us a country that's open."
