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rfmcdonaldThis news certainly got attention.
I recently blogged about the University of Ottawa in the context of a failed union initiative to lift the requirement for English/French bilingualism at the University, in all likelihood a provision leading to the rapid Anglicization of the University given the overwhelming advantage of the English language in Ottawa as evidenced by the lack of French-language fluency among Ottawa's Anglophones.
It's a bit surprising it took this long to happen. The Franco-Ontarians, the second-language official language minority in Canada after Québec's Anglophones, constitute a population of a half-million people tracing its roots to late 19th century migrations from Québec, concentrated in areas along the frontier with Québec including the city of Ottawa and its suburbs. The Ottawa-Gatineau conurbation, including the Canadian capital and its Québec suburb, is one-third Francophone by population with very significant intercourse across the interprovincial frontier.
It's not that surprising, mind. The shattering of the old French Canada in the 1960s by the rise of a specifically Québécois nationalism isolated even the Franco-Ontarians, an internally diverse group, from their ancestral territory, while the application of the language laws in Québec ensured that province would remain bilingual and even see net assimilation to the French language, while the ineffectiveness of bilingualism in Ontario, the continued hegemony of the English language, and the catch-up of French Canadian cohort fertility to sub-replacement national levels, has ensured a significant divergence indeed. It's of note that, while there have been proposals to partition Québec on ethnolinguistic lines in the case of Québec independence, there haven't been suggestions to attach Francophone areas outside of Québec to the new state: the locals just don't share in that nationalist/separatist paradigm.
Tristan Dénommée, a third-year political science student originally from Quebec, founded the club in September as a way of promoting the Bloc's separatist ideas on campus.
"The Bloc is an official party in Canada, and we have the right to express ourselves," Dénommée said. "If I can inform students about my cause, it could be a good thing, because most anglophone Canadians don't understand the mentality of French separatist people."
As an official campus club, the group gets $1,000 in subsidies and access to other resources, including free room rentals. Dénommée has recruited 25 members so far but also encountered some resistance from students who don't believe their student fees should support a separatist political group.
[. . ]
Arlaine MacLennan, clubs co-ordinator for the university's student federation, said she's received no complaints about the club being approved.
"They're a political club, and they want to promote Bloquiste ideas on campus, just like there are many other political clubs for other political parties," MacLennan said.
In order for a club to be officially recognized by the student federation, it has to have a minimum of 15 members, 75 per cent of whom have to be University of Ottawa students. MacLennan said there are roughly 200 registered clubs on campus that fall into a range of categories, including philanthropic, political, religious, cultural, academic and recreational.
Dénommée said his club plans to hold debates with other campus political clubs next semester and also hopes to invite Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe to speak on campus.
I recently blogged about the University of Ottawa in the context of a failed union initiative to lift the requirement for English/French bilingualism at the University, in all likelihood a provision leading to the rapid Anglicization of the University given the overwhelming advantage of the English language in Ottawa as evidenced by the lack of French-language fluency among Ottawa's Anglophones.
It's a bit surprising it took this long to happen. The Franco-Ontarians, the second-language official language minority in Canada after Québec's Anglophones, constitute a population of a half-million people tracing its roots to late 19th century migrations from Québec, concentrated in areas along the frontier with Québec including the city of Ottawa and its suburbs. The Ottawa-Gatineau conurbation, including the Canadian capital and its Québec suburb, is one-third Francophone by population with very significant intercourse across the interprovincial frontier.
It's not that surprising, mind. The shattering of the old French Canada in the 1960s by the rise of a specifically Québécois nationalism isolated even the Franco-Ontarians, an internally diverse group, from their ancestral territory, while the application of the language laws in Québec ensured that province would remain bilingual and even see net assimilation to the French language, while the ineffectiveness of bilingualism in Ontario, the continued hegemony of the English language, and the catch-up of French Canadian cohort fertility to sub-replacement national levels, has ensured a significant divergence indeed. It's of note that, while there have been proposals to partition Québec on ethnolinguistic lines in the case of Québec independence, there haven't been suggestions to attach Francophone areas outside of Québec to the new state: the locals just don't share in that nationalist/separatist paradigm.
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