Franco-Manitoban

Franco-Manitobans () are French Canadians or Canadian francophones living in the province of Manitoba. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 40,975 residents of the province stated that French was their mother tongue. In the same census, 148,810 Manitobans claimed to have either full or partial French ancestry. There are several Franco-Manitoban communities throughout Manitoba, although the majority are based in either the Winnipeg Capital Region or the Eastman Region.

The first francophones to enter the region were fur traders during the late 17th century, with the first French settlers arriving in the subsequent century. Francophones constituted the majority of the region's non-First Nations population until the mid 19th century, when anglophones became the linguistic majority. In 1869, the Red River Rebellion was sparked by a group of Métis francophones, eventually resulting in the admittance of the Red River Colony as a bilingual province of Canada. However, the provincial government moved to revoke the linguistic rights accorded to francophones late 19th and early 20th centuries. Restoration of these linguistic rights did not begin until 1970, when French was made an official language of its public education system. The linguistic rights of Franco-Manitobans was also furthered as a result of several decisions made by the Supreme Court of Canada during the 1970s to 1990s.

Demographics

According to the 2016 Canadian Census, the number of people that reported French as a mother tongue in Manitoba was 46,055 (or 3.7 per cent of the population), making it the most common mother tongue in the province after English, German, and Tagalog. The majority of Franco-Manitobans are bilingual in English and French, with only 1,485 respondents (0.1 per cent of Manitobans) in the 2016 census reporting they only had proficiency in the French language. Approximately 15 per cent of francophones in Manitoba were born in Canada outside of Manitoba; while the remaining francophones that reside in the province were born outside the country.

Communities

Francophone communities in Manitoba are concentrated in southern Manitoba, along corridors that follow the Seine and Red River of the North towards Lake Manitoba. Four out of five francophones in Manitoba reside in either the Winnipeg Capital Region or Eastman Region: 58 per cent in the Winnipeg Capital Region, 22 per cent in Eastman Region. Including the capital, there are 15 communities in the province that are officially designated as bilingual areas.

thumb|Members of the Red River provisional government established in 1870, which included a number of francophone [[Métis. The provisional government pressured the Canadian government to guarantee certain Métis and francophone rights in Manitoba.]]

In 1869, the government of Canada dispatched surveyors to survey Rupert's Land, with the transfer of the territory expected to occur in the next year.

In 1871, there were about 5,500 francophones in the province almost all of whom were Métis, and comprised more than half of the province's population. However within the next ten years, francophones became a demographic minority in Manitoba as settlers from Ontario moved into the province in large numbers.

In the same year, the province moved to eliminate its separate school system, used predominantly by the francophone Catholic population of Manitoba. The resulting issue, the Manitoba Schools Question, became a contentious national issue between English and French Canada. In 1896, the provincial and federal governments reached a compromise in which the separate school system would not be re-instituted, but religious and French language instruction would take place in the secular school system under certain conditions, and where francophone numbers warranted it. The decision effectively made the province a bilingual province again. However, the provincial government continued to move slowly in re-instituting bilingual programs, resulting in another Franco-Manitoban to use his own parking ticket to launch a legal challenge that all legislation from 1890 to 1979 passed only in English were unconstitutional.

Another supreme court decision in 1993 ruled that francophone minority were afforded the right to manage and control their own educational facilities. In order to comply with the supreme court's ruling, the Public Schools Amendment (francophone Schools Governance) Act was passed, establishing the Franco-manitoban School Division in 1994.

In 2016, the Francophone Community Enhancement and Support Act was passed with unanimous support, and no vocal opposition from the anglophone majority of Manitoba, signalling the acceptance of francophone linguistic rights within the province. Conversely, the Société de la francophonie manitobaine serves as the main advocacy and lobby group for Franco-Manitobans.

Education

Elementary and secondary

French language education rights for minority francophone populations in Canada is guaranteed under section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in addition to section 23 of the Manitoba Act.

However, French language instruction was formally banned from the province from 1916 to 1947; although instruction of the language continued in some schools illicitly. In 2016 there were approximately 2,000 students enrolled with the Université de Saint-Boniface. Cinémental is an annual French-language film festival, staged at the Centre culturel Franco-Manitobain in Winnipeg.

Notes

References

External links

Francophone Affairs Secretariat official website
Société de la francophonie manitobaine official website