Letter: Franco-Ontarians need to defend their language rights

With the Parti Québécois announcement of a referendum by 2030, French-Canadians across the country and Franco-Ontarians throughout the province need to be worried. 

Even after the events of 2018, we still haven’t seen much reform in terms of language rights across the province. If we want reform, we need to do so before Quebec goes to the polls.

Whether we want to admit it or not, Franco-Ontarians rely on Quebec to support Francophones in the province. They can put political pressure on our provincial government that we cannot. So, if Quebec leaves, we need to be ready, we need to have our rights sorted out, and we need to be able to defend ourselves.
Can we expect our rights to grow in any way without Quebec putting pressure on the federal and provincial governments? Without them, we will never get linguistic equality for all Franco-Ontarians. 

And, when it comes to the federal government, if Quebec leaves then the constitution will be changed, which seems like the perfect time for Anglophone politicians to remove bilingual rights. Isn’t Quebec the main reason we have bilingualism in Canada? So, why wouldn’t they strip us of that right without Quebec there to stop them? Who will stop them within Canada? Who can stop them? 

New Brunswick certainly can’t. We can’t just turn to another province for defense. We need to protect ourselves within our province.

While places like Sudbury are bilingual, many Franco-Ontarians in the south don’t have that same right. If we want to do anything, even go to the provincially run hospitals, we need to use English. Even this letter, while I could write it in French, if I write it in English then Anglophones and Francophones, alike, will understand. Whereas if I write in French, only Francophones will understand.

Within these next six years, we need to prepare ourselves, we need to come together again. Where better is there to start our coming together than Sudbury, the centre of Franco-Ontarians? Our cultural capital. Where our flag first flew. We need to take our issues to the provincial government now, use the resources we can get from Quebec now, and assert our rights across the province now. While we still can.

Ethan McCarthy
Greater Sudbury