It's easy to forget today, but at one time, there was considerable animosity between French and English communities in Canada, including right here in Greater Sudbury, where one-third of residents list French as their mother tongue.
As late as 2003, Joanne Gervais said members of city council in Greater Sudbury were reluctant to give the Franco-Ontario flag a permanent spot outside Tom Davies Square, even though it was designed here in 1975 by Gaétan Gervais and Michel Dupuis at Laurentian University.
“The mayor at the time (Jim Gordon) decided to bring it to council, and the vote was no by 6-5,” Gervais said.
Gervais is head of the Association Canadienne-Française de l'Ontario of Greater Sudbury, a group that advocates for access to French language services. When they lost the vote 16 years ago, she says all sorts of reasons were raised – reasons she says were more “misguided than malicious."
“You know, things like that Francophones were just complainers, and they were always asking for something, and this was going to cost money,” she said. “Well, it's flying there now and no one died. There's no waste of money anywhere, and I think, really, this shows how far our community has come – and that's reassuring to me.”
The flag was first raised at the University of Sudbury and was officially recognized as the emblem of the Franco-Ontarian community in the Franco-Ontarian Emblem Act of 2001.
It has been raised in different part of the city each year over the last five years on Saint-Jean Baptiste Day, held June 24 this year.
Gervais found out when she received a phone call from city staff casually telling her the flag was going up outside Tom Davies Square, with literally no fuss. The city is nearing the completion of a major renovation of the courtyard outside city hall, and decided it was a good time for the flag to fly there permanently.
Why is it important to Francophones? Gervais said it's all about recognizing the contributions the community has made to a city where French-speaking residents have deep roots.
“It's a question of pride,” she said. “It's not anti-Ontario, it's pro-Ontario. So now we're floating with the Canadian flag, with the Ontarian flag, with the flag from the City of Sudbury, taking our rightful place.”
The fact other Northern Ontario communities with large Francophone populations had already raised the Sudbury-created flag was a bit unusual, too, she said.
“That just seemed off,” Gervais said. “And I think it's important for us to be identified, and for young francophones to see their place, that they're on the same level of importance as other communities.”
She can remember friends years ago who would anglicize their names to improve their chances of promotion at work. She remembers people shouting at her, telling her to go back to Quebec.
“And my family has been here for 140 years,” she laughed. “I mean, I may have some relatives there. Is that what they meant?”
But times are different today. Where some parents were resistant to French immersion, she said now the demand is huge in area schools. More people than ever are learning French as a second language because they want to, she said. And francophone families are more aware than ever of the importance of preserving their language skills and being proud members of the community.
“We want all of these people to feel a certain pride in the Franco-Ontarian flag, and see it as some kind of symbol that they are part of this community, that they belong and that they matter as much as anybody else.”
