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Sudbury’s Pierre Riopel named 2021 Prix de la francophonie recipient

Respected educator says his 30-year career in teaching started not with a calling, but with a phone call

Some find their career to be a calling, something they’ve dreamed of doing since they were a child. For others, a career can fall into your lap, or be something that is ever-elusive. 

For Pierre Riopel, winner of the 2021 Prix de la francophonie de l’ACFO du grand Sudbury, a career in education came not from a calling, but a phone call from his former high school.

Riopel’s father died in 1986; Riopel had been doing translation work at the time. In 1987, he received a call on a Friday morning from the new principal at Hanmer High School — where Riopel had gone to school and where Riopel’s father had been principal for many years before he died. And while the school hoped he would want to follow in his father’s educational footsteps, teaching a class of his own, Riopel was not interested. They wanted him there Monday, and Riopel declined. The response he got from them was unexpected, to say the least. “They said, ‘okay, well, we’ll figure that out Monday morning’,” said Riopel. 

That weekend, Riopel talked with his mother. “Why don't you just try,” his mother told him. “Confirm that you really don't want to do that: one semester, or a couple of weeks.”  Riopel thought that sounded reasonable, and reported for work that Monday morning. “My initial training was ‘here’s your class, here’s your class schedule, have a good day’,” said Riopel. 

But that first day was all it would take to make a lifelong educator of him. Though exhausted, he was eager to learn and teach. 

He went back to school and became a history teacher, finding his love of stories and his life experiences — such as his time as a page at The Parliament of Canada — offered students a different view of a subject built around names and dates.

He also continued the fight for French-language education. 

His father and mother encouraged a love of his language and culture from a young age, and Riopel pushed for French-language rights in schools throughout his career, both as an educator and administrator, and also, as a student. 

Riopel recalls his time at Hanmer High School and the push in the mid-1970s to fund a French-language school. Riopel’s father and others like him had long pushed for and won French-language courses in schools, but at the time, the Minister for Education said there was no money for a French-language school. 

An organization called FESFO, the Fédération de la jeunesse franco-ontarienne (the federation for young franco-ontarians), put together an action that Riopel was happy to take part in. If the education ministry lacked the money to build a school, the students decided they would help them out.  

A group of students, including Riopel, travelled to each classroom at Hanmer High School handing out postcards detailing the sender’s desire for francophone education. Riopel recalls the school having 700-800 students at the time. 

“We would go around, give people a dime, and tell them, ‘here's a piece of scotch tape, scotch tape the dime to the card and write a message, if you wish’. All of these cards were all addressed to the Minister of Education.”

Why dimes? “They were the ones that would fit in the mail,” Riopel said with a laugh.

Whether it was the collection of dimes, or the collective will of the francophone people, there are now not only French-language schools, but entire school boards. 

From educator, Riopel moved to principal, then to superintendent and director of education at Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l'Ontario (CSPGNO) before moving to post-secondary as president of Collège Boréal from 2013 to 2016. Riopel has also been a part of several community boards, such as the Provincial Advisory Committee on Francophone Affairs in Ontario, the Northern Policy Institute, the Société historique du Nouvel-Ontario, the Centre de santé communautaire de Sudbury-Est and the Centre franco-ontarien de folklore, as well as continuing to serve as Chair of the Board of Regents of the University of Sudbury. 

Riopel is charting the path for the University of Sudbury as it moves forward in the wake of the dissolution of the federated university agreements with Laurentian University when it filed for insolvency in February. The University of Sudbury recently confirmed its new secular status in order to secure government funding and to carry out its plan to be an institution for and by Francophones.

Because of his 30-year career in the education sector, and specifically for his work with francophone post-secondary opportunities, Riopel was awarded the Prix de la francophonie 2021 by the Association canadienne-française de l'Ontario (ACFO) of Greater Sudbury at a ceremony on September 25. He is the 39th recipient of the award, among esteemed names like Paulette Gagnon, Gaétan Gervais, former Sudbury MP Paul Lefebvre and most recently, Place 2020 winner, Léo Therrien, executive director of la Place des arts. 

Riopel told Sudbury.com the driving force for his career and his love of education comes not only from his parents and their love of their cultures, but also from his desire to see grandchildren speak to their grandparents in their first language. That each person with the desire to speak French may do so, and that each service or education offered in the language is done “par, pour et avec,” la Francophonie. (For, by and with the francophone population.) 


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Jenny Lamothe

About the Author: Jenny Lamothe

Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com. She covers the diverse communities of Sudbury, especially the vulnerable or marginalized.
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