We reproduce here a statement produced by the Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec (LJC-Q) in which it salutes the struggle of Francophones across Canada for the occasion of the International Day of the Francophonie. In the statement, LJC-Q outlines the need for Francophones to struggle to have their linguistic, cultural and political rights recognised albeit Canada being a bilingual country. They also clarify that celebrating Francophones across Canada does not mean to celebrate the neocolonialist Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and make it clear that the main danger of Francophone culture is not immigration, but corporate power that benefits from the national oppression that millions across Canada are fighting on a daily basis. They also outline the fact that Francophone struggles should not be put in competition with those of Indigenous peoples and nations, both targeting the same enemy.
On the occasion of the International Day of the Francophonie, first celebrated in 1988, the Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec salutes all those who struggle to keep this “Language of France with American accents” alive in Canada. We wish to highlight the progressive fight of Francophone minorities in the rest of Canada to ensure their linguistic and cultural rights are guaranteed.
Today in Canada we are in the midst of a wave of Francophobia. In the fall of 2018 the Ford government in Ontario announced the cancellation of l’Université de l’Ontario français as a part of their austerity measures. If the University ever sees the light of day in 2021, it is because last year Franco-Ontarians mobilised in the hundreds of thousands to defend their right to an education. In New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province in Canada, the ‘People’s Alliance’ party holds the balance of power. The ‘People’s Alliance’ was elected on a platform of attacking the rights of Francophone Acadians! In Ottawa, the capital of Canada, the struggle of Francophones there has resulted in the city becoming officially bi-lingual in the winter of 2018, however their resistance continues to ensure the enforcement of these rights.
For the Francophones in the rest of Canada, despite living in an officially bi-lingual country, it is a daily fight to preserve their language. In 1971, 27.4% of Francophones outside of Quebec had adopted English as their daily language. By 2011 this number had risen to 39.8%, this trend continues today. For example, St-Boniface, once the vibrant heart of Francophone Manitoba, today only 30% of the population declare themselves as Francophone.
In other words, the struggle for the rights of French-Speaking national minorities is not a fad but an imperative for all those who strive to defend democratic and social rights. Despite abandoning laws that forbid French decades ago, the fact remains that the assimilation of Francophones is again the order of the day for the most reactionary sectors of the monopolist class.
As Communists, we refuse to reduce the celebration of the International Day of the Francophonie to the descendants of the children of ‘New France’. The diversity of the Francophones of Canada continues to grow. The contribution of immigrants from west Africa, Maghreb, or elsewhere is increasingly fundamental to the survival of Francophone communities across the country. To think that different Francophone cultures are threatened by immigration is an irrational aberration. It is like aiming for the animal and hitting its shadow to think that the workers who settle in Canada fleeing misery, war and the destruction of their environment, are at all responsible for this situation. It is the monopoly class of Canada – francophone and anglophone – for which cultural and linguistic rights mean nothing unless they can be profitable.
We also want to make it very clear: defending the rights of Francophones in Canada as in the rest of the world is not to defend the ‘Organisation internationale de la francophonie’. The OIF is a neocolonialist organization that seeks only to integrate African and Asian countries in the lap of French imperialism and other countries Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland. It is no secret that the OIF has forgotten its mandate – if it ever were – of promoting French language and culture: in recent years, countries like Qatar (which has not absolutely no link neither cultural nor linguistic with the Francophonie) became members of the OIF while the President of this organization, Mrs. Mushikiwabo represents Rwanda, a country whose administration has, recently, both joined the Commonwealth and opted for English as the official language.
In the context of Canada, defending French language is not synonymous with imperialism. On the contrary, it is, unlike what some people even in the left might think, a fundamentally progressive struggle since it targets the domination of the English-speaking Canadian nation and underlines the multi-national character of the country. Celebrating the Francophonie should not, however, give rise to a surge of Francophone chauvinism, but rather highlight the struggles for linguistic, political and cultural rights that Francophones across the country are deprived of. These struggles should not be opposed to those of Indigenous peoples and nations since in both cases, these target the national oppression that millions of people in Canada who do not belong to the dominant nation are constantly fighting.
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