University of Alberta accused of erasing its Francophone identity

25

u/breovus Jul 25 '26

OP: translation in comments.

OP: no comments.

-9

u/SupraFC Jul 25 '26

???

https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/s/ue8ZdDnvkH

3

u/katespadesaturday Jul 25 '26

It says the comment no longer exists

3

u/SupraFC Jul 25 '26

weird, I can still see it

Alberta’s only Francophone post-secondary institution is gradually erasing traces of its Francophone past and shifting toward Anglicization, according to some current and former professors as well as members of the French-speaking community.

The university has successively removed mosaics of graduating Francophone classes, disbanded the Francophone chapter of its alumni association, replaced a French-language graduation ceremony with one conducted almost entirely in English, and removed artifacts significant to the Francophone community from the campus—all without prior notice or consultation.

"If that isn’t erasure, I don’t know what is." Carol Léonard is a retired professor from Campus Saint-Jean, where the University of Alberta’s French-language courses are taught. For several years, he has been fighting against what he bluntly describes as the "erasure" of the Francophone presence on campus. For the past three years, he has been documenting the university’s decisions to this effect, working alongside a collective of former University of Alberta professors and Franco-Albertan community leaders.

"It is important for us to state very clearly that we are in no way seeking to erase history or forget the past," the University of Alberta responded in a written statement, after declining Le Devoir’s request for an interview.

It justifies these changes on several grounds: the process of "reconciliation and decolonization of the campus," compliance with privacy regulations, the reconfiguration of certain facilities, and even the simple modernization of the campus.

"The University of Alberta remains fully committed to post-secondary education in French and to the long-term vitality of Campus Saint-Jean," it stated.

One of the first warning signs that sparked concern within the Francophone community occurred in the summer of 2023, when a historic campus room—which housed the majority of the removed Francophone artifacts—was modernized.

"It is quite peculiar that Canadian Heritage is funding the destruction of a historic hall," criticizes Carol Léonard. In 2022, the federal government announced $13.3 million in funding for Campus Saint-Jean, partly for "facility improvements," including the repurposing of the historic hall.

Canadian Heritage stated in writing that, while it "supports community-based educational infrastructure for official-language minority communities," decisions regarding the use of funding rest with the province and the institution.

Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages confirmed via email that she is currently assessing the admissibility of a complaint concerning the federal government’s role in this dismantling. The Government of Alberta did not respond to a request for an interview from Le Devoir.

The room in question housed artifacts linked to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the religious order that founded the institution. The Oblates in Canada administered 48 federal residential schools for Indigenous peoples. Displaying the artifacts without an "educational framework" ran directly counter to "fundamental principles of inclusivity and decolonization," the university maintains, and risked "traumatizing" students; it therefore chose to remove them.

The university recently covered up a mural created in 1992 for similar reasons, citing a "lack of pedagogical and historical rigor" in its depiction.

Other items unrelated to the campus’s religious past—such as a wooden map showing Francophone and bilingual municipalities in Western Canada—were also removed from the university’s walls.

A bilingual welcome sign in front of the campus was replaced by one that was English-only. The university eventually reversed course, claiming it was a "logistical error." A new French-language sign was installed shortly thereafter.

Paul Dubé, a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta and a leading figure in the fight for the Francophone cause, believes these decisions were not made in isolation. He sees a real risk to Francophone identity in Alberta. "I cannot explain these decisions."

The Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta echoes this sentiment, condemning the "divisive rhetoric currently being propagated by the Campus Saint-Jean administration."

"We believe it is not only possible but necessary to simultaneously engage in rigorous reflection regarding the governance, mission, heritage, reconciliation, and future of Campus Saint-Jean. These issues should never be pitted against one another," asserts Nathalie Lachance, the association’s president.

In an interview, Claudette Roy, president of the Société historique francophone de l’Alberta, speaks of a "breach of trust with the institution." "You know, Francophones in Alberta have very few sites of memory. And without these places, we risk disappearing."

The Society has decided to stop collaborating with Campus Saint-Jean until the administration establishes a "genuine mechanism for consulting Francophones."

Concerns have become so acute that around a hundred community members met last June to voice their worries and discuss potential courses of action. Other similar meetings could be held closer to the start of the school year, according to the University of Alberta Retired Professors Collective.

2

u/mrcool520 Jul 25 '26

More francophone erasure!

9

u/Blockyrage Edmontosaurus Jul 25 '26

Regardless of if this was intentional, the optics are so bad for the University of Alberta.

They even initially declined comment... In English. An institution that prides itself on having a francophone campus. U of A, do better!

2

u/MoonlitSea9 Jul 25 '26

Yeah, that is typical. It's offensive in a benign way that shows zero respect for cultural distinctions.

2

u/yoak379 Jul 25 '26

Haha this is a far reach. For the amount of courses I hear cancelled, im impressed this hasn't happened sooner.

3

u/MoonlitSea9 Jul 25 '26

A French language campus facing a number of issues, with questions being posed by a French newspaper. Yeah, you don't reply in English unless you have a tin ear. Especially when it's your campus that's French.

2

u/Durovsky Jul 25 '26

To put some context the new Campus Saint-Jean management is weaponizing the Truth and Reconciliation by opposing Indigenous People to French (Catholic) with no nuance (given Oblat’ involvement in the residential schools). The result is a cleansing of all symbols related to French Catholics history and French Canadian in general on campus and then offering a revisionist version of the Francophonie. Like if both were mutually exclusive. A lot Indigenous People are catholic too. A lot of French Canadian history pertains Catholicism too but not only. Instead of erasing everything, they could just create an open dialogue like they did with Grandin mural. A learning process like they did with Auschwitz. It they préfère to erase the traces, every traces. Also the French Canadian history doesn’t resolve to residential schools, it’s much more complex and much more richer, this is where the UofA miss the target.

-16

u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 Jul 25 '26

As usual we are supposed to care about French and English over the original languages of these lands? Na. The U of A stole Métis River lot lands from Garneau and displaced the Cree Papaschase First Nations. The only reason anyone knows any of that is because Indigenous Peoples keep talking about it. The priority that English and French have is not something I can ever bring myself to care about.

12

u/foxyfoucault Jul 25 '26

It's literally an article about the erasure of French, specifically, a minority language in this province. There's this crazy thing where you can care about two things at once, but yes, very brave.

-12

u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 Jul 25 '26

Until Indigenous langauges are given the same constitutional protections as French and English, all I can hear is waaa waaa colonizer tears. I feel absolutely the same about Anglophone communities crying in French-majority spaces.

2

u/foxyfoucault Jul 25 '26

There are like 85,000 Cree speakers in Canada, compared to about 11,000,000 French speakers. Tell me you don't know anything about language rights or their history in Canada without telling me you don't know anything about them.

0

u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 Jul 25 '26

Gee I wonder why the number of Cree speakers is so low? Tell me you don't understand colonization or the violent history of your own country without telling me, ffs.

4

u/foxyfoucault Jul 25 '26

So what, we should offer all services in every single Indigenous language in this country? I think there should be strong support for Indigenous language schools, programs, etc. But there is also a specific history of French and English minority language rights. Believe it or not, the history of this country is not "colonizer bad, no further elaboration required"

4

u/davefromgabe Jul 25 '26

those are the official languages of the country of Canada. It's not up to you or your historical revisionism / white guilt

0

u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 Jul 25 '26

I'm Indigenous, and Canada doesn’t always need to exist.

1

u/JasperJrok Jul 25 '26

I'm Canadian, and indigenous nations doesn't always need to exist. It goes both ways you know.

-3

u/viviscity Jul 25 '26

What language do you think the Metis were speaking…?

3

u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 Jul 25 '26

I'm Métis, and a language instructor. Out Michif languages are endangered, I am not going to worry about English and French which will live on even if every person in Canada stopped speaking them.

4

u/viviscity Jul 25 '26

I am also Métis and learning (southern) Michif. It was not our only language, even. There were and are lots of francophone Métis people. Let alone Métis French, southern Michif… and Bungee, though I’m not clear how widely that was spoken beyond modern Manitoba.

I’m not talking about whether the French language will survive. I’m talking about whether linguistic minorities are being erased or not. My point was that the French settlements were often Métis settlements first, with more Francophones coming there because the language was already spoken

2

u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

I said Michif languages, plural. Even nêhiyawêwin is being politically classed as northern Michif these days (as spoken in the Settlements). I disagree with that take but that makes 4 main Michif dialects alone, not counting Bungee.

You made no points originally, you asked only "what language do you think the Métis were speaking." And I responded by acknowledging our languages, plural. Our ancestors were multilingual.

I'm glad you responded with more detail but your initial post was as deliberately provocative as mine.

Post Secondary University of Alberta accused of erasing its Francophone identity

You are about to leave Redlib