In 1867, the Canadian government won the power to disallow any law of a provincial assembly in the year following its passage. This power was used extensively in the four subsequent decades. Between 1867 and 1876, the federal government overturned 20 provincial statutes; then 32 between 1877 and 1886; 13 between 1887 and 1896; 22 between 1897 and 1906; and 8 between 1907 and 1916, for a total of 95. Over the same period, the lieutenant-governors of the provinces refused Royal assent to 64 acts of provincial legislatures (called "reserved acts"). The grand total of disallowed and reserved acts was thus 159.

After a long fight by Ontario, the Privy Council in London recognized the sovereignty of the provinces in their spheres of jurisdiction. The Federal Parliament lost the right to disallow provincial statutes as it saw fit, putting an end to the abuse practices of centralizing prime ministers, John Alexander Macdonald being prominent among them. The power of disallowance was rarely used thereafter, and the country's political evolution served to strengthen the hand of the provinces within Confederation. The power of disallowance still legally exists, but it is no longer used. On occasion, special interest groups try to get the federal government to apply it against unpopular provincial legislation.

When the Constitution was adopted in 1867, there were no federal courts in Canada. However, section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, provided for Parliament to create a general court of appeal and other courts of law. The Supreme Court would be the first federal court created under this provision, in 1875. Later came the Exchequer Court (now Federal Court), court martials, and the courts of Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

When the Supreme Court of Canada was created, it was made up of six judges, two of whom had to be from Quebec. In 1927, the number of judges was increased to seven, but Quebec's representation remained unchanged. It wasn't until 1949 that the number of judges went to nine and the number of Quebec judges to three. However, nothing said the Quebec judges had to be Francophone.

Moreover, it was still possible to appeal Supreme Court decisions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain, which operated entirely in English. The committee, formed in 1833, had authority over Canadian courts from 1844 until 1949. It served as the true last court of appeal for Canada, and rendered numerous judgments on matters concerning the Canadian Constitution. It wasn't until 1949 that the Supreme Court of Canada became the highest court in the land.

So the situation remained uncomfortable for Francophones through 100 years of Confederation—and not just in the Supreme Court. When other federal courts were created, provincial courts were put in charge of enforcing the laws. That way, the Federal Parliament could extract itself from its bilingualism obligations under section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867. Had the federal government of the time used its own courts, bilingualism would have been mandatory. Obviously, the situation would later change, but it took time.

Section 93

In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education, subject and according to the following Provisions:--

1) Nothing in any such Law shall prejudicially affect any Right or Privilege with respect to Denominational Schools which any Class of Persons have by Law in the Province at the Union;

2) All the Powers, Privileges and Duties at the Union by Law conferred and imposed in Upper Canada on the Separate Schools and School Trustees of the Queen's Roman Catholic Subjects shall be and the same are hereby extended to the Dissentient Schools of the Queen's Protestant and Roman Catholic Subjects in Quebec;

3) Where in any Province a System of Separate or Dissentient Schools exists by Law at the Union or is thereafter established by the Legislature of the Province, an Appeal shall lie to the Governor General in Council from any Act or Decision of any Provincial Authority affecting any Right or Privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic Minority of the Queen's Subjects in relation to Education;

4) In case any such Provincial Law as from Time to Time seems to the Governor General in Council requisite for the Execution of the Provisions of this Section is not made, or in case any Decision of the Governor General in Council on any Appeal under this Section is not duly executed by the proper Provincial Authority in that Behalf, then and in every such Case, and as far as the Circumstances of each Case require, the Parliament of Canada may make remedial Laws for the due Execution of the Provisions of this Section and of any Decision of the Governor General in Council under this Section.

Section 93 A

Paragraphs 1) to 4) of section 93 do not apply to Quebec.

The French Canadian élites mobilized to have section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867 respected and, especially in Ontario, used confessional schools as a "cultural and linguistic refuge." However, this constitutional provision proved quite ineffective at protecting the rights of the Francophone minority. Section 93 was too subject to political pressure by the Anglophone majority.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of London's interpretation of it in 1916 appears quite restrictive today: "Language rights enjoy no constitutional protection, except the use of French in the courts and the parliaments of Ottawa and Quebec."

In the 100 years following the foundation of modern-day Canada in 1867 until the adoption of the Official Languages Act in 1969, the federal government (and its provincial counterparts) almost never legislated on language matters. When it did so, it was with regard to section 133, e.g., the publication or consolidation of laws or regulations. Federal language legislation was so rare, there are virtually no examples. Hence the expression "policy of non-intervention."

In principle, a non-interventionist policy is unwritten and unofficial, although the government can decide to state its intent, further its actions through administrative means, or even enact regulations, orders in council, or vague constitutional or legislative provisions. However, a non-interventionist government refrains from acting as arbitrator and is careful not to adopt specific legislative provisions. The principles of freedom of choice, tolerance, and the acceptance of differences are often invoked to justify such policies.

In Canada, successive governments stuck to the bare minimum provisions of section 133 of the Constitution (1867), with the result that for a century French remained a mere language of translation for statutes and regulations. The necessary structures were never put in place to implement bilingualism outside the legislative sphere or the smatterings found in the judicial system. After 1969, the situation would change radically, and even more so after 1982.

The thesis of the "pact between two founding peoples" would be taken up again by Abbé Lionel Groulx (1867-1967) in the mid-forties and raised by a number of others, including in 1967 in the Laurendeau-Dunton Report on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. But it reposed on an ambiguous conception of the Confederation of 1867: For Francophones, it was a pact between two founding peoples, but for Anglophones, it was a pact among four provinces. This explains why the federal government tried between the wars to discredit the notion of "founding peoples" espoused in particular by the Francophones of Quebec and Ontario. This was also a period during which French was constantly on the retreat in the country's political, social, and economic life.

The Canadian Armed Forces were also a source of trouble. In early 1916 as the number of Canadian volunteers began to drop, certain English Canadians accused the Francophones of not doing their part. It was true that French Canadians were far from sharing their fellow countrymen's enthusiasm for the war. They had no particular affection for Great Britain, nor for that matter for France. They agreed to fight provided it was on a voluntary basis, which partly explains why there were fewer Francophone recruits. But there was also the matter of language. The army was still unilingual English, except for a single battalion that had been thrown together. English was still the only language in use at Army headquarters, and Francophone officers were few and far between. French Canadians couldn't be expected to enroll in the Canadian Army when it was perceived not only as "foreign", but also as assimilative

Ever the politician, Prime Minister King put off conscription with a masterpiece of deliberate ambiguity: "Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary." The meaning of necessary he did not make clear.

Concessions to bilingualism outside the framework of the Constitution were won through long fights that would leave people shaking their heads today: bilingual stamps in 1927, bilingual bank notes in 1936, bilingual cheques from the federal government in 1945 (in Quebec) and in 1962 (elsewhere), and of course the long-awaited bilingual manual of parliamentary procedure and bilingual menus at the Parliament Hill restaurant. In 1934, the government created the Translation Bureau so that the civil service, which up until then had been virtually unilingual, could communicate in French in Quebec, which it did in 1938.

Apart from theConstitution Act, 1867, adopted by the British Parliament, the first Canadian statute of a linguistic nature dates from 1938. Despite opposition from Anglophone ministers and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, Quebec MP Wilfrid Lacroix managed to have a law passed aimed at preventing civil servants who did not speak French from being transferred to Quebec. Subsequent initiatives on behalf of French met with general indifference.

All these facts show that successive federal governments long practiced a policy of non-intervention, sticking to the letter of the 1867 Constitution. Yet even though it was apparent the language provisions of section 133 carried little weight, they served as a foundation for the future language policies that would progressively emerge after 1969 within the federal government apparatus and in certain provinces.

Among the four founding provinces of Canada in 1867, only Quebec was forced to be bilingual, and only somewhat so in its legislature and courts. It may appear odd today that negotiators at the time did not suggest the same rights and obligations for all the provinces, i.e., force Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick to be bilingual, too. After all, the three provinces had large Francophone minorities, just like Quebec had an Anglophone minority. But the fact of the matter was, doing so was unthinkable. English Canadians in 1867 considered Canada to be an English country of British origin, and the English-French bilingualism already permitted in the Union was perceived as a sign of great tolerance it is the egalitarian vision that one would have today, but at that time, it was deemed unfathomable. It was deemed normal that British Canada would be peopled by British people who spoke English.

During the same era, the Belgian government dominated by Francophones was conducting a policy of unilingualism toward the Flemish without raising indignation elsewhere in the world. Other similar examples could be found in the Europe of the day, such as in Finland (with Russian), Poland (with Russian), Estonia (with Russian), Ireland (with English), Ukraine (with Russian), etc. One should also remember that English Canadians had the example of the British Isles to follow, where Welsh, Gaelic, and Irish had been wiped out in favour of English. Throughout the British Empire, English alone was official, whether in the West Indies (Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Dominica, etc.), Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, etc. It was the same in Canada—unilingualism was perceived as the normal way to run a country, or more precisely, a nation-state. Obviously, it was not very mindful of the individual and group rights of minorities, but the evolution of customs and mentalities would take many more decades before leading to greater equity. The whole matter was great cause for a debate around the world in the 1960s.

In actual fact, the federal government was virtually unilingual English for nearly a century, except for the laws of Parliament (House of Commons and Senate), which were passed and enacted in English and French. The federal courts were in principle bilingual, but only randomly so in fact, British tradition being such that English remained the normal language of justice everywhere, except in Quebec where bilingualism was the norm. Quebec was the only province to practice a form of administrative bilingualism. In the three other provinces, the English unilingualism of 1867 continued on in the decades after. The first century of Confederation would come to be characterized by policies of non-intervention on the part of the federal government and of exclusion on the part of several provincial governments. Generally speaking, they perpetuated the status quo and respected the letter of section 133, i.e., a degree of legislative and judicial bilingualism in Ottawa and Quebec City, but none whatsoever elsewhere (in the other provinces)

The Statute of Westminster called for the dominions to be distinct political entities within the British Empire, co-equals sharing the same status in all matters of domestic and foreign trade, but also united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the "British Commonwealth of Nations."

From December 11, 1931, on, no British law enacted extended to Canada (section 4), and the term colony no long applied to Canada or to the other dominions. However, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council maintained its role as a court of final appeal on constitutional matters until 1949. In addition, Canada demanded another exception: Unlike the other dominions, it declines the right to amend its own constitution. Already at the time, Canadians were having trouble agreeing on a constitutional amending formula. They would have to wait until 1982.

The prime minister of Canada, John A. Macdonald (in power from 1867 to 1873, then from 1878 to 1891), recognized that military action in Manitoba was impossible as the distances to cover were too vast without a railroad connecting to the West. Moreover, as the British government had not yet ratified the transfer of the Northwest Territories to Canada, the Métis had not actually broken any Canadian laws. After heated negotiations, the Canadian government decided to create the province of Manitoba (from the name suggested by Louis Riel) while taking into consideration most of the Métis' demands. It agreed not to remove the Métis from their land, to set aside a large expanse of land for them for hunting, and to recognize their rights to practise Catholicism and speak French. On May 2, 1870, John A. Macdonald presented the Manitoba Act to Parliament. The act received royal assent on May 12.

The Anglophone Protestants of Ontario considered Riel's death revenge for the execution of Thomas Scott. Canadian Francophones including Quebecers viewed his execution as a racist decision against a French-speaking Catholic. Many Quebecers questioned their province's membership in the Canadian Confederation. The crisis stirred up anti-English sentiments among French speakers (and vice versa), while also demonstrating to Canadians how harmful religious and language conflicts could be when poorly handled. Prime Minister Macdonald also added fuel to the fire when he declared that "even if all the dogs of Quebec bark, Riel will be hanged!" It would be unthinkable for a Canadian prime minister to utter such words today without being immediately forced to resign. This crisis not only heightened the mistrust between English and French speakers, but for a long time also undermined the credibility of the federal government in the defence of minority rights

It is interesting to note that as early as 1835, the Assiniboine Council enforced the law and helped run the government. A number of French speakers, both Métis and Canadians, were called upon to perform a variety of duties in the courts and for the police. In 1854, all Assiniboine laws and regulations were written in English and French. Then the province of Manitoba was created in 1870. From a language perspective, section 23 of the Manitoba Actnorth_eastexternal link, a constitutional act, set out the following:

Section 23

Either the English or the French language may be used by any person in the debates of the Houses of the Legislature, and both those languages shall be used in the respective Records and Journals of those Houses; and either of those languages may be used by any person, or in any Pleading or Process, in or issuing from any Court of Canada established under the British North America Act, 1867, or in or from all or any of the Courts of the Province. The Acts of the Legislature shall be printed and published in both those languages.

In actuality, these are the same clauses as contained in section 133 of the Constitutional Law, 1867. Section 23 set out that English and French were allowed in the Legislature of Manitoba and that the records, journals, and laws had to be written and published in both languages, which could also be used in Manitoba's provincial courts. Reading between the lines of this very limited provision, it is clear that Canadian parliamentarians did not want to go beyond previous constitutional requirements.

In 1896, the federal government went down to electoral defeat and Wilfrid Laurier (1841-1919), a francophone Liberal, took power after promising to strike a compromise. He was the first French-speaking Canadian to hold this position. Throughout his career, he tried to act as arbitrator between the Anglophone majority and the francophone minority. A school regulation, known as the Laurier-Greenway Compromise—a combination of the names of the Canadian prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier (1986-1991), and the premier of Manitoba, Thomas Greenway (1888-1900)—included a provision allowing instruction in a language other than English in "bilingual schools," where 10 students or more spoke the second language in rural zones and 25 or more in urban centres. Section 2.10 addressed the issue of French:

The Laurier-Greenway Compromise was short-lived, as new regulations repealed this clause in 1896 and made English the only language of instruction in all Manitoba public schools. Then on March 10 in 1916, Manitoba adopted a new education act—the Thornton Act, named after the Minister of Education, which revoked bilingual schools, and thereby abolished all instruction in French, and made primary school (in English) mandatory for the children of the province. The same year saw the founding of the Association d'éducation des Canadiens français du Manitoba (AECFM), an association that operated for over 50 years as a sort of parallel Department of Education to improve French education for the Francophones of Manitoba—Franco-Manitobans would settle into a half century of quiet resistance. It was not until the 1950s that the Manitoba government decided to progressively reinstate French instruction in certain schools from grades 4 to 12. By virtue of an amendment in 1967 to the Manitoba Public Schools Act, French instruction was authorized for up to half of the school day.

Bilingualism never met with general approval in Manitoba, where it was viewed unfavourably from the late 19th century to the 1980s. For the multiethnic majority, it represented a costly irritant they wished would go away. On the other hand, for the francophone minority, it was a constant struggle for cultural and linguistic survival.

Section 18

Section 110 of the act is hereby abridged and replaced as follows:

"110. Either the English or the French language may be used by any person in the debates of the Legislative Assembly of the Territories and in proceedings before the courts; and both those languages shall be used in the records and journals of such Assembly; and all Ordinances made under this Act shall be printed in both those languages: Provided, however, that after the next general election of the Legislative Assembly, such Assembly may by Ordinance or otherwise, regulate its proceedings and the manner of recording and publishing the same, and the regulations so made shall be embodied in a proclamation which shall be forthwith made and published by the Lieutenant Governor in conformity with the law, and thereafter shall have full force and effect."

Section 110 of the Northwest Territories Act was scarcely enforced and Francophones wound up gradually losing most of their rights. It was, in fact, the leaders of the Territories found official bilingualism to be expensive (about $400 a year) and devised all sorts of complications to justify axing the system. On January 22, 1890, conservative MP D'Alton McCarthy (1836-1898), a fierce anti-Catholic and anti-francophone submitted a bill to the House of Commons to amend the Northwest Territories Act and abolish the official bilingual status of this Canadian region. He elaborated on his objective as follows: "My only desire is to work for the public good, and I believe that we will see that our truest interest in this country is to work to establish racial unity through national and language uniformity." Other MPs shared his point of view, notably the member for Norfolk North, John Charlton:

The stated goal of the Anglo-Saxon is to make his race the greatest race on Earth, and the hope of the Anglo-Saxon is that the day will come, before too many more decades are out, when the English language is the normal means of communication between all the races of the Earth, and that the English race is the dominant race of the world, so that the Anglo-Saxon may fulfill the destiny that God has obviously assigned him on this Earth.

Wilfrid Laurier, then leader of the Liberal opposition in the House of Commons, took the floor on February 17, 1890, but did not share this perspective:

However if I say this country must be English, it in no way follows that only a single language—the English language—can be spoken here. I am as loyal as the honourable member to the institutions of Canada, I am the son of a French Canadian mother, and I declare that I am as fond of the language I learned at her bosom as I am of the life she gave me.

People were eager to hear what Prime Minister John Macdonald had to say. For him, it was out of the question to make one language inferior to the other:

The oft-repeated statement that Canada was conquered is always beside the point. Whether Canada was conquered or ceded, we have a constitution under which all British subjects are perfectly equal, with equal language, religion, property, and human rights. There is no superior race, there is no conquered race here, we are all British subjects, and those who are not of British descent are not any less British subjects for it.

Macdonald maintained that if McCarthy wanted to see the French language disappear, he should focus his attention on the province of Quebec, not the Northwest Territories where so few French Canadians lived. That is why Prime Minister Macdonald recommended that the local Legislature be left to its own devices to decide on the language issue. On February 12, the Canadian Parliament adopted a motion to allow the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories to regulate its own language matters.

Two years later, the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly decided to abolish French in official publications. An 1892 ordinance declared English the only language of use in schools and the courts. The Northwest Territories Council then abolished separate schools (i.e., French and Catholic).

By the beginning of the 20^th century, the Northwest Territories was mostly populated by people of British origin, but there were still many Métis. Settlers of German, Russian, French, Austro-Hungarian, and Scandinavian origins had made their homes in the region as well. The majority were Protestant (Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Lutherans), but there were also Catholics, Orthodox, Doukhobors, and members of other denominations.

Starting in 1901, the Government of the Northwest Territories authorized separate Catholic schools once again. The first version of the laws of 1905 seemed to introduce a separate Catholic school system. Wilfrid Laurier, under criticism from many influential members of Parliament within the Liberal government, among them Clifford Sifton, who resigned in 1905, came to another compromise.

In the following decades, Canada paid little attention to what was happening north of the 60th parallel. In 1953, Louis Saint-Laurent, Prime Minister of Canada from 1948 to 1957, even maintained that "Canada administered the vast regions of the north continually for 90 years with no unity of purpose." In 1967, the seat of territorial government was transferred from Ottawa to Yellowknife, which became the capital of the Northwest Territories.

The fact that troops had to be dispatched in order to quell the Métis rebellion in 1870 demonstrated the need for the Canadian government to develop a faster, more reliable mode of transportation. That same year, the federal government promised British Columbia that it would build a railroad stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean provided that the colony of British Columbia joined Confederation. The House of Commons ratified the proposal in 1871 and construction of a transcontinental railroad became a policy priority for the government. On July 20, 1871, British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation, becoming the country's sixth province. Canada assumed the former British colony's debt and pledged to build a railroad connecting it to Ontario within ten years. However, construction delays irritated provincial leaders, who threatened on many occasions to secede. The first trains finally reached the Pacific coast in 1886.

The province experienced its own social tensions with the arrival of Asian immigrants (predominantly from China), which began in the gold rush era and intensified as more and more workers were hired to build the railroad. After 1890, the Chinese were joined by newcomers from Japan. In 1905, British Columbia had 5,000 immigrants from India, most of whom were Sikhs. The number of Japanese immigrants, predominantly from poor little fishing and farming villages, hit 10,000 in 1910. Following pressure by members of the white working class and riots against Asians, the provincial governments took measures to restrict "foreign" immigration. The federal government eventually limited immigration by passing the Chinese Immigration Act in 1923. The Asian population was thus the focus of white hostility. The greatest concern of authorities at the time was to quickly assimilate minority communities through the schools, which were seen as a great way to encourage the use of English. Francophone rights were not on the agenda in these times when so many were afflicted with xenophobia. It would be 40 more years before Canadians began to feel differently.

English Language

British Columbia was spared the grief of language conflicts throughout its history. English was the official language, and there was no need to introduce legislation to this effect. It became the de facto official language. Francophones were forgotten, just like the numerous Asian immigrants and natives. There was no constitutional obligation to offer legal services in French in British Columbia nor was there any legislation recognizing the right to use French in the courts. Moreover, a blanket clause in the province's Rules of Procedure set out that all documents had to be written in English. This clause did not apply to criminal courts as that would contravene provisions of the Canadian Criminal Code, but these Criminal Code provisions did not enter into force until 1990. For over a century, the Francophone minority had to attend English schools for their education.

The colony of Prince Edward Island refused to join the Confederation in 1867 because it felt it had little to gain. It did not want to pay for the construction of railroads on the continent and feared it would lose its Assembly, and thus control over its own affairs. But faced with economic difficulties and a considerable debt, the representatives of this small Maritime colony changed their minds. The colonial government sent negotiators to Ottawa and managed to secure excellent terms: Canada assumed Prince Edward Island's debt, paid $800,000 to purchase land from absentee landlords, guaranteed communications with the continent via a ferry, and granted it six seats in Parliament rather than the five promised at the Quebec Conference in 1764. In 1773, the representatives submitted a resolution to the Legislative Assembly calling for Union; all but two members voted in favour of joining the Confederation. Prince Edward Island entered Confederation on July 1, 1873, becoming Canada's seventh province. At that time the province had a population of 94,021, mostly of British, Irish, Scottish, and Acadian (Tignish, Malpeque, Rustico, and Bay Fortune) descent.

Political pressure and petitions led the Department of Education to prepare a new program in 1939 in which French was the language of instruction until Grade 6, except for math, which was taught in English. Up until the 1950s, these schools, mostly in rural areas, were very rudimentary and did not enjoy the same advantages as rural Anglophone schools. For example, in 1944, the vast majority of Acadian schools (405 out of 473) had only one room, with all students sitting around a wood burning stove, and no indoor toilets or running water.

Arrival of the Last Province: Newfoundland (1949)

The island of Newfoundland was never a settlement colony, as London had prohibited this from the start. The first English colonists came from the southwest of England, then were followed throughout the 18th century by immigrants from the southeast of Ireland. The people who settled on the island thus formed a mixed British-Irish society that gave the island its unique flavour. In addition, despite the overwhelmingly Anglophone population and the assimilation that ensued, Newfoundland always had a small francophone community of a few hundred people who managed to preserve their language and culture. Most inhabitants of Newfoundland—in both the English and French-speaking communities—lived a more remote existence than other Canadians and preserved distinct, rather archaic linguistic traits. But Newfoundland remained a British colony with all this entailed in terms of the exclusive use of English. For the most part, the population of Newfoundland was divided among numerous small villages along the island's jagged coastline, far from major urban centres. This had a strong influence on the culture and language of the residents of the island.

Small Francophone Community

The island's Francophones had thus far mostly been concentrated in Port-au-Port, and were very isolated from the Anglophone community, which allowed them to keep their language and culture. In 1939, the French spoken here echoed that of a true village in France, although many nautical terms had slipped into day-to-day use: you didn't "turn your cup over," you capsized it; instead of "turning around," you came about; people wouldn't "tie" their shoelaces, but made them fast; you would rig your horse, etc. Some old Francophones even spoke the Breton dialect up until the 1950s. Many francophone sailors married Anglophones rather than Acadians or women from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. The strong British influence led some of them to change their names: Lainé became Lainey and Dubois became Woods. Names that are neither Acadian nor Quebec in origin can still be found, such as Formager, Garnier, Kerfont, Lecoure, Retieff.

In 1941, under an agreement with Great Britain, the United States was allowed to lease certain sites to set up air force bases, including one in the francophone area of Stephenville. The American presence breathed new life into the island's economy, but raised concerns of annexation by the United States. Moreover, due to the influx of American workers, Stephenville became almost entirely Anglophone. After World War II, the future of Newfoundland once again became a concern for inhabitants of the island. British public servants were little interested in a return to responsible government due to the economic burden this would represent for the colony. Instead, they preferred to have Newfoundland enter Canadian Confederation.

The House of Commons

Although the Irish Catholics also opposed the New Brunswick school law, it was mainly Acadians who led the fight against it. They petitioned federal and British authorities to overturn the Common School Act. In the House of Commons, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, the MP for the riding of Quebec (1844-1853) and future premier of Quebec, asked for the British North America Act to be amended to provide all religious groups in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with the rights, privileges, and benefits they possessed prior to 1867. Canadian Prime Minister John Alexander Macdonald advised the Catholic minority of New Brunswick to be patient and wait for justice to be done. Honoré Mercier, the MP for Rouville and future premier of Quebec (1887-1891), used the occasion to make his first speech in the House of Commons:

The Quebec minority forms only a seventh, and the Ontario minority, only a sixth of the entire population of these respective provinces, whereas the New Brunswick minority is over a third of the total population. I cite these figures, which have their logical place in this debate, in order to demonstrate the crying injustice done to our coreligionists in New Brunswick. A law persecutes a third of the population of the province, cruelly depriving it of the rights and privileges generously accorded a sixth and a seventh of the populations of the other provinces.

New Brunswick MP John Costigan for Victoria introduced a motion stating that all laws that troubled Canada's religious peace were unjust and that consequently New Brunswick's school act should be disallowed. He also presented a motion asking the aggrieved parties to submit the case to the Privy Council in London. In the end, Costigan's motion passed the House of Commons, placing the Macdonald government in a minority position, but not causing it to fall. Nevertheless, all outside efforts to change the situation of Francophones in New Brunswick came to naught.

In 1885, the New Brunswick government set up the French Department (its official name) for Acadians. Classes given by the French Department were in French, but were designed to better prepare students to take regular classes in English. These French classes were in addition to the other classes leading to an English diploma. With an educational system so little conducive to teaching French, the Acadians fought back and defended the use of French. Over the years, they managed to obtain various French readers for students and the appointment of Acadian inspectors.

For the most part, Acadian politicians shied away from school and language debates. They tended to tow the party line, both provincially and federally. Like their Anglophone counterparts, they placed little importance on promoting language rights. It wasn't until the founding of the Acadian Party in Bathurst, New Brunswick, in 1972 that politicians would pay attention to Acadian issues.

Reports from the time indicate that Ontario Francophones were viewed as a group that refused to assimilate into the majority. They enjoyed the support of the Catholic Church and solidly established institutions. At the time of Ontario's entry into Confederation, Franco-Ontarian children attended their own "separate schools," i.e., confessional schools run by the religious orders. In 1871, parish priest A. Brunet of L'Orignal wrote to Egerton Ryerson, a prestigious Methodist minister, author, editor-in-chief, and school administrator:

The francophone population of this school sector [...] was obliged to set up a separate school in 1867 for the sole purpose of teaching its language, the school trustees of the public common schools having constantly neglected to hire a teacher capable of teaching French.

In 1869, the Ontario Ministry of Education approved nine French-language textbooks for regions designated as bilingual. But it wasn't until 1871 that school became compulsory for children with the enactment of the Ontario School Act, which required all children aged 7 to 12 to attend school at least four months per year.

In 1885, the Ministry of Education imposed a by-law requiring all schools in the province to teach English. The goal was to integrate and assimilate the many immigrants, but the by-law also directly and harmfully affected Francophones. This marked the start of the so-called "bilingual" schools in the counties of Essex and Kent in the southwest and Russell, Prescott, and Carleton in the east. The schools were generally public, and instruction was usually in two languages—French and English. In 1891, a report by the Ministry of Education estimated there were 83 French schools in the province. In 1889, the Ontario government set up a commission to ascertain whether the bilingual French schools were complying with the Ministry of Education's directives. In the schools of Prescott and Russell, it discovered that most all of the teachers had never graduated from teacher`s college for primary school, and that instruction in English was very inadequate. This poor showing was blamed on the teaching of French! In response, the Ontario government adopted the Regulations of the Ontario Department of Education in 1890 imposing English as the language of instruction throughout Ontario, except where pupils did not understand English. This exception was a loophole designed to permit "bilingual schools" to teach many of their classes in French.

Expansion of the Franco-Ontarian Community and Extremist Reactions

Francophone parishes multiplied in Ontario, notably in Ottawa, where French-speaking Canadians came seeking careers in the federal civil service. Fighting broke out when Anglophone members of the Separate School Board accused the Catholic bishop of erecting a "ring of French schools" around the city. The trustees were worried their tax dollars were being used for French schools. And with the growing number of Franco-Ontarians, Orangemen (who were mostly anti-Catholic and anti-French) started to worry about their province's protestant heritage while Irish Catholics were afraid of being overwhelmed by the French language in their churches. George Howard Ferguson (1870–1946), an Orangeman who would later become premier of Ontario (1923–1930), resumed rather well the opinion of most Anglo-Ontarians at the time:

A bilingual school system breeds racial division. It imprints the idea of racial difference on the minds of youth and prevents the mixing of the population [...] Experience in the United States, where the school system admits only one language, has shown the wisdom of such a system.

Many Anglophones of the time saw Franco-Ontarian schools as a "Papist intrusion" into Canadian affairs! Here's what D'Alton McCarthy, the Conservative MPP for Simoce-East and Grand Master of the Ontario West Orange Lodge, had to say in 1888:

Who should rule over Canada, the queen or the pope? Will this country be English or French? [...] This is a British country, and the sooner we take in hand our French Canadian fellow subjects and make them British in sentiment and teach them the English language, the less trouble we shall have to prevent. Now is when the ballot box must deliver a solution to this grave problem; if it finds no remedy in this generation, the next generation will have to take up the bayonet.

This extremist stance (taking up the bayonet) was not shared by all Ontario Anglophones, but it illustrates a concept of the nation as forming a single whole, i.e., white and Anglo-protestant, also known as in the United States the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Also of note were the telling remarks of Norfolk Liberal MP John Charlton in explaining his One Nation theory to the Equal Rights Association in Toronto on June 11, 1889:

I believe that assimilation of the races in the Canadian Confederation is most desirable. I do not see how we can form a nation in all its grandeur so long as we have in this country two distinct races with opposing aspirations, desires, and institutions. Abraham Lincoln said that the people of the United States could not live half free and half in slavery. Canada can never live half in English and half in French.

But John Charlton (1829-1910) went further, ridiculing the Francophones of the St. Lawrence River Valley, whom he compared to "midgets.":

"The idea of raising a Latin race on the banks of the St. Lawrence is an insult to common sense. The Anglo-Saxon cannot be hindered in his march forward by the efforts of such midgets."

The problem was some spokesmen of the English and protestant majority saw francophone affirmation as a threat, particularly since their birth rate was higher than that of Anglophones. On July 12, 1889, D'Alton McCarthy, considered one of the most brilliant lawyers of his generation, made no secret of his intentions with regard to the assimilation of Francophones:

We live in an English country, and the sooner we can anglicize French Canadians, the better it will be for our posterity whose load will be lightened. This question must be settled sooner or later. [...] When French is abolished in the North-West, there will still be much for us to do. Let's first take care of the two languages in the North-West Territories and the teaching of French in schools in the English provinces; once these two matters are settled, we will have accomplished something and smoothed the road to the future.

The following December 12, D'Alton McCarthy alluded to the disappearance of Francophones as a good solution:

Lord Durham understood that so long as the French Canadians were free to educate themselves in French in their schools, to feed their intelligence with French literature rather than English literature, they would remain French in every way. [...] Is there a shadow of a doubt that between these two races, more than between any two others, if union is to be, it must bring the disappearance of one of the two languages and the teaching of the other?

As for Wilfrid Laurier, then leader of the federal Liberal Party, which was in opposition, he preached the equality of the two communities (June 24, 1889):

As for myself, I don't want the French Canadians to dominate anyone, and I don't want anyone to dominate them. Equal justice, equal rights.

But English Canadians were not yet ready for such a vision of equality. Toronto, and all of Ontario, were in the throws of a wave of anti-francophone and anti-Catholic sentiment. It was felt that the use of French in Ontario schools was a threat to the province's integrity as an Anglophone and protestant community. The cry went out to abolish the "privileges" of Ontario's Catholic minority in the name of "equal rights." The separate school system was particularly decried, as it was seen as unfair, ineffectual, and dangerous in light of the growing demographic weight of Franco-Ontarians.

Section 1

There are only two classes of Primary Schools in Ontario-Public Schools and Separate Schools; but, for convenience of reference, the term English-French is applied to those schools of each class that the Department-whenever it is so requested by the school boards having jurisdiction in the matter-submits to inspection as provided in section 5 below, and in which French is the language of instruction and communication as limited in 3 (1).

Section 3

The following changes will be made to the public and separate school courses.

The User of French Instruction and Communication

1) In the case of French-speaking pupils, French may be used as the language of instruction and communication; but such use of French shall not be continued for the study of English beyond Form I, except where the inspector determines that French may be used as the language of instruction and communication for the study of English in the case of pupils who, upon completion of Form I, are unable to speak and understand the English language well enough.

Special Course in English for French-Speaking Pupils

2) In the case of French-speaking pupils who are unable to speak and understand the English language well enough for the purpose of instruction and communication, the following provision is hereby made:

a) As soon as the Pupil enters the school he shall begin the study and the use of the English language.

NOTE-A manual of Method for use in teaching English to French-speaking pupils will be distributed amongst the schools by the Department of Education. This manual must be used in all schools. Copies may be obtained, as required, upon request to the Deputy Minister.

b) As soon as the pupil has acquired sufficient facility in the use of the English language he shall take up in that language the course of study.

French as a Subject of Study in Public and Separate Schools

Section 4

In schools designated under Section 1, French may be taught in addition to the subjects prescribed for the Public and Separate Schools in Forms I through IV, under the following conditions:

1) Such instruction in French may be taken only by pupils whose parents or guardians direct that they shall do so.

2) Such instruction in French shall be distributed throughout the time-table in such as manner as to enable French-speaking pupils to acquire adequate knowledge of the English and French languages.

3) In Public or Separate Schools where French is a subject of study, the text-books presently in use shall remain authorized.

Section 13

1) No teacher shall be granted a certificate to teach in English-French schools who does possess a knowledge of the two languages sufficient to instill primary pupils with an adequate knowledge of the English and French languages.

2) No teacher shall remain in office or be appointed in any of said schools who does not possess a knowledge of the English language sufficient to instill primary pupils with an adequate knowledge of the English and French languages.

A National Controversy

The national controversy this regulation raised helped forge the Franco-Ontarian identity. Franco-Ontarians were quick to react. They organized their own clandestine classes and raised money to pay for the classes and launch court proceedings, with the clear support of Ontario's Catholic clergy. The following year (1913), Franco-Ontarians founded the newspaper Le Droit to defend their rights. In Quebec, the provincial government joined the fight by passing a law in 1916 allowing school boards to contribute financially to the Franco-Ontarian cause.

The federal Parliament also saw fights over the matter of Ontario Education. The debate reached a fever pitch when Quebec nationalist Henri Bourassa accused the "Krauts" of Ontario of mistreating their francophone minority, saying the war wasn't in Europe, but in Ontario. Meanwhile, two Anglophone members of the Quebec Legislature, William Stephen Bullock (Shefford) and John Thomas Finnie (Count of Saint-Laurent), presented a motion on the Ontario school issue on January 13, 1915:

That this House, without questioning the principles of provincial autonomy, and without in any way seeking to interfere in the affairs of the other provinces of Confederation, notes with regret the divisions that seem to exist among the population of the province of Ontario with regard to bilingual schools, and believes it is in the interest of the Dominion generally that all questions of this nature be broached from a broad, generous and patriotic viewpoint, remaining ever mindful that one of the fundamental principles of British liberty throughout the Empire is respect for the rights and privileges of minorities.

In the Windsor region, a number of francophone members of the clergy rebelled against their bishop for taking the government's side. During his episcopate, which lasted more than twenty years, Bishop Fallon remained at the heart of the ethno-linguistic quarrels aroused by the school question in Ontario (1912-27). At his death, he was considered a "hero" by many Irish Catholics, but a "demon" by Franco-Ontarians.

Despite Regulation 17, bilingual schools started up again in 1927 when the government loosened the rules. But until 1969, not a single French language secondary school received any government aid, except for grades 9 and 10. As for French primary school, this was viewed as a privilege accorded the minority, and it was mandatory the schools also teach English. Happily this state of affairs is now ancient history. But it took the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism in 1967 for the French language to win back ground in Ontario

Quebec's entry into Confederation was marked by the flying of British flags and the singing of "God Save the Queen." Until then, Francophones had been accustomed to calling themselves Canadiens and their English-speaking compatriots, les Anglais. Now everyone was a Canadian, much to their chagrin. To make a distinction, now they had to say French Canadians. Joseph Cauchon was chosen as the first premier of Quebec, but Anglophone antipathy toward him was such that he could not form a cabinet. He was replaced on July 15, 1867, by Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, who accepted on the proviso he could keep control over education; the following year, he took the opportunity to found the Department of Public Instruction.

It was a time of great hope, for Quebec once again had its own Parliament. On July 1, 1867, the newspaper La Minerve declared:

Canadians, let us rally around the new flag. Our constitution will bring peace and harmony. All rights have been respected; all races are treated on an equal footing; and all of us, French Canadians, English, Scottish, Irish, are members of the same united family, forming a powerful state, capable of fighting the undue influence of strong neighbours. [...] We shall no longer fear annexation.

But English newspapers in Montreal protested, fearing that Quebec's Anglophone minority was finished, served up on a platter to the francophone majority. To George-Étienne Cartier, one of the "Fathers of Confederation," the difference between Francophones and Anglophones appeared slim indeed. At a reception in his honour in Quebec City on December 23, 1869, he declared, "We are no longer French here, but French-speaking English citizens."

Legislative and Judicial Bilingualism

Section 133 of Canada's Constitution of 1867 provided that members could use English or French in the Parliament of Canada and in the Legislature of the Province of Quebec. This meant Quebec was the only province subject to this constitutional provision. In addition, pleadings before the federal courts of Canada and the courts of Quebec could be in either language. The Constitution Act, 1867, it should be remembered, did not impose across-the-board bilingualism on Quebec or its civil service; rather, it instituted an "embryo of official bilingualism." Bilingual federal political institutions were a concession to the francophone minority in Ottawa, accorded in return for the same concession to the Anglophone minority of Quebec. It was take it or leave it. Had Quebec not accepted bilingualism, the federal government would never have been bilingual.

In actual fact, the two languages were just as unequal in the provincial Parliament as they were in Ottawa, because any member speaking English was not understood by the francophone majority (and vice versa). French became the unofficial language of Parliament. If a member wanted to be understood, he had to use French or watch as two-thirds of the assembly got up and walked out. However, laws and regulations continued to be written by Anglophone law clerks, and were subsequently translated into French. Anglophones also obtained a special status that protected them from the province's francophone majority: Quebec's Anglophone ridings—the Eastern Townships as they were called—were "protected" and could only be abolished with a double majority vote of both the members of provincial Parliament and the twelve Anglophone members.

As for the courts, they continued to be bilingual, made easier by the fact that all laws had two versions, one English and one (translated) French.

Educational System

On January 20, 1869, during the second session of the first Legislature of the province of Quebec, representatives of the Anglophone protestant community presented a bill intended to better structure their educational system. It was passed the following March 25. A protestant Legislative Council member, Jeffery Hale, reacted thus:

I will say I belong to the minority, and that we asked for justice, and the majority, which could have turned us down, did not do so, but acted with the greatest liberality, even beyond what we expected.

The educational system in Quebec was founded on two virtually parallel religious structures, one protestant (English) and the other Catholic (French).

Another action taken during Quebec's first Legislature, which concluded in February 1870, was the creation of a provincial police force. Among the minimum requirements to become a first class member, applicants had to be at least 18 but not over 40, whereas "first class sergeants and constables must know how to read and write in English or French." In other words, there was no need to be bilingual; it was enough to speak one language or the other.

In 1875, in reaction to the controversy in Manitoba and New Brunswick over schools, the newspaper Le Canadien claimed a diabolical conspiracy was at play (February 3, 1875 edition):

One would be tempted to believe there is an immense conspiracy against the French race in the Dominion. Stomped down in Manitoba, crushed in New Brunswick, we are threatened with destruction. This must not go on.

This public declaration was deemed highly "subversive" coming from the premier of a Canadian province. It could not go unanswered! Influential Anglophones understood that quick action was needed to tie the financial hands of all future premiers of Quebec, and arranged for public finances to be under the control of Anglo-Montreal financiers. From that point on right up until 1960, all of Quebec's finance ministers would be Anglophone, and would impose English as the working language of their department with impunity. As a matter of fact, English was used in most other departments, too.

Linguistic Non-Intervention

French Canadians came to realize their provincial government was not a very energetic defender of their language. A loud talker but not great of a walker, the Quebec government did not yet believe in using the state to promote the language of the Francophone majority. The population seemed to take for granted that their provincial government was simply incapable of defending the French fact. Meanwhile, Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick used their parliaments on several occasions to protect the English language under the perceived threat of francophone minorities.

That was when Francophones Quebecers began to wonder who they were. The term Québécois came to replace French Canadian, but it was not quite that simple, because Québécois could also include Anglophones (those who lived in Quebec). In 1985, filmmaker Pierre Falardeau produced the movie Elvis Gratton to mock the Québécois who had voted NO in the 1980 referendum on Quebec sovereignty. In his movie, the main character, Bob "Elvis" Gratton, wins an Elvis Presley impersonation contest and a trip to the tropical island of Santa Banana. In the plane taking him back home to Quebec after his one-week vacation, Bob Gratton gets asked by a passenger where he is from. He answers, "I'm a Québécois Canadian." Then he explains, "a French Canadian Frenchman." But he's still not quite there: "a North American who's French." For many Quebec Francophones, this monologue ably summed up how hard it is to define the identity of the "French of America."