SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Francophonie Month

Honourable senators, I would ask your indulgence as I rise to speak to you because my voice is rather weak today, much like the French language in Canada.

The French language is weak everywhere in the country right now. The number of individuals who speak predominantly French at home continues to rise in Canada, but their relative proportion is decreasing more and more rapidly.

We are facing a growing number of challenges when it comes to reversing the demographic decline of the Canadian francophonie and taking action to remedy the situation. We need to rally our youth, ensure access to education in French from early childhood to the post-secondary level across the country, increase francophone immigration, and create cultural and living spaces that appeal to francophones and francophiles from Canada and other parts of the world.

The responsibility for securing the future of the French language and culture in Canada does not rest solely on the shoulders of official language minority communities and Quebec. It is up to all of us as Canadians to recognize the importance of this language and do our part to keep it alive.

The month of March, which is now drawing to a close, gave us the opportunity to celebrate the richness of one of our two official languages and reaffirm Canada’s place in the international Francophonie.

The mission of the Francophonie, of which Canada is a member, is to promote the French language and cultural and linguistic diversity, promote peace, democracy and human rights, and support education, training, higher education and research.

What we are celebrating this month is much more than a language. It is a cultural, social, political and economic space.

But what does Canada’s francophonie look like? Who is making sure that French has a presence from coast to coast to coast in Canada? To be sure, Quebec has invaluable linguistic and cultural wealth and is a home for those who speak and love this language.

However, we can say that it is primarily the people in official language minority communities and their friends who are taking action in the provinces and territories to ensure that the French language flourishes and develops nationwide and that there are French-language living environments that can welcome francophones and francophiles from all over, thereby reaffirming Canada’s social contract.

Colleagues, the time has come to equip our country with a strong, robust and modernized Official Languages Act. The time has come to institute a bold, effective francophone immigration policy. The time has come to bring in legislation that ensures that the French language and francophone artists get to take their rightful place in the digital realm and in our cultural spaces.

As legislators, we have the power to act. Let’s be visionary and work together to ensure the future of this national treasure, the French language, which is spoken by 321 million people on five continents. I hope everyone had a good Francophonie Month, and may we all continue to celebrate the French language all year long. Thank you, honourable senators.