SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick

Honorable senators, Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Canada duly signed in 1976, states:

All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

This aptly encapsulates the aspirations of the Acadian people, who have been present on this land for over 400 years, have faced centuries of discrimination, and are now seeking more recognition for contributing fully to building our nation.

On June 12, after a long struggle led by the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick and its partners, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a landmark decision on the appointment of a unilingual Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick.

At paragraph 111 of this decision, Chief Justice Wagner unequivocally wrote:

The appointment of a unilingual person to this office has the effect of relegating the official language in which that person is not proficient to a secondary status and of undermining, through the symbolic effect of the appointment itself, the rights of the province’s Francophones. This reality is all the clearer when one considers the history of the relationship between the Crown and the Francophone Acadian population. History attests to Canada’s repeated transgressions against the Francophone minority of that province, which was deported and discriminated against and whose interests, culture and language were long neglected by state institutions.

On the very day the Supreme Court handed down its decision, the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick was holding a general assembly to decide on its future. Intellectuals, researchers, political figures and ordinary citizens from different generations all gathered to articulate the priorities of the Acadian people for the next 10 years. The need to gain greater institutional autonomy, to achieve genuine equality and to build a cohesive society lay at the very heart of the debates at this major Acadian gathering.

Here is what sociologist Joseph Yvon Thériault so eloquently stated:

In today’s world, the nation remains the quintessential place where society is built, despite globalization. The nation creates that invisible yet indestructible social connection, that organic cohesion without which a society would wither and collapse into contemporary individualism. Acadia is seeking to build a society.

Belonging to a community of language, culture and memory is not a confining boundary. It is the soil in which culture takes root. National identity is not a conceptual luxury. It is the fuel for our historical resilience, the true source of collective solidarity.

Honourable senators, I attended this event as a representative of the Acadian Association of Canadian Parliamentarians and as a senator from New Brunswick, and I was impressed by the civic maturity of the Acadians, who have to constantly turn to the courts to have their rights recognized. Despite these obstacles, they continue to build the future of the Acadian people with vigour, vision and determination.

Long live Acadia and long live Canada. I wish you all a good summer, esteemed colleagues.