30th anniversary of controversial Sault Ste. Marie decision

30th Anniversary of Sault's English-only vote A look back at a controversial Sault Ste. Marie City Council decision made 30 years ago about language. Jairus Patterson's reports.

SAULT STE. MARIE — Sault Ste. Marie’s city council decided to pass a resolution in 1990 that angered parts of Canada and made national news.

It was the decision to make English the official language of business at Sault Ste. Marie's City Hall.

The move sparked outrage from the local francophone community. The prime minister, premiers and other leaders all spoke out against the resolution.

Jean Paul Dubreuil just moved to the Sault weeks before the resolution was approved. He was one of many people who ended up protesting outside of city hall, days after the vote.

"We wanted this to be annulled. We couldn’t believe it. We were hit and we wanted to get up and say 'we’re here and we’re Saultites, but we’re French, and there’s nothing wrong with it. We want to be a part of Sault Ste. Marie,'" said Dubreuil.

Joe Fratesi was the Sault’s mayor in 1990.

In an interview given shortly after the resolution was voted on, he explained to the media that money was a deciding factor.

"In terms of cost, there’s no question that the duplication of services, of municipal services, in two languages, whether it be French or Italian or Polish or Ukrainian, would be a cost that the city just could not bear," said Fratesi.

Council was protesting the province’s French Language Services Act, which came into effect a couple of months earlier.

In 1994, the courts would strike down the English-only resolution.  Twenty years after the resolution was passed, the acting Sault Ste. Marie Mayor, John Rowswell, would apologize for the resolution.

Jessica Torrance is the president of the Centre Francophone De Sault Ste. Marie. She says the relationships between the Francophones, city hall and the community have greatly improved.

"We have the Centre Francophone now. We have activities. We have a bunch of stuff and nobody is scared of speaking French in the store. Nobody is scared to go to an event and say 'hey, I will represent the francophone today' and it’s just we know we are now accepted," said Torrance.