Greater Sudbury’s Franco-Ontarian community marked Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day with a flag-raising ceremony and a luncheon hosted at the Centre de Communautaire, bringing together residents, students and local officials to celebrate French language and culture. Growing francophone community The celebrations highlighted the strength and growth of Sudbury’s French-speaking population, which represents a significant and expanding portion of the city’s demographic. “We’re around 40,000 people that speak French here. It was around more than 25 per cent of the population,” said Mayor Paul Lefebvre. “We have dozens and dozens of schools here as well and that’s actually and what’s interesting is in the last few years, the last number of years, we had a lot of new immigrants come to Sudbury and a lot of French as well … they chose Sudbury because they can speak French.” Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas also spoke to the vitality of the francophone community in the region. “The francophone population is growing. I would say we have a very strong French immersion program in northern Ontario and in Sudbury,” she said. “A lot of the schools, the English schools, offer French immersion and it works really well.” Passing pride to the next generation While French is very common in Greater Sudbury, Gélinas told CTV News that it remains the minority language, making days like Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day more impactful in instilling the importance and pride of being a Franco-Ontarian to the next generation. Students from École Ste-Marie joined the flag-raising ceremony in Azilda and shared why they love speaking and learning French. “So then I could get better (at speaking French) and get new friends,” said Neco, a student in the Grade 1/2 class. Grade 6 student Ellie Gauvreau spoke of the challenges and rewards of learning the language. “You learn more words that you don’t even know that exist and you learn more how to pronounce them properly, which is pretty hard,” she said. Fellow student Noah, in the Grade 1/2 class, spoke about the encouragement he receives from his peers. “My class is nice to me when I’m speaking French,” he said. Karine Tellier from ACFO du grand Sudbury said it is important to demonstrate to young people that French is a living language in their community. “To have the younger crowd today, it’s great to be able to show them that we can live in French in Sudbury, and that is very important. They need to be able to see that.” Claire LeClair attended the Centre de Communautaire luncheon and reflected on the intimacy of gathering with fellow francophones. “It’s a very intimate occasion to be able to speak French and being understood in French and to be able to communicate in French,” she said. A symbol born in Sudbury The Ontario Franco flag was created in Sudbury more than 50 years ago and is now a recognizable symbol of pride among many Ontarians. Its presence at the ceremony carried particular weight in the city of its origin. “We decided to create an independent mass to make sure that we follow the protocol and that we can celebrate the Canadian flag, the Ontario flag, and the (Franco-Ontarian) flag as well,” said Lefebvre, explaining the flag would now be displayed year-round at the Azilda library branch.
