From 400 Years of “French Presence in Ontario” to the Apology for Regulation 17: Commemoration, Reconciliation and Narrative Conflicts in French Ontario
The commemoration in 2015 of the 400th anniversary of the “French presence in Ontario,” and the subsequent apology issued by the provincial government the following year for Regulation 17 (which severely curtailed the use of French in the province’s schools between 1912 and 1927), generated considerable discursive activity in French Ontario. This activity fostered a number of “narrative conflicts” that reveal competing conceptions of Franco-Ontarians’ collective past as well as distinct understandings of historical time. Analyzing these conflicts in the light of the rivalry between competing commemorative poles, being “nation building” and “postcolonialism,” sheds new light on the tensions and debates that structure the relationship Franco-Ontarians have not only with themselves but also with the “other” (anglophone majority, francophone ethnocultual minorities and native peoples).