For the past 1,290 days, I have been learning French on the most popular language learning app in the world. I thought as a Canadian podcaster, I should be bilingual, just like the country I profile.
While it is nice to live in an era where it is possible to learn a language from the computer in my pocket, less than two decades ago if you wanted to learn French, you went to school.
That is if it was allowed to.
As the 20th century dawned, there was an active effort to restrict the use of French outside Quebec to force the assimilation of French-Canadians into Anglophone culture.
That forced assimilation started at the school level.
The most famous effort happened in Manitoba in the 1890s, and it caused an uproar that led to the political demise of a prime minister and ushered in a new era for the Liberal Party.
Je suis Craig Baird, c’est l’historie Canadienne ehx, et voici l’historie de la question de ecoles du Manitoba!
Le début de cette histoire commence en 1869, when the area of Rupert’s Land was ceded to Canada by the Hudson’s Bay Company and incorporated into the Northwest Territories.
Rupert’s Land was a vast area of land granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670 through its royal charter from King Charles II.
The charter covered all lands within the drainage basin of Hudson Bay, which is about 3.8 million square kilometres of land.
Many Indigenous Nations that had lived on these lands for centuries were unaware their land now belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company.
They were not consulted when Rupert’s Land was created, and they were not consulted when Rupert’s Land became part of Canada two centuries later.
One group who were not happy about this land transfer were the Metis.
As European fur traders, primarily French, arrived in present-day Manitoba in the 17th and 18th centuries, they intermarried with the Indigenous Peoples, their children became the Metis.
And they emerged as a distinct Indigenous culture in North America and took on many of the cultural aspects of French-Canada, including the language.
Over the course of two centuries, the Metis lived off the land, took part in huge bison hunts and developed their own culture.
And for the most part, they were left alone…. until the 19th century.
Lord Selkirk was a Scottish philanthropist, sponsored immigration settlements to Canada to settle in the Red River Valley. Selkirk wasn’t originally supposed to inherit land or title, so he went to the University of Edinburgh. While there, he noticed poor Scottish crofters were being displaced by their landlords. Seeing their plight, he investigated ways he could help them find new land in the then British colonies. When his fortunes changed, he put his plan into action and began resettling Scottish farmers in Canada.
By 1812 he had set up a few colonies across the country and that year 128 men landed in the valley to set up the Red River Colony
They arrived late in the season and were unable to plant crops, so the Metis kept them supplied with food. Once again, the Metis had to deal with settlers coming to their land.
Half a century after European fur traders first arrived Metis and Indigenous peoples’ ways of life were threatened once again, this time by the Rupert’s Land in 1869.
The land transfer effectively made the land part of Canada, and it would only be a matter of time before settlers from eastern Canada arrived in the fertile lands of the Red River Valley.
Now I’ve only shared the part of the history that is relevant to today’s story because between 1812 to 1869 there had been multiple conflicts between settlers and Metis including the Battle of Seven Oaks. Which is important to note.
However, by 1860 The Metis were led by Louis Riel, who launched an effort to preserve their rights and culture of.
He set up a provisional government whose goal was to negotiate Manitoba’s entry into Confederation. Riel seized Upper Fort Garry in December 1869 and planned to hold it until the Canadian government agreed to negotiate.
This began the Red River Resistance.
It is commonly referred to as the Red River Rebellion and it is a historical misconception that the Red River Resistance was a rebellion against Canada. But it is important to note that Riel and the Metis were not rebelling against the government.
They wanted to be represented in this new country called Canada.
The Red River Resistance led Parliament to enact the Manitoba Act which brought Manitoba into Confederation in 1870.
This new province was a unique mix of the cultures of eastern Canada, English and French. The population was made up of an equal number of Francophones and Anglophones at the time it joined.
That balance ensured both English and French had equal legal status.
The Manitoba Act of 1870 and the School Act of 1871 provided for separate and equally funded Catholic and Protestant school boards in the province.
These boards were divided by religion, as well as language.
The French boards were typically Catholic, while the English boards were Protestant.
While both languages sat on equal legal footing to start, things began to change quickly.
Now part of Canada, settlers from Ontario, who were primarily Anglophone, began to arrive onto lands that had been promised to the Metis.
At the same time, the Metis faced racism from this flood of new settlers.
To escape, large numbers of Metis moved west to present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta.
At the time, both of those areas were still part of the Northwest Territories, and it would be another twenty-five years before Alberta and Saskatchewan joined Canada in 1905.
Due to the mass exodus of Metis and Francophones throughout the 1870s, Anglophones in Manitoba slowly began to outnumber Francophones.
Within the government itself, Anglophones candidates started to dominate elections, which allowed them to set policies that they found more favourable to themselves.
The first change came in 1875 when the use of French was abolished in ridings where there was an Anglophone majority.
One year later, the Legislative Council of Manitoba, which was seen as a language guardian, was abolished to cut expenses.
Throughout the 1880s, the new transcontinental railway brought more settlers from Ontario and Europe into the province where they took up land that had been ceded from the Indigenous Peoples in the Numbered Treaties.
From 1871 to 1890, the population of the province grew by 125,000 people.
Nearly all those settlers moved to lands in the Red River Valley.
In 1878 Thomas Greenway was one of those settlers. Ten years after he arrived, he was premier and about to change the history of the province, and Canada itself.
Born in the United Kingdom, Greenway came to Canada when he was eight. When he moved to Manitoba, he bought a 1000-acre homestead and quickly became involved in politics.
He took office as premier in 1888 and immediately fell into difficulties.
His administration mishandled negotiations for a new railway connection to the United States, allowing the Canadian Pacific Railway to dominate rail travel in the province.
This allowed the CPR to impose high transportation rates, which caused provincial development to suffer.
Greenway lost one of his supporters over the railway matter, Rodmond Roblin, who left the Liberal Party for the Conservatives.
With no success in railway reform, Greenway set his sights on something else to bolster his support in the province….
Manitoba’s dual school system and placed the French language in his crosshairs.
At the time, there was a growing movement against the dual school system. Anglophones outnumbered Francophones and many resented funding of French-language education.
Opponents stated that Catholics were receiving too much money compared to the size of their population, and the standard of education was poor compared to public schools.
Feeding into this growing divide, Greenway and his government passed the Official Languages Act in March 1890.
This act made English the only official language of the province.
While this did not impact the schools themselves, almost immediately, two new bills were passed in the Manitoba Legislature.
The first was An Act Representing the Department of Education which effectively scrapped the Catholic school board, while keeping the secular school board.
The second was An Act Representing Public Schools which eliminated denominational school districts and forced Catholics to fund their own schools.
Catholic schools were still allowed, but parents would now have to pay taxes for secular schools their children did not attend, while paying a separate tax if they wanted their children to attend Catholic school.
The goal was to force parents to put their children in secular schools in order to save money, and also effectively eroding French culture of the province.
Francophones took immediate issue with the fact they were now paying double for their children’s education.
James Pendergrast, who was born in Quebec City, had served in the Legislature with the Liberals since 1885. Under Thomas Greenway, he was appointed as the Provincial Secretary. When these acts were passed, he immediately resigned from cabinet, joined the Conservatives, and spoke for seven hours against the acts in the Legislature.
He called them a scandalous imposition and an injustice to the Catholic minority of the province.
Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, who took a hands-off approach to the matter, forbade Lt. Governor John Schultz from reversing the bill.
Both he and his justice minister Sir John Sparrow David Thompson, wanted to take a wait and see approach on the issue.
One person who was not going to standby was J.K. Barrett of Winnipeg.
J.K. Barrett had been living in Winnipeg for five years, his children attended St. Mary’s School and he launched a lawsuit against the City of Winnipeg in 1891.
The case, Barrett v. City of Winnipeg, argued that the new taxation law in Manitoba conflicted with the Manitoba Act itself.
The Manitoba Queen’s Bench ruled that the new law was valid.
Not satisfied, Barrett took his case to the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled that the act did in fact violate the Manitoba Act.
It was a victory for Francophones in the province.
When asked about the Supreme Court’s decision, Premier Greenway stated that an appeal was almost certain.
That appeal went to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdon, the highest court in the British Empire, which overruled the Supreme Court case.
Barrett had lost, and the Manitoba government gained extra strength against the French language.
With his popularity at a high, Premier Thomas Greenway went into the 1892 election with a focus on education once again.
This time his party took 28 seats, over nine won by the Conservatives.
With a new mandate and majority behind them, the Manitoba government decided to go further with anti-French legislation.
In 1894, they closed a loophole where municipalities could fund Catholic schools, helping to eliminate the burden on parents. This was nearly always done in areas that had a high Francophone population.
Now, the government would prohibit municipalities from assisting schools outside the public school system.
This forced many schools to join the public school system, or close altogether.
The Francophone population of Manitoba may have been small, but they were vocal, and they began to pressure the federal government to deal with the issue which became known as…. the Manitoba Schools Question.
When the schools act came into place in March 1890, Sir John A. Macdonald was in power as prime minister and he stated it was a provincial matter, and that the federal government had no place in the matter.
Sir John A. Macdonald was not going to be questioned over the issue by his own party. He had led the party since Canada was formed and had served as prime minister nearly continuously since 1867 except for a brief period from 1873 to 1878.
With an election looming in 1891, getting involved in the Manitoba Schools Question could hurt the Conservative Party. The best strategy for the government was to stay out of it.
But everything changed when he suffered a major stroke and died in June 1891.
Without him, the Conservatives were in turmoil.
From 1891 to 1896, the party went through four different leaders, giving Canada four prime ministers during this time.
Sir John Abbott served from 1891 to 1892 when he resigned due to ill health.
He was replaced by Sir John Sparrow David Thompson, who was prime minister from 1892 to 1894. Thompson was Catholic, but he did not want the federal government getting involved in Manitoba’s provincial matter.
He died in office when he suffered a massive heart attack while having lunch at Windsor Castle in England.
He was followed by Sir Mackenzie Bowell came to office as prime minister on Dec. 21, 1894.
Meanwhile, the Liberals were led by Wilfrid Laurier.
Born in 1841 in what now present-day Quebec is, he led the Liberals since 1887 and he was smart enough to see that the Manitoba Schools Question could become his ticket to becoming prime minister.
Following Thompson’s death, and with the Conservatives in disarray, the Manitoba Schools Question became the biggest issue in Canada.
The federal government may have continued to put off getting involved in the Manitoba Schools Question if not for a major change one month after Sir Mackenzie Bowell became prime minister.
On Jan. 29, 1895, the Privy Council ruled that the federal government had the authority to intervene in the Manitoba Schools Question.
This meant that the issue could not be avoided by Prime Minister Sir Mackenzie Bowell, but with an election fast approaching, he had to ensure he wouldn’t upset Anglophones in Manitoba, or Francophones in Quebec.
His lack of decision made him seem indecisive.
Another problem was that due to the fact he sat in the Senate, not the House of Commons, he could not take part in debates about the Manitoba Schools Question[1] . Only two Prime Ministers have ever been part of the Senate when they took office, Sir John Abbott and Sir Mackenzie Bowell. In both cases, they were replacing someone who had passed away. It is unlikely a sitting Prime Minister would be in the Senate today.
Nonetheless, something had to be done on the federal level.
On March 21, 1895, the Minister of Justice, Charles Hibbert Tupper, issued an order in council that called for Manitoba to pass new legislation that would restore Roman Catholics separate school privileges.
Bowell endorsed this legislation, even as many in his own party opposed it.
In response, Manitoba Premier Thomas Greenway called another provincial election and put himself forward as a champion of provincial rights against federal intrusions.
That strategy worked and Greenway and his Liberals won 31 seats to the six won by the Conservatives.
For the federal Conservatives, this was a significant setback, and they soon withdrew their legislation.
But within his own party, a revolt was brewing over the Manitoba Schools Question.
The government stalled, as Bowell’s cabinet believed he was not competent to lead the party.
On Jan. 2, 1896, Parliament opened.
Two days later, seven of Bowell’s cabinet ministers resigned and urged the Governor General to replace Bowell as prime minister.
Calling the cabinet, a nest of traitors, Bowell resigned on Jan. 8, 1896.
He said in the Senate on that day,
“After several interviews with the Governor General respecting the resignation of seven of my colleagues from the Cabinet, I yesterday waited upon his Excellency for the purpose of tendering my resignation.”
He was quickly replaced with Sir Charles Tupper, who became the sixth prime minister of Canada, and the fourth since Sir John A. Macdonald’s death five years earlier.
His son, Charles Hibbert Tupper, introduced the draft bill to restore separate schools in Manitoba.
His son was also one of the quote “nest of traitors” that revolted against Bowell.
Tupper was opposed to the Roman Catholic minority in Manitoba, but he believed a promise had been made to the Francophones and that should be honoured.
While Tupper proposed reinstating separate schools’ boards, Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his Liberals remained vague with their position.
He first proposed an investigation into the matter, and then conciliation, which became known as The Sunny Way.
The Sunny Way proposed a solution to the Manitoba Schools Question not through legislation, but negotiation.
Laurier said,
“If it were in my power, I would try the sunny way. I would approach this man Greenway with the sunny way of patriotism, asking him to be just and to be fair, asking him to be generous to the minority, in order that we may have peace among all the creeds and races which it has pleased God to bring upon this corner of our common country.”
Tupper put forward remedial legislation to settle the Manitoba Schools Question, but it was filibustered by several Protestants in his own party and the Liberals.
With time running short, Tupper abandoned the bill.
Parliament was dissolved on April 24, 1896, and the Conservatives and Liberals went into an election dominated by the Manitoba issue.
Tupper tried to argue that the issue at hand was not Manitoba and its schools, but the future of Canadian industry.
Despite his best efforts, the only thing people focused on was Manitoba.
The Conservative Party was so divided that whenever Tupper spoke, he faced harsh criticism.
At one point during a two-hour address at Massey Hall in Toronto, the crowd constantly interrupted him.
On June 23, 1896, the Liberals under Sir Wilfrid Laurier rose to power in the federal election.
The party took 117 seats, while the Conservatives lost 31 seats to finish with 86.
The Liberals won across the country except in Manitoba and Ontario.
In Quebec, the party took 49 seats to the Conservatives 16.
Sir Charles Tupper became the shortest serving prime minister in Canadian history.
As prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier went to work to resolve the Manitoba Schools Question immediately and by Nov. 16, 1896, the crisis ended.
Terms of Agreement were agreed to between the Government of Canada and the Government of Manitoba.
This became known as The Laurier-Greenway Compromise.
While it did not reverse the 1890 legislation, it loosened some of the rules.
Under the agreement, religious instruction was allowed in schools from 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the condition that the parents of 10 children in rural areas and 25 children in urban areas requested it.
Some Catholics were against the compromise, and they appealed to Pope Leo XIII to intervene.
He sent an observer who agreed with Laurier’s decision.
As for Premier Greenway, the compromise hurt him. He could no longer use education as an election platform.
In 1899, Greenway and the Liberals lost to Hugh Macdonald, son of Sir John A. Macdonald, and the Conservatives and, for the next two decades, it seemed linguistic peace had come to the province.
But it did not last.
In 1916, as the First World War raged, the debate over conscription heated up, Manitoba repealed the Laurier-Greenway Compromise with The Thornton Act.
This act prohibited teaching of any language other than English.
As many European settlers arrived in Manitoba unable to speak English this act, would force their children to learn English and assimilate into Canada.
It also had the bonus of further limiting the use of French in the province.
The government stated that the Act would address poor education levels in the province which had less to do with languages, and more to do with the fact that Manitoba did not have compulsory school attendance yet.
Mandatory school attendance for anyone aged seven to 14 was added into law with this act.
The level of education began to increase, which the government attributed to the lack of foreign languages, rather than the compulsory school attendance.
This forced the closure of the French-Canadian teacher’s college in St. Boniface, but a small act of rebellion emerged with the implementation of the act.
The Manitoba French-Canadian Education Association was formed in 1916.
This association encouraged Francophone teachers to keep teaching French in secret.
They also provided financial assistance to help future French teachers’ pay for their studies.
From 1923 to 1966, the association also held annual French contests for grades four to 12 to strengthen the French language in the province.
Inspectors hired by the government to ensure compliance with the act sometimes looked the other way when it came to French instruction.
School boards controlled by Francophones also hired Francophone teachers to teach French to students in secret.
These little acts of defiance kept the language alive in the province, [BEAT]
Then…After the Second World War, the war against the French language went into a detente.
In 1947, Manitoba allowed French teaching in secondary schools.
Just over a decade later in 1955, teaching French was allowed for grades four to six.
In 1959, the Department of Education approved a list of textbooks to be printed in French, and in 1967, French as a language of instruction was allowed for half the day.
Three years later in 1970, French was put on equal footing as a language of instruction.
This happened only one year after Canada itself passed the Official Languages Act to make the country, federally at least, bilingual.
In 1993, the Public Schools Amendment Act was passed to create the Franco-Manitoban School Division. One year later in that division, there were 20 French schools teaching 4,000 students.
By 2016, there were 24 schools teaching 5,200 students.
Today, four per cent of the Manitoba population identifies French as their mother tongue, compared to 75 per cent for English and six per cent for German.
But you might be wondering …. how did that legislation in 1890 change Canadian history?
[TRANSITION]
After winning the 1896 election, Wilfrid Laurier governed Canada for the next 15 years, the longest unbroken stretch for a prime minister in Canadian history.
He remained the leader of the Liberal Party until his death in 1919 but as his death neared, he groomed a successor, William Lyon Mackenzie King.
From 1919 to 1948, William Lyon Mackenzie King was the leader of the Liberal Party.
In that span, he led Canada for 21 years, longer than anyone else.
Like Laurier before him, King groomed his successor to take over.
This time it was Louis St. Laurent, who led the Liberals from 1948 to 1958, and Canada from 1948 to 1957.
After losing the 1957 election to John Diefenbaker, St. Laurent had his successor chosen, Lester B. Pearson.
For the next 11 years, Pearson led the party, and then Canada, from 1963 to 1968. When it came time for him to choose his successor, he chose Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Trudeau governed Canada, nearly uninterrupted except for a nine month span from 1979 to 1980, from 1968 to 1984.
From 1896 to 1984, the Liberals had five official leaders, giving the party a great deal of stability.
In contrast, the Conservatives had 10 leaders during that same stretch of time.
This system of grooming the next leader in line was highly successful for the Liberal Party.
During that span, from Laurier to Trudeau, every single leader of the Liberal Party served as prime minister.
And it all started thanks to a law passed in Manitoba in 1890, that allowed Wilfrid Laurier to seize upon six years later to come to power.
Without the Manitoba Schools Question, Canadian history in the 20th century may have looked very different.
And if you’re wondering… Canada continues to be bilingual but only one province is… New Brunswick… until next time…à bientôt.
this needs explaining… i was confused by it.. what does this mean? how can he be prime minister and a senator… this seems out of the norm and requires context
