A University of Ottawa professor took down a sign on campus written only in English, feeling it disrespected the university’s bilingual status, according to Maclean’s.
Francois Charbonneau, a political science professor, took the English-only National Bank advertisement in order to send a strong message that he couldn’t otherwise achieve by merely filing “another complaint,” he told the CBC.
A 1974 provincial act that made U of O an official bilingual university requires “programmes, central administration, general services [and] internal administration of its faculties and schools, its teaching staff, its support staff and its student population” to reflect this status, according to the university’s website.
There is no mention of outside parties that have a presence on campus in the act.
Charbonneau said U of O is the only “major” institution in Ontario where French-speaking residents of the province can study in French.
Nearly 490,000 francophones live in Ontario and an additional 70,000 identify both English and French as their mother tongues, according to Statistics Canada.
“Outside corporations that advertise only in English are disrespectful to both our students and faculty,” Charbonneau said.
“I was merely denouncing the lack of respect of corporations for the 11,000 francophones, and thousands of other immersion students at our university.”
Jesse Smiley, a first-year history major at the U of O, said bilingualism is something that’s both “cherished and openly critiqued” on campus.
Smiley, who is not bilingual, said while he feels the university usually takes a strong stance towards bilingualism, he has also noticed some French-only signs on campus.
“People have fought so hard for those bilingual rights,” Smiley said. “A professor acting the way he did says a lot about pride.”
Charbonneau said he reacted to the English-only signs not because he is a “linguistic zealot,” but because he wanted to support the francophone students on campus who have nowhere to go.
