French language riles Ontario election
Sunday, 22 November 2009 05:00
November 22, 1911. Use of the French language in Ontario schools threatens the province's racial and religious harmony in the midst of a provincial election, and the voice of the Toronto Star raises the temperature of heated debate.
Premier James Whitney and his Conservative government are guilty of "practicing such duplicity and hypocrisy as is without parallel in our province," the Star charges in a campaign of articles.
Whitney responds in a speech, reported in the Star, that the newspaper is "talking abominable falsehoods."
In a lengthy, front-page report, the Star portrays the Whitney government as campaigning against the use of French to win the votes of the English, while tolerating its extensive use to win the votes of the French.
French was reputedly the mother tongue of one in 10 of Ontario's 2.5 million people in 1911, and the increasing use of French language, customs and religion was opposed by a substantial segment of the English. The number of French-speakers, claimed the Star, "creates a problem which cannot be ignored." School children must be taught English.
Franco-Ontarians wanted what many English opposed: bilingual schools, a bilingual teachers college, and a different division of taxes between separate and public schools.
"The law of the land is explicit," Whitney said in a campaign speech. "English must be the language except where impracticable," but teachers must be allowed to "teach the public school subjects in French for a short time until the pupil gets a knowledge of English."
According to the Star, in 90 percent of the rural schools in the Algoma and Nippissing districts, "French is the real language of the school," while the teachers were from Quebec and "wholly unqualified to teach English." School trustees in these districts were said to be all French speakers, while in Sturgeon Falls, only one member of the town council spoke English. Reportedly he couldn't follow what was being debated, and the debates couldn't be held in English because few knew that language.
From the headlines of Toronto's two Liberal newspapers it was difficult to know who won the December 11 election. "Liberalism Makes a New Start in Ontario," blared the headline in the Globe. "Whitney Government Suffered Net Loss of Four Seats," proclaimed the Star. In fact, Whitney's Conservatives swamped the Liberals 83 to 22 seats, with one labour win.
Within months of its victory, the Whitney government issued "Circular of Instructions, 17," which prohibited the use of French in Ontario schools for more than the first three years. Time enough, it was thought, for every school child to learn English. The new rules triggered a year of bitter protests, student walkouts and refusals by teachers to comply. Regulation 17 was withdrawn in 1913.
James Pliny Whitney, the son of a blacksmith, was premier of Ontario for nine years, until his death in 1914.