Le Concours d'art oratoire, Canadian Parents for French and the summit of La Francophonie in Winnipeg

Winnipeg attracted the summit of La Francophonie because we have a strong french-speaking presence in our province. Some 300 delegates from 60 countries were here. The conference focused on peace, poverty and human security. I had a chance to meet a number of the delegates at receptions on Friday and Saturday. It reminded me of a meeting of the La Francophonie that I attended in 1995 in Bennin (see below).

While meetings of La Francophonie delegates were occurring at Le College Universitaire St. Boniface, in the same building students were gathered as part of Le Concours d’art oratoire involving all students in Immersion, Basic French and French first-language grades 3-S4.

Each year, Canadian Parents for French Manitoba http://www.cpfmb.com/index.htm organizes this public speaking contest as part of an effort to develop and promote the ability to speak french. Students from all over Manitoba arrive to compete and show their abilities.

I was there to join several other dignitaries in presenting awards. One award I presented was the Gildas Molgat Award to Zafar Sacranie (top photo). This award is in honour of the former provincial Liberal leader and later Senator Gildas Molgat, one of the most gentlemanly politicians in the history of our province. Congratulations to those who won awards and indeed to all the students who participated.

When Manitoba became a province in 1870, half of all Manitobans primary language was french. Today it is much less. But the impact of the struggle of french-speaking Manitobans to maintain their language and culture has been enormous. Not only are we now able to host major international events like the summit of La Francophonie, but we benefit in many other ways. One of the benefits, is that the efforts of french-speaking Manitobans to keep their language and culture have been of major help to Manitobans of many other cultures, because it has provided the social and political environment where diversity of languages and cultures can flourish.

Congratulations to President Bill Younger, Executive Director Catherine Davies and the many others at Canadian Parents for French Manitoba who made Le Concours d'Art Oratoire possible.

Back to Bennin. In the fall of 1995, I was the Canadian Minister for Science, Research and Development. In this capacity, I represented Canada at a meeting of the Ministers of Science and Technology for La Francophonie in Bennin. When I grew up, there were no french immersion programs, there was not even core french as we have it now. I had to learn my french the hard way - in my early twenties on the streets of Montreal when I was going to medical school at McGill. But, I was certainly fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn some french because it enabled me to travel and participate in francophone conferences like the one in Bennin in 1995.