A Clip from the documentary "L'Acadie L'Acadie?!?" (1971)
Patriotic pride sends a strong message. Especially when someone is asking their country for the right to one's culture.
At a time when Bilinguialism and biculturalisme triumphed, The university of Moncton, in New Brunswick was the theatre for the acadian awakening at the end of the sixties, brought back to life after centuries of defeatism and resignation. In a province where 40% of the population expressed themselves in French, it was impossible to get heard by the government in that language.
In 1969, Students of the Universite de Moncton went on strike for over 100 days in a fight to get equal rights as french students. They marched on the Legislature, occupied government and university buildings, and confronted the police. The University of Moncton is New Brunswick's first francophone university designed to serve the large Acadian population, and was merely 4 yrs old at the time.
Those young French canadians in New Brunswick won bilingualism for their province between 1969-71 in part because they wanted a Canada for all canadians, not just a Canada for english canadians. In actuality, the french felt as though they were being forced to join the english culture and be assimilated in order to be treated equally, I believe they were right. They asked for equality and thus met a great deal of resistance.
However, through non-violent protest they, young french canadians of new brunswick, showed the province just how unfairly they were being treated and not given the same rights. This forced the government to make New Brunswick bilingual, thus allowing French Canadians to participate equally in society within just about 1-2 yrs.
In one instance, a group of french canadian youth sat in on a loyalist meeting, refused to sing the "God Save the Queen" and held their fists up (some with hands flat like nazis) in protest during it. Later on after some speeches and some examples of British elitism, the french all stood up in unison, and sang Oh Canada (in French), with the english mostly sitting down. A few english peppered in the crowd defied the english mob and gradually stood up with the french to help sign the Canadian national anthem. Needless to say, the loyalist open-door policy was revoked and restricted to members-only after that meeting.
This is a clip from that loyalist meeting, showing the bigotry and mob mentality some people are the capable of dishing out when they think their opinions are shared by others.
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Does anyone else have videos of Acadians during the Sixties/Seventies?
NoExtradition4BC3 1 year ago 2