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Timeline of French Manitoba (1712-1993)

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Timeline of French Manitoba (1712-1993) Timeline of French Manitoba (1712-1993) 1712-1713: Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) employees in York Factory indicate in their report to London that [French] Canadians were trading on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, harming the HBC’s own trade. 1738: La Vérendrye reaches the current site of St. Boniface. French Canadian traders and voyageurs coming from Lower Canada use La Vérendrye’s route on their way to Western Canada. Ca. 1780-1810: A Métis identity develops among a distinct community. 1812: The first Scottish and Irish colonists recruited by Lord Selkirk arrive at the Forks. 1816: The Métis declare themselves a nation, following the Battle of Seven Oaks. Perhaps one of the first written references to the Métis Nation was made by Alexander MacDonnell, in a letter to Duncan Cameron dated March 13th, 1816. 1818: Arrival of the Rev. Norbert Provencher, the Rev. Sévère Dumoulin, and seminarian Guillaume Edge to the Red River. Permanent establishment of the Catholic Church in Western Canada. 1822: Creation of the Council of Assiniboia, a local government put in place by the Hudson’s Bay Company to assist the company’s governor in running the Red River Colony. The Council performed mainly judicial functions. 1829: Establishment of St. Boniface’s first girls’ school. The school was placed under the management of two lay women, Angélique and Marguerite Nolin. 1835: The Council of Assiniboia is transformed into a legislative and executive assembly. To ensure the enforcement of laws and facilitate administration, the Council creates committees, establishes courts, and organizes a police force. Several Francophones, Canadian and Métis, were called on to fill various positions in the judiciary and the police. 1837: Mgr Norbert Provencher is appointed to the Council of Assiniboia, becoming the first francophone in the Red River colonial government. 1838: Establishment of Western Canada’s first technical school in St. Boniface. Two Canadian weavers, Ursule Grenier and Marguerite Lapalice, teach weaving to Red River Métis women and girls. 1839: Cuthbert Grant, a Métis leader from St. François Xavier, is appointed to the Council of Assiniboia, becoming the first Métis member of the Red River government. 1844: Arrival of the Grey Nuns of Montreal to St. Boniface. They work primarily in the fields of health and education. 1845: Arrival of Pierre Aubert and Alexandre Taché, the first Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Western Canada. 1851: Due to political pressure from the Métis, the Council of Assiniboia replaces its unilingual anglophone chief magistrate with a bilingual magistrate. 1853: French speaking Métis are appointed to the Council of Assiniboia, such as François Bruneau, a former student of St. Boniface College. 1854: Arrival of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in St. Boniface. They undertake the running of a boy’s school and St. Boniface College. The Christian Brothers leave St. Boniface and the Red River six years later in 1860. The Rev. Louis Laflèche, a member of the Council of Assiniboia, is tasked with compiling and translating all the Council’s rules and laws into French. 1855: Construction begins on the first St. Boniface College building. The work is finished in late 1858. The building could house fifty boarders. 1867: Canadian Confederation. According to the British North America Act, provincial governments have exclusive powers in various areas, including natural ressources and education. 1868: Classical college starts at St. Boniface College. The first four students are Alex. Kittson, Louis Kittson, Georges Lemay and Maxime Goulet. 1869: The Red River’s first democratic elections are held. Twelve representatives from protestant parishes and twelve representatives from Catholic parishes are elected on the 16th of November and form a provisional government. 1870: The provisional government, presided by Louis Riel, is expanded and adopts a new list of rights. Many of its articles would be integrated into the Manitoba Act a few months later. On the 12th of May, the Manitoba Act (a law also called the Manitoba act, 1870) receives royal assent and is enacted on the 15th of July. On June 24th, a special session of the Assiniboia Legislative Assembly is called to hear Reverend Joseph-Noël Ritchot’s report. The Legislative Assembly ratifies the Manitoba Act the same day. The Honourable Louis Schmidt proposed that “the Legislative Assembly of this land adopt the Manitoba Act, on behalf of the people, and decide to become part of the Dominion of Canada in accordance with the conditions proposed in the Constitution Act.” The Honourable Pierre Poitras seconded the motion. (Translation, taken from L'histoire de l'Assemblée législative d'Assiniboia / le Coneil du Gouvernement Provisoire by Norma Hall, Clifford P. Hall and Erin Verrier, n.d.). Manitoba becomes the first province to join Confederation after the original four. Article 23 of the Manitoba Act, based on Article 133 of the British North America Act (1867), stipulates that while either English or French may be used in the Legislative Assembly or in law courts, laws, records, proceedings, and official publications must be published in both languages. Article 22 of the Manitoba Act guarantees a system of public denominational schools subsidized by the province. 1871: Opening of the first session of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly. A bilingual Throne Speech is read in both English and French. Joseph Royal is elected Speaker of the Assembly. The Manitoba Legislative assembly adopts its first law on the school system. It creates a Board of Education with two sections: one Catholic, and one Protestant. On May 27th, the first issue of weekly newspaper Le Métis, Manitoba’s first French- language paper, is published. In October, 1881, it would change its name to Le Manitoba. Le Manitoba would appear weekly until July, 1925, at which time publication ceased. 1873: A law on municipalities stipulates that official notices appearing in the Manitoba Gazette must be bilingual. 1875: Manitoba electoral law makes provision for the use of French and English in voter instructions, proclamations of elections, and the preparation of voter lists. 1876: A Manitoba law concerning jurors and juries specifies that when a French trial is requested, the court can order the composition of a half-English, half-French jury. 1878: The Catholic Section of the Board of Education adopts a bylaw concerning the language of instruction in Manitoban Catholic schools, specifying that the language spoken by the majority of taxpayers in a district will be the one taught in its school. 1879: The English Party caucus proposes, among other things, to cease the publication of official documents in French. The matter is debated in the House, but Lieutenant-Governor Joseph Cauchon refuses to sign the bill adopted by the Legislative Assembly. 1880: Obligatory creation of municipal governments in the province of Manitoba. 1883: Creation of the village (or town, as it was called at the time) of St. Boniface, the first Francophone urban municipal government in Manitoba 1885: Management of St. Boniface College is entrusted to the Jesuits. 1887: Publication of the first issue of Trappeur, the Liberal Party of Manitoba’s first French- language newspaper. Weekly Liberal papers never lasted long: Le Courrier du Nord-Ouest (1888), L'Ouest canadien (1889); L'Écho du Manitoba (1898-1903), L'Avenir de l'Ouest (1905), Le Soleil de l'Ouest (1911-1916); La Libre Parole (1916-1927?). For many years, however, French speaking Manitobans had access to numerous locally published French language newspapers. 1890: An educational law is adopted on the 19th of March, secularizing denominational schools. Government funds would be reserved for the now public schools; Catholic schools survived as nonsubsidized, private institutions. In 1890, there were 74 Catholic schools taking in 3,677 students. The Manitoba Legislative Assembly votes to eliminate the official status of the French language in the province. The Official Language Act would be declared unconstitutional approximately 90 years later when the Supreme Court of Canada rules in favour of Georges Forest, a St. Boniface businessman who challenged the act’s constitutionality. 1896: Adoption of the Laurier-Greenway Compromise. This ruling was named after the Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier, and Manitoba’s Liberal Premier, Thomas Greenway. The compromise reached by the two governments to address the elimination of denominational schools permitted religious instruction in classes after the regular school day and authorized teaching in a language other than English at the request of parents, if 10 or more students attended one of the province’s schools. 1902: Foundation of the Société historique de Saint-Boniface by Archbishop Adélard Langevin. 1908: The village of St. Boniface becomes the city of St. Boniface, Western Canada’s most important bilingual city. 1913: Adélard Langevin, archbishop of St. Boniface, founds La Liberté, a weekly French-language catholic newspaper, independent from any political party. Management of the newspaper is entrusted to lay journalists, such as Hector Héroux (whose brother founded the daily paper Le Devoir) and Donatien Frémont, until 1941. 1916: New legislation on schools is passed by Manitoba’s liberal government. The Thornton Act eliminates bilingual schools, in practice abolishing French education. The law also rendered primary education mandatory for Manitoba children. Foundation of the Association d'éducation des Canadiens français du Manitoba (AECFM, “Manitoba French-Canadians’ education association”). For 50 years, it functioned as a sort of alternate department of education to improve French education for Manitoban Francophones. 1919: Creation of the Association des commissaires d'école de langue française du Manitoba (“Manitoba association of French-language school trustees”), which became the Commissaires d'écoles franco-manitobains (“Franco-Manitoban school trustees”) in 1976. 1923: The AECFM organizes its first annual French contest. Its last French contest would be held in 1967. 1925: Foundation of the Cercle Molière, the oldest currently active theatre troupe in Canada.
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