Fransaskois
Fransaskois, Franco-Saskatchewanais or Franco-Saskatchewanians are French Canadians or Canadian francophones living in the province of Saskatchewan. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, approximately 17,735 residents of the province stated that French was their mother tongue. In the same census, 125,810 Saskatchewanians claimed full or partial French ancestry. There are several Fransaskois communities in Saskatchewan, although the majority of francophones in Saskatchewan reside in the province's three largest cities, Saskatoon, Regina, and Prince Albert.
The first francophones to enter the region were French Canadian coureurs des bois employed in the North American fur trade during the 18th century. Francophone settlement into the region first occurred with French Canadian fur traders, along with Roman Catholic missionaries, and the Métis, during the mid 19th century. In 1885, a rebellion that included the French-speaking Métis broke out in the region. In the early 20th century, the provincial government attempted to assimilate the francophone minority into the anglophone majority by curtailing French language education in Saskatchewan. The enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 resulted in several decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada, that reaffirmed the educational, and judicial rights of the francophones in Saskatchewan.
Demographics
According to the 2016 Canadian Census, the number of people that reported French was their mother tongue in Saskatchewan was 17,735, or approximately 1.6 per cent of the population. French is the most common mother tongue in the province after English, Tagalog, German, and Cree. The majority of francophone Saskatchewanians are bilingual in English and French, with only 530 Fransaskois reporting they only had proficiency in French. There were 51,355 Saskatchewanians, approximately 4.7 per cent of the population, that reported being bilingual in both English and French; although the following figure includes francophone residents of the province, and Saskatchewanian who speak French as a second language.Approximately 56 per cent of Fransaskois were born in Saskatchewan, with 29 per cent of francophones in the province born in another province or territory of Canada. Approximately 16 per cent of all francophones in Saskatchewan were born outside Canada. Among the Fransaskois that were born outside Canada, approximately 57 per cent originated from Africa, 22 per cent from Europe, 18 per cent from Asia, and 6 per cent from all other countries in the Americas.
In the 2016 census, 125,810 Saskatchewanians reported having partial or full French ancestry. French is the seventh most commonly reported ethnic group in Saskatchewan, after German, Canadian, English, Scottish, Irish, and Ukrainian.
Communities
Francophones in Saskatchewan are concentrated along three main areas of the province, the North and South Saskatchewan River, and in southern Saskatchewan. The majority of Fransaskois reside around the province's largest cities, with three out of four Fransaskois' residing in Saskatoon, Regina, and Prince Albert. However, smaller communities of Fransaskois are also based in Gravelbourg, Albertville, Duck Lake, Zenon Park, Bellegarde, and St. Isidore-de-Bellevue.History
In 1752, Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne was appointed commandant poste de l’Ouest. He embarked on an expedition along the northern coast of Lake Superior, through Fort Paskoya and into what is today the province of Saskatchewan establishing Fort Saint-Louis, or what became known as Fort-à-la-Corne, near the forks of the Saskatchewan River. The area was the westernmost region of New France.19th century
French Canadian coureurs de bois continued to utilize the territory after the British conquest of New France, in their pursuit of furs to trade with the Hudson's Bay Company and the North-West Company. A number of French fur traders often had local First Nations women as their companions. While the majority of these couples were not formally married, the offspring that they produced often carried the French names of their fathers. Names like Dumont, Cardinal, Breland and Vandal are often associated with the French Métis. Between 1840 and 1880, several Métis communities developed in Batoche, Île-à-la-Crosse, St. Laurent de Grandin, and Willow Bunch.In addition to French Canadian fur traders, and the Métis, Roman Catholic missionaries were among the first francophone settlers into the region, with several French missionaries dispatched to Qu'Appelle River valley (near present-day Fort Qu'Appelle in the early 19th century.
After the two fur trading companies were united in 1821, the French Métis settled along the Red River in Rupert's Land, until the Deed of Surrender transferred the territory to Canada in 1870. As a result of the sale, a number of Métis left the Red River to seek out new lands in an attempt to return to their way of life. The vast majority landed on the banks of the Saskatchewan River in the area of Batoche and Duck Lake, although a dispute over land titles resulted in the North-West Rebellion; which saw the Métis eventually defeated at the Battle of Batoche in 1885 when. The rebellion's leader, Louis Riel was later tried in court, the outcome of which became a major point of contention between English and French Canadians.
File:RielAtTrial.jpg|thumb|Louis Riel standing trial in 1885. The outcome of the trial became a point of contention for French Canadians.
In 1892, the Northwest Territories abolished French as an official language.
20th century
At the end of the 19th century, the Roman Catholic Church aided the government in bringing new groups of immigrants to the prairies. The resulting immigration saw many arrive from Quebec who began establishing towns, schools, churches and businesses. The Canadian government worked to encourage French immigrants from France and Belgium, achieving some success in 1912 and 1913 as some 3,000 French arrived in Canada in those two years.At the turn of the century, the French-speaking settlers represented about 2.9% of the population. Five years after the foundation of the province of Saskatchewan in 1905, the French-speaking population represented 5.2%. The population grew from 2,600 to 25,000 in the first ten years of the twentieth century, and they would double their population during next two decades.
The French Canadians arriving in Saskatchewan were mostly farmers interested in developing the agricultural landscape of the province. Others worked to ensure the survival of the Catholic Church and the French language in the province. The first bishops of the west were French Canadians who believed that the survival of the Church was dependent on the survival of the mother tongue. In February 1912, 450 members of the Francophone community of Saskatchewan met at Duck Lake to form a provincial organization called La Sociéte du Parler Français de la Saskatchewan. Invited delegates included Bishop Mathieu of Regina, Bishop Charlebois of Keewatin and the Attorney General Alphonse Turgeon. Later that year the society would go on to form the Association Franco-Canadienne de la Saskatchewan in an effort to protect the rights of Fransaskois.
The early 20th century saw efforts to curtail French language education, in an effort to assimilate the francophone minority with the anglophone majority. In 1916, several provincial organizations like the Saskatchewan Grain Growers, the Saskatchewan School Trustees’ Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities resolved to forbid the use of foreign languages in Saskatchewan's schools. Premier William Martin drafted an amendment to Section 177 of the School Act which limited French instruction to one hour a day. In response to the loss of the right to teach French in a public school in 1918, Franco-Catholic school trustees formed the Association des commissaries d’écoles franco-canadiens . In 1918, Monsignor Mathieu Regina opened College Mathieu in Gravelbourg, a private institution that offered classical education in French. College Mathieu remained the only option for a French education in Saskatchewan for the next 75 years. It remained in operation as Western Canada's only private French language secondary school until 2003, when it was absorbed by the province's public francophone school system and renamed L'école Secondaire Collège Mathieu.
In 1982, Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed minority education rights. The establishment of the Charter led to the Fransaskois community pushing for further linguistic rights through the judiciary. In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R v Mercure that the North-West Territories Act still applied to its succeeding provinces, notably Section 110, which affords certain linguistic rights to francophones. However, the court also stated in its decision that said provinces were also permitted to legislate on matters of official languages, resulting in the passage of the Languages Act in Alberta, and The Language Act in Saskatchewan. Although both laws affirmed the right to use French in the judiciary and legislature, they also revoked many of the privileges accorded to francophones under the North-West Territories Act. Another Supreme Court decision in 1990 recognized the Fransaskois’ right to control their children’s education.