Our region’s French Catholic school board is planning what its communications director calls “a massive celebration” all next week, honouring the 50th anniversary of the Franco-Ontarian flag.
The actual date is September 25th.
René Gaudreau says the flag was developed by a teacher and a student at the University of Sudbury, symbolizing the struggles of francophones in an anglophone province.
The fleur de lis represents the French language, and the trillium on the flag is for the province of Ontario. And in the background…
“Green is to represent hope. It’s to represent the green fields that we have,” says Gaudreau. “And the white is the snow in the winter and the struggles that we had to face.”
Flag raisings and concerts across the board area are set for the week. Gaudreau says some of the concerts will feature the Swamp Rats from Ottawa, who have played around the world.
“Two of our former students are part of that band,” he proudly states. “So we’ve got Martin Rocheleau, who went to Thériault and we’ve got Brandon Girouard, who went to our school in Kapuskasing. So they’ll be up doing a bunch of concerts.”
And Chelmsford native Steph Paquette, the cultural facilitator at Ecole Thériault, has shows planned in Cochrane, Ramore and Iroquois Falls.
Here is the audio of our interview about the celebrations:
