From the time that it took place in November 2018 in Richmond, the Summit on the Transmission of French Language in British Columbia has engaged Francophones not only in our province, but also elsewhere in Canada.

This milestone event brought together more than 250 key participants – including parents, young people, seniors, representatives of the Francophone association network and of the education sector – in short, everybody concerned with the development and sustainability of the BC Francophone community.

#ONfr, a website (in French) that publishes articles about issues affecting the Francophone community in Ontario as well as nationally, writes about the Summit in a text by Benjamin Vachet that focuses on the challenges facing Francophones living in a minority language environment who want to transmit French to their children.

In particular, the reporter interviewed Suzie Beliveau from Squamish and Benoit Parrot from Richmond, BC, representatives of parents’ associations that are members of the Fédération des parents. Both had attended the Summit and agreed to talk about their personal experiences. To read this article (in French only) from #ONfr, click here.

One of the observations made by the parents interviewed in the article is: “... we must develop and especially increase awareness of the resources that exist in French, to help parents prove to their children that it is possible to live in French outside of school.”

At the end of the Summit, each participant was asked to note on a postcard an action that they would agree to carry out to support the transmission of French in their community. Now that the 250 postcards have been mailed, we hope that they’ll motivate each and every one of us to carry out these actions, and that this will contribute to increasing the transmission of French to children and young people in all regions of BC!

Whether or not you had the chance to participate in the Summit on the Transmission of French Language in British Columbia, we encourage you to visit the Summit website. You’ll find photos and documents there related to the activities held during the event. In addition, the report resulting from the Summit, as well as full-length videos of presentations (talks and panels), will be available on the website soon. Visit the site by clicking on www.SommetCB.ca.

Credits for 1st photo (Benoit Parrot and family) and 2nd photo (Suzie Beliveau and family) : courtesy