SBfT ! ¦ It' i(K . -I'SSkiS'l. « YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 1947 BRIDGING THE CHASM BRIDGING THE CHASM A STUDY OF THE ONTARIO-QUEBEC QUESTION By PERCIVAL FELLMAN MORLEY 1919 J. M. DENT & SONS. LTD. 25-27 Melinda Street, Toronto CoPYKiOHT, Canada 1919 BY J. M. DsNT & Sons, Ltd fTlQ the memory of those noble souls •*- who, in the face of untold perils and privations, carried the light of civil ization and Christianity into the wilder ness and laid the foundations of New France and of the future Canada, this little book is respectfully dedicated. INTRODUCTION I have read the manuscript of " Bridging the Chasm " and have been much interested in it. Without committing myself to all of Mr. Morley's positions I am pleased to be able to say that I approve in the main of what he has written and hope that the book will have many readers. It shows a fine spirit and one can earnestly desire that meiny honest Canadians may, through its influence, be led to review their opinions on this vital question and be distinguished by greater tolerance in the future than in the past. Canada's race difEculties will be solved " not by might nor by power " but by the tolerant spirit. J. SQUAIR Toronto, May 12th. 1919. FOREWORD The writer of these pages has at tempted to look at the Ontario-Quebec difficulty from an angle which affords a truer insight into the problem than is usually attained in Ontario. A Cana dian of English-speaking parentage and Protestant upbringing, he has on various occasions had the opportunity of sojourn ing among our neighbours of the lower province and has learned to know them and to appreciate their point of view. He has been driven to the conclusion that in a great measure it is within the power of the English-Canadians to bring about the solution of our race problem and to promote better relations between the two peoples. FOREWORD The views advanced in the pages that follow are not put forward dogmatically or in any controversial spirit, and as the writer has been prompted solely by the desire to get a little nearer the truth, he will welcome criticism similarly inspired, from whatever quarter it may come. In justice to himself he must add that the manuscript of the present book was practically completed and in its present form before Mr. William H. Moore's well-known and exhaustive work, "The Clash," which deals with similar Canadian problems, was out of the pub lisher's hands. P. F. MORLEY Toronto, May, 1919. CONTENTS page Chapter I. Confederation on Trial 3 Chapter II. Is Unity Possible ? 11 Chapter III. Causes oy the Difficulty — Anglo-Canadian Views .- . 19 Chapter IV. From the French-Canadian Point of View 31 Chapter V. The Language Dispute 43 Chapter VI. Is There a French-Canadian Menace ?.' 89 Chapter VII. Diverse Temperaments 97 Chapter VIII. Unity in Diversity 109 Chapter IX. Recent Disputes 125 Chapter X. The Remedies 135 Chapter XI. The Outlook 163 Appendix — Instructions 17 175 CHAPTER I CONFEDERATION ON TRIAL CHAPTER I Confederation on Trial The EngUsh and French in Canada have not yet attained to the state of brotherly love. Difficulties and dis couragements, seemingly without end, beset the pathway to the promised land of national concord. Sometimes we seem but puppets in the grasp of a heartless Fate that toys with us in diabohcal farce and laughs at all our childish quarrels and reconciliations. In peaceful times, no doubt, the silent but powerful opera tion of social and economic forces tends to bring nearer that acquiescence in a common destiny which was the aim of Confederation. Yet, every now and then, in periods of stress, we are rudely awak ened from our pleasant dream of national unity ; race feeling and race antagonism, usually dormant, spring to life anew ; the old contest of French and English 3 4 Bridging the Chasm revives ; and there is a lively interchange of platform and newspaper invective. It was tempting Providence to plant English and French in close proximity to one another in a new land without a fifty- mile channel of salt water between them ; and it was putting the providential self- restraint to a still more serious test when, out of two so divergent types, men resolved to build a nation. In so far as English Canada is concerned, Confedera tion has not been in vain. The strag gling, English-speaking settlements hud dled along the southern fringe of our none too genial zone, linked together by ties of blood and by a common destiny, have evolved, or at least are evolving, a distinct national type and national con sciousness. Even a bumptious conceit of nationhood has recently been in evi dence. But between the Enghsh-speak- ing Canadians and the great French population extending from the Ottawa to the Gulf and overflowing into the other Confederation on Trial 5 provinces, there has been no assimilation. Not of our world of thought, unacquainted with or indifferent to our ideas of Im perialism and nationhood and progress, and cherishing a language and faith and traditions of her own, Quebec has re mained Quebec, reluctant to learn and to forget, and still faithful to the ideals and traditions of the past. In the attempt to unite the two Cana dian peoples. Confederation has so far not been a complete success. It has been a union in form but not altogether in spirit; a modus vivendi, a plausible political mech anism under which the two races continue, to a large extent, to Uve their lives almost as separately and distinctly as though the EngUsh Channel lay between them, their aloofness being broken from time to time chiefly by outbreaks of their traditional strife; And, as if properly to emphasize the difficulties of Confederation, its fiftieth anniversary found the country in the throes of the most serious crisis it 6 Bridging the Chasm has experienced since the Union, the nation divided sharply on racial lines into two camps, and the air seething with abuse. On the one side hints of reprisals and proposals for a change in the Constitution ; and a prelate on the other side even suggesting the possibility of a racial and reUgious war ! Is this state of affairs to be our lot, world without end, on this northern half of the American continent ? Are com bat and the usages of the jungle inherent in the soil of the Great Lakes region and the St. Lawrence VaUey ? If we regarded the events of the past few years as an augury of what is to come, we should indeed be driven to despair. But is there not, after all, some room for optimism ? Perhaps our chief hope lies in the very seriousness of the crisis through which we have passed without disaster. There is no reason, in a young and prosperous country like Canada, under the freest of constitutions and with thou- Confederation on Trial 7 sands of square miles of unbroken land stiU awaiting the settler, why our national existence should be a repetition, on a con tinental scale, of the story of the Kilkenny cats. Our peoples possess all the elements of health and vigor, physically, intell ectuaUy, and morally; there is abunda,nce of work to be done; and if moderate counsels prevaU, if we are but wUUng to learn a lesson and to profit by past ex periences, better days are not only assured but are probably not so far in the dim distance as many beUeve. CHAPTER II IS UNITY POSSIBLE? CHAPTER II Is Unity Possible ? A heavy responsibility, indeed, was laid upon Canadians, both English and French, when statesmen determined that two so different peoples should be united into a nation. Antipodal as they are in tastes, temperament, and ideals, and diametrically opposed in some of the things that matter most, it would seem a weU-nigh hopeless task to create, out of types so fundamentaUy different, any thing approaching a unity. And this presupposition is strengthened by the situation of to-day. So pronounced a cleavage, a century and a haU after the Conquest, is not, on the face of it, encouraging. Some are so hopeless of a reconciliation that they can only lament that the divergence were ever permitted. We are aU famUiar, of course, with the school of thought that points to our race 11 12 Bridging the Chasm problem as proof that "a firm hand," applied to Quebec in the first place, would have saved us aU this trouble, and that if that policy had been adopted we should have no race problem on our hands to-day. In fact, if this school had had its way, had it had the making of Canadian history, some of the things the French-Canadian most cherishes would have been summarily taken from him, and the young French growth in America, by one act of tyranny, kUled, once and for aU, beyond hope of revival. AU Canada would have been steam-roUed into a beautiful uniformity from the Atiantic to the Pacific and future genera tions thus assured that nowhere in the Dominion should they encounter a marked divergence from what these people deemed safest and best. Such history would have made especially pleasant reading in these days of demo cracy and the championship of the rights of smaU peoples ! Fortunately, however, Is Unity Possible ? 13 for the good name of British justice and the self-respect of English-Canadians ever after, a true statesman, in the person of Sir Guy Carleton, was at the helm at the critical time, and a policy of justice and toleration prevaUed. We agree with those who regret what was done, that a repressive policy after the Conquest would very probably have saved us from serious racial tioubles and consequently from a multitude of prob lems that harass us to-day. One act of Prussianism in 1759 or 1760, and we should now aU be dweUing in sweet peace and concord. But some of us at least would much prefer to retain our present honour able record of justice and fair play even though serious family disturbances have been the temporary outcome. Moreover, the Prussian method of dealing with these difficulties would have created a national type of a monotonous uniformity. The existence of a "race problem" in our country is not, therefore, an unmixed 14 Bridging the Chasm" calamity. Real as are some of the diffi culties, and painfuUy slow though the progress towards fraternity seems to be, we beUeve that, if we but keep our heads, the result wiU be as interesting and fruit ful as it is slow and difficult of attainment, and that a united Canada will be the richer for the accident of a biracial population. The length of the process should not discourage us. Between two races so mutuaUy antagonistic and with so long a history of conflict in their very blood, surely nothing but a miracle could have achieved a unffication in a few genera tions. Was it not inevitable that in a country so large, with peoples so diver gent, there should be a considerable period of preparation hindered by pro vincialism and prejudice ? Are we not justified in regarding the present period aslsuch a transition to larger and better things]? This view should not lead, however, to a comfortable acquiescence Is Unity Possible? 15 in a poUcy of drift. We should be much farther along on the road toward national unity to-day but for a number of needless and controUable circumstances ; and it is the duty of each division of the Cana dian fanuly to set itself to the task of eliminating, as far as possible, these disturbing elements from the national household. CHAPTER III CAUSES OF THE DIFFICULTY— ANGLO-CANADIAN VIEWS CHAPTER III Causes of the Difficulty — Anglo-Canadian Views What is the root of the tiouble ? Where does the fault chiefly Ue for our slow progress towards national unity ? In answering these questions it would be easy to take the convenient route, and echo the formula current among a section of our population. This method would be pleasant, for it enables a writer to set himself up as the arbiter of truth, in stantly dismissing all unwelcome evi dence with a wave of the hand, and easily gaining an attentive audience by the sensational nature of his utterances. We aU know the formula. Indeed, we could repeat it forward or backward ad libitum, for in a smaU section of the press it has been served up with unfaUing regularity for some considerable time past. And now we are all convinced — or are supposed to be — that papal Quebec is a menace to the 19 20 Bridging the Chasm liberty and civUization of the Dominion ; that the priesthood of that province, in common with the rest of their kind, con ceal beneath a fair show of outward piety certain, base designs of world-conquest, and that, though they may, perhaps, keep their flocks to a tolerably decent and moral form of life, they find their chief joy and pastime in stirring the pot of political intrigue, with now and then a brief excursion into religion for the sake of diversion. To further their poUtical ends, the priests are said to keep their flocks hope lessly benighted. The poor habitant — naturally a bright enough feUow — ^is kept in something approaching a cave-man's state of enlightenment. AU events outside his parish are carefuUy screened from his curious gaze, with the result that he ful- ffis perfectiy his chief mission in this world, viz., to be a pliant political tool. Danger is also spied in the rapid multipli cation of the French-Canadians, and Tin Causes of the Difficulty 21 their encroachment on territory occupied by Protestants. It becomes an act of sedition for the Catholic habitant to buy a farm from a Protestant farmer who has decided to move West. It is asserted that the Quebec hierarchy aim by this means to get the upper hand in Ontario. Having at length achieved a French majority in this province, they would straightway deprive us of our ^schools, our Ubraries, and our churches, muzzle the press, introduce bilingual schools everywhere with the English language a disappearing quantity, tax Protestants to exhaustion to sweU their own coffers, and perhaps reintroduce the rack, the dungeon, and the stake to bring aU recal- citiants back safely within the fold. That this theory is a stiiking one, can not be denied. The conception of a group of priests and monks plotting for the domination of half a continent, is decidedly picturesque ; and the idea of a revival of the days of the Inquisition 22 Bridging the Chasm possesses a dramatic interest of the first order. But, fascinating though this creed is, it is far from satisfying. In fact, one can only regret that a considerable group amongst us see fit to take such a distorted view of the facts and thus blind them selves to much that is admirable in the life of their Quebec countrymen. Magni fying imperfections, shutting one's eyes to merit, too often attributing aU sinful ness and error to the second or third person and cheerfully exempting the first — this hardly seems the most promis ing method of arriving at a just estimate of an institution or of a people. The venerable church of Jean Baptiste fares badly, indeed, at the hands of these individuals ; in fact, if one were wholly dependent on them for one's informa tion regarding the Roman Catholic Church one could with difficulty believe it a Christian organization at all. No ; we fear that these extiavagant writings — the product, we beUeve, of a sorry Causes of the Difficulty 23 tiadition rather than of any special malevolence — are not the most reliable source of enlightenment on the causes of our racial troubles. The transition from such extieme views to moderate English-Canadian opinion is refreshing. The more stienuous instruments of combat have been left behind and we are now among men with less zest for the fray, men who, when conflict becomes inevitable, prefer the gentier methods of attack. They adhere^ as far as possible, to the sanctioned methods of warfare. At times, how ever, their contioversies take on curious and interesting aspects, and would, there is no doubt, prove a fertile field for the psychologist. Take, for example, the attitude of the "moderate" Ontario press on the Quebec question. Under lying and implied in most of the presenta tions of this subject emanating from Toronto press-rooms, and doubtless re flecting the sentiments of the majority of 24 Bridging the Chasm the readers of these papers, there seems to be a presupposition which, for con venience, may be described as the "spoiled child" theory. According to this view, Quebec is the spoiled child of Confederation. It received too much of the Confederation cake in the first place, and has never lost an opportunity since then, whenever there has been tiouble in the house, of stealing off to the pantry and getting more. Infantile and per verse and of hopelessly coloured vision, Quebec needs the sympathetic but firm guidance of its Anglo-Saxon partners (of unbiassed vision and mature judgment) until such time as it attains to maturity and enlightenment. This juvenile mem ber of the group is the cause of practicaUy all the quarrels and troubles. Very little responsibility — and this at most only in a few unimportant details — attaches to the others. This "spoiled child" theory the Torontonian has found presented in his Causes of the Difficulty 25 papers with a cheerfulness and perse verance that were inspiring. He found it in his moming paper at breakfast-time, and again in his evening paper on the way home at night. At times this doctrine has been expounded with a dignity and confidence almost convincing to one of Anglo-Saxon origin. Yet those who are scepticaUy inclined must find great diffi culty in believing it altogether free from the earmarks of race and partisanship. Our country is not noted for its freedom from race feeling and party antagonisms ; and the complete acceptance of the state ments of one party to a dispute is an un reliable method of getting at the truth. We are in the habit of brushing aside even the suggestion that we bear an appreciable part of the blame, and of asserting with unbounded assurance that our opponents want to impose their civilization and institutions on us. Is this confident assurance on our part altogether unconnected with the fact 26 Bridging the Chasm that we ourselves are disputants ? The fact remains that, in spite of the deep- rooted conviction, here in Ontario, of the greater soberness and maturity of our Anglo-Saxon judgment, many of the good people down in the St. Lawrence VaUey somehow persist in holding views very different from our own. Can it be that we are altogether right and they alto gether wrong ? Their leaders are no less inteUigent than ours, and there is no reason to believe that the citizens of the sister province take any special delight in clinging to perverse attitudes and notions merely to exasperate their Ontario neigh bours. On the various occasions on which the writer has had the privilege of sojourning among the Quebec people, he has found them much more enUghtened and reasonable than his Ontario up bringing had led him to expect. Is it not conceivable that their point of view is as clear and righteous in their eyes as ours is to us ? If one examines their literature Causes of the Difficulty 27 one is immediately impressed with their earnest and thoroughgoing conviction of the righteousness of their cause. This earnest conviction is hardly consistent with a subtle dissimulation and design or a mere petulance and perversity. Why not admit that in spite of our many Anglo-Saxon virtues we cannot yet lay claim to freedom from race prejudice or to infallibiUty either of individual or of social judgment ? Perhaps we might improve ourselves in this regard by making an attempt to look at things in the way in which the French-Canadian views them ; and incidentaUy we might even discover that our countiymen down by the St. Lawrence have somehow come by a morsel of truth themselves. CHAPTER IV FROM THE FRENCH-CANADIAN POINT OF VIEW CHAPTER IV From The French-Canadian Point of View What, as a matter of fact, is the posi tion of our neighbours in Quebec? They are an isolated people, adrift from their motherland, and stianded in a New World alien to themselves in race, lan guage, and reUgion and out of harmony with their ideals ; a minority continuaUy haunted by the tiagic possibility of the ultimate disappearance from this con tinent of their language and civUization. Inspired with an intensity of devotion to race and traditions that their English- speaking fellow countiymen probably do not know, they see themselves waging what is possibly a losing fight against the powerful forces that slowly make for assunUation. And when we remember that they are a conquered people, stUl nursing the remnants of an injured race pride, and endowed with the human 31 32 Bridging the Chasm faiUngs of oversensitiveness, jealousy, prejudice, suspicion — faiUngs wliich, by the way, are not their exclusive mono poly — and that these quaUties, operating in racial disputes, are cumulative in their effect, it is easily seen with what rapidity and efficiency a fixed racial enmity is buUt up and two seemingly irrecon- cUable positions developed. It would be weU for Ontarians to remember that in this, as in other differ ences and disputes, the fault is very un- Ukely to be altogether on one side. It has long been popular amongst us, here in Ontario, to deplore the provincialism and prejudice of Quebec. But are those of us who thus lament the conditions in the neighbouring province quite sure that we are altogether above reproach our selves in this respect ? A Uttle ponder ing on the proverb of the mote and the beam might do no harm. Among the denizens of Western Europe, John Bull is notedffor his "insularity" and his The French Point of View 33 delightful incapacity to acquire the speech and spirit of peoples who are inferior (i.e. dissimilar) to himself. And there seems no good reason to believe that his offspring in the New World have broken with the family tradition. Finding him self in harmony with the prevalent type of civilization on this continent, and enjoying the comfortable assurance that goes with majorities, the English-Cana dian has not been given to viewing things from the standpoint of minority peoples. He has never had occasion to defend his race from oppression or his language from neglect, and his affection for his own race and language is less keen and sensi tive. It is therefore hard for him to appreciate the feelings of his French- speaking countrymen in this respect. It would be a wholesome exercise, therefore, for our Ontarian to try to place himself, mentally, in the position of a French-Canadian. Let him be of the minority, the conquered race, in a land 34 Bridging the Chasm whose predominant civilization is utterly foreign to his own and out of sympathy with his ideals. Would it be natural for him, under these circumstances, to adopt the current ImperiaUstic sentiments, how ever righteous, with the ease of the majority ? Could he reasonably be ex pected to do so ? Moreover, is it not likely that, in English-speaking North America, the French-Canadian's native tongue sounds as sweet to his ears as the English-speaking Ontarian suddenly dis covers his own to be when by chance he hears it during a sojourn in a foreign land ? Must we not keep in mind the unique position of the French-Canadian in any consideration of his attitude towards us ? The French-Canadians may at times seem unduly sensitive regarding their rights. Perhaps at times an oversupply of enthusiasm has led them into mistaken attitudes and policies. But it is very doubtful whether the rest of us have been whoUy without guUt in the The French Point of View 35 matter. It is not altogether without significance that, after a century and a half under an Anglo-Saxon r6gime, the Quebecquois have so few eulogies to bestow on the dominant race. If they love us they conceal it most effectually. It would be interesting to discover, if possible, the chief grounds for the deep- seated conviction evidently cherished by the French-Canadian that the Anglo- Saxon is not a man after his own heart. In view of the fundamental position of religion in the French-Canadian mind, and because of its being so closely inter woven with their life and institutions, it is not easily dissociated from the other elements of their national consciousness, and it is tempting, and in some quarters highly popular, to make reUgion the scapegoat and to place on the difference of religious beUef, or rather on the reli gious tenets of Quebec, most of the blame for the present cleavage. But such a view, however inviting it may be to 36 Bridging the Chasm some, wiU not hold water. 'Tis a plea sant pastime, that of besmirching the religion of one's neighbour. The art is an ancient one, and even in these days highly cultivated. But it palls in time. That our Quebec neighbours choose to place the interests of their church first, and have its advancement very much at heart, must not unduly worry us or mislead us. The fact of our being heretics is probably of itself somewhat of a deterrent from close intercourse, and doubtless looms large in the eyes of some French-Canadians. But potent though the difference of faith must be both as a social barrier and as a source of prejudice and suspicion, it is not the real cause of our troubled in Canada. Ever present as one element in the deep antagonism of ideals, it has not tended to soften other differences or to facUitate their solution ; rather has it furnished an admirable stage setting for more acute issues. But for the real causes of our The French Point of View 37 misunderstandings we must look else where. The EngUsh and French races in Europe enjoyed a fairly keen animosity for some centuries before the Reforma tion was ever heard of ; and to-day, with the bulk of those peoples professing different faiths, they can be good friends. Moreover, right merry racial and lin guistic quarrels within the pale of a single church are not altogether unknown in our country. In the literature of the French- Canadian people it is not our obnoxious creed that is continually referred to. What one finds over and over again in their columns is plaint of "injustice," "insult, " "persecution . " Their pet name for us is not heretiques but Baches. The tiouble is racial rather than religious. What, then, are the causes that have contributed to produce the chronic cleavage between the two peoples ? What elements in the two types come into conflict ? And of especial interest is it to us English-Canadians to know The French Point of View 39 they are very few. There is a peculiar pleasure in the contemplation of this virtuous aspect of our racial character ; but somehow, in these musings, one's joy is not altogether unmixed, for one is haunted by the fear that it is not shared by aU one's feUow men. CHAPTER V THE LANGUAGE DISPUTE CHAPTER V The Language Dispute One of the brightest pages in the history of the relations of the two Cana dian peoples is the period immediately foUowing the Conquest. Instead of the anglicization which many feared, the rights of the colonists to the free exercise of their religion were unquestioned, and they were aUowed complete liberty to be educated in their native tongue ; and when, in 1774, their civil law was restored and their reUgious rights confirmed they were in possession of practicaUy aU they had asked for. Under the new rulers, too, the tyranny and corruption that had flourished under the old regime disap peared under the strong administiation of law and justice ; the habitant, freed from the burdens and impositions of the old miUtary autocracy, was able to devote himself to the tiUing of the soil ; and the 43 44 Bridging the Chasm colony entered on a new era of prosperity. These benefits, this unexpected tolerance and hitherto unknown freedom, the colo nists were not slow to appreciate ; and the Church became the loyal supporter of the new rulers. If the whole history of the relations of the dominant race to the original colo nists were of like character with this, we should have reason for pride and gratitude indeed. But it is to be feared that parts of it, at least, do not measure up to this standard. In a regime admittedly just and tolerant on the whole, there have, un fortunately, not been lacking exceptions to the rule. Take the matter of lan guage. Already in 1763, through the substitution by royal proclamation of English law for the French, a language incomprehensible to the 70,000 colonists becomes the language of the courts in vhich they are judged, and remains so tiU 1774 and the passage of the Quebec Act. In 1792, in the first ParUament of The Language Dispute 45 Lower Canada, we find the French- Canadians on the defensive against those who would have made English the one official language of a legislature two- thirds French. In 1841 the Act of Union abolishes the use of the French language in the official records of the legislature of the United Canadas, a legislature half French in constitution, and thus makes English practically the sole official language of the courts. This situation continued till the repeal of the clause responsible for it, in 1848. But it is in the schools of Ontario that the French-Canadians find the most ground for complaint of discrimination against their language. Fqr years, it is true, the French communities of Upper Canada and of Ontario were permitted to employ their own language in their schools. As far back as 1851 this prac tice received official recognition from the subsequent founder of the Ontario school system. In 1885 the Ontario Govern- 46 Bridging the Chasm ment inaugurated the sound policy of requiring a minimum of English teaching in aU the schools of the Province ; but at the same time the predominatingly French distiicts were aUowed to maintain schools which were essentially French in spirit and in which French was the prin cipal language of instruction. In 1889, however, the Government leaped at a bound into a policy of anglicization which culminated, in 1912, in the virtual ostiacizing from the Ontario schools of the French language and in the denial to the French child living in Ontario of the right to education in his mother tongue. Since then this poUcy has invaded other provinces, for in 1916 the same right was abrogated in Manitoba. The customary answer, of course, to any imputation of unfairness toward the minority in this matter of language is a very emphatic one — that Quebec has been showered with favours, indeed has been indulged far too much, and that the The Language Dispute 47 linguistic concessions of 1774 and 1867, by which the use of French is permitted in the Dominion Parliament, the Supreme Court, and in the legislature, the courts, and the schools of Quebec, far outweigh any possible injustice that may have been done. Yet, without detiacting from the spirit or benefits of the Quebec Act or the British North America Act, is this not an overstatement of the facts ? It can hardly be looked upon as a matter of no consequence to oppose the natural growth and development of a people. Yet that, in effect, is what the attitude adopted, more especially since 1889, amounts to ; for the measures instituted then and later, though not aimed directly at the suppression of the French tongue, wUl be none the less effective in that direction and will contribute inevitably to the slow but sure extinction of the pioneer language of the Dominion in the provinces concerned. If our French- Canadian countrymen have at times 48 Bridging the Chasm had more to say about "persecution" and kindred things than about the bene fits they enjoy, they have perhaps but followed a fundamental law of life that deprivations loom much larger than con cessions. At any rate, these restrictions, however insignificant they may seem to many in the Ontario peninsula, have entered so largely into our neighbours' estimate of us that they cannot be ignored. They are fact, not fiction. And if our neighbours have not committed the error of underestimating the importance of these things, we most certainly have not erred in the other direction. In the summer of 1912 there issued from the Ontario Department of Educa tion a regulation governing the English- French or bilingual schools of the Pro vince, that is, tiiose primary schools in which French, as well as English, is a subject of study or is used as a medium of instruction. So much has been said and written concerning this famous The Language Dispute 49 Regulation 17, so thoroughly has it been analysed and discussed, that certainly nothing new remains to be said about it. However, as the policy which it embodies is doubtless the most conspicuous in stance, in recent years, of debatable ethics in Canadian racial disputes and has so vitaUy affected the relations of the two provinces in which we are chiefly in terested in these pages, we are going to commit the crime of discussing it once again. As is well known. Regulation 17 was framed to remedy certain evils which had been found to exist in the bilingual schools of the Province, situated chiefly in the extreme eastern counties, in parts of Northern Ontario, and in the counties of Essex and Kent. In a memorable state ment issued in October, 1910, conspicuous for its insistence on a preconceived plan that was both un-British and pedagogi- cally unsound. Bishop Fallon of London had denounced, in vigorous terms, the 50 Bridging the Chasm bUingual school system as it existed in the county of Essex, in his diocese, declaring that tiiese schools taught neither English nor French property and were turning out a generation of UUterates. In some of these schools subsequent investigation showed that, partiy owing to the extra demand on the time of teachers and pupUs caused by the existence of the two languages in the curriculum, and also, and no doubt chiefly, because of the difficulty of securing teachers competent in both French and EngUsh, the work being done was unsatisfactory and the pupUs not infrequently left school with but a meagre knowledge of the prevaiUng language of the Province and therefore inadequately equipped for later life. This faUure in respect to EngUsh was admitted by the French themselves, who, indeed, were not blind to the importance of an adequate English training, but who, under the existing circumstances, could hardly have measured up to the required stan- The Language Dispute 51 dard. Moreover, that this much-talked- of inefficiency was not the only phase of the bilingual school situation, is clearly indicated in Dr. Merchant's report. Dr. Merchant finds that "English is a subject of study in aU the schools visited," and he considers "that the children who leave the third and fourth forms of certain schools are acquiring the power to speak, to read, and to write English." Surely this shows that the bilingual system is not inherently and necessarily bad, and also that a thoroughgoing policy of encourage ment and support on the part of the Government would have gone far toward remedying the existing evils and putting the inefficient schools on a better basis. However, it was obvious that the con ditions revealed by the investigation had to be remedied. In meetings all over the Province, members of the Orange Order reiterated their slogan of "one language and that English," and were loud in their insistence upon the abolition of bilin- 52 Bridging the Chasm gualism in the schools of Ontario. Under these exhortations and with the acquies cence of the majority in the Province, who, though nursing no enmity toward their French-speaking neighbours, and opposed at heart to anything savouring of injustice or persecution, nevertheless were convinced too easily by a phrase, the Government issued its mandate. Regula tion 17, to the bilingual schools. Let us look briefly at one or two of the more important provisions of this trouble some regulation which precipitated such a bitter contioversy on its promulgation and which has no doubt been one of the chief contiibutory causes of our acute racial troubles of the past few years.* In Section 3 of the regulation in its pre sent, amended form (which dates from 1913), we read as foUows : 3 . Subject, in the case of each school, to the direction and approval of the Chief Inspector, the foUowing modifi- * For the complete text of Regulation 17 see Appendix. The Language Dispute 53 cations shall also be made in the course of study of the Public and Separate Schools : the use of french for instruction and communication (1) Where necessary in the case of French-speaking pupils, French may be used as the language of instruction and communication ; but such use of French shall not be continued beyond Form I, excepting that, on the approval of the Chief Inspector, it may also be used as the language of instruction and communication in the case of pupils beyond Form I who are unable to speak and understand the English language. In other words, the use of the French language as a medium of instruction and communication is prohibited except where the child is not sufficiently familiar with English to receive instruction in that language. In that case the French lan guage may be used, such use of French, however, not to continue beyond the 54 Bridging the Chasm second school year except by special per mission of the Chief Inspector. Section 3 thus meant a fundamental change in the character of the bilingual schools. In deed, with the promulgation of Regula tion 17 truly "bilingual" schools ceased to exist, and thus was annuUed the weU- established titie of the French-speaking minority in our province to a reasonable proportion of their education in their mother tongue. It made no difference that through a long period of years pre vious and subsequent to Confederation this title had been recognized by the educational authorities of the Province. Where formerly a predominantiy French- speaking community in Ontario had en joyed the right to have its chUdren spend their school years in an. atmosphere that was partly French, such a community now found its school suddenly changed into what is really an institution for the trans formation, as rapidly as possible, of young French-Canadians into young Anglo- The Language Dispute 55 Saxons. Is it surprising that our French- speaking neighbours felt bitter ? Another extiact from the regulation. We quote from Section 4 : FRENCH AS A SUBJECT OF STUDY IN PUBLIC AISTD SEPARATE SCHOOLS 4. In schools where French has hitherto been a subject of study, the Public or the Separate School Board, as the case may be, may provide, under the foUowing conditions, for instiuction in French Reading, Grammar, and Composition in Forms I to IV [see also provision for Form V in Public School Regulation 14 (5)] in addition to the subjects prescribed for the Public and Separate Schools .: (1) Such instruction in French may be taken only by pupils whose parents or guardians direct that they shall do so, and may, notwithstanding 3 (1) above, be given in the French language. (2) Such instruction in French shaU not interfere with the adequacy of the instruction in English, and the pro- 56 Bridging the Chasm vision for such instruction in French in the time-table of the school shaU be subject to the approval and direction of the Chief Inspector and shaU not in any day exceed one hour in each class-room, except where the time is increased upon the order of the Chief Inspector. In brief, the amount of time that the French-Canadian child may devote to the study of its mother tongue is limited to one hour a day, except by special order of the Chief Inspector. The Chief Inspector may, however, if he deems it necessary, limit the time to be devoted to French study to five minutes or even to one minute per day. Beyond the child's second school year the maxi mum amount of time available for French in any form thus becomes an hour a day, the rest of the school-time in the child's formative years being devoted to adapt ing his thought-processes to a language alien to that for which both heredity and his early environment have fitted him The Language Dispute 57 and which for him is the natural medium of expression and the most efficient medium of instruction. At a stroke the history of bUingual schools in Ontario is brought to an end and restrictions placed on the use of French that one cannot, by any strain of the imagination, look upon as anything but the beginning of the end of that language in our province. Does any one believe that, with four- fifths of the French child's school-time spent in thinking in English, the result will not inevitably be a gradual angliciza tion of the communities concerned ? In what state of preservation would the English-speaking people of Ontario expect to maintain their own language were its use in the schools restricted to an hour a day? Coolly, and with all the delibera tion and precision of officialdom, the regulation sounds, in fact, the death-knell of the French tongue in our province, and thus the language of the first settlers in this part of the country,, and the language 58 Bridging the Chasm of our first schools, is classed with Ger man, Portuguese, and Kurdish, as a "foreign" tongue and one that need no longer look for a home on Ontario soil. Can one wonder that the regulation came as a bolt from the blue to our French neighbours ? Language is at the very heart of life, and when one's mother tongue is at stake the issue becomes one of much more than academic interest. It becomes an issue of vital and supreme concern. The relinquishment, or par tial relinquishmeht, of one's maternal tongue means, in a very real sense, a break with the past, the forgetting of the old ways of thinking and the sacred associations that cling about these memo ries, and the adjustment of one's mental processes to new and alien forms of thought. Such a contingency is happily for us Canadians of English speech very far removed from the probable. But should this render us less careful to see that our neighbours of another race are The Language Dispute 59 spared any needless sacrifice of this kind ? The writer is of those who believe that the framers of Regulation 17 acted in good faith. He believes that they were actuated solely by the motive they professed, namely, their desire for greater efficiency and more thorough English teaching in the schools concerned. There is, however, a phrase in the regulation which is not easy to reconcUe with this view and which not a few English-Cana dians who have occasion, from time to time, to meet French-Canadians face to face, heartUy wish had not been included. We refer to the words, "In schools where French has hitherto been a subject of study," in Section 4, quoted above, by which, of course, the study of French in any new schools that may be established after 1913, is prohibited. If this means anything it means that we are not wiUing to concede to the minority the just fruits of natural growth and extension of population, and that French primary 60 Bridging the Chasm education is looked upon as a thing so odious as to be merely tolerated as far as it has gone, but on no account to be allowed to develop or extend further. The French-Canadian pioneer who, in the future, comes into our Northland to break the soil, does so at the cost of his language. Had the framers of Confederation foreseen certain conditions that were soon to arise, they would certainly have anti cipated them and made ample provision for them. But it was not possible to create a perfect constitution, and un wittingly they bequeathed to later genera tions an abundant heritage of problems, problems which have served to keep us pretty well occupied ever since and have proved a happy hunting-ground for the more bellicose on both sides. Ethnic boundaries and race movements exhibit a supreme indifference to man's artificial divisions and the red and green areas of the map. At the time of Confederation The Language Dispute 61 the language question in Ontario was of much less importance than it is to-day. Whereas in 1867 there were only some 50,000 French-Canadians in Ontario and 150,000 in all Canada outside the Pro vince of Quebec, there are now 250,000 of them in Ontario alone and twice that number outside of Quebec. Now the Frenchman who happens to be Uving on the west bank of the Ottawa is no less anxious to preserve the forms and usages of his preference than is his compatriot to the east of the river. And thereby hangs a tale. Of the 250,000 French- Canadians in Ontario some 175,000 live in the eastern counties and northern dis tiicts of the Province, and in Essex and Kent, in settiements to a large extent French in character, and it is chiefly these that the regulation of 1912 concerns. Allowing as nearly as possible for those English-French schools — chiefly in Essex and Kent— that, previous to the issuance of Regulation 17, had become practically 62 Bridging the Chasm English schools, probably more than 20,000 French pupils in the primary schools of the Province are directiy affected by the regulation, which con verted their formerly biUngual schools into what are virtuaUy English institu tions and has thus deprived them of their right to an education in harmony with the genius of their race. In defence of the regulation it has been said over and over again that "every Ontario child must receive an adequate training in the EngUsh language." With this exceUent principle there can be no quarrel. The French-Canadians themselves are alive to the importance of an English training, and certainly have no desire to see their children handicapped for lack of it. All they have contended for is an equal status for the two languages. Quite recentiy, in an admirable letter addressed to the school chUdren of his diocese. Bishop Emard of Valleyfield, Quebec, very stiongly emphasized the importance The Language Dispute 63 of their learning English. Hon. N. A. Belcourt has said : " AU Canadians of French origin, with no exception, desire and intend that all their chUdren shall acquire at least a working knowledge of the language of the majority. But we are equally deter mined that they shaU also learn, and pre serve, the language of our forefathers, because that beautiful language was the only one spoken, besides the Indian dialects, on the greater part of this northem hemisphere for a century and a haU, and in it was written the history, unparaUeled for single-mindedness, heroic endeavour and brilUant achievement, of French civUization and Christian evan gelization oh this continent. It is our language, part of ourselves, and of our very souls. We know that with it we are better off, better equipped for the duties and pleasures of life ; its use hinders, molests, or interferes with no right or privilege of others ; we beUeve 64 Bridging the Chasm that it is our inalienable right to have our money for educational purposes spent as we deem best for our chUdren ; and we know that we should, and would, deserve and receive the contempt of our right- thinking and enUghtened co-citizens if we abandoned our mother tongue." With the insistence of our educational authorities upon an adequate English tiaining for every Ontario school child, certainly no fault can be found. One cannot, however, avoid the conviction that, if our Education Department had been as anxious and as careful to respect the linguistic preferences of a considerable section of Ontario people as it was to provide that every child should receive a good education in English, it could have arrived at a much more equitable solution of the difficulty. The Department started out by insisting on an adequate EngUsh training for aU, but unfortunately it got little further. The problem, largely one of securing competent teachers, should The Language Dispute 65 not be an insurmountable one when such things as racial harmony and national unity are at stake. Equitable biUngual systems are found to be practicable in other parts of the Empire. Why should the problem be insoluble in Ontario ? With aU the resources at their command, it is regrettable that, instead of the negative policy adopted, the authorities concerned did not seek a solution of the difficulty by extending and developing the system they had previously seen fit to recognize and to encourage in the schools of the Province. Would not the provision of Normal facilities for the training of bilingual teachers, such as obtains, for example, in Nova Scotia, be a step toward the solution of the problem ? The point of view of the Ontario educa tional authorities has at times been very difficult to understand. As far as one can judge, those responsible for the changes of 1912 suffer no qualms of con science whatever ; indeed, they ap- 66 Bridging the Chasm parently believe their policy to have been a most tolerant one. Yet some of us, at least, fail to be convinced of its justice and find it difficult to discern in it the spirit of the Quebec Act and of Con federation. It stands to the eternal credit of British statesmanship that the prefer ences of the 60,000 colonists were re spected at the time of the Conquest. Why should it not be equaUy right to respect the wishes of several times that number to-day ? We are not living under a new code of justice. Is it not reasonable that in large and predomi nantly French sections, whether situated inside or outside the Province of Quebec, French-Canadians, the pioneer Cana dians, should be accorded the privilege — or should we not say the right — that the rest of us everywhere assume for ourselves as a matter of course, that of retaining the language and tiaditions of one's own race ? In the Province of Quebec, with The Language Dispute 67 an English-speaking population of 350,000, EngUsh-speaking communities enjoy per fect freedom in regard to English schools. But somehow the rule fails to work the other way. Heads I win, taUs you lose. It would seem that a French distiict in Ontario has no right to remain really French, but that we are willing to allow it to hold on to what French it can with its schools practicaUy English ! The position is absurd. Where is the young Ontario Frenchman to receive a systema tic and adequate education in the lan guage and literature of his people if not in his school ? Certainly not in the high schools of the Province as at present con stituted. It is true that in many French com munities the school is the only place where the French-speaking child may acquire a knowledge of English, but it is also a well-known fact that, with efficient teaching, the French-Canadian child ac quires a working knowledge of English 68 Bridging the Chasm with facility and in a comparatively short time, whereas the acquirement of proficiency in French is a long and diffi cult process. The greater problem, for him, is the mastery of his own language. Dr. Merchant admits that, with teachers properly equipped to teach both lan guages, it would be possible to give greater prominence to French and at the same time to impart an adequate training in English. Should it not be possible, then, with a better trained biUngual staff, to make a more equitable apportion ment of the two languages in the curri culum without in any way endangering the efficiency of the English teaching ? Is any effort directed toward the pro vision of such machinery too great ? And apart altogether from the question of minority rights and minority sensibilities, is the policy of anglicizing considerable portions of French Canada after all a natural or a prudent one ? Is it not reasonable to expect that the young The Language Dispute 69 French-Canadian will achieve his highest and best and make his greatest contribu tion to our national life through the medium of the language of his home and of his earliest years ? But how, under present conditions in Ontario, can we expect the French tongue to live and develop normally and be a vital force in the life of the people ? Unless one allies oneseU with those who favour the annihUation of French-Canadian nation ality, one must admit that the French of Ontario have a moral right to remain French in an adequate sense of the word ; we do not want half-Frenchmen amongst us ; yet the present regulations and the present policy, if maintained, can have but one result, the gradual disintegration of the French language in this province into something a great deal worse than the worst the Ontarian has ever imagined Quebec French to be. Let us frankly adopt one policy or the other. If the principle of aUowing a French district to 70 Bridging the Chasm remain French is wrong in the Great Lakes region, why is it not equally wrong in the St. Lawrence VaUey ? Why not take steps toward the limitation of the use of the French tongue down there as weU ? Surely it is not merely because the Constitution stands in the way, that we have not aheady taken this step. In defence of their position, and as their justification, the apologists for this slow-death policy point, of course, to the British North America Act, with its section giving the provinces jurisdiction over educational matters. Such an argu ment is simply pathetic. He who is driven, in self-defence, to point to the presence or absence of certain provisions in a statute, is maintaining a losing cause. WotUd it not be a wholesome exercise for us occasionaUy to consider the spirit as weU as the letter of our Constitution ? The real intention of its master architect in regard to the question under discussion The Language Dispute 71 may be seen from the following utterance of Sir John A. Macdonald : "I have no accord with the desire expressed in some quarters that by any mode whatever there should be an at tempt made to oppress the one language or to render it inferior to the other ; I beUeve that woiUd be impossible if it were tried and it would be f bolish and wicked if it were possible. The statement that has been made so often that this is a conquered couiitry is d propos de rien. Whether it was conquered or ceded, we have a constitution under which all British subjects are in a position of abso lute equaUty, having rights of every kind, of language, of religion, of property, and of person. There is no paramount race in this country, there is no conquered race in this country, we are all British subjects, and those who are not English are none the less British subjects on that account." At the bottom of the whole trouble in 72 Bridging the Chasm Ontario is there not a reluctance to recog nize the extent to which our province is really French, a too great wilUngness to let a language for which there is no special love suffer in favour of a uniformity which is at once convenient and in comfortable agreement with the prevailing sentiment ? How enviable a record if the majority and dominant race could have avoided the suspicion of turning its greater power and prestige to its own advantage ! But it seems all too likely that we have not entirely escaped such a rebuke. One had hoped at one time, from official explanations, that the "hitherto" clause of Regulation 17 was a dead letter ; but its spirit seems still to be marching on. The Windsor school case is not reassuring. Is there not too much of the "hitherto" attitude in the dealings of the majority with the minority in this country, an aU too evident wiUingness to render breath ing difficult by the screws of "gentle but firm" restriction ? In effect the attitude The Language Dispute 73 of English to French Canada might be expressed as foUows : "We have ceded you one province as your special preserve, and we shall con tent ourselves with the remaining eight provinces and the territorial districts, including aU lands hitherto unorganized or unexplored ; in these our own lan guage and institutions are to be the normal and established ones, and should we, at any time, care to come into your territory, we shall, of course, be free to do so, bringing with us our customs and institutions ; whUe, in the event of your coming into our territory, you will doubt less be wUUng and glad to renounce your special rights in exchange for the privilege of being amongst us. We hope and trust you will rejoice in this arrangement, which wiU, we beUeve, serve but further to cement the bond of good fellowship already existing between us. For we are anxious that you, who were, in fact, the first to explore and settle in this country. 74 Bridging the Chasm should feel at home here equally with ourselves, and should even enjoy an honoured place at the national hearth." Our Quebec fellow countrymen are not Indians. The principle of virtuaUy penning up in one-fifth of the country the people who were the first to settle in and civiUze it, would be difficult even for a professor of moral philosophy to defend. Yet we do not seem to have suffered any great remorse for adopting this attitude. After the Privy CouncU had delivered its decision respecting Regulation 17 one did not observe any conspicuous shedding of tears on our part, out of sympathy with our French-Canadian countrymen in their dejection ; rather did we manifest a lively sense of weU-being, a serenity and poise verging on magnanimity, with de clarations that "there must be no in fringement of the rights guaranteed them by the Constitution." Perhaps, in spite of the gloominess of the situation, our neighbours enjoyed a Uttle quiet humour at our expense. The Language Dispute 75 Most of us are quite convinced of the reality of "British fair play." Bishop Plessis, in his time, was loud in his praise of British justice and the benefits of British rule. But how many believe that Bishop Plessis, were he alive to-day, would spend any time in singing the praises of the Ontario Education Depart ment ? Has not, in fact, our vaunted fair play come to grief here in Ontario in the twentieth century ? The request of the French-Canadians for an equitable teaching of their language is so reasonable and its refusal so out of harmony with John BuU's spirit that one almost won ders at times whether, after aU, it is really in Ontario that these things have taken place. We do not believe that the policy that has been adopted represents the real wishes of the majority in this province. The principle of individuaUsm was never so thoroughly recognized as it is to-day, and the civilized world was never before so careful to put it into practice. 76 Bridging the Chasm In the strenuous disputes through which we have been passing, one has fre quently heard the declaration that "Ontario must remain an English-speak ing province." In our English ears this, somehow, has a good ring. Sometimes it almost sounds righteous. But, after all, is it an attitude we can be quite proud of ? It manifests little consideration for the quarter of a million Ontarians whose blood is French. Indeed, justice and fair play are by no means its conspicuous ingredients. One wonders whether the people who champion this policy would stick to it no matter what change took place in the relative proportions of the two races in the Province. Are we sure that our twentieth-century Ontario is quite as free from the taint of certain systems and methods recently popular in Cential Europe as we like to believe ? Which policy is apt to make the better reading for the generations of the future, a negative policy of discouragement and The Language Dispute 77 slow but sure suppression, or a policy of toleration ? Would that the spirit mani fest in the following words of the late Sir George W. Ross were a little more in evidence at times in Queen's Park : "In an experience of sixteen years as Minister of Education, I was brought into close contact with the French population of Ontario, as well as with their clergy and bishops, and while all desired and were even anxious that every French child should learn English, they were equaUy anxious that the children should have competent teachers. This request ap peared to me quite reasonable and just to the children of French origin. Par liamentary practice sanctions the use of both languages where French and English meet on a common basis. Racial in stincts add to this sanction. Every sound principle of pedagogy confirms its desirability where both languages are of more than local utility. Let not the old adage be forgotten : 'One man may 78 Bridging the Chasm bring a horse to water, but ten men can not make him drink.' " The Anglo-Saxon, best-intentioned of mortals though he may be, is neverthe less imbued with sufficient race prejudice to blind him at times to the reasonable ness of the demands of another nationality. There are innumerable good people amongst us who, snug in the unrestricted enjoyment of their own language and usages, feel that such a sUght incon venience to another race as the loss of certain language rights should hardly be made a subject of protest. For is not, after aU, our EngUsh tongue the clearest and most comprehensible of aU languages and that of the French-Canadians but an uninteUigible jargon ? These good folk honestiy believe that the vast superiority of English speech and civiUzation war rants us in imposing our language on the French-Canadians. Indeed, they con sider it almost a righteous act ; for are we not giving them something much The Language Dispute 79 better than they had before, and leading them up the last step toward the per fectiy civUized state ? They should there fore recognize the fact that these recent changes have been intended for their benefit ; it is very ungrateful on then- part to show so Uttle appreciation, and very inconsiderate of them to raise such a tumult about nothing. Is there not in our race something of the gentie art of oppressing magnani mously ? It would be an interesting and Uluminating experiment, were it possible to reverse the present proportion of the two races in Ontario and have a " Regula tion 17" promulgated by a predomi nantly French provincial government. Let us imagine this actuaUy to have taken place. By substituting "French" for "English" and vice versa, wherever these words occur n the present regula tion, one can arrive approximately at the wording of the new regulation. Let us 80 Bridging the Chasm consider Section 3, or a portion of it, in the revised version : 3. Subject, in the case of each school, to the direction and approval of the Chief Inspector, the foUowing modifications shall also be made in the course of study of the Public and Separate Schools : the use of English for instruction and communication (1) Where necessary in the case of English-speaking pupils, English may be used as the language of instruction and communication ; but such use of English shaU not be continued beyond Form I, excepting that, on the approval of the Chief Inspector, it may also be used as the language of instruction and communication in the case of pupils beyond Form I who are unable to speak and understand the French lan guage. With what sort of sentiments would an English-speaking minority receive such an edict ? Would they be likely to sub- The Language Dispute 81 mit passively ? But let us have another glimpse at this legislative gem. Let us contemplate it in aU its beauty. We quote from Section 4 : ENGLISH AS A SUBJECT OF STUDY IN PUBLIC AND SEPARATE SCHOOLS 4. In schools where EngUsh has hitherto been a subject of study, the PubUc or the Separate School Board, as the case may be, may provide, under the foUowing conditions, for instruc tion in EngUsh Reading, Grammar, and Composition in Forms I to IV [see also provision for Form V in Public School Regulation 14 (5)] in addition to the subjects prescribed for the Public and Separate Schools : (1) Such instruction in EngUsh may be taken only by pupUs whose parents or guardians direct that they shaU do so, and may, notwithstanding 3 (1) above, be given in the EngUsh language. (2) Such instruction in EngUsh shall not interfere with the adequacy of the instruction in French, and tiie provision for such instruction in EngUsh in the 82 Bridging the Chasm time-table of the school shaU be subject to the approval and direction of the Chief Inspector and shaU not in any day exceed one hour in each class-room, except where the time is increased upon the order of the Chief Inspector. Under circumstances such as these the EngUsh minority would, of course, cheerfuUy and without protest, acquiesce in the new law and freely admit that they had, after aU, scarcely had any justi fication, all along, for maintaining EngUsh schools ! Were such linguistic restiic- tions appUed to-day to the EngUsh- speaking minority of Quebec Province, the result would be — armed intervention, U necessaiy,of EngUsh-Canadians through out the country. The difference be tween the present situation in Ontario and the supposed one in Quebec, is that, in a resort to physical force, we should probably be successful and they would probably faU. But there the difference ends. In so far as the painfulness of such The Language Dispute 83 linguistic restriction is concerned, there is not one whit of difference. Are not our one-language enthusiasts who insist so emphaticaUy upon English and English alone, after aU more English than the EngUsh ? Had they not better revise their conception of John BuU and his Empire ? An Empire in which the Welsh, the French of Jersey, the natives of Malta, and the Sikhs of the plains of the Punjab are equaUy at home and equaUy respected in their language rights, is surely great enough to accord the fuUest toleration in this respect toward the pioneer settiers of the Empire's premier colony. The Boers, who, a few years ago, were doing their utmost to break the British power in South Africa, now enjoy complete autonomy in the matter of education and language, yet we seem to begrudge the minority in Canada their enjo)anent of the same rights, and every now and then deem it our duty to make stiU stiicter our interpretation of 84 Bridgestg the Chasm the law which bears on this question. The writer would respectfully suggest that we forget, for a whUe, our slogan that "Ontario must remain an English province," and that we try a new one, for example, "Fair play for EngUsh and French in Ontario." If, after a fair tiial, we should regret having made the change, if we should become ashamed of our new attitude toward our neighbours and should acclaim the old shibboleth as ethicaUy the higher, he wiU cheerfuUy admit his error. At this juncture our critical friend interjects, with his customary assurance, that aU this is beside the question ; that Canada is primarUy an English-speaking country ; that its destiny is British ; and that there is no getting away from these facts. It is true that Canada is a British country, and predominantiy English- speaking ; and it is right that its insti tutions should be correspondingly British in character. With this there can be no The Language Dispute 85 quarrel. But is not the fact of our country being predominantly British the best of reasons why we should endeavour to have British principles and British fair play prevail ? Our critic, however, is reluctant to consider the country French even to the extent of 25 or 30 per cent, of the population. So he relegates the un desirables to a reserve down somewhere south of the Laurentian Ridge, con- venientiy forgets aU about them, and then, presentiy, writes across the Cana dian map, in large letters, the one word "English." CHAPTER VI IS THERE A FRENCH-CANADIAN MENACE? CHAPTER VI Is There a French-Canadian Menace? According to some persons, as we have aheady pointed out, this whole agitation with regard to the question of language and bUingual schools is but part of a deep-laid plot of French Canada to dominate the Dominion. Indeed, some of our Orange co-citizens manage at times to get quite nervously wrought up over the fecundity of the Quebecquois and the fact that numbers of them have over flowed the boundary of their native province. They view with apprehension the peaceful migration of habitants into the wUds of Northem Ontario to clear the land and open up the countiy for settlethent. They regard the phenome non as ominous. One wonders whether these solicitous persons are sufficientiy aUve to the encroachment of the miUion and a haU French-Canadians to the 89 90 Bridging the Chasm south of the border on the rights and liberties of the American people, or to the menace of the P6ribonka settlements to the civUization of the Labrador plateau ! Is there not something pathetic in the big Province of Ontario getting wrought up over the advent of the good-hearted and industiious Norman who crosses into Timiskaming, grows hay and big pota toes and buUds roads, and whose worst crime is his fideUty to his church ? Would it not be better for the Ontario folks who lie awake nights worrying about this "papal menace," to direct their nervous and mental energy into some more useful channel, such as getting acquainted with their new neighbours and perhaps learning to greet them in their own tongue ? Let us not forget that our neighbours, too, are worrying about a menace, and with better reason than we. When one sees the inroads that the EngUsh influence has made, even in the heart of old Quebec, one is concerned, not A French-Canadian Menace? 91 about a "French menace" to our Anglo- Saxon liberties, but about the possible lUtimate disappearance of the beautiful French tongue from our soil. Let us possess our souls in peace. Even if it came to tiench warfare we stUl outnum ber them three to one, and have most of the ammunition on our side. The fact is, nature is creating a sur plus population in the neighbouring pro vince, and the poor feUows have to go somewhere. If large numbers of them have "invaded" Eastern and Northern On tario, tens of thousands of them have also gone into the Eastern Townships, the Lake St. John VaUey, and other sections of their own province. And even envisaging this "papal menace" in aU its ghastly reaUty, it is difficult to see anything worthy of condemnation in the desire of the Quebecquois to carry his language and usages with him when he says fareweU to the parish of his ancestors and seeks out a new home in the far 92 Bridging the Chasm North or West. Nor can we find fault with the joy of the bishop who adds a new parish to his diocese. There is no reason why these things should be dis cussed with bated breath. The "special rights and privUeges" of the French- Canadians — ^which, according to a few amongst us, have been persistently "wrung" from the majority — ^what are these, after aU, but the recognition of their right, in those parts of the country inhabited largely by themselves, to enjoy the forms and institutions of their pre ference ? If the Quebecquois is sanguine enough to dream of one day becoming dominant, he is sanguine indeed, for he has a discouragingly long way to go to get into that position. We are aheady there, enjoying aU its advantages, and with the chances tiemendously in favour of our continuing to do so indefinitely. MeanwhUe, let the French- Canadian play his part in the development of the country. Some seem to begrudge our A French-Canadian Menace? 93 neighbours their share in this develop ment, and would penaUze them for their greater fecundity the moment they cross the Ottawa. Just what part of the Sermon on the Moimt they base this attitude on has not yet been ascertained. We of the majority are proud in the heritage of half a continent, and rightly so ; we find inspiration in the thought of its Umitiess possibilities. Then why should the people who discovered and explored our Dominion, and whose canoes bore the first civiUzed men over the Great Lakes and into the far Northwest, be con demned for their susceptibUity to a like intoxication and for their desire to share as equals with us in the shaping of our country's history ? Were they meekly to submit, foUow the line of least resis tance, and abandon all effort to conserve their individuality and maintain their position, the majority of English-Cana dians would be heartUy ashamed of them ; probably even the Orangeman, deprived 94 Bridging the Chasm of occupation, would despise his former foe. Perhaps if we had had the oppor tunity to develop some of the ideals and enthusiasms of the French-Canadian in a Uttie more generous measure in ourselves we should be better able to understand and appreciate them in others and assume a more fitting attitude toward them. CHAPTER VII DIVERSE TEMPERAMENTS CHAPTER VII Diverse Temperaments Whatever the cause, or combination of causes, of the race cleavage, and what ever may have been our chief contiibu- tion toward it, the situation, as it exists, has not tended to obscure our more per sonal faiUngs in French-Canadian eyes. Indeed, there is a tiait in our Anglo- Saxon make-up that has probably con tributed not a little toward the estiange- ment. Hamerton, in his comparative study of the French and English, has this to say of his feUow countrymen : "Al though the English ' are said to be a deferential people, and have, no doubt, the habit of deference for certain dis tinctions, they are at the same time an eminently contemptuous people, even within the limits of their own island. Their habit of contempt is tranquil, it is without vaunt and without vanity, but 97 98 Bridging the Chasm it is almost constant, and they dweU with difficulty in that middle or neutral state which neither reverences nor despises." This failing is admitted but not seriously deplored by the Anglo-Saxons themselves. Men of other races are unanimous in their recognition of it. Our Quebec neighbours have not left us in the dark on this point. During the century and a half since we became their neighbours they have given us to understand, on many an occasion, that our vivid sense of racial superiority is no joy to the outsider. But here an interesting question arises. La Roche foucauld, that none too flattering analyst of human nature, once wrote : "If we had no pride, we should not complain of that of others."* Whether or not this is true we leave for the reader to decide by an examination of his own mental pro cesses. If, however, its truth be ac cepted by French-Canadians they must * Si nous n'avions point d'orgeuil, nous ne nous plaindrions pas de celui des autres. Diverse Temperaments 99 admit that the sense of superiority is not aU on the EngUsh side. But it should be remembered that we Anglo-Saxons do not find the French-Canadian pride offen sive. This may, perhaps, be explained by an ultrarefinement, on their part, of the art of concealing pride, or by their lighter temperament and the more so cializing influences of a Continental civUization wliich enable them to con template those of another race with an easy and good-natured indifference that does not offend. Or must we explain the inoffensiveness of French-Canadian pride by a pride so tiemendous on our part as to be beyond fear of challenge ? Whatever the answer to this question, it would seem that the blunt and ingenuous Anglo- Saxon is the chief offender in this matter. There is no doubt that this tempera mental faUing of ours has been one of the greatest stumbling-blocks in the way of a better understanding between our French- speaking countiymen and ourselves. It 100 Bridging the Chasm has entered into and coloured all our rela tions with Quebec. Who will deny that from the time of the Conquest the atti tude of the dominant race toward the original colonists, in spite of occasional fits of sentimental admiration, has been that of superiors towards inferiors ? Whether openly or in a subtle but none the less real and unmistakable form, it has been constant and continuous. Deep- rooted in the constitution of our British Ontarian there is more than a little of the dogma that the foreign is inferior and wrong, more than a little of the tradi tional British prejudice that contemplates another race and complexion and manner and hears the facUe flow of a speech in comprehensible to Anglo-Saxon ears, with a mixture of pity and contempt, chiefly the latter. Moreover, the conditions in which our Ontarian finds himself here in Canada have not tended to discourage this native prejudice. Born and bred in the wealthiest and most populous of Diverse Temperaments lOi our provinces, of an inteUigent and mora,Uy stable Anglo-Saxon stock, en dowed with an eminent sense of personal worth and respectabUity, and blessed with the many advantages of twentieth- century Anglo-Saxon civUization, the EngUsh-speaking Ontarian has grown up in a soU eminently favourable for the development of bumptiousness and pro vincialism. What fraction of EngUsh- Canadians evince any interest or concern in the language or point of view or aspira tions of the French-speaking quarter of their country's population ? How many EngUsh-Canadians are there for whom the term "Canadian" is not, for all practical purposes, synonymous with " EngUsh-Canadian " ? It is probable, then, that, unless one is to share the view of those who insist on our essential blamelessness, two of the most serious obstacles, on our side, to racial amity have been our faUure, in certain instances, to Uve up to what we 102 Bridging the Chasm knew to be the British standard of justice and democracy ; and our ingrained and apparentiy too evident sense of racial superiority. And, in addition, aggravat ing the actual causes of friction, making eavSy the path to misunderstanding, and presenting in itself a serious enough bar rier in the way of real concord, there is the wide gulf between the reUgious ideals of the two peoples. On the one hand, Protestantism, democratic, realistic, modernistic ; and on the other, Roman Catholicism, paternalistic, idealistic, reverencing the past. But there is a further serious difference between the two races. Emerson, in his English Traits, bestows generous praise on the various virtues of John BuU ; eiUogizes his robust common sense, his democracy, practical skiU, enterprise, buU-dog tenacity, love of fair play ; then he proceeds to chastise him for his abnormal love of material things, and speaks of him as " clinging to a corporeal Diverse Temperaments 103 civUization, hating ideas." He com plains that "the bias of EngUshmen to practical skUl has reacted on the national mind. They are incapable of an inutUity, and respect the five mechanic powers even in their song. The voice of their modem muse has a sUght hint of the steam-whistle, and the poem is created as an ornament and finish of their monarchy, and by no means as the bird of a new moming which forgets the past world in the full enjo3rment of that which is forming. They are with diffi culty ideal." And again: "Nothing comes to the bookshops but politics, tiavels, statistics, tabulation, and en gineering ; and even what is caUed philosophy and letters is mechanical in its structure, as if inspiration had ceased, as if no vast hope, no reUgion, no song of joy, no wisdom, no analogy existed any more." Had Emerson been writing of English Canada of the twentieth century he 104 Bridging the Chasm might have said some considerably stionger things than he did about Eng land of the nineteenth. We are reluctant pupUs in the school of idealism. We balk at the broaching of anything savouring overmuch of the ideal. Sentiment is not in favour amongst us and any uncaUed- for manifestation of it we straightway annihilate with our frigidity or our sneers. Let us hope that our present-day over grown fondness of things material is not here to stay, and that it wUl some day work out its own cure. If and when we eventuaUy reach the happy decision that there are other things than what America to-day is most eager about, we shaU find our French-Canadian neighbours and our selves very much nearer together than we are to-day. And is it not equaUy pos sible that time and a Uttie more of the habit of self-examination may lead us to see more clearly the other faults of ours that have stood in the way of better re lations with our feUow countiymen? A Diverse Temperaments 105 littie more wUUngness, now and then, to forget about race, a Uttie more care to see that we do not lapse from the British spirit of fair play in our dealings with the min ority, a broader toleration of religious difference, and an open-mindedness to ideal as distinguished from materiaUstic con siderations — ^with the achievement of these reforms a long step will have been taken toward the better day. CHAPTER VIII UNITY IN DIVERSITY CHAPTER VIII Unity in Diversity There is another reason, besides those aheady discussed, why it would be well for the people of Ontario to reconsider their present position with regard to the language and civilization of French Canada. Are the province and country not actuaUy the losers by the negative attitude that has been adopted toward these things ? Nowadays, when so many influences are making for a dull unifor mity, would it not be wisdom to encourage rather than discourage the differences that already exist ? The slogan of "one language for Canada" has a plausible ring. The one-language system, could it be introduced by a fiat, would without doubt remove one of the greatest barriers to national unity as matters stand to-day. The uniUngual system, too, would remove many existing obstacles in the trade and 109 110 Bridging the Chasm government of the country ; and it would add to convenience in travel. But conformance to one language and to one form of culture is not essential to unity ; on the contiary, there would be con siderably more unity in the country were aU legitimate differences more fully recog nized and allowed freer scope for their development. Indeed, unity is impos sible until we shaU have learned the lesson of unity in diversity and have graduated from our present parochialism into a Canada- wide nationalism. That diversity does not mean weak ness or disunion, and that perfect freedom of self-determination and the utmost diversity of types and civilizations are not incompatible with unity and loyalty to a common ideal, are surely truths abundantly established during the years through which we have just been passing. One of the greatest sources of strength of the British Empire is the looseness of its organization, the Unity in Diversity. ill lack of an iron-bound nUe of unifor mity such as constitutes part of the German ideal. Oh the other hand, were there any attempt to curtaU this freedom and the autonomous rights of the con stituent nations and to force the four hundred miUions of people that make up the British Empire, into one mould, it would require no seer to foreteU the result. Is not the case of the Canadian Confederation an analogous one ? Why should not EngUsh and French Canada each preserve its identity and regulate its life in the way that seems to it best ? Neither wiU be the less Canadian for this. Let each people, while loyal to the national ideal, develop its ciUture and Uve its Ufe in its chosen way. The resultant Canadianism, a federation of peoples of diversified forms of thought and culture, bound together by a funda mental oneness of sentiment, might not please our extiemists, but it would be richer and more fruitful than the 112 Bridging the Chasm uniformity they desire. And is not this diversity, in fact, the spirit and intent of Confederation ? To aU those who would enforce, over an area practi caUy as large as Europe, a conformity to the idioms and thought-forms of a single language, all we can say is that our ideas of world-progress are not the same as theirs. Every now and then lamentations go up in the English-Canadian press because of the failure of Quebec, thus far, to evince more enthusiasm for our form of civUization and because French Canada so persistentiy objects to losing its iden tity in the American melting-pot. If Quebec would but "faU in line" and "accept whole-heartedly her Canadian destiny," we read, "aU other things would be added unto her." By "Cana dian" these writers mean, of course, English-Canadian ; by "church union," "joining my church." Do we not too easUy forget that the first Canadians, Unity est Diversity 113 those who used the word for generations before the rest of us arrived, have equally with ourselves a claim to stand for what is Canadian ? WhUe some of us are pretty thoroughly convinced that Quebec is unduly fearful of change, is it not true that Canada would suffer a distinct loss were Quebec to be made over and her thought and speech and Ufe cast in the prevalent American mould ? Is she not truest to Canada and does she not best serve the Canadian civilization of the future by not too readily renouncing the ideals and traditions which she embodies and represents ? Her conservatism — or her provincialism if one prefers — is one of our best guarantees that Canada, in part at least, wiU remain Canadian. "Progress" is a doubtful word in these days. Let Quebec's be of her own making and not too faithful a copy of current modes. The half-Americanized Latin, Latin in soul and type, but clothed in the iU-fitting garb of an alien utilitarianism and 114 Bridging the Chasm all but wiUing to disown his native tongue, is an unlovely and disappointing product. Let us fervently pray that the Canadian civUization of the future may be some thing more than a mere northem echo of New York or lUinois. WhUe the rest of Canada has become largely American in thought and life, Quebec, more or less isolated, has pre served to a much greater extent a whole- someness and simplicity and idealism, and to-day constitutes a refreshing con trast to the depressing monotony of our over-commercialized existence. The Eng lish-speaking visitor from outside Quebec finds eveiywhere a civiUty, an innate politeness, that are deUghtfuUy and stiangely unUke some of the usages in his own province. He discovers, also, that the good old-fashioned sphit of reverence is much more in evidence in French Canada than among his own people. In Quebec, too, there stUl survives a love of poetry and legend, and a sense of the Unity in Diversity 115 beauty of the mother tongue, and an enthusiasm for its cultivation amounting almost to a religion. Deeply enrooted, too, in the life of the people is a pride in the tiaditions and achievements of their race. In a word, the heart of Quebec is still European. In the quiet of her cloisters there stUl lingers the atmosphere of old Normandy, and in the remote countryside the habitant stiU sings of Malbrouk and Le Pont d' Avignon as did his forefathers, centuries ago, in Northern France. Plain-living, pious, deeply, al most reUgiously attached to his native hearth and soU ; content with the whole some joys ; loyal to the faith he believes the true one, yet not unfriendly toward his neighbour who differs from him and whom, forgetful of differences of race and creed, he receives into his home ; the real French-Canadian exhibits the sociability, courtesy, and hospitality of his race. No smaU part of the prejudice against the French-Canadian is due to his reUgion, 116 Bridging the Chasm a creed which the Protestant English- Canadian has pigeon-holed under some such convenient label as " mediae valism," "superstition," "idolatry." With his more democratic church organizations, his widely diffused libraries, and his weU- organized system of compulsory educa tion, the Ontarian probably feels he has little or nothing to learn from poor, be nighted Quebec. But is his own position quite as impregnable as he thinks it is ? And would not a little more catholicity on his part be decidedly beneficial ? He looks upon the Quebec Church as an aU- powerful, dominating institution, with emphasis on the "dominating." He sees in its organization much more patemaUsm than he has been brought up to accept, He differs radicaUy from that church in certain matters of creed. But if he is fair he must give his Quebec neighbours the credit of putting their church in the first place in their lives. Can he say as much of his own province ? Is the modern Unity in Diversity 117 fondness for a purely secular state, with the church in the distant background or somewhere beyond the horizon, based altogether on considerations of equity and democracy ? Under such pretexts as toleration and " a-proper-place-f or- everything," but in reality under the sinister compulsion of an enthroned secu larism, religion — supposedly the chief concern of us mortals — is practicaUy ignored, even in its "modernized" form, in the schools where the chUdren of Pro testant Ontario spend five days out of every seven ; whUe in the schools of the French-Canadian province this subject occupies a definite and honoured place in the curriculum. The Protestant Canadian would do weU to discard the spectacles through which he has been accustomed to view the religion of his Quebec countrymen. Even the attempt to break with his traditional opinions on this subject would be decidedly salutary. Perhaps it would 118 Bridging the Chasm be too much to expect him to turn aside long enough to appreciate the beauty of the symbolism of the French-Canadian's church and something of its significance. Such a study, however, he would find highly interesting ; and as he reaUzed more clearly the relation of that church to Christian tradition and to the things which he himseU recognizes as the greatest in our civUization, he would be con scious of a changed attitude and a greater respect for the religion of his Quebec neighbours. Unfortunately, there are some amongst us who seem to consider it a duty to dwell continuaUy on religious differences and the aUeged shortcomings of Quebec, and this, too often, not in a sphit Ukely to induce calm considera tion or facilitate a settlement. Would that these critics varied the monotone of their refrain now and then with the notes of brotherliness and tolerance. More human contact with their feUows of the other race and tradition would reduce Unity in Diversity 119 their complaints to a minimum. Our Quebec neighbours are human and fallible, but why dweU continually on their mis takes ? Perhaps a section of the clergy of the lower province, too easily fasci nated by the attractive but dangerous doctiines of extremists, have been led to forget the traditions of the Church in Quebec and the spirit of Briand and Plessis ; but such an attitude on then part, however mistaken, can hardly be used to discredit the institution that they serve, or the French-Canadian people. Let the critics of Quebec not forget that wholesomeness and sincerity are not aU on the Protestant side of the fence. The average Ontarian, fortunately, prefers to look at the greater and fundamental truths and to credit his neighbour with the same virtues to which he himself aspires. He may entertain aU the notions and pre judices of his contemporaries regarding the church of his French-speaking countrymen, but he is at least willing to 120 Bridging the Chasm concede it the virtue of sincerity and to credit it with good works. And behind this instinctive faith in the virtue of that ancient church are the daily lives of a multitude who go about doing good. The old viUage cur6, revered by all, zealous in his devotion to duty, through many years the unthing pastor of his flock, and, by precept and example, pointing the way of piety and right living ; the spiritual heir of those intrepid pioneers of the early days, who faced the perils of a stiange land, and even martyrdom, with the fortitude of a Br6beuf and a Lale- mant: are such as he likely institutors of malevolent machinations or dark con spiracy ? What a blessing if the good people of Ontario could somehow be brought face to face with these genial and kindly leaders of French-Canadian thought and life, whom to meet is to know and admhe. But such a proceeding might upset the grimly slow working of Fate, bring our Unity in Diversity 121 present slap-and-pat, entente-and-anni- hilation process to a too sudden end, and hurry unduly the miUennium. And then no telUng what the penalty ! CHAPTER IX RECENT DISPUTES CHAPTER IX Recent Disputes The period through which we have been passing in Canada has been ex tiemely critical. But our tribulations wUl not have been in vain if we are wiUing to heed the warning that some thing must be done. We may, if we choose, continue our policy of laissez- faire and lapse ever and anon into those orgies of vilification and abuse that have almost become a Canadian institution. In that case matters will go from bad to worse and an ultimate rapprochement be tween the two peoples wiU become well- nigh impossible. Or we can right about face, resolve to remedy, as far as possible, whatever there is of error and mistaken attitude on our side, and witness the steady growth of a spirit of friendship between English and French in Canada. The situation arising from the war 125 126 Bridging the Chasm has been exceedingly gratifying to those who thrive on racial misunderstandings, and they have taken full advantage of the opportunity it afforded. However unfortunate the lack of a better compre hension and more complete co-operation between the two sections o£ the country, the attitude adopted here in Ontario toward the shortcomings of the sister province was hardly of a kind likely to improve matters or faciUtate a return of good feeling. Unfortunately, neither side was very much in the humour for con ciliation or compromise. This spirit was not in the air. Long isolation, traditional race differences, the still fresh memory of what French-Canadians believed a real grievance, and on top of aU this — ^when aU had begun weU — a copious sauce of poUtical bungling and bad management : surely this was a combination sufficient to discourage even the best-intentioned of peoples ! A host of causes had con spired to isolate and estrange Quebec, Recent Disputes 127 causes the responsibiUty for which cannot be laid at the door of Quebec alone ; yet with our customary cheerful self-com placency we proceeded to load practically aU the burden of guilt on that enfant terrible of Confederation ! With fuUer information we in Ontario should have assumed a more tolerant attitude. But the newspapers did not see fit to furnish this. Had we heard more about the average Quebecquois, good citizen and good neighbour, concern ing whom about the worst that can be said is that long isolation has bred in difference — ^had we heard more about these, or about those patriots who did not fear to take the unpopular stand at a time when feeUng ran high, and exhort their fellow citizens to forget their grievances and unite with their country men of the other race, our attitude toward the neighbouring province would have been different. But no ; that would have been too much to hope for ; it was. 128 Bridging the Chasm as a rule, from the most militant section of the Quebec press that the most sen sational passages were continuaUy drawn by enterprising correspondents and tele graphed broadcast through the country. Such misrepresentation did not faU to bear its fruit. Those amongst us who have been inclined to pass harsh judgment on Que bec would do weU to temper their verdict in the thought that the past two or three years are not the whole of Quebec history. The record of the French-Canadians in 1775 and in 1812 is not that of a group of irreconcUables or of a conquered people that has made no progress from a long, hereditary enmity toward a loyal accep tance of the new regime. Indeed, in spite of notions to the contrary we are obstinate enough to believe that Quebec's heart is in the right place, and that, though that province may not be a stionghold of Imperialistic sentiment, it Recent Disputes 129 is nevertheless more Canadian than many of us have believed. French and English are to live to gether in Canada for a long time, and it behooves us to make the best of a situa tion which cannot be changed. One does not look forward with pleasure to an indefinite prolongation of the present state of affairs. It is embarrassing, to say the least. One thing is certain : the country wUl never be saved by those who find their chief joy in the war- whoop and the scalping-knife. The very real value of a chronic animosity as a means of diversion and recreation must be admitted. But campaigns of vilification, however exhilarating to the chief as sailants, are not the most efficient method of bringing about a change of Tieart in the adversary. How much better than a chronic animosity is the prospect of a growing accord between the two races. Unruffled peace between the various factions in our country might, it is true, 130 Bridging the Chasm become intolerable in time ; but let us take the risk. Instead of continuing our disintegrating tactics let us set to work to improve matters. Let us embark on the course that wUl assuredly lead to better things, indeed the only course if Canada is not to remain a house divided against itself. The fact that Quebec bears her share of responsibility is surely no excuse for our neglecting to remedy the faults that are our own ; and surely not even the most inveterate Franco- phobe will claim that we are altogether without sin. Unless and until we are wiUing to do our part toward the removal of the causes of difference can we reason ably expect any real and abiding improve ment in the relations between the two peoples ? A Toronto paper has expressed the hope that "from the tribulation and tiagedy of war our Dominion may become a united nation." Let us hope that this wish may be realized. History leads one Recent Disputes 131 to fear, however, that the opportunity may be lost if the rapprochement, from our side, consists chiefly of magnanimous expressions of good-will and if there is faUure on our part to show a little more readiness to compromise and to prove our professed friendship by our actions. Of late years the negative and the dis integrating principle has been predomi nant in the relations between the two races, and by a cumxUative process it led us to the recent crisis. Let us experi ment and see whether the cumulative principle wUl not work the other way. Let us put our own house in order. Then, perhaps, under the inspiration of our example, our neighbours may undertake a little overhauUng in then own domain. CHAPTER X THE REMEDIES CHAPTER X The Remedies The work of reconstiuction that awaits Canadians is certainly not lacking in quantity. Debris covers the founda tions. The exultant busybodies who for long years have been undermining the props of national unity, have not pursued then nation- wrecking programme in vain. There is now a general attempt to repair the breaches they have made in the national solidarity. But though there is plenty of work to do, the task is not an impossible one. A great deal can usuaUy be accomplished where there is a wiU. A real effort on the part of both peoples would bring rich rewards. But by a real effort we mean something more than the efforts which have been already made. From time to time a loyal few on both sides, blessed with a vision of the larger Canadianism, have, by frank discus- 135 136 Bridging the Chasm sions of the questions involved, been quietly and patiently working for a better understanding. These methods have doubtless contributed not a little to the mitigation of our racial differences ; but they are too circumscribed and inter mittent to be rich with the promise of national unity. Usually set off by a dark racial crisis as background, these fitful gleams of camaraderie have rather served to emphasize their own pathetic inadequacy and the urgent need of a much more thoroughgoing remedy. But could the people, as a whole, be imbued with the enthusiasm and the spirit of toleration manifested by these few, our racial troubles would very soon disappear. The trouble is largely rooted in pro vincialism and ignorance and indifference. One of the penalties of the bigness of our country is that the various groups, largely isolated from one another, dweU in ignorance of their f eUow Canadians a few hundred miles distant, and that this The Remedies 137 ignorance proves a veritable hotbed for the germination of faU 'manner of mis conceptions and prejudices. The prob lem is an educational one. Further inter course would correct most of these mis understandings. We in Ontario, one dares to beUeve, are not quite so bad as some reports emanating from the lower province would indicate. Similarly, if some of our Ontarians who nurse the orthodox Ontario conception of Quebec and the French-Canadian would take their next vacation trip down the St. Lawrence, and, leaving EngUsh hotels and stores and the sight-seeing tram-cars behind them, would wander off into French Quebec, they would make the interesting discovery that the natives of Lower Canada have, like themselves, at tained to more or less of a civiUzed state ; that pea-soup can nourish some solid virtues ; that, indeed, the Quebec parish is moved by very much the same social and moral impulses as govern a Metho- 138 Bridging the Chasm dist community in the southwestern peninsula of Ontario. They would come to the wholesome reaUzation that the French-Canadian's chief joy is not in captiousness and contrariness ; that his life is too happy and contented to be frittered away in disputes. If we enlisted in the cause the most powerful agency that we possess for the moulding of sentiment the results would be as substantial as they would be interest ing. The school, both in EngUsh and French Canada, could be made a potent influence for national unity. The develop ment of a Canadian tiadition that would give due recognition to aU the elements of our national life and culture would be a grand step in the right direction. But alas ! in our teaching of history we in Ontario are, perhaps, not altogether above the jest that we sometimes merrily fling at our neighbours south of the border, who, it is said, fondly look upon the Declaration of Independence and the The Remedies 139 dawn of history as contemporaneous events. In the Ontario schoolroom the portion of our history previous to 1759 is but a necessary prelude, possessing ele ments of romantic interest, it is true, but withal a dark period of tiavail and pre paration, a semi-savage medley of Jesuits and coureurs de bois and war- whoops and fire-water ; the real Canada dawns only with the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. The inculcation of a greater appreciation of the r61e of the French- Canadian in our history would go a long way toward the creation of a better attitude amongst us. This should not be difficult, for the French regime, with its exploration and missionary endeavour, its seigneurs and pioneer settlements and Indian wars, is not the least interesting part of Canadian history. The vanish- ingly smaU space at present devoted to such themes in the Ontario School Readers could weU be increased. If Ontarians would make bold to 140 Bridging the Chasm interest themselves in what is the most cultivated of the world's languages and the key to one of the richest and most interesting of literatures, they would find themselves the gainers. But with practi caUy a whole continent speaking then native tongue, their own language meets aU then linguistic needs ; they have not been compeUed to acquhe another idiom, and so have yielded to what might politely be termed inertia in this respect. Not that one feels certain that the French-Canadians, were they 72 per cent. of the population, would be driven by sheer linguistic enthusiasm or compunc tions of conscience to acquire the lan guage of the minority. We prefer to reserve judgment on this point. But the fact remains, nevertheless, that the Eng Ush-speaking Canadian cuts a sorry figure beside his French-speaking countryman in the matter of linguistic accomplish ments. The great majority of French- Canadians can speak English, yet prob- The Remedies 141 ably not more than ten in a hundred English-Canadians in the Province of Quebec — and these nearly altogether among the English-speaking Quebeckers who have attended the same Catholic schools as the French — ^have a conver sational knowledge of French ; and, of course, in the English provinces the number with this accomplishment is negUgible. Are we English-Canadians not making a mistake in thus neglecting the study of the French language, with the unlimited f acUities we have for such study at our very door ? The committee recently appointed by the British Government to enquire into the position of modem languages in the educational system of Great Britain, after pointing out the habitual neglect of these languages on the part of the British people, stiongly recommend that greater prominence be given to "modems" studies in the schools of the country. And among the modern languages which the 142 Bridging the Chasm committee consider it important for the British people to acquire, the first place is given to French. "French is by far the most important language in the history of modern civUization We are her (France's) debtors above aU other peoples, for England was during four centuries the pupil, and afterwards the enemy and rival, but always in some degree under the influence of France From every point of view French is, for us above aU, the most important of living tongues." If French is of this impor tance to the British people, is it not at least equaUy important to Anglo-Cana dians, who belong to a population one- fourth French ? Unfortunately, our teaching of the French language in Ontario does not get us anywhere. Most of the study and effort expended on it in our high schools is of the dry-as-dust, grammar-and-dic- tionary variety, and, with Anglo-Saxons as the dispensers, is about as much in The Remedies 143 touch with the life and spirit of the French people as was Hannibal or Tig- lath-Pileser L, the net result being, too often, something more or less equivalent to nothing at all. What a joy if the French faculties of our high schools would get beyond their round of trans lations and conjugations and syntax rules and more tianslations, and give their pupils at least a sufficient working knowledge of the French language to enable them to make their wants known in a Parisian restaurant ! The present lamentable state of French teaching in the Province would, without a doubt, be greatly improved by the introduction of this language earlier in the child's school life. Were the pupil given even the rudiments of French in the primary school, while young and more apt at acquiring a new idiom, French letters and the French mentaUty would not be so unconnected in his experience as they now are, and the path to a real 144 Bridging the Chasm understanding and appreciation of the French language would be made easy. In this connection the opinion of a "modems" teacher of long experience in the high schools of Ontario and Quebec may be of interest. Mr. F. G. Millar, lan guage master and principal of the Al monte High School, in a letter to the press in January, 1919, wrote in part as foUows : "Do our high school graduates or even our university graduates speak French fluently and with a correct accent? That is the real touchstone of a successful system of teaching French. I have yet to meet a high school graduate, an honor matriculant, the product of an Ontario high school, who could carry on a con versation about the most commonplace subject. More than that, I have no hesitation in saying that there are very few 'moderns specialists' who can speak French fluently and without a pronounced Anglo-Saxon accent. I will go even The Remedies 145 farther and say that there is no civilized country, with the possible exception of the United States, where the teaching of French is in a more backward condition. We still teach French through the medium of grammar and tianslation, as we teach a dead language. Conversation, instead of being stiessed throughout the whole course, is placed in a subordinate position. It would be quite possible for a pupU to get first-class honors at matricvdation without being able to speak one intel- Ugible word or to understand a simple sentence of spoken French. Teachers who would use reform methods are given no encouragement, are held down to obsolete text-books and are compeUed by the crowded curriculum and by the present examination system, with its stress on tianslation and formal grammar, to stick to the weU-beaten path. "After teaching French and German for close on twenty years in high schools in Ontario and Quebec, I would favor a 146 Bridging the Chasm complete abandonment of the present system and methods, and an adoption of those methods used by the Scandinavians, Germans and French. This would in- ,volve : "(1) The adoption of the 'reform' method : teaching French through the medium of French, learning the grammar only incidentaUy at first, then more for maUy later in the course ; careful atten tion to pronunciation through the medium of the phonetic symbols of the Inter national Phonetic Association. French should be the language of instruction and discipline. " (2) Beginning French in the primary classes of the pubhc school, whUe the imi tative faculty of the chUdren is still stiong. This is done in Quebec and the resiUts are striking. I once heard a French play given by EngUsh-speaking boys in the city of Quebec; most of these boys had learned French at school. The French press gave the production unquaUfied praise. The Remedies 147 " (3) Smaller classes, say, ten to fifteen pupUs, and longer and more frequent lessons. " (4) The modification of the examina tion system to exclude translation alto gether, except in the university ; sub stituting composition in French, of stories, letters and reproductions from the Reader. The Reader itself should contain some distinctively Canadian selections. "(5) A closer contact with Quebec by means of summer schools, exchange of teachers, extension lectures and personally conducted excursions for students and teachers. McGill and Laval Universities could be easUy enlisted in this 'bonne entente' movement. Just here it may be said that Ontario people do not realize that French is the language of one-third of our people, that Quebec French is good French, that it has a rich literature of its own, that its public men, its teachers (except in the rural schools), its scholars and orators, are the equals of any in North America." 148 Bridging the Chasm Of course, even in learning to speak French many an Ontarian would not necessarily connect his study with the. speech of a quarter of his feUow country men. Deep-rooted in this province there is a habit of regarding the French tongue as a thing necessarily remote in space and time. The Ontarian connects it, on general principles, only with a far-off age and country. It is impossible that the French of the textbooks of our youth — the far-away language of poUteness and chivalry and romance — should be at our very door. Moreover, the French-Cana dian peasant is not materially so well off as the Ontario farmer ; hence, the speech of the French-Canadian is but a crude and mongrel product, unworthy of serious attention, and no French is really French except that of overseas writers dead at least three decades, whose writings have been duly approved by the proper authori ties and ultimately embodied in a text book. The Remedies 149 We hasten to assure those who stUl fondly cling to this legend, that the lan guage of the people of Quebec is French ; that they find no difficulty whatever down there in reading the Temps, and the Matin without a dictionary ; that the Revue Canadienne is read and found to be quite inteUigible even on the banks of the Seine ; that, moreover, so much in earnest are they in the neighbouring pro vince about the preservation of this part of then heritage, that they have a legion of societies and an extensive literature devoted whoUy or iu part to the cultiva tion of then native tongue. But, says someone, the written lan guage of Quebec is one thing and its speech is another ; what you say regard ing their literature may be quite true, but everybody knows that the speech of Quebec is a patois and very far from being Parisian French. This criticism has an old and famiUar ring. In fact, it is hoary with antiquity. To those who 150 Bridging the Chasm find pleasure in the disparagement of our French-speaking countrymen it affords a welcome argument. It would be in teresting to know what fraction of those who thus criticize the speech of Quebec could enquire their way of a policeman in French in the streets of Montieal or of some city that they would admit is French. And have these critics, we won der, who are so ready to find fault with Quebec, ever reaUzed to what extent spoken English differs from written in their own province ? Does not our Canadian English, with its lax constmc- tions, its careless pronunciation, and its wholesale use of Americanisms, seem crude in the eyes of overseas visitors ? Linguistic sins are not pecuUar to Quebec. Moreover, Quebec is not so black a sinner in this respect as is generaUy believed, and does not suffer by comparison with Ontario. Here is what M. Eugene R6villaud, a French writer with an intimate knowledge of Canada and the The Remedies 151 author of an exhaustive work on the his tory of our country, has to say concerning the French-Canadian speech : " The lan guage of cultivated society does not differ from that spoken in polite society in our country and it is better protected from the inroads of Parisian slang As for the common people, it seemed to me that, on the whole, they speak more correct French than do most of our peasants The speech of the French- Canadians seemed to me to be extremely free of accent." M. Xavier Marmier of the French Academy wrote in 1866 : "In Canada they have preserved, in the use of our language, that elegance, that sort of atticism peculiar to the great period of French letters. Even the common people speak it quite correctly and have no patois." Mr. Benjamin Suite, in his book La langue frangaise en Canada, takes up the cudgels in defence of the language of his people against the charge that it is a 152 Bridging the Chasm patois or degenerate French, and in con firmation of his position he quotes, among others, the Rev. James Roy, an EngUsh scholar who, during a prolonged stay in Canada, made a close study of the French-Canadian speech. Rev. Mr. Roy says in part : "From the phUolo- gical point of view Canadian French is purer than that of Paris. It can be seen, both from comparative forms of speech and from pronunciation, that Canadian French is not a corruption of the Parisian form. If the Canadian idiom is not always grammatical it is rather because of a change of opinion on the part of the grammarians of France than a result of changes that have taken place in Canada." That there are shortcomings in the Quebec speech, none know better than the Quebecquois themselves. It would seem that, in the more populous centres, it is chiefly the corrupting influence of the Anglo-Saxon that they have to fear ! The Remedies 153 Indeed, a study of the speech of Quebec has shown that nine-tenths of the faulty expressions used in that province are "angUcisms" incorporated in the lan guage because of the close contact of the two peoples. As for the habitant, it is true that he is not famed as a master of the beau langage. Isolated, and un blessed with any superabundance of edu cation in the modem tongue, the French- Canadian peasant has preserved in his speech certain dialectic forms common to a large part of Northem France in the seventeenth century, forms which at that time were correct. Concerning this phase of the language of the French- Canadians, M. F. Labori, the great French lawyer, wrote, in 1914, after a sojourn of several months in Canada : " The disdain which many English and Americans have for the French speech of our Canadian brothers is very amusing. The French language in Canada is dis tinguished by a quite marked local accent 154 Bridging the Chasm which is neithei: that of Normandy nor of Picardy, nor of Champagne or Poitou, but which contains elements from aU of them. But nothing is more authentically French than this deUghtful language which has been religiously preserved by the descendants of the first colonists. Doubtless some modern expressions trans lated from the English, and some pecu liarities of pronunciation, mar it some what for us, but the effect of the whole is charming and most attractive, especially for a Frenchman. In a sense the lan guage of the French-Canadians, with its archaic elements, its suggestion of the rustic, which it has derived, without appreciable alteration, from the French- Canadian forefathers many of whom came from our provinces, is perhaps more truly French than even the language of the boulevards." The speech of rural Quebec, then, is not so hopeless as it is sometimes sup posed to be. Its crudities — ^which inci- The Remedies 155 dentally provide an interesting fleld for the philologist — are objectionable chiefly to those who know nothing of the lan guage. Moreover, as far as one can learn, the people of Quebec are not losing sleep over the fact that their lan guage does not answer perfectly to the Ontario touchstone of "Parisian French." They are apparently in no special hurry to amend it in order to satisfy the lin guistic sensibilities of the rest of us. In fact, they have practically decided to remain archaists. They have made up their minds to preserve and develop, as far as possible, in then speech and litera ture, the flavour of old Normandy and Poitou and Saintonge, and the elements that have come into their language during three hundred years of life on Canadian soil, at the same time waging war on the host of pathogenic enemies of the Gallic idiom that have their habitat in America. A powerful movement, emanating from coUeges, convents, and Uterary societies. 156 Bridging the Chasm is at work combating carelessness of speech ; there is no dearth of enthusiasm ; and, unless aU signs faU, the not distant future wUl see the disappearance of the more serious shortcomings, possibly a sufficient reformation to satisfy even the fastidious Anglo-Canadian critics of that language ! Is it not time that we in Ontario revised our conception of the language of Quebec? It is surely not by chance that twelve works of French-Canadian writers have been crowned by the French Aca demy and that a score of orators of the neighbouring province have won the commendation of Parisians. Pro fessor Squair has said : " When we come to consider the situation of lan guage study in Canada we are struck by the fact that our students have rarely profited by the accessibility of con siderable groups of non-English people from whom they might have learned many things about language. Unfor- The Remedies 157 tunately, arrogant forms of prejudice have taken root amongst us, which have told us that fellow-Canadians did not speak good French, good German, or the like, and that nothing but the very best was good enough for us. Would that our students did not Usten to such sugges tions ! They might go to Quebec and take lessons in French, with great profit. French-speaking students, although they need intercourse with us less than we need it with them, often come to us and take courses in engineering, law, or medicine. May more of our English- speaking students learn to reciprocate !" Perhaps the prestige of the French tongue is destined to wane on this con tinent. If so, let us not be guUty of accelerating the process. America will not be improved by the disappearance of the French language and culture. Let us rather aUow that language to influence and enrich Canada's speech as far as possible. Much could be achieved in 158 Bridging the CiiASM this respect if we were wiUing to make at least a feeble attempt in the direction of biluigualism. If our educational insti tutions gave systematic encouragement to the acquhement of both French and English they would exert a powerful influence toward this end, besides increas ing the interest and attiactiveness of then own courses. Professor Squah has ex pressed the belief that "if to-day we had in Ontario as many English-Canadians who spoke French as there are French- Canadians in Quebec who speak EngUsh, our racial troubles would vanish into thin air." FinaUy, if the powerful influence of the press, too often a lively agent of dis ruption, were exerted consistentiy and continuously in favour of a better under standing, how long would it take to effect a mighty change in popular sentiment ? Some of the past efforts of our press in this direction have been pathetic. There is an unfortunate custom among the The Remedies 159 newspapers of English Canada that should be dropped, and the sooner the better. In the wake of every political, forensic, or other conflict with the minority in which we have come out the victors, there have appeared in our press, with unfailing- regularity, a profusion of eulogies of the neighbouring province, and magnanimous declarations of our desire for a better understanding. These effusions are pen ned by buoyant editorial writers with their tongue in then cheek, apparentiy with the motive of assuring our neighbours that we bear them no iU-wiU for their defeat and that we are wUling to forget it if they are. But such statements deceive no one and must cause not a little merriment or disgust in the province which they are reeled off to concUiate. One would fain tieat these genial humorists in the manner in which Max Nordau deals with a certain fashionable class of pessimists — poke them in the ribs, after the French fashion, and say to them, "Naughty 160 Bridging the Chasm joker !" Since, the last of these out breaks, following the enforcement of the MUitary Service Act in Quebec and else where, things have been comparatively quiet. Let us swear an oath to drop this farcical proceeding and never again to mention the word entente until we are quite sure that our record is reasonably proof against criticism and that our holding out of the oUve branch is not merely the ebulUtion of spirit that foUows a victory. The abandonment of the custom would be evidence of sincerity. Our neighbours would, we imagine, much rather have an honest expression of our sentiments, of whatever nature these may be. CHAPTER XI THE OUTLOOK CHAPTER XI The Outlook The French-Canadian, at closer range, is seen to be much less virulent than was at first supposed. If the EnglivSh-Cana- dian could forget some of his precon ceptions and miscpnceptions and look upon Jean Baptiste as a good feUow and one weU worth having in the country, he himself would be the gainer, and some fine moming he would wake up to find Jean and himself much better neighbours. The senescent attitude of mind that per sists in regarding the French-Canadian part of our population as an abnormality, a something constantiy requiring to justify itself and continuing only by virtue of our sufferance, since its ultimate destiny is angUcization — this view ought long ago to have been abandoned. A frank recog nition, by word and deed, that the French-Canadian possesses a Canadian 163 164 Bridging the Chasm citizenship equal with our own, is the contribution we of English speech can make toward the establishment of racial amity. The race of CorneUle and Moliere and Millet and Rodin is in need of no apology, and the EngUsh-Canadian should be proud to have a distinct GaUic element in the civilization of his country. Canada is a big enough place to accom modate other types besides the North Oxford farmer, good fellow though he may be. There is ample room here for both English and French if we can but learn to know one another better. In GaUic eyes we must often seem graceless and unaesthetic beings ; but the French- Canadian would doubtless be wiUing to overlook this defect, indeed he would probably even be glad, with his superior artistic sense, to atone for this lack on our part, if we were but "willing to look at things a little oftener from the other man's viewpoint and remember that Canadianism is something larger than The Outlook 165 any one race or civilization. The spirit of race antagonism dies hard. Let it find vent more and more in a friendly spirit of emulation in the pursuit of the things most worth while. Assuredly the last word in the Canadian race question will be not one of jealousy, suspicion, and abuse, but one of toleration and respect and friendly rivalry. The history of Quebec has not been an altogether happy one. In spite of aU benefactions it cannot be with undiluted joy that she sees an alien race, largely unsympathetic with her ideals, supreme in the land which once was her own, and herself too often in a humiUating secondary rdle. Time and British jus tice, one is sanguine enough to believe, wiU ultimately solve the present trouble some racial questions. Many of Quebec's best friends would like to see a more general diffusion of the benefits of educa tion among the common people. Some of the quaintness and simpUcity of the 166 Bridging the Chasm habitant might perhaps be lost, but one ventures to believe he would not only be as good a French-Canadian, but a better one, for having better educational facili ties at his disposal. A virile stock, ethnicaUy a unit, rich in racial pride and spirit, clearly perceiving and ardently pursuing its ideals, surely we have in such a people the promise of high culture. A Frechette, a Suzor-Cot6, an Abb6 Cas grain, a Philippe H6bert, a Routhier happily fail to conform to the current Ontario notion of French-Canadian pos sibilities. In French Canada to-day there is a rapidly developing native literature that for idealistic devotion to race and traditions is unique in Canada. And history certainly gives evidence that the Roman Catholic Church is, or can be, a sympathetic foster-mother of the arts. WiU not Canada be the richer if the Laurentian Province can resist, in a measine, the forces of continentalism, and build for itself a culture of its own. The Outlook 167 French-Canadian and yet, in the truest sense of the word, Canadian ? Will not the historian of the future record as good whatever we may do to-day to encourage diversity of thought and ideals in our national life ? Surely there is no better gospel than individualism, and none more in harmony with the spirit of the day. There is good reason for optimism. Signs are not wanting that the not distant future wUl witness a distinct improvement in the relations of the two races. Real as are some of the difficulties, they are not insurmountable. The antagonism, which has its habitat largely in the press, is perhaps not so real as many believe. FundamentaUy we are not enemies, even though the Almighty may never have intended us to be bosom friends. In spite of aU happenings, recent and remote, the majority of both peoples harbour no iU-will ; they simply continue to live their separate existences, knowing little about one another and nursing subcon- 168 Bridging the Chasm sciously the usual more or less harmless prejudices regarding people they have never seen. The noise and hubbub here in Ontario have been raised, for the most part, not by those who have lived among the French-Canadians and know them, but by men who seldom, if ever, see a French-Canadian and who live at least a day's run from the nearest calvaire. Time and a greater amount of inter course wiU, without a doubt, remove many of the misunderstandings that exist to-day. A Uttle real effort, on our part, to bridge the chasm, and we should speedily discover that the difficulties are not so formidable as we have beUeved them to be. Were EngUsh-Canadians as careful to live up to the sphit of the Con federation pact as they are to observe the letter, the Canadian miUennium would almost be breaking over the horizon. Our neighbours have then own part of the problem to worry out. Precious though the French-Canadian heritage The Outlook 169 may be, is there not such a thing as identifying it too closely with race and excluslveness ? Could not Quebec, whUe stiU preserving her chosen form of life, identify herself more completely with the interests and activities of the larger Canada ? Would she not be the gainer by so doing ? The old charge of separa tism against French Canada has, per haps, not been without some justification. Yet may there not be another side to this ? Apart from the natmral fear of a minority, of submergence in an alien civilization, may not the Quebec aloof ness have been due, in part, to the long standing and deUberate policy of con fining the French-Canadians, or at least then civilization — ^because of aUeged in feriority — as far as possible within the limits of the Quebec preserve ? Persis tently the defects of our French-speaking countrymen have been magnified and grossly exaggerated and then unques tionable virtues either whoUy ignored or 170 Bridging the Chasm minimized by the press of the English- speaking provinces. After all, are not the tens of thousands of French-Cana dians who have gone into the timber- lands and fisheries of our country and have tilled a large part of Canadian soil, and who have planted considerable and successful colonies throughout Northern and Western Canada — are these not nation-builders in a very real sense of the word ? Is it not likely that, with a better understanding between the two races, there would be manifested in Quebec a spirit of Canadianism and an interest in a larger Canada as real, as general, and as abiding as anjrwhere else in the Domi nion ? Unfortunately, the legitimate and laudable cultivation of French-Canadian individualism has at times been marred by the extremes of utterance and the indefensible teachings of individuals who, carried too far on the wave of then enthu siasm, have done their cause no small The Outlook 171 amount of harm and put stiU further off the day of Canadian unity. However, the folks down by the Laurentides are not any fonder of bickerings than we, and in any effort we may make looking toward a better understanding we can be sure of then co-operation. Recently, in the EngUsh schools of Quebec, a movement has been inaugurated to create a greater interest, on the part of English-speaking pupUs, in conversational French ; and in Ontario the study of that language was never more popular than it is to-day. Perhaps it is not too much to expect that ere long we shaU see the beginnings of a distinct movement that wUl have as its ultimate goal a real and abiding friend ship between the two great branches of the Canadian people. APPENDIX INSTRUCTIONS 17 APPENDIX Instructions 17 ONTARIO department of education. English-French Public and Separate Schools circular of instructions 1. There are only two classes of Pri mary Schools in Ontario — Public Schools and Separate Schools ; but, for con venience of reference, the term EngUsh- French is applied to those schools of each class annuaUy designated by the Minister for inspection as provided in 5 below and in which French is a language of instruc tion and communication as limited in 3 (1) below. 2. The Regulations and Courses of Study prescribed for the PubUc Schools, 175 176 Bridging the Chasm which are not inconsistent with the pro visions of this circular, shall hereafter be in force in the EngUsh-French Schools — Public and Separate — ^with the foUowing modifications : The provisions for reli gious instruction and exercises in PubUc Schools shall not apply to Separate Schools, and Separate School Boards may substitute the Canadian Catholic Readers for the Ontario Public School Readers. 3. Subject, in the case of each school, to the dhection and approval of the Chief Inspector, the foUowing modffications shaU also be made in the course of study of the Public and Separate Schools : THE USE OF FRENCH FOR INSTRUCTION AND COMMUNICATION (1) Where necessary in the case of French-speaking pupils, French may be used as the language of instruction and communication ; but such use of French shall not be continued beyond Form I, xcepting that, on the approval of the Appendix 177 Chief Inspector, it may also be used as the language of instruction and com munication in the case of pupUs beyond Form I who are unable to speak and understand the English language. SPECIAL COURSE IN ENGLISH FOR FRENCH- SPEAKING PUPILS (2) In the case of French-speaking pupUs who are unable to speak and under stand the English language weU enough for the purposes of instruction and com munication, the following provision is hereby made : (a) As soon as the pupil enters the school he shall begin the study and the use of the EngUsh language. Note. — ^A Manual of Method for use in teaching English to French-speaking pupUs has been distributed amongst the schools by the Department of Education. This Manual should be used in all schools. Where necessary copies may be procured on application to the Deputy Minister. 178 Bridging the Chasm (b) As soon as the pupU has acquired sufficient facility in the use of the English language he shaU take up in that language the course of study as prescribed for the Public and Separate Schools. FRENCH AS A SUBJECT OF STUDY IN PUBLIC AND SEPARATE SCHOOLS 4. In schools where French has hitherto been a subject of study, the Public or the Separate School Board, as the case may be, may provide, under the foUowing con ditions, for instruction in French Reading, Grammar, and Composition in Forms I to IV [see also provision for Form V in PubUc School Regulation 14 (5) ] in addi tion to the subjects prescribed for the Public and Separate Schools : (1) Such instruction in French may be taken only by pupils whose parents or guardians dhect that they shall do so, and may, notwithstanding 3 (1) above, be given in the French language. (2) Such instruction in French shall Appendix 179 not interfere with the adequacy of the instmction in English, and the provision for such instruction in French in the time table of the school shall be subject to the approval and direction of the Chief In spector and shaU not in any day exceed one hour in each class-room, except where the time is increased upon the order of the Chief Inspector. (3) Where, as permitted above, French is a subject of study in a Public or a Separate School, the text-books in use dining the school year of 1911-1912, in French Reading, Grammar, and Com position remain authorized for use during the school year of 1913-1914. INSPECTION OF ENGLISH-FRENCH SCHOOLS 5. For the purpose of inspection, the English-French schools shall be organized into divisions, each division being under the charge of two Inspectors. 6. (1) In conducting the work of in spection, the Inspectors of a division shall 180 Bridging the Chasm alternately visit each school therein, un less otherwise directed by the Chief Inspector. (2) Each Inspector shall pay at least 220 half day visits during the year in accordance with the provisions of Public School Regulation 20, (2), and it shall be the duty of each Inspector to pay as many more visits than the minimum as the circumstances may demand. 7. Each two Inspectors of a division shaU reside at such centre or centres as may be designated by the Minister. 8. Frequently during the year the two Inspectors of a division shaU meet to gether in order to discuss questions that may arise in their work and to standardize the system of inspection. For the same purposes all the Inspectors shall meet at such times and places as may be desig nated by the Minister. 9. Each Inspector shaU report upon the general condition of all the classes, on the form prescribed by the Minister. - Appendix 181 This report shaU be subject to the appro val of the Minister upon the report of the Chief Inspector. 10. If either of the Inspectors of a division finds that any Regulation or Instruction of the Department is not being properly carried out, he shall forth with report specially on such cases to the Minister. 11. Each Inspector shaU forward a copy of his ordinary inspectional report on the prescribed official form to the Minister within one week after the visit. 12. The Chief Inspector of Public and Separate Schools shall be the supervising inspector of the English-French Schools. 13. (1) No teacher shall be granted a certificate to teach in English-French schools who does not possess a knowledge of the English language sufficient to teach the PubUc and Separate School Course. (2) No teacher shaU remain in office or be appointed in any of said schools who does not possess a knowledge of the 182 Bridging the Chasm English language sufficient to teach the Public and Separate School Course of Study. legislative grants to ENGLISH-FRENCH SCHOOLS 14. The Legislative Grants to the English-French schools shaU be made on the same conditions as are the grants to the other Public and Separate Schools. 15. On due application from the School Board and on the report of aU the Inspec tors approved by the Chief Inspector, an English-French school which is unable to provide the salary necessary to secure a teacher with the aforesaid qualffications shall receive a special grant in order to assist it in doing so. Department of Education, August, 1913. li'i/iiiii 1^ 1