Category: Timeline

Between 1885, the French-speaking population accounted for one-third of the colonizing languages of Alberta communities and 60% in the northern part of the province. (It should be noted that there were a number of First Nations who could speak French, but census did not enumerate for language.) French lost a lot of vitality in the 30 years that followed, because Canada organized a massive influx of more than 3 million newcomers to the West. Between 1885 and 1921, Alberta grew from about 15,500 to almost 600,000 residents, while the Francophone population only grew from 2,000 to about 25,000. A very large number of Francophone newcomers were French Canadians who tried their luck in the industrial cities of New England and took the opportunity to settle again on farmland in French-speaking enclaves such as Saint-Albert, Vegreville, Plamondon, Morinville, Legal, Beaumont, Bonnyville, St. Paul, and so on. Another segment of the population left France and Belgium for the same reasons to settle in villages like Trochu and Bellevue.

Francophones during this time settled with the full expectation that they would play a leading role in the economic and political life of Alberta. Merchants, hoteliers, and bankers of the names of Gagnon, Larue, Picard, Picard, Gariépy, Révillon, Prince, Brosseau, Lemarchand, and many others established themselves as early as 1883. A body of highly influential professionals also established themselves. Charles Borromée Rouleau was appointed Magistrate for the Northwest Territories and investigated Métis and Aboriginal unrest in 1884. His doctor brother Dr. Édouard Rouleau was very involved in Calgary’s civic life. Dr. Georges Roy in Edmonton was also a physician and important leader in Edmonton. In St. Albert, Antonio Prince was the first French Canadian elected to the territorial council in 1891 for St. Albert, succeeding the Métis Samuel Cunningham. Several Francophone members were elected to the territorial, provincial and federal legislatures and several were appointed to the Senate in the decades that followed.

Several Franco-Catholic missions were established from the 1840s to the 1880s. A mission typically consisted of a church and parish, after which a school was often introduced. In a few examples, a hospital, orphanage, or even a nursing home for the elderly has been opened. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate founded the missions established after 1847, but they relied heavily on French-based religious orders such as the Grey Nuns, the Sisters of the Assumption, the Sisters of Charity of Notre Dame d’Evron, the Faithful Companions of Jesus and the Daughters of the Cross to succeed. These missions formed the basis of Métis and Francophone communities from that time onwards, such as St. Albert, St. Paul and Lac La Biche, to name a few examples.

Alberta became a Canadian province in 1905, but joined Canada as part of the Northwest Territories in 1870. Louis Riel’s provisional government negotiated the entry into confederation of these bodies with a Royal Proclamation (1869) for the protection of linguistic, religious and property rights. Article 110 was added to the Northwest Territories Act in 1877 for judicial and legislative bilingualism for the territories. In 2015 in the Caron decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Alberta government is not required to respect these rights because they were not explicitly enshrined in the Alberta Act in 1905.

St. Albert was Alberta’s first colony. It was founded by the Métis who settled on river lots adjacent to the Sturgeon River followed by the French Canadians who later joined them. Francophone colonization to Alberta increased after 1870. The Lamoureux brothers were among the first in a wave of French-speaking settlers to arrive in Alberta from 1870 to 1920. Despite high expectations of Quebec to send settlers in large numbers, French-speaking settlers in this period came mostly from the United States and Europe. By 1885, French was the language of most non-Aboriginal residents in northern Alberta, but by 1916 it was spoken by only 5% of the population. Today, Francophones make up a little more than 2% of the population, even though the gross number of French-speaking people is increasing significantly, and today Alberta ranks fourth in terms of the largest provincial Francophone population across Canada.

In 17th Century New France, a class of entrepreneurs emerged commonly called voyageurs. They were hired to travel as guides and paddlers. A typical voyageur was short, strong, and French-Canadian. They wore fur hats or red toques, deerskin leggings and moccasins, a hooded coat, and an intricately woven utility belt called a sash. Voyageurs were essential to exploration and trade, and they were mainstays in the Northwest Company in particular. The canoe brigades of Voyageurs often traveled twelve hour days over thousands of kilometers using songs to regulate the tempo of the paddles. When rivers were impassable, they carried their canoes and cargo over treacherous terrain in “portages”. They would winter in the North West, becoming the first Francophones in Western Canada. These winterers and freemen (without contractual obligations) and their relationships with First Nations would eventually give birth to a new indigenous people — the Métis nation.

English traders and French-speaking voyageurs used different methods to obtain goods from First Nations. The English Hudson’s Bay Company tended to build large fortified outposts on Hudson’s Bay to receive delegations bringing furs. While the Canadien and French voyageurs plunged further inland and established diplomatic and economic ties with First Nations bands. It was common practice for a voyageur to settle for the winter and enter into a “Country Marriage” with an indigenous woman who stayed in her community to raise their children. They learned traditional knowledge from their mother and followed religious and language instruction through the influence of the father. Gradually, these relationships have rise to a generation of Métis people with a unique blended identity. In the example of language, a Métis may speak nehiyawawin (Cree) or Ojibwe, French, or an amalgam called Michif. Eventually, a diverse Métis nation with its own political and economic agenda emerged. The most famous Métis man in history is Louis Riel, hanged for treason after bringing Manitoba and the North West into Canada into an attempt to protect Métis language, religious and property rights.

As the fur trade and colonisation expanded, the Catholic Church took on the mission of keeping Catholics on the right path, and converting Indigenous peoples to their faith. After multiple pleas from Canadien Freemen such as Joseph Cardinal for priests around Lac La Biche and Edmonton to administer sacraments, Fathers Modeste Demers and François-Norbert Blanchet passed through the areas and confirmed the high demand by performing many baptisms and marriages. The Chief Factor of Fort Edmonton requested a permanent mission in 1838 and 1841, and Jean-Baptiste Thibault was sent in 1842, and established the first Catholic mission in Alberta in 1844 at Lac Sainte-Anne (moved to St. Albert in 1856). Several Catholic missions were established in Edmonton, Lac La Biche, Fort Chipewyan, Calgary, among many others from the 1850s to the 1880s. These missions formed the basis for permanent Métis and Francophone communities from that time forward. Even though the first Catholic missionaries were secular priests, over time the vast majority were members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.