The city of Sydney and its region, once known as industrial Cape Breton, could very well have become the only bilingual urban centre in Nova Scotia. Today, this remark seems surprising, since only 4% of the region’s inhabitants are able to conduct a conversation in both official languages. Moreover, the regional economy has been converted to tourism. In summer, large cruise ships bring the many tourists attracted by the natural beauty of the island to Sydney Harbour. However, since the end of the 19th century, coal mining had dominated the region’s economy. And the use of French was common, before declining irretrievably. Here’s why…

After the fall of Louisbourg and the return of peace in 1763, Acadians obtained land in the Sydney area. Almost all of them were assimilated by the end of the 19th century, when the Dominion Coal Company opened mines in Glace Bay, Reserve Mines and then New Waterford. Hundreds of Acadians in Chéticamp accepted job offers in the mines and in the cities, preferring New Waterford, where they were less affected by anti-French prejudice. In addition, they were able to gather in the east of the city, near the church of the new Catholic parish of Mount Carmel. As Cape Breton University professor Ronald Labelle points out, this is the time when strong bilingual communities could have been built in these small Cape Breton mining towns.

An inaccessible bilingualism

As early as 1905, the Acadians founded branches of the Société l’Assomption in the region, in order to preserve their cohesion and identity. Insurance services were offered to members, as well as scholarships in French for young Acadians. The local branch (Saint-Grégoire) was most active in New Waterford. It is also the only place where separate classes in French were opened, in 1948, despite strong resistance from the local English-language school board. Unfortunately, this victory was short-lived, since from the 7th grade, education was still in English. Acadian parents chose to send their children on summer vacation to their families in Chéticamp so that they could practice French. Despite the efforts of social organizations, in the absence of a French-speaking parish, the Acadians of industrial Cape Breton were gradually assimilated, even in New Waterford.

In the 1980s, however, there was a surge when Francophones with a higher level of education arrived in Sydney, in post-secondary education and decentralized federal services. They were very concerned about receiving educational services in French. The most motivated parents then engaged in a long and difficult fight to obtain a homogeneous French-language school, coupled with a community centre. This is how the Etoile de l’Acadie community school centre opened its doors in April 1999. This is a great victory, but it came too late to save bilingualism. Fortunately, the aptly named Etoile de l’Acadie is endowed with the power to make the French language and Acadian culture shine simultaneously. We can only encourage him to persevere in this way.

Header image: The Cape Breton Miners’ Museum, in Glace Bay (author Dennis G. Jarvis, license CC BY-SA 2.0).

Jean-Marc Agator
Paris, France

Sources

Labelle, Ronald; An Invisible Minority – Acadians in Industrial Cape Breton; in Cape Breton in the long twentieth century, edited by Lachlan MacKinnon and Andrew Parnaby, Athabasca University, 2024, p.99-125.

Statistics Canada 2021: 4.3% of the 93694 inhabitants of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality are able to conduct a conversation in both official languages. The municipality includes the port city of Sydney and the population centres of Glace Bay, Sydney Mines and New Waterford.