Meetings and Encounters: 400th anniversary of the foundation of Québec city
 | Founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, Québec city will be celebrating its 400th anniversary in 2008 with the theme “Meetings and Encounters”. This is a significant milestone for the entire country since the founding of Québec city is an important event in the history of Canada and the Canadian Francophonie. |
Links
www.quebec400.gc.ca: Portal for all initiatives being organized by the federal government for the anniversary of Québec city
www.monquebec2008.com: Official site of the Société du 400e anniversaire de Québec
This anniversary will also be international in scope because of the numerous events that will take place in addition to the activities organized by the Société du 400e anniversaire de Québec, an independent, non-profit organization. For example, the closing ceremonies of the celebration of the anniversary of Québec city will coincide with the 12th Sommet de la Francophonie.
These festivities will be an opportunity to celebrate Canadian values and our diversity, as well as draw attention to the meeting of the First Nations peoples and Europeans 400 years ago, which marked the beginning of the intercultural dialogue on which modern Canada was founded. The celebrations will also reserve an important place for First Nations peoples: the Huron-Wendat nation will be the host and the Innu will share their vision of the first meetings between their people and the Europeans.
Furthermore, because of Québec city’s unique military heritage, the Canadian Forces will be organizing activities so more can be learned about both the French and the British armies.
Why highlight this anniversary?
The Office of the Commissioner hopes that this event will highlight the Canada-wide importance of the anniversary of Québec city and encourage activities in celebration of not only the French presence in Canada, but also the contribution of both official language communities.
We support the federal government's desire to make this a pan-canadian celebration and encourage federal institutions to seize on this golden opportunity to promote linguistic duality across the country.
We hope that the 400th anniversary of Québec city will be an inclusive event that faithfully reflects the contribution of the Canadian Francophonie to the history of our country as a whole and that it will start a dialogue on the Canadian Francophonie and give rise to fruitful exchanges between both official language communities in Canada. We also hope that the festivities will recognize the significant contributions the Anglophone community has made to Quebec society.
English and French in Canada
Surveys have shown that Canadians are becoming increasingly aware of the advantages of bilingualism. Support for bilingualism has increased among Anglophones outside of Quebec in particular, where it has grown 19% between 2003 and 2006 (from 46% to 65%). Therefore, the time has come to emphasize the value of linguistic duality in Canada, of which the Canadian Francophonie is an important part.
Our Francophonie is a source of pride at the regional, national and international levels. The French language allows us to communicate with people in over 75 countries throughout the world and offers us many economic, political and cultural advantages.
While most Francophones in Canada live in Quebec, French is present from one end of the country to the other. French is the mother tongue or second language of 6.7 million Quebeckers. Throughout the rest of Canada, some 2.4 million people speak French, and about 1 million of these people speak French as their mother tongue. In Quebec, the Anglophone community is becoming more and more bilingual. What’s more, more than half of bilingual Canadians live in Quebec, and 67% of Quebeckers whose mother tongue is English are bilingual.
