The protection of language and education rights has been an ongoing struggle in Franco-Ontarian history. Regulation 17 (1912-27) forbade teaching in French in Ontario's primary schools beyond Grade 2. Despite this, the Board of Trustees of the Roman Catholic Separate Schools of Sudbury (RCSSS) chose to separate English and French students by building the Central Separate School in 1915, where the English-speaking minority could have its own classes and the French-speaking majority could continue teaching in French between the provincial inspector's visits. In 1923, the school was renamed École Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague and, from this point forward, educated Franco-Ontarian pupils exclusively. Following the suspension of Regulation 17 in 1927, the trustees of the RCSSS persuaded Sudbury High School officials to subsidize a bilingual Catholic secondary program within Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague between 1930-40, an unusual scheme since it was prohibited by provincial law. In 1940, the French High School program was reduced to a simple French language course, folded into the regular English program, and transferred to the Sudbury High School, while Saint-Louis continued to be a French elementary school from 1923-2000. Although Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague closed in 2000, the school is a testament to the passive resistance of Franco-Ontarians to the suppression of their language in Ontario schools, as well as the beginnings of publicly funded French-language secondary education, which was fully recognized in 1968.

Location

At the former school at 162 Mackenzie Street, Sudbury

Themes

• Buildings and structures
• Communities
• Education
• Franco-Ontarian heritage
• Politics and law
• Religion