Chapter 4 An Invisible Minority Acadians in Industrial Cape Breton

Moving to Industrial Cape Breton

Like Cape Bretoners of Scottish origin who were attracted by work opportunities in the Boston area during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Acadians from Cape Breton and elsewhere were leaving in large numbers for the industrial towns of Massachusetts. Many Acadians from the Chéticamp area sought to escape their exploitation at the hands of fish merchants by joining the emigration movement, settling in the Boston suburb of Cambridge, where they could find work in brickyards and other industries.8 Others, however, preferred to remain closer to home. They took advantage of new work opportunities in the expanding coal industry. The dawn of the twentieth century saw a resurgence of the Acadian presence in Eastern Cape Breton, when the Dominion Coal Company opened large collieries in Glace Bay, Reserve Mines, Dominion, and what would become New Waterford. Some Acadians from Chéticamp briefly worked in the coal mines at Inverness, where two collieries opened in 1903, before making the move to the Glace Bay area. Other migrants had obtained work experience in the gypsum mine established in Chéticamp in 1907. It operated sporadically until it was abandoned in 1939.9

Canada census returns from 1901 and 1911 indicate that the subdistrict of Glace Bay, which included the future communities of Reserve Mines and Dominion, saw a massive influx of new residents in the first decade of the twentieth century. Among the 1,173 individuals living in the Glace Bay area listed as having a “French” origin in the 1911 census, many had migrated from Frenchvale or Little Bras d’Or, while at least 400 were Acadians newly arrived from Inverness County. In addition, Glace Bay was home to some coal miners of Belgian origin who lived in a section of the town known as the “French Block.”10

In Sydney, the steel plant established in 1899 does not seem to have initially attracted many Acadian workers. Of the 3,231 employees named in the records for the years 1900–1910, no more than a few dozen are likely to have been Acadian.11 However, not all Acadian migrants were seeking employment in steel or coal, as many skilled carpenters moved to the Sydney and Glace Bay areas to take part in the construction boom that accompanied industrialization. Their presence in the region explains why a hipped roof form developed earlier in the Chéticamp area in order to prevent damage from “suète” winds of one hundred kilometres per hour or more became a common architectural feature in homes all over the area. Other Acadian migrants were skilled in various trades, such as blacksmithing.12

Much of the available information about early twentieth-century migrations from the Chéticamp area to Industrial Cape Breton is contained in a collection of oral interviews carried out by the author between 2013 and 2019. Informal open-ended interviews were conducted during that period with members of the Acadian minority population living in New Waterford and Sydney.13 The interviews paint a picture of a time when migrants were attracted to the area by a diversity of employment opportunities. While men generally moved to Industrial Cape Breton to work as miners or tradesmen, many young women from Chéticamp joined the migratory movement, seeking employment as domestics in private homes.

Joseph Jean Chiasson, born in 1893 in Saint-Joseph-du-Moine, Inverness County, is one of the rare Acadian migrants to have produced written memoirs. In a French-language entry dated April 29, 1943, he recalls his move to Glace Bay in early 1901:

As there were a number of neighbours going to the mines in the area of Glace Bay I decided to undertake the trip. I could hardly speak English. Arriving in Caledonia Mines it was very difficult to get work on the surface. If it had not been that my sister Évangéline was in service at the manager’s home, it would have been impossible. In the month of August, as several of my friends were in the mines, I decided to join them in order to make more money. The autumn was very dry, which made the water very unhealthy and all our Acadians, 22 in number, fell sick with the fever.14

This quote provides a glimpse into a work environment where a French-speaking Acadian had few employment prospects unless an intermediary could act on his behalf. Chiasson eventually settled in New Waterford, where he raised his family and was active in local organizations.15 As the coal industry expanded during the first decade of the twentieth century, the migratory movement quickly increased. One notable individual who moved from Chéticamp to Glace Bay was Jean Deveaux, a coal miner who settled with his wife in the Passchendaele district of Glace Bay in 1910. He had learned many Acadian folktales during his youth in Chéticamp, and thanks to the work of Gérald Aucoin, instructor at Xavier Junior College, his tales were collected and published posthumously in 1980 by the Canadian Museum of Man (now Museum of Canadian History) under the title L’oiseau de la verité.16

An Acadian Community in New Waterford

The largest population increase in the New Waterford area happened during the second decade of the twentieth century. The community was just beginning to take shape when Acadian migrants arrived to seek work either at the Dominion No. 12 Colliery, opened in 1908, or at one of four others opened between 1909 and 1914.17 Why did they choose New Waterford over the other coal towns in Industrial Cape Breton? One reason may be that it was a new town where they could have a better opportunity to express their culture. Some informants stated that the Acadians who settled in New Waterford encountered less anti-French prejudice than in Reserve Mines, in particular. In a 1984 interview, Hubert Muise, whose parents had moved from Chéticamp to Reserve Mines in 1907 before relocating to New Waterford in 1914, recounted that in the former town, conditions were difficult for French-speaking people who had to endure the resentment of many English-speaking residents.18

Richard Chiasson’s grandfather had a similar experience, moving to Reserve Mines at the beginning of the twentieth century and later settling permanently in New Waterford. Having previously been a farmer, he maintained a small herd of dairy cows in New Waterford and raised hogs and chickens.19 Several informants mentioned that by producing much of their own food, Acadians in New Waterford were able to cope well during labour disputes in the mines. Being partly self-sufficient may have empowered them at times when strike action was required.

With the rapid influx of Acadians and other Roman Catholics in the New Waterford area, a hall was built in 1907 to hold church services. The parish of Mount Carmel was established five years later, and many of the newly arriving Acadians chose to live in the eastern section of the community, close to the new church. Joe Aucoin told of how his father dismantled his house in Chéticamp and moved it to New Waterford, reassembling it on a small lot situated between two houses occupied by Acadian families.20 Part of the reason for the clustering of Acadians was the fact that they were able to support each other in times of need. Joseph Muise, for example, stated that when an Acadian family began building a home, ten or twelve men would gather to make a cement foundation, and the day would end with a fricot, a traditional chicken-based stew, accompanied by baked beans and homemade bread.21

In New Waterford, there were various options available for Acadians who did not want to work underground. Some sought construction work or combined various occupations with small farming, while others opened corner grocery stores where the local population could be served in French. Nevertheless, many Acadians were attracted to work opportunities in “the pit,” and Joseph Muise, a miner from 1946 to 1968, remembered that during those years, there could be as many as fifty French-speaking men working along the same wall underground.22 The fact that no informant mentioned ethnic or language conflicts underground suggests that a degree of solidarity existed among the men who laboured under similar work conditions.

Acadians Become Organized (1905–13)

Acadians in Industrial Cape Breton needed to mobilize in order to create the social cohesion necessary to maintain their identity. They quickly rallied around the banner of the new Société l’Assomption, a fraternal benefit society founded in 1903 by Acadians living in Waltham, Massachusetts, and relocated to Moncton, New Brunswick, ten years later. One of the main activities of the Société l’Assomption was to offer scholarships to Acadian students; it also provided its members with insurance services.23 Over two hundred local chapters of the Société l’Assomption were founded in the Maritimes and New England between 1903 and 1933. Three of the earliest ones were in Industrial Cape Breton: the G.-M. LeBlanc chapter established in Glace Bay in 1905, the Bras d’Or chapter in Sydney in 1906, and the Père Fiset chapter in Reserve Mines in 1907. Eventually, nine other chapters were created in the Acadian districts of Inverness and Richmond Counties.24

Although the Acadian community in the Sydney area would struggle to maintain its cohesion throughout the twentieth century, there was much optimism surrounding the early years of the Société l’Assomption. At the 1910 annual meeting of the chapter located in the Whitney Pier district of Sydney, Secretary Jean H. LeBlanc spoke about the means that were necessary in order to preserve the language and religious faith inherited from Acadian ancestors: “Des moyens qu’on doit employer pour conserver intactes notre foi et la belle langue de nos aieux.”25 Acadians in Whitney Pier were members of Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic parish where a Francophone assistant priest provided French-language services.26 That same year, a delegate from Glace Bay was the first to represent Industrial Cape Breton at the Société l’Assomption’s annual convention held at Church Point, Nova Scotia.27

At numerous meetings and gatherings, speakers not only exhorted members to preserve their language and their religious faith but also weighed in on social and political issues. For example, at the 1914 annual meeting of the Glace Bay chapter, conseiller-général A. J. Doucet encouraged members to give to the scholarship fund, saying it was one of the best ways to combat the enemies that threatened Acadian society: socialism and anti-Catholic organizations: “Un des meilleurs moyens de combattre l’ennemi qui nous entoure: le socialisme et les sociétés enemies de l’Église.”28 The Roman Catholic Church played a predominant role in the Assomption movement, hence the insistence on opposing socialist or communist tendencies.

Each local chapter chose a name with either religious or patriotic connotations. The fact that the Reserve Mines branch was named after Father Fiset shows the strong ties that existed between the Acadian coal mining families and their home community of Chéticamp: Father Pierre Fiset was parish priest at Chéticamp from 1875 until his death in 1909 and played an important role in the construction of the massive stone church there in 1892–93.29 Bilingual parish priest Ronald MacDonald was sympathetic to the Acadian cause and served on the board of the Reserve Mines chapter of the Société l’Assomption as “directeur-spirituel” between 1906 and 1911.30

Although French-language culture had a brief presence in early twentieth-century Reserve Mines, the Société l’Assomption was very active in the community at that time. In 1911, the society’s members founded a French-language drama group named La petite Soeur and presented an evening of original plays at the King’s Theatre in Glace Bay. They seem to have reached out to non-Acadians as well, as a report on the event mentions the attendance of Italians, Belgians, and English-speaking residents: “Français, Anglais, Italiens et Belges, tous s’y étaient rendus pour nous encourager et applauder à nos succès.”31 While many residents of Belgian origin spoke French, there seems to have been little contact between them and the Acadians in the area, as we found no other examples of interaction between the two groups.

Newly arrived Acadians in New Waterford founded the Saint-Grégoire chapter of the Société l’Assomption on 5 September 1910, three years before the town’s incorporation.32 While the society was an all-male organization at the outset, women’s chapters came into existence beginning in 1912. By the following year, Glace Bay, Reserve Mines, Sydney, and New Waterford all had established women’s chapters. These were the first women’s chapters founded in all of Nova Scotia, an illustration of the way the local population was well connected to the wider Acadian diaspora.33

On 15 August 1912, a rare event brought together members of all four local chapters of the Société l’Assomption. On the feast day of Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption, patron saint of Acadians, a train excursion brought them on a pilgrimage to the historic site of Louisbourg.34 It was customary for the Société l’Assomption to organize community picnics on the Feast of the Assumption each year, but the 1912 celebration was an especially elaborate event that united Acadians from all over Industrial Cape Breton.

In their ongoing activities, members of Acadian organizations continuously tried to strike a balance between lobbying for local causes and participating in collective actions. In 1922, for example, Société l’Assomption members in Industrial Cape Breton joined with Acadians everywhere in contributing funds for the construction of the commemorative church at the historic site of Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia.35

The French Language in New Waterford (1918–50)

French-language education was always a priority for the Société l’Assomption. Beginning in 1912, six students from Industrial Cape Breton received scholarships to pursue their education in French, including three young women who went to study at the convent administered by the Filles de Jésus congregation in Chéticamp during the 1920s.36 Apart from offering scholarships to Acadian students, the society also contributed generously to Mount Carmel parish church.37

In New Waterford, the first Mount Carmel School opened in 1912 with approximately two hundred pupils, and the question of including French-language education there was first raised at a school board meeting in 1917.38 The following year, a committee representing French-speaking parents again addressed the board, as revealed in the minutes of the 8 March 1918 meeting:

Mr. R. F. Bourque addressed the Board and said that they would like very well if the Board would consider with favor the advisability of starting a French class in the schools. He said that a considerable number of children were going out of town each year to study French in other schools and by having a French class in the schools of the town the parents of these children would be saved the trouble and expense of sending their children away.39

The board agreed in principle that a room could be set aside for the teaching of French up to the fifth grade. However, the first formal French class did not begin at Mount Carmel until the Sisters of Charity took over the school’s administration in 1921.40 In the meantime, members of the Société l’Assomption obtained teaching materials and offered children two French classes a week in their newly opened hall.41

The provisions to offer French-language instruction in New Waterford were inadequate from the start, as a large number of Francophone children were crowded into a single classroom. Acadian families were to experience constant frustration over the following years, as the local school board repeatedly refused requests to expand the French-language program. In July of 1923, for example, a delegation from the New Waterford chapter of the Société l’Assomption attempted unsuccessfully to secure the appointment of a second teacher, as ninety pupils were expected to enrol during the coming year.42

Overcrowding in the French class at Mount Carmel School often led to the resignation of the teacher in charge, forcing the board to scramble to find a replacement.43 Several members of the Sisters of Charity were Acadian nuns, and they eventually took over teaching duties. This brought more stability to the French class, though the problem of overcrowding remained. Finally, in 1948, Francophone pupils at Mount Carmel School were placed into two separate classes, one for grades 1 to 3, and the other for grades 4 to 6. Despite this change, many Acadian parents saw the French program as a dead end. Being obliged to pursue their studies in English beginning in grade 7, Acadian students never became fully competent in their first language and could not aspire to go on to higher education in French.

One strategy New Waterford parents used to transmit language skills was to send their children to spend summer holidays with relatives in Chéticamp. The attachment of New Waterford Acadians to their home community of Chéticamp is best expressed by Richard Chiasson, born in New Waterford in 1949: “Acadians who were born in New Waterford or who were brought up in New Waterford, their heart is still in Chéticamp” (“Les Acadiens qui sont nés à New Waterford, qui ont été élevés à New Waterford, leur coeur est encore à Chéticamp”).44 Chiasson, a former teacher, explained language assimilation this way:

The parents who came from Chéticamp can be classified in three groups. There were those who spoke to their children in French and wanted them to answer in French. Other parents from Chéticamp spoke to their children in French but let them answer in English. Then there is the third group, those who would switch to English when their kids started answering them in English. And those children ended up losing their language.45

Migration patterns saw Acadians leave rural communities for both Industrial Cape Breton and towns in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century, and a triangular network of contacts was established between Chéticamp, New Waterford, and the Boston area, where the town of Waltham had become the main New England destination for Acadian migrants. Those who moved to Massachusetts often returned to Chéticamp to visit relatives during the summer, and New Waterford Acadians made sure their visits to the home community coincided with the arrivals from New England.46

Given the attachment of Acadians in Industrial Cape Breton to their roots in Chéticamp, it is not surprising that many of them chose to relocate there in retirement. The decision to leave their adopted home was not always an easy one. Interestingly, several informants mentioned that the men were usually those who felt drawn back to Chéticamp for their retirement years, while their wives would have preferred to remain in Sydney or New Waterford.47

Acadian Resilience in the Mid-twentieth Century

In the midcentury, at a time when Acadian organizations in the Maritimes were in general decline, the New Waterford branches of the Société l’Assomption remained active, raising money to help needy families at times of illness and awarding prizes to pupils enrolled in French classes. The men’s and women’s chapters worked together to organize dinners, dances, and musical evenings and celebrate yearly festivities marking both La Chandeleur, the traditional Acadian Candlemas celebration held on February 2, and Mardi Gras, the feast preceding the beginning of Lent.48

They also marked the August 15 patriotic holiday each year with a procession including an image of Our Lady of Assumption, accompanied by a large banner representing the Société l’Assomption, as well as a costumed Évangéline.49 Although Évangéline was a fictional heroine created by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,50 the character had become a powerful symbol of Acadian identity not only in the Maritimes, where a statue of Évangéline was the centrepiece at the Grand-Pré commemorative site, but also in Louisiana and in New England.51

In the early 1960s, local leader Joseph Boudreau was closely involved in plans to create a new Acadian social organization in New Waterford. At that time, the board of the Société l’Assomption hoped an organization focused on social activities would attract more young members.52 In October 1962, the name “Cercle Évangéline” was chosen to represent the new organization. The following year, the Acadian community took part in the fiftieth-anniversary celebrations of the town of New Waterford. These included an Acadian Day, where a fricot dinner was served at the Salle l’Assomption.53 The hall in New Waterford was renovated in 1964, and at the time of its reopening, the Cape Breton Post highlighted some of the activities of the organization: “Over the years the organization has contributed to the preservation of French hymns and songs by sponsoring choral and dance groups. A scholarship program has been an important part of the society’s work and numerous residents of Acadian descent have been aided in securing a higher education through support of the Assumption Society.”54

During the 1960s and 1970s, there were occasions when controversial issues were raised at meetings of the Cercle Évangéline. In February 1963, for example, a discussion dealt with efforts undertaken since the 1950s to convince the Diocese of Antigonish to create a French-language parish in New Waterford. A committee had brought up the matter with Msgr. William Power, who promised to study the question and provide a speedy response.55 Joseph Boudreau recalled in 1989 that the committee heard nothing but empty promises from the bishop and finally gave up the campaign at the end of 1965. At that time, the diocese effectively put an end to the debate by deciding to enlarge the overcrowded Mount Carmel church rather than subdividing the parish.56

Acadians in Cape Breton eventually felt a need to have their own organization, one that would concentrate on causes rooted on the island, and so the Société Saint-Pierre was born in 1947. This organization, though based in Chéticamp, has included board members from both New Waterford and Sydney and one of its most active local participants was steel plant worker Tassien Boudreau, who arranged the entry of an Acadian-themed float in the parade marking Sydney’s 175th anniversary in 1960.57 The float included a large illustration of Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption as well as a costumed participant representing Évangéline.58

Activists like Tassien Boudreau faced great odds in their fight to resist the tide of language assimilation. In 1950, the Société l’Assomption appointed Henri P. LeBlanc of Moncton to carry out a survey of Nova Scotian Acadian communities.59 His report painted a very pessimistic picture of the situation. In Reserve Mines, the author stated that the Acadian minority was rapidly becoming anglicized, while in Sydney, at least 75 percent of the town’s Acadians had stopped speaking French. LeBlanc added that even in families where both parents were Acadian, children were losing the language.60 The majority of the town’s Acadians had little opportunity to use their first language, although a number of French-speaking families lived in the Shipyard neighbourhood of Sydney, where they sometimes gathered informally.61

In the mid-twentieth century, the Acadian nationalist movement was closely tied to the Roman Catholic Church, and the report produced in 1950 deplored the lack of a French-language Catholic parish in the area. It mentioned that there were currently no Francophone priests in any parish in Cape Breton County, despite the fact Little Bras d’Or, Sydney, Glace Bay, and New Waterford were each home to over one thousand French Catholics. In the latter community, Henri P. LeBlanc estimated that Acadians made up a majority of the members of Mount Carmel parish.62 LeBlanc established a parallel between the Acadian and Italian minorities in Sydney, both communities being made up of working-class families that, in his opinion, would not have the financial means to support their own parish. This remark shows how Acadians and other working-class minority groups faced similar difficulties.

As in New Waterford, where the Cercle Évangéline was established so that francophones could continue to gather after the closure of the Société l’Assomption’s local branches, members of the Sydney branch founded the Club Champlain in 1959. While the Société l’Assomption had met in Whitney Pier during its early decades, the Club Champlain chose to situate its hall on Ferry Road, closer to Sydney’s downtown core. Unlike in New Waterford, there was no option available for French-language schooling in Sydney, and so in addition to hosting events to mark Acadian holidays, the Club Champlain offered Saturday afternoon French classes taught by volunteers. Despite the good intentions of organizers, language classes and Acadian events had a brief existence at the Club Champlain, and the hall was handed over to private ownership in 1974, simply becoming known as the “French Club,” with little to distinguish it from other social gathering places.63

While Acadian organizations in Sydney itself were led by a handful of dedicated individuals who had little public support, New Waterford Acadians were better connected to their community. For example, in 1958, the men’s and women’s branches of the Société l’Assomption joined with the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus in a lobbying effort, asking that a proposed new hospital be managed by Roman Catholic nuns.64

The pastor of Mount Carmel parish at that time was a prominent Acadian, Msgr. Georges Landry. Originally from Isle Madame, he had served as bishop of the Diocese of Hearst in Northern Ontario but was demoted after having supported the progressive archbishop of Montreal, Msgr. Joseph Charbonneau, in his unsuccessful defence of striking asbestos workers in 1949, a major conflict that pitted the Quebec labour movement against Maurice Duplessis’s provincial government.65 When the strike movement was crushed, Charbonneau and his allies were gradually ousted from positions of authority in the church, and Msgr. Landry returned to Cape Breton, where he was active in the Société l’Assomption and the Société Saint-Pierre. When he became pastor at Mount Carmel in 1957, the position had never been held by a French-speaking priest, although a bilingual priest had sometimes served as assistant.66

The activities of the Société l’Assomption sometimes went beyond matters related to French-language services and Acadian culture. For example, at the annual regional meeting held in 1961, an alarm was raised about the recent layoff of 120 employees by the Dominion Steel Corporation, and the executive was asked to look for ways of supporting the workers.67 As leaders in the society’s local branches were often involved in trade unions and the co-op movement, whenever pressing issues needed to be resolved, Acadian members could rely on networks of support reaching beyond the Société l’Assomption itself.

In 1955, the annual Feast of the Assumption took on added importance in New Waterford because of commemorations marking the two-hundredth anniversary of the Acadian Deportation. Mount Carmel parishioners organized a pageant that included a salute to the Acadian flag, a speech by former New Waterford mayor Patrick Muise, and two plays put on in French by local residents, the first being an original work inspired by the tragic history of Acadia and the second being directly based on H. W. Longfellow’s classic poem, Évangéline.68

Among the eight local chapters of the Société l’Assomption that continued to function on Cape Breton Island during the mid-twentieth century, five were in Industrial Cape Breton, and by the 1960s, New Waterford had the only active women’s chapter in all of eastern Nova Scotia.69 When the society closed its local branches to give way to new provincial Acadian organizations in 1967, the New Waterford chapter simply transferred its assets to the Cercle Évangéline.70

A Rapid Decline in the 1960s and 1970s

Beginning in January 1968, a major change happened in the running of the Cercle Évangéline’s affairs. While all records pertaining to both the Société l’Assomption and the Cercle Évangéline had previously been written entirely in French, English gradually came into use, indicating that even members of the local population who were committed to the promotion of Acadian culture were becoming anglicized.

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the Cercle Évangéline was making heroic efforts to save what was left of Acadian culture in an increasingly anglicized community. It continued to fund the Société Saint-Pierre’s charitable causes and sent representatives to provincial meetings of the new Fédération des Acadiens de la Nouvelle-Écosse (FANE), founded in 1968. It also tried to save what was left of French education in New Waterford by contributing financially to a pilot project in French at Mount Carmel School in 1971.71 By the 1980s, the Cercle Évangéline was usually referred to in English as the “French Club,” but its activities had little to do with language and culture. The organization continued to function simply as a Roman Catholic community organization before finally becoming moribund.72

While the FANE initially showed little interest in Industrial Cape Breton, the Nova Scotia government included the region in its Tribunal on Bilingual Higher Education that toured the province in 1969, hearing briefs from interested parties. Two briefs were submitted by Acadians from Sydney, while three came from New Waterford. Members of the Cercle Évangéline began their brief by stating that they were French Acadians in their heart and soul and that they would remain so until they died: “Acadiens français nous le sommes de coeur et d’âme: Nous le serons et nous espérons y mourir.”73 Joseph Boudreau presented a brief in his own name, recounting his inability to ensure that his children become truly bilingual because of a lack of educational opportunities. In his judgment, the tribunal had arrived twenty-five years too late.74 Finally, the one submitted by Sister Ermine d’Entremont of New Waterford explained that adults in the community remained attached to their French culture but that young people preferred to mix with their English-speaking neighbours out of fear of being accused of forming a “ghetto.”75

In 1969, the federal government adopted the Official Languages Act, giving the French language equal footing with English, and two years later, the Canadian secretary of state began a program of financial assistance for educational institutions serving members of official language minority groups.76 Ironically, this happened at the exact time when the French program that had existed for fifty years at Mount Carmel School was being abolished, the Acadian population in New Waterford having become anglicized to the point where it was no longer viable.77

In 1972, the FANE helped carry out a survey among families of French origin in Sydney and New Waterford. Many of the 342 respondents told of how they had been pressured to hide their Acadian identity in order to be accepted by the Anglophone population. Some stressed the necessity to speak English at workplaces such as the Sydney Steel Plant as the main reason for their failure to retain the French language. One striking example of the pressure to assimilate was provided by an Acadian by the name of Lelièvre, who recounted his first day at school in Glace Bay, when his teacher informed him that his name would henceforth be “Rabbit” (the word lièvre being French for hare). Upon his return home, the boy’s mother reacted angrily to the news and insisted that her son’s name not be translated into English.78

By 1972, many Acadians had simply accepted to blend into their English-speaking environment, to the point where some individuals who had a French-language upbringing pretended never to have spoken the language.79 In many cases, Acadians who had suffered discrimination because of their French accent chose to raise their children in English so they would not be subjected to the same abuse as their parents. Some parents were even directly pressured by school officials to abandon their language. In one example, the parents of a child who was experiencing learning difficulties were told by school administrators in Sydney to stop speaking French to their children at home. Living in such a toxic environment, many children grew up in the 1950s and 1960s with a stigma associated with the French language and never acquired the ability to communicate in their mother tongue.80

The scars caused by discrimination have had lasting effects on many individuals, and the harm done to Acadians by schools in Industrial Cape Breton has never been acknowledged. Even today, Acadians in Industrial Cape Breton hesitate to discuss language discrimination, as in the following quote: “You made sure that you didn’t have a French accent. That was kind of like . . . you didn’t want to be . . . you know. . . . So that was one of the things too, that was strong. Although you didn’t . . . I don’t remember being shunned or anything because you were Acadian.”81

A New Awakening in the 1980s

A new era began for Acadians in Industrial Cape Breton in the 1980s. Until then, efforts to promote the French language had been led by members of Acadian community organizations, but new allies were arriving on the scene with the expansion of French instruction at the University College of Cape Breton (UCCB) and at the Canadian Coast Guard College. The decentralization of federal government departments also brought more francophones to the Sydney area.82 While working-class Acadians from the Chéticamp-Margaree area had dominated the French-speaking community in Industrial Cape Breton since the beginning of the twentieth century, many newly arrived francophones were highly educated professionals who were keen on obtaining French-language educational services.

The first sign of a reawakening of French culture in Industrial Cape Breton was the establishment of a cultural organization called En français by UCCB professors in 1980. The club organized Acadian musical evenings at the Cedars Club in Sydney as well as French-language events on the UCCB campus. It helped make French culture visible by participating in UCCB theatre festivals and in the 1985 Sydney Bicentennial.83

Local francophones were encouraged in 1981 when the province of Nova Scotia adopted Bill No. 65, stating that public funds would be made available for instruction to be carried out in the French language “in a school section in which there is a sufficient number of children whose first language learned and still understood is French.”84 Interested parents began to organize, and in 1983, the creation of the Committee for French Education (Comité pour l’éducation française) formalized the process, with Dr. Laurent Lavoie as president. In January 1984, this group held public meetings in Sydney, Reserve Mines, Glace Bay, and New Waterford.

Much of the discussion on the topic of French education was centred on the merits of French immersion programs. An early French immersion program established by the provincial education department as a pilot project at Woodill School in Sydney in 1978 faced resistance from some of the teachers who shared the school.85 Several members of the local school board also expressed their opposition to the program. As a result, at a time when early immersion programs were being established in school districts all around the province, the Cape Breton School Board decided to go in the opposite direction. The Sydney area eventually became the only one in the province where no French immersion program was offered before grade 7, a situation that has continued to the present day.

In the 1980s, many Acadian parents in the Sydney area thought the best plan of action would be to lobby for a comprehensive French immersion program, believing it was unrealistic to ask for the creation of an entirely French school. Nevertheless, members of the Committee for French Education argued in favour of the French school option, believing that students could only truly become fluent in the language if they studied in a French-speaking environment. In early 1984, the committee hired a researcher who carried out an “Acadian school study,” canvassing francophone families everywhere in Industrial Cape Breton. When the results were tabulated, the committee came to a figure of 666 families whose children could be eligible for minority-language education rights.86

In October of 1984, the Committee for French Education presented the Cape Breton District School Board with a seventy-five-page brief outlining in detail the need for a French-language school. School board representatives refused to act on the report, and committee members then began to explore the possibility of taking legal action.87 The following year, the school board carried out a preliminary survey of its own.88 It sponsored a newspaper advertisement in April 1986 asking parents who were in favour of enrolling their children in a French school to call its offices in order to have their eligibility verified through an interview before school board officials. Given the intimidating aspect of the process, the response was predictably low, with only ninety-seven children being judged eligible. Based on those results, the board tabled the question.89 This led the Cape Breton Post to publish an editorial criticizing the school board for “treating the parents group with neglect, if not outright disdain, rather than cooperation.”90

The Committee for French Education finally began formal court proceedings in December 1986, asking not only for the establishment of an Acadian school in the Sydney area but also for the creation of a separate school board for the province’s French schools.91 The matter was becoming politically charged, as both provincial opposition Liberal leader Vince MacLean and New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Alexa McDonough spoke out in favour of the campaign.92 Given the questionable results of the survey carried out by the school board in 1986, the provincial education minister hired Dr. Brian Joseph, sociology professor at UCCB, to complete a new independent study.93 Results made public in April 1987 showed that 430 children in the Sydney area would, in effect, qualify for French-language instruction. As the school board once again refused to act, the Committee for French Education sought an injunction from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in order to resolve the matter. The committee now had a strong legal argument with which to challenge the board, given that minority-language rights were enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Finally, in February 1988, Justice Doane Hallett ordered the Cape Breton District School Board to begin offering French-language instruction from grades primary to 8 beginning in September.94

The next hurdle to overcome involved the choice of a suitable location for the school. The school board proposed using a section of the underutilized Breton Education Centre in New Waterford. This location was strongly opposed by the Committee for French Education, who argued that most of the pupils would have to travel twenty kilometres to attend the school.95 The fact that the proposal to situate the school in New Waterford met with little local support shows the extent to which the Acadian community there had declined. After fighting for French-language education for half a century, from 1918 until the late 1960s, the Acadians of New Waterford finally abandoned the cause. Twenty years later, when the opportunity to achieve their long-time goal finally arose, it was simply too late, as the French language had all but disappeared in the community.

The province’s Supreme Court was again called upon to resolve the dispute, and when in March 1988, Justice Hallett instructed school board officials to find a site other than New Waterford for the new school, the Cape Breton District School Board once again appealed the decision.96 The extraordinary measures taken by the board to prevent access to French-language instruction in the Sydney area were unprecedented anywhere in Canada, and the conflict then began to attract the attention of the national media. Nowhere else in the country had a school board fought so adamantly against the provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms regarding minority-language education.

In April 1988, the school board ruled that the cost of renovating a school building in Sydney would be prohibitive. This led the Committee for French Education to undertake contempt-of-court proceedings. The province then stepped in to settle the matter by offering to cover the renovation costs for a school on Mira Road on the outskirts of Sydney.97 Having no choice but to accept this offer, the board put up one final hurdle, setting up a last-minute registration process and questioning whether the school would have enough pupils to open. The tardiness of the planning process made it virtually impossible for a new school to be ready within weeks, and the board obtained the right to put a halt to the project, arguing that the number of pupils was insufficient.98

After repeatedly opposing requests for a French-language school, the Cape Breton District School Board then sought a legal argument to put an end to the process. By that time, national attention was being centred on the dispute and francophone minorities throughout the country were interested in the outcome. A Globe and Mail editorial entitled “A School for Sydney” was published on September 2. It concluded with the following: “The importance of this school goes far beyond 50 pupils. It has great significance for the community as a whole, a recognition that the language of the Acadians has a working future in the province. Education Minister Ronald Giffin and the Cape Breton board should give the Sydney school the green light.”99

The Committee for French Education appealed the decision not to go ahead with the school project and won a unanimous verdict from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court Appeal Division on 30 March 1989. The Sydney-based Committee for French Education had successfully taken on not only the regional school board but also the provincial government. They had also convinced many skeptical Acadian families that the time had finally come for French-language education in their community.100

Being forced to act upon the decision quickly, school board officials made space available in Cornwallis School in Sydney for French instruction from the primary level to grade 8. Such was their reluctance to permit the establishment of French instruction that the school board neglected to offer employment contracts to the three new teachers hired for the program, and the process was only completed the day before the beginning of classes in September 1989, following an urgent reminder from the coordinator of the French program.101

Despite its humble beginnings, the establishment of a French education program at Cornwallis School marked a victory for francophone families, but it was only one step in the long fight for minority-language rights. In other areas in the Maritimes, francophones were provided with new schools for their children and enrolments grew quickly.102 In Sydney, however, the process was slowed down by the fact that families had to make do with temporary facilities until enrolments warranted the construction of an independent school.

Laying the Foundation for a New Acadian Community (1990– )

With support from the FANE, parents began a new campaign in 1991, seeking to obtain an entirely French school that would have the visibility necessary to attract francophones from the entire Sydney area. Their request included the addition of a community centre, inspired by a model first developed in Fredericton, New Brunswick, that brought French-language education and francophone community services together under the same roof.103

At the same time as parents were lobbying for the construction of a new school and community centre, they were able to establish a direct line of communication between Cornwallis School and provincial education officials. On a national level, they provided an example of how francophones living in minority areas could obtain a level of control over their schools. It was in part thanks to their efforts that in 1996, the provincial government agreed to put all French schools under the umbrella of a new French-language school board, the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP). The plan included a gradual transition from Nova Scotia’s bilingual “Acadian” school program to an entirely French-language system.104

That same year, French classes were moved from Cornwallis School to a former vocational school in downtown Sydney. Plans were made for the expansion and renovation of the building, and the Centre scolaire communautaire Étoile de l’Acadie was officially opened in April 1999 by Sheila Copps, minister of Canadian heritage. At the official opening of the new facility, Nova Scotia Education and Culture Minister Wayne Gaudet declared, “This event will be remembered as a great day for the Acadian community in Industrial Cape Breton. The opening of the Centre scolaire communautaire Étoile de l’Acadie will help ensure the Acadian star continues to shine in Cape Breton.”105

The school was planned to accommodate approximately 150 pupils from grades primary to 12, with room for expansion. Over the years, the number of pupils has constantly increased, reaching a total of three hundred by 2020. A closer look at statistics, however, paints a less optimistic picture. The numbers are highest at the elementary and middle school level, while the majority of pupils choose to transfer to English-language institutions after completing grades 7 or 8. In 2022, for example, only three twelfth graders remained at Étoile de l’Acadie. This puts in doubt the success of efforts to build a strong attachment to francophone identity among students. Gisèle Belliveau, a long-time teacher and principal at Étoile-de-l’Acadie, believes that a school alone cannot produce a vibrant francophone culture.106 For the past twenty years, the Centre communautaire Étoile de l’Acadie has complemented the school’s activities, serving as a gathering place for francophones in the Sydney area, but its efforts have met with limited success, as the cultural activities taking place there generally attract few participants.

Despite attempts to build a new francophone community in Industrial Cape Breton, Acadian culture still has very little visibility there, and contrary to the wishes expressed by Wayne Gaudet in 1999, the “Acadian star” does not shine in the Sydney area. The process of language assimilation that took place during most of the twentieth century has resulted in a situation where the remnants of an Acadian community have all but disappeared in Industrial Cape Breton. The renewal of Acadian communities in the Maritimes after their complete destruction in the mid-eighteenth century is rightly celebrated as the victory of a proud people who refused to lose their identity. But it is often forgotten that the success stories are largely confined to Eastern and Northern New Brunswick and to a lesser extent to the small pockets of francophone presence that persist today in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Industrial Cape Breton provides us with a prime example of an area of Acadian settlement that suffered a steep decline rather than a renewal. It highlights how the obstacles faced by members of a minority-language group living in an uncooperative environment can sometimes be unsurmountable.

Recognizing the fact that few signs remain of three centuries of Acadian presence in Industrial Cape Breton, it is obvious that the lack of French schooling played a determining role in bringing about this negative outcome. One can only conclude that Joseph Boudreau was right to declare, in his 1969 brief to the Tribunal on Bilingual Higher Education, that the province of Nova Scotia had awakened to the need for French-language schooling twenty-five years too late. There was a potential to build a strong bilingual community in Industrial Cape Breton during the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in New Waterford, where French-speaking families were denied language rights for three generations. The battle for minority education rights was finally won thanks to the tireless efforts of a group of determined parents, but the descendants of the Acadian settlers in the area were no longer able to taste the victory, having lost their language and much of their cultural heritage. The outcome was unfortunate not only for the Acadian community but also for Industrial Cape Breton itself, as the area would have reaped enormous economic and social benefits by becoming Nova Scotia’s only bilingual urban centre.

Notes

1. 1. Mouhot, Les réfugiés acadiens en France, 343.

2. 2. Vachon, “Les Acadiens de Little Bras d’Or, 1758–1859,” 82.

3. 3. Arthur de Gobineau, known by his title “Comte de Gobineau,” acquired an infamous reputation because of his Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines, published between 1853 and 1855, a blatantly racist study that had a marked influence on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Far Right movements and was a source of inspiration for members of the Nazi regime in Germany.

4. 4. Gobineau, Voyage à Terre-Neuve, 102–3: “Presque tous ils ont à demi oublié ou plutôt n’ont jamais bien su l’idiome de leurs pères, et quand ils veulent s’en servir, ils le manient comme une langue étrangère et fort mal.”

5. 5. Bourinot, Historical and Descriptive Account, 103.

6. 6. Bourinot, 104.

7. 7. Ph.-F. Bourgeois, Réunion plénière des Acadiens, 1900, SB-13, Beaton Institute Archives (BI), Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

8. 8. d’Entremont, “La Survivance acadienne en Nouvelle-Angleterre,” 15.

9. 9. Boudreau, Chéticamp—Mémoires, 33–37.

10. 10. Noted from participants at an evening of storytelling, Glace Bay Public Library, Glace Bay, NS, 28 May 2015.

11. 11. SYSCO Steelworker Records—Cumulative List, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

12. 12. Gérald Aucoin (retired schoolteacher), in discussion with the author, Dartmouth, NS, 28 April 2013.

13. 13. Contacts established through Sydney’s francophone community centre, Le Centre communautaire Étoile-de-l’Acadie, greatly facilitated the process, although many of the interview sessions took place in the interviewees’ homes. In each case, informants were simply encouraged to recount their family’s history from the time of the arrival of their parents or grandparents in Industrial Cape Breton. Nearly all the interviews were conducted in French, and this had a positive effect on the outcome because the interviewees were able to use the language that was intimately linked to their memories of family life in the past.

14. 14. J. J. Chiasson, Un petit résumé de ma vie, unpublished memoirs, 1925–1972, private collection of Elmira Dingwall. Translated by author.

15. 15. J. J. Chiasson, interview by Elizabeth Beaton, 1980, T-1157, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

16. 16. Aucoin, L’oiseau de la verité et autres contes des pêcheurs acadiens du Cap-Breton.

17. 17. Nova Scotia Archives, “Men in the Mines,” https://novascotia.ca/archives/meninmines/timeline.asp?Language=English#1860.

18. 18. Hubert Muise, interview by Leslie MacLean, 1984, T-2159, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

19. 19. Richard Chiasson, interview by author, tape recording, New Waterford, NS, 9 December 2014.

20. 20. Joe Aucoin, interview by author, tape recording, New Waterford, NS, 5 May 2016.

21. 21. Joseph Muise, interview by author, tape recording, New Waterford, NS, 19 August 2015.

22. 22. Joseph Muise, interview by author, tape recording, New Waterford, NS, 19 August 2015.

23. 23. Assomption Compagnie, Assumption Life.

24. 24. Léger, Les grandes lignes de l’histoire de la Société l’Assomption.

25. 25. L’Assomption 2, no. 1 (1911): 7.

26. 26. L’Assomption 3, no. 9 (1912): 8.

27. 27. Léger, Les grandes lignes de l’histoire, 90.

28. 28. L’Assomption 5, nos. 8–9 (1914): 5.

29. 29. Chiasson, “Fiset, Pierre,” http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/fiset_pierre_13E.html.

30. 30. L’Assomption 1, no. 3 (1910): 7; L’Assomption 4, no. 2 (1913): 7.

31. 31. L’Assomption 2, no. 4 (1911): 3.

32. 32. “Répertoire numérique détaillé,” fond 77, La Société l’Assomption, Centre d’études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson (CEAAC), Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB.

33. 33. Léger, Les grandes lignes de l’histoire, 258–60.

34. 34. L’Assomption 2, no. 8 (1911): 3.

35. 35. LeBlanc, Postcards from Acadie, 118–20.

36. 36. LeBlanc, 247–51.

37. 37. Mount Carmel Jubilee Booklet (New Waterford, NS: n.p., 1935), 35.

38. 38. In 1895, Pascal Poirier listed the names of twenty schoolteachers who taught in French in various local schools in Inverness and Richmond Counties; fond 6, box 3, folder 1, Pascal Poirier Fonds, CEAAC, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB.

39. 39. Minutes of School Board Meetings, New Waterford 1910–1943, fond 14, box 25B, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

40. 40. School Days (New Waterford, NS, 1923), 4–6.

41. 41. “Be Bilingual,” Student Community Service Group (New Waterford, NS, ca. 1970).

42. 42. Minutes of School Board Meetings, New Waterford 1910–1943, fond 14, box 25B, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney. Entry dated 16 July 1923.

43. 43. Minutes of School Board Meetings, New Waterford 1910–1943, fond 14, box 25B, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney. Entries dated 1 June 1927, 9 September 1927, 1 June 1928, 5 May 1929, 30 March 1930, 26 August 1930, 18 June 1931, 12 September 1931, 22 October 1931.

44. 44. Richard Chiasson, interview by author, tape recording, New Waterford, NS, 9 December 2014.

45. 45. Chiasson, interview. Translation by author.

46. 46. Marie-Julie Lefort, interview by author, tape recording, New Waterford, NS, 26 May 2015.

47. 47. Although the question of deciding whether to relocate to Chéticamp was not raised directly in interviews conducted by the author, Josephine LeBlanc, Denise Deveau, and Delphin Muise each addressed the topic spontaneously, and all three expressed similar opinions.

48. 48. Joseph and Thérèse Cormier, interview by author, tape recording, Sydney, NS, 16 December 2014.

49. 49. Joseph Boudreau, interview by Elizabeth Beaton, Ethnic Corner, Sydney Community Television, 6 February 1989, FT-1 videotape collection, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

50. 50. Longfellow, Evangeline.

51. 51. For information on Évangéline as a symbol of Acadian identity, see LeBlanc, Postcards from Acadie.

52. 52. Boudreau, interview.

53. 53. Cape Breton Post, 3 August 1963, 42.

54. 54. “Assumption Society Active Organization,” Cape Breton Post, 31 January 1964, 13.

55. 55. Cercle Évangéline correspondence, 10 February 1963, New Waterford Historical Society, New Waterford, NS.

56. 56. Boudreau, interview.

57. 57. Minutes of La Société l’Assomption meeting, 15 June 1958, New Waterford Historical Society, New Waterford, NS.

58. 58. L’Assomption 12 (7–8 August–September 1960): 5.

59. 59. Gallant, “Henri P. LeBlanc et l’Acadie,” 40–59.

60. 60. Fond 24, box 6, folder 1, Henri P. Le Blanc Fonds, CEAAC, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB.

61. 61. Albert Boudreau, interview by author, tape recording, Sydney, NS, 3 February 2016.

62. 62. A. Boudreau, interview.

63. 63. “An Acadian School—Brief Presented to the Cape Breton District School Board on October 24th, 1984 by the Committee for French Education” (unpublished manuscript, n.d.), typescript, 11–12.

64. 64. Minutes of La Société l’Assomption meeting, 20 August 1958, New Waterford Historical Society, New Waterford, NS.

65. 65. Doucet, “Le rôle de Mgr. Charbonneau.”

66. 66. L’Assomption 12, nos. 7–8 (August–September 1960): 3.

67. 67. L’Assomption, 3.

68. 68. New Waterford Historical Society, Programme Souvenir.

69. 69. “Répertoire numérique détaillé,” fond 77, folders 145–46, La Société l’Assomption, CEAAC, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB.

70. 70. Cercle Évangéline correspondence, 4 February 1968, New Waterford Historical Society, New Waterford, NS.

71. 71. Cercle Évangéline correspondence, 30 June 1971, New Waterford Historical Society, New Waterford, NS.

72. 72. Boutilier, New Waterford 3 Generations, 145.

73. 73. “Pour présentation au tribunal sur l’enseignement supérieur bilingue en Nouvelle-Écosse par les membres du cercle Évangéline,” 1969, Beaton Institute Reports—Education, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

74. 74. Joseph Boudreau, “Mémoire présenté au tribunal au sujet de l’enseignement du français en Nouvelle-Écosse,” 1969, Beaton Institute Reports—Education, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

75. 75. Ermine d’Entremont, “À l’égard de la cause française à New Waterford,” 1969, Beaton Institute Reports—Education, BI, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

76. 76. “Acadian School,” 5.

77. 77. “Acadian School,” 7–8.

78. 78. Anne-Marie Curry, interview by author, tape recording, Sydney, NS, 1 October 2015.

79. 79. Curry, interview.

80. 80. Noted from participants at a community oral history gathering held at the Centre communautaire Étoile-de-l’Acadie, Sydney, NS, 16 June 2015.

81. 81. Claudette Chiasson, interview by author, tape recording, Sydney Mines, NS, 10 May 2016.

82. 82. Gisèle Lavoie, interview by author, tape recording, Sydney River, NS, 6 November 2015.

83. 83. “Acadian School,” 12.

84. 84. “Acadian School,” app. 1-A.

85. 85. “Acadian School,” app. 1-A.

86. 86. “Acadian School,” 29.

87. 87. “Parents Threaten Court Action to Back Demands for School,” Cape Breton Post, 27 December 1984.

88. 88. Lavoie v. N.S. (1988), 84 N.S.R.(2d) 387 (TD).

89. 89. “Board Says ‘Non’ to French School,” Cape Breton Post, May 1986.

90. 90. “Acadian School Mistake,” Cape Breton Post, 21 June 1986, 4.

91. 91. “La cour décidera de l’éducation française,” Le Courrier de la Nouvelle-Écosse, 10 December 1986, 1.

92. 92. “Mon enfant sera bilingue / My Child Will Be Bilingual,” Cape Breton Post, February 1987.

93. 93. “Minister Orders Second Survey,” Cape Breton Post, February 1987.

94. 94. Lavoie v. Cape Breton District School Board, app. C: Decisions and Orders in the Lavoie Case.

95. 95. “New Waterford Too Far for Francophones,” Cape Breton Post, 9 January 1988.

96. 96. “Province Backs Sydney French School,” Halifax Mail-Star, 6 April 1988, 10.

97. 97. “Province Backs,” 10.

98. 98. “Too Few French Students for School,” Halifax Mail-Star, 31 August 1988.

99. 99. “A School in Sydney,” editorial, Globe and Mail, 2 September 1988.

100. 100. Laurent Lavoie, interview by author, tape recording, Sydney River, NS, 28 April 2015.

101. 101. Doreen Côté McKinley, interview by author, tape recording, Sydney, NS, 17 October 2019.

102. 102. “Long Battle Ends Positively for French School Advocates,” Cape Breton Post, 31 March 1989, 11.

103. 103. Allain, “Innovation organisationnelle acadienne,” 151.

104. 104. Allain, 151.

105. 105. Province of Nova Scotia, “News Release—April 22nd, 1999,” https://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=19990423001.

106. 106. Gisèle Belliveau, interview by author, tape recording, Sydney, NS, 28 July 2015.

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