{"id":25773,"date":"2024-03-18T15:48:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T19:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/?post_type=nouvelles&#038;p=25773"},"modified":"2024-03-18T15:48:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T19:48:39","slug":"happy-international-day-of-the-francophonie","status":"publish","type":"nouvelles","link":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/news\/happy-international-day-of-the-francophonie\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy International Day of the Francophonie!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s almost March 20th, the International Day of the Francophonie. This day celebrates the power of the French language(s) to bring peoples and cultures together as a tool for mutual understanding and peace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On March 20th, 1970, 21 state governments (including Canada) came together in Niamey, the capital city of Niger, to sign the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.francophonie.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2019-09\/acct-textes-fondamentaux-1970-convention-et-charte-3.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Agence de coop\u00e9ration culturelle et technique<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(ACCT). This international convention was intended to promote cultural and technological exchanges among French-speaking countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twenty-eight years later, the ACCT became the Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie. In 2005, it adopted the Charter of the Francophonie and changed its name to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.francophonie.org\/lorganisation-internationale-de-la-francophonie-81\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which it is today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The OIF brings together 88 world states and regional governments, including Quebec and New Brunswick. It facilitates cooperation between its members on cultural, political, and economic issues. It promotes the French language and linguistic diversity as well as democracy, peace, intercultural dialogue, education, and sustainable development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the OIF\u2019s 2022 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.francophonie.org\/la-langue-francaise-dans-le-monde-305\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">La langue fran\u00e7aise dans le monde<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> report, the Francophonie is \u201cmultiple in its words, in its accents, (and) in its ways of saying things&#8221;. Globally, the Francophonie brings together 321 million speakers with many different origins, cultures, and beliefs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Canada, about 22% of Canadians hold French as their first official language spoken, but according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clo-ocol.gc.ca\/en\/tools-resources\/snapshots-official-languages-canada#can\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canada\u2019s 2021 census<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the demographic weight of Francophones outside of Quebec has declined to 3.5%. However, this varies widely from community to community and province to province \u2014 in New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual, Francophones make up almost a third of the province\u2019s population. Canada\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/canadian-heritage\/services\/official-languages-bilingualism\/official-languages-action-plan\/2023-2028.html#a7\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Action Plan for Official Languages 2023\u20132028<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> lays out 32 measures to lay the groundwork for substantive equality between English and French in Canada, including measures to increase the demographic weight of French outside of Quebec.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Canada School of Public Service and Canadian Heritage are hosting an event on March 20th to highlight the importance of French and Francophone culture in Canada and celebrate our differences and similarities. You can register on the RVF\u2019s website <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/activities\/international-francophonie-day\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As an Anglophone who is not fluent in French (but learning!), it&#8217;s a privilege to be part of that dialogue, and to celebrate this day with the RVF and Francophones everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bonne journ\u00e9e \u00e0 tous!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Catherine Fisher, blogger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":25776,"parent":0,"template":"","categorie-de-nouvelle":[66],"class_list":["post-25773","nouvelles","type-nouvelles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorie-de-nouvelle-international-francophonie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nouvelles\/25773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nouvelles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nouvelles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categorie-de-nouvelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvf.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categorie-de-nouvelle?post=25773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}