Defending the Franco-Ontarian flag so that it is raised again at Greenstone, writing and producing a play on queer Franco-Ontarian issues and being a leading figure in women’s economic empowerment… Activist Claudette Gleeson, the young poet laureate of Greater Sudbury, Alex Tétreault, and Ethel Côté, all Franco-Ontarians, have stepped up their efforts to reaffirm their rights, despite timid provincial progress. Efforts highlighted for the year 2024 by the List of influential personalities of the Canadian Francophonie, which is marking its tenth edition.
“This list is a celebration of our cultural heritage and those who carry it with passion,” underlines the honorary president, Natalie Robichaud, who was one of the people registered for the 2023 List. Nominations are submitted by the French-speaking newspapers in a minority environment and studied by the jury, made up of representatives of Francopresse and personalities named in previous editions.
“I’m still a little on edge. I didn’t expect it,” explains Alex Tétreault, playwright and community activist who appears on the List.
His year started off strong. In January, he won the Audace Réseau Ontario prize — which recognizes works that will reach a new audience — and the Alliance Acadie prize for his play Nickel City Fiveswhose story takes place in a gay bar in Sudbury and whose text was published by Prize de parole in September. Since June, he has been the Poet Laureate of Greater Sudbury. Finally, he acts as president of Théâtre Action.
“When we are in a small, remote community in the region, we don’t often feel that what we do will reach further than where we live,” he says. For him, its success is proof that spectators are thirsty to see their community from a different perspective, tinged with “humor, kindness and love”. And he hopes that the next generation will have more opportunities to work and that culture will be more valued, so that the stories told there are more diverse.
The Franco-Ontarian flag at Greenstone: a struggle that continues
Claudette Gleeson’s wish for the year 2025 is quite different. This is because she will have to continue the fight that she started this year and for which she is included in the Palmarès.
“The Franco-Ontarian flag is symbolic, it’s emotional. For a Francophone who cannot get his services in French, the flag reinforces his reason for being. […] I saw on the faces of people who were at the last meeting and who come from there […]they wanted to scream,” she emphasizes.
Last February, the council of the municipality of northwestern Ontario removed the Franco-Ontarian flag which was permanently raised in front of the city’s administrative building. The latter then wanted to be able to display the flag of the indigenous cause Every Child Matters in a process of reconciliation, and the purchase of a new flag would be too expensive, according to the City. But Franco-Ontarians are worried about the ripple effect that the measure could have on other municipalities.
Petition, deputation before the municipal council, campaign to adorn the city with more than a hundred green and white flags in preparation for Franco-Ontarian Day: Claudette Gleeson has stepped up her efforts to turn the tide. On September 25, 2025, the Franco-Ontarian flag will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Mme Gleeson also chairs several key organizations in the northwest: the Association des francophones du Nord-Ouest de l’Ontario, the Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales, Accueil francophone de Thunder Bay and the Center francophone from Thunder Bay. And the Francophone issues are numerous, according to her, especially in terms of education and seniors, who are invisible.
Ethel Côté, pioneer of social innovation and the economy
Qualified in the press release Francopresse “pioneer of social innovation, champion of the solidarity economy and figurehead of women’s economic empowerment”, Ethel Côté, who died of cancer last October, received the tribute posthumously.
She was the founding president of La nouvelle scène in Ottawa, former executive director of ImpactON, founder of mécènESS — a social innovation company —, member of the Provincial Advisory Committee on Francophone Affairs and associate professor at the University of Ontario French.
In addition to setting up La nouvelle scène, Ethel Côté has worked on multiple cultural projects, from the programming of the Youth Festival to the strategic planning of Place des Arts du Grand Sudbury.
She has been inducted into the Order of Credit Unions of Ontario, the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada. In 2015, the UN named her a champion of women’s economic empowerment.
