The Battle of Saint-Léonard: the forgotten struggle at the origin of Law 101

Raymond Lemieux and Mario Barone: two names practically erased from memories, but whose fierce struggle in 1969 around the language of instruction in schools laid the foundations of Law 101, adopted in 1977.

This fascinating chapter in Quebec history is at the heart of the documentary The Battle of Saint-Léonardby Félix Rose, which hits theaters on Friday.

In 1969, the Montreal district of Saint-Léonard, with a large Italian population, was shaken by a linguistic crisis that would transform Quebec society.

This conflict pits French-speaking parents demanding exclusively French schools against families of Italian origin, who defend the maintenance of bilingual education for their children.

I think that the Saint-Léonard crisis was forgotten because it ended in a kind of failure: we applied free choice [de la langue d’enseignement] with the Bill 63a very unpopular lawexplains Félix Rose. This will only be corrected later with Camille Laurin and the arrival of law 101.

The director discovered this chapter of history while filming his documentary The Roseson the history of his activist family, including his father Paul Rose, member of the FLQ.

We remember people who achieve things, but we often remember very little of the people who plowed the ground before, like Raymond Lemieux and Mario Barone.

Two men driven by their convictions

Nothing predestined Raymond Lemieux and Mario Barone to cross swords at the end of the 1960s in Saint-Léonard. The first is an architect who was born in Montreal in 1933 to an English-speaking father of French-Canadian descent and a mother of Irish origin, both born in the United States.

The second left Italy for the Quebec metropolis after the Second World War, first working in a junkyard before becoming a successful real estate entrepreneur. It was also he who developed the Saint-Léonard district, building dozens and dozens of duplexes on deserted land that no one wanted.

It was while working in factories that Raymond Lemieux realized the gap that separated English-speakers and French-speakers on the social scale.

He understood that the language of the rich was English and that the language of the poor was French.explains Félix Rose. He married a French-speaking woman and became a Francophile, a defender of the French language.

For his part, Mario Barone had nothing against French, a language that he insisted on learning upon his arrival in Quebec and that he imposed on his eight children. But he was very keen on English, which was the language of business owners, the key to achieving higher status.

Riots and arrest for sedition

At the end of the sixties, the conflict grew, with Mario Barone, recently elected municipal councilor of Saint-Léonard, and Raymond Lemieux, who founded the Movement for School Integration (MIS) in 1968, which campaigned for exclusively French schools.

September 10 will mark the violent climax of this struggle over the language of instruction as a peaceful demonstration degenerates into a riot.

Vandalism, fires, scuffles… Around a hundred people were injured and the mayor of Saint-Léonard Léo Ouellet decreed the application of the Riots Act, while Raymond Lemieux was arrested and accused of sedition (he was later acquitted). late). The next day, Mario Barone will be the target of a bomb attack in his own home.

Two months later, Prime Minister Jean-Jacques Bertrand – successor to his Union nationale colleague Daniel Johnson – will adopt the Act on the protection of the French language in Quebec, or the Bill 63which makes the teaching of French compulsory in English-language schools, but also grants parents the right to choose the language of instruction for their children. Raymond Lemieux lost his fight.

It’s a bit ironic, because the Union Nationale has long been the party of French speakers. But Bertrand comes from a liberal family, he was probably the most federalist of the people in the National Unionexplains Félix Rose. There was also an electoral desire to have the vote of the English, who had never voted for the National Union.

The dark side of activism

Minister Bertrand’s decision will be hotly contested in the years that follow. After its defeat at the hands of Robert Bourassa in 1970, the Liberal Party of Quebec, then the Parti Québécois, worked to rectify the situation, leading to the adoption in 1977 of the Charter of the French Language, or Law 101. This stipulates notably that education in French becomes compulsory for immigrants.

Beyond the political fight, Félix Rose’s film highlights the effects of activism on the personal lives of those who carry the fight, often to the detriment of their career and their family.

Raymond Lemieux and Mario Barone chose to fight for their beliefs, but not necessarily for their family. On the Lemieux side, it breaks up the family, and on the Barone side, they find themselves with a bomb attack at home, which creates trauma.

The latter hopes that his documentary will restore their place in history to its two protagonists, while acting as a warning. I wanted to shed light on the past to better understand the present. We are still experiencing the same debates in terms of language, immigrationhe explains. I hope it will invite dialogue and also show how far things can go if we’re not careful.