Episode 2: Louis Riel and French Rights During Manitoba’s Inception
In 2020 Manitoba celebrated its 150th birthday. French has been spoken in Manitoba since its inception as a province and long before that. Today we explore the fascinating and tumultuous history of French in Manitoba.
This is the first of our two episodes exploring the history of French in Manitoba. Today we look at the crucial role Louis Riel and the Metis played in ensuring French and English rights were enshrined in Manitoba’s constitution. We then investigate how French rights were not respected and how French education was curtailed for several decades. To guide us on this historical tour we’ve invited the historian Jacqueline Blay.
For more information on Beyond Riel please visit: https://umfm.com/series/beyond...
Executive producers for the podcast are Ian T.D. Thomson and André Marchildon.
Our technical producer is Frédérick Demers, and our consulting producer is Gabriel Tougas.
Music for the series is provided by Rayannah.
Guests
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Jacqueline Blay
Jacqueline Blay, who previously lived in Algeria, France and Spain, immigrated to Canada in the mid-sixties and studied Canadian and Manitoban history. As a reporter for Radio-Canada, she covered these important files and wrote several books on the history of Francophones in Manitoba.
Jacqueline previously served as president of the Société de la francophonie manitobaine, the SFM, which has represented French speaking Manitobans since 1968.
Jacqueline has received numerous awards including the Order of Manitoba, the province’s highest honour for her commitment to Francophone heritage.
You can find the books Jacqueline has written on the history of French in Manitoba here.