A committed parliamentarian and a great defender of democratic values and the French fact in Canada, Mauril Bélanger spent his career supporting minority groups and promoting the Franco-Ontarian community. The University of Ottawa, the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Citizenship and Minorities (CIRCEM), in collaboration with Library and Archives Canada (LAC), are proud to present this lecture series in honour of the late Mauril Bélanger. Led by CIRCEM and thanks to the generous financial contribution of the Fondation Famille Bertrand, these lectures will focus on the major issues that Mr. Bélanger advocated for during his political career. Themes will be chosen by archivists from LAC, which is the custodian of Mr. Bélanger’s written works.
The first lecture in the Mauril Bélanger Lecture Series is entitled “New Frontiers: The Dynamics of Francophone Space in the Capital“. Francophone spaces in Canada have undergone many transformations over the last 25 years, largely as a result of immigration. Changes have been particularly significant in the National Capital Region, which in terms of growth has one of the most dynamic Francophone communities in the country. The event will feature a panel of experts who will analyze these changes and discuss their effects on Canada’s social fabric.
- Keynote speaker: Anne Gilbert, Professor Emeritus, Geography, and co-founder of CIRCEM, University of Ottawa
- Commentators: Jean-Pierre Corbeil, Assistant Director, Centre for Ethnocultural, Language and Immigration Statistics, Statistics Canada, and Brian Ray, Vice-Dean of Research, Faculty of Arts, and Associate Professor, Geography, University of Ottawa
The event will be primarily in French. Simultaneous translation will be available.
Thursday, February 15, 2018, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Library and Archives Canada
Pellan Room, 2nd Floor
395 Wellington Street, Ottawa
Register online
Anne Gilbert is Professor Emeritus in the Geography Department at the University of Ottawa, where she conducts studies on official-language minority communities in Canada. By considering Anglo-Saxon and French perspectives on geography, she explores these communities’ lived and imagined spaces on various scales, the evolution of their territory, and spatial issues regarding their development. In September 2013, Ms. Gilbert received the Ordre des francophones d’Amérique, and she was named the 2013 person of the year in the field of education by Le Droit and Radio‐Canada. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada.
Jean-Pierre Corbeil is Assistant Director in the Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division and is in charge of the Center for Ethnocultural, language and immigration statistics at Statistics Canada. After having completed a B.A. and M.A. at McGill University, he earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the Université de Montréal. He has been working in the field of Language Statistics and studying Canada’s linguistic dynamics for close to 20 years. Throughout his career at Statistics Canada, he has published numerous monographs, articles and studies on Canada’s language dynamics and has given many presentations on this topic in various regions across the country. Among other responsibilities, he has been a member of the “Comité de suivi de la situation linguistique” of the Office québécois de la langue française. In addition to demolinguistics, his fields of interest are, among others, immigration, ethnocultural diversity and intergroup relations, Canada’s linguistic duality, multilinguism and education.
Brian Ray is an Associated Professor in the Department of Geography and Vice Dean, Research in the Faculty of Arts. Professor Ray’s research generally revolves around the ways in which people organize their everyday lives in multi-ethnic cities. Brian’s research interests are numerous and include discrimination, racism and anti-racism in Canada, evolving linguistic landscapes in Ottawa-Gatineau, housing affordability and homeownership among refugees and immigrants, homelessness, gender inequality, social networks, and the geographic dimensions of employment in large metropolitan areas.