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Franco-Ontarian Flag

Franco-Ontarian Emblem Act, 2001

Preamble:

The French language has been present in Ontario for 350 years. The first French speakers to come to Ontario were the missionaries who established the mission of Sainte-Marie-among-the-Hurons in 1639.

The Ontario French-speaking community is the largest French-speaking community in Canada outside Quebec. French is one of the two official languages of Canada. In Ontario, it is recognized as an official language in the courts, in education and in the Legislative Assembly.

For nearly 40 years, the Province of Ontario has recognized the importance of serving its citizens in French upon request. It was when the present section 5 of the French Language Services Act, an Act also known as Law 8, came into force in November 1989, that the Province recognized that its citizens were entitled to those services upon request.

The Franco-Ontarian flag was unveiled for the first time on September 25, 1975 at Sudbury University. From then on, the Ontario French-speaking community has consistently used it as its emblem. It is therefore appropriate now to recognize it officially as the emblem of that community.

Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

Definition

1. In this Act,

"Ontario French-speaking community" means the community of persons who have the right under subsection 23 (1) or (2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, without regard to subsection 23 (3) of that Charter, to have their children receive their primary and secondary school instruction in the French language in Ontario.

Franco-Ontarian emblem

2. The flag described in the Schedule to this Act is recognized as the emblem of the Ontario French-speaking community.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBLEM OF THE ONTARIO FRENCH-SPEAKING COMMUNITY

The emblem of the Ontario French-speaking community consists of two vertical bands of different colours. The first band is mid green and has a white lily in the middle of the band. The second band is white and has a mid green trillium in the middle of the band.

On the emblem, green represents summer and white represents winter. Together the two colours represent the diversity of Ontario's climate. The lily evokes the French-speaking community worldwide, whereas the trillium is the floral emblem of Ontario.

The following is an illustration of the emblem:

(This picture outlined for contrast. Actual flag does not have green border.)