AFO, or Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario (, Francophone Assembly of Ontario) is a Canadian organization which coordinates the political and cultural activities of the Franco-Ontarian community.
The organization was created in 1910 as the Association canadienne-française d'Éducation de l'Ontario (ACFÉO) to lobby for French language education rights in the province. The organization and the Franco-Ontarian community at large faced a serious early crisis when the provincial government adopted Regulation 17 in 1912, effectively banning the teaching of French in schools. The regulation was never fully implemented because of ACFÉO's litigation, and it was eventually repealed in 1927.
ACFÉO subsequently changed its name to Association canadienne-française de l'Ontario ("Association of French Canadians of Ontario"), or ACFO.
The organization continued to lobby for the improvement of French language services in the province. It was instrumental in the adoption of the French Language Services Act in 1986, and in the creation of Ontario's three francophone colleges: Collège La Cité in Ottawa, Collège Boréal in Sudbury and the defunct Collège des Grands-Lacs in Toronto. As well, ACFO lobbied against the provincial government's planned closure of Ottawa's Montfort Hospital.
In 2004, the organization changed its name to L'Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario, partly to reflect Canadian francophones' modern shift away from identifying as French Canadian. In 2010 / 2011, their revenue was 1.4 million dollars. 1.2 million of that came from various government entities. The organization's current president is Carol Jolin.
Presidents
1910-1912 - Napoléon Belcourt 1912-1914 - Charles-Siméon-Omer Boudreau 1914-1915 - Alphonse Télesphore Charron 1915-1919 - Philippe Landry 1919-1932 - Napoléon Belcourt 1932-1933 - Samuel Genest 1933-1934 - Léon-Calixte Raymond 1934-1938 - Dr. Paul-Émile Rochon 1938-1944 - Adélard Chartrand 1944-1953 - Ernest Desormeaux 1953-1959 - Gaston Vincent 1959-1963 - Aimé Arvisais 1963-1971 - Roger N. Séguin 1971-1972 - Ryan Paquette 1972-1974 - Omer Deslauriers 1974-1976 - Jean-Louis Bourdeau 1976-1978 - Gisèle Richer 1978-1980 - Jeannine Séguin 1980-1982 - Yves Saint-Denis 1982-1984 - André Cloutier 1984-1987 - Serge Plouffe 1987-1988 - Jacques Marchand (interim) 1988-1990 - Rolande Faucher 1990-1994 - Jean Tanguay 1994-1997 - André J. Lalonde 1997-1999 - Trèva Cousineau 1999-2001 - Alcide Gour 2001-2004 - Jean-Marc Aubin 2004-2005 - Jean Poirier 2005-2006 - Simon Lalande (interim) 2006-2010 - Mariette Carrier-Fraser 2010-2016 - Denis Vaillancourt 2016–2022: Carol Jolin 2022-présent: Fabien Hébert
References
External links