The French Presence in Cornwall

Commemoration

A vital cultural force in Eastern Ontario, the Franco-Ontarian community in Cornwall was established during the late 1870s when large scale industrial expansion led to the influx of workers and tradesmen from Quebec.  By 1881 French speaking residents comprised the largest single cultural group in the town.  Supported by a number of religious and scholastic institutions, including the l’eglise de la Nativité de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie, the Francophone community grew steadily in the decades that followed.  Increasingly it asserted its cultural distinctiveness, paying particular attention to language preservation and French education.  Long standing efforts to protect and advance the community’s rights and interests in the schools culminated in the opening in 1974 of La Citadelle, an all French secondary school.