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Firstly,
the end of the sixties witnessed the creation, by the Federal
government of the day, of the Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism.
In 1971 myself (Gerald Thomas) accompanied three members of the
commission on a visit, made at my suggestion, to the West Coast.
Knowing, from census returns, that there were francophones in
Newfoundland, the commission members had gone to St. John's, hoping
to find them there. Doubts and disappointment were dispelled by
their findings on the West Coast, which prompted them to recommend,
in their 1975 report, the establishment there of a federal bilingual
district.
While
this recommendation was never followed through, it was nonetheless
a sign of growing activity and interest in the fate of French
Newfoundlanders. Already, in 1971, supported by the Secretary
of State's Social Animation division, French Newfoundlanders had
founded the Association des Terre-Neuviens Français at Cape St.
George. In 1974, the French were provided with a French language
television station, by satellite relay from Montreal. In September
1975 a bilingual school was established at Cape St. George, which
offered the French, for the first time ever, education in their
mother tongue. And since 1970 my own research in the traditional
culture of French Newfoundlanders has not only established the
existence of a very rich folklore, it has also helped French Newfoundlanders
give new value to their language and traditions.