The Toronto Star's Allan Woods reports on a Senegalese accused terrorist with Canadian connections and his personal history.

As the child of a Senegalese diplomat, Assane Kamara was accustomed to finding his place in unfamiliar lands. In his 24 years, he had lived in Ivory Coast, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Madagascar ( Read more... )

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MacLean's Martin Patriquin notes the controversy around the recent French language reforms, taking a look at controversy in Québec as well as in France.

For over 380 years, l’Académie française has been the protector and arbiter of all things having to do with the French language. From its offices in the Institut de France, an imposing, beaux arts ( Read more... )

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours's Toronto Star article about a viral video set in the snow of Montréal was fun.

This no tame two-step. Richard Laubonet, Kevin Noah, and Abdul Somade laugh and sing and use their shovels as props, moving in unison to move out the snow ( Read more... )

I quite look forward to this. From Metro:

Lovers of French-language books will soon have a new place to get their fill in Toronto, as a Quebec City-based bookstore plans to open a branch here by early next year ( Read more... )

I have a post up at Demography Matters taking a quick look at Francophone immigration in Toronto and Ontario.

Selena Ross' article in The Globe and Mail earlier this month, mirrored at 24news.ca, looks at the growing number of French-medium schools in Toronto. As Francophones continues to immigrate to Ontario and older-established Francophones start to make use of these facilities, the numbers of students keep rising.

Despite guarantees in the Charter of ( Read more... )

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours at the Toronto Star shares the exciting news that a Québec chain hopes to open up a French-language bookstore in collaboration with the Alliance Française.

Christophe Gagnon-Lavoie, co-owner of La Librairie du Quartier in Quebec City, told the Star that Toronto is an ideal place to open the shop, which would be the only ( Read more... )

Starting from an examination of the French language in Mali, Crooked Timber's Juliet Sorenson starts an interesting debate on the utility of having a foreign language be a local official language. Neutrality in local cultural clashes is one benefit; links with the wider world and with the past are another.

French is the language of instruction ( Read more... )

Writing in The Globe and Mail, La Presse columnist Yves Boisfort argues that the relationship between France and Québec has matured, become marked by less Québec anxiety about being accepted by France.

Ever since French president Charles de Gaulle declared “Vive le Québec libre!” in 1967, Quebeckers have overanalyzed every French word uttered ( Read more... )