The Francophone fact of Manitoba

The present Saint Boniface Cathedral was partially destroyed by fire in 1968.

By Dorothy Dobbie

Anglophone Canadians often forget that our history is a tale of two cities: Winnipeg and St. Boniface, the British and the French communities, upon which our provincehood rests. Today, many of us seem to overlook our rich French ancestry that has helped weave our unique Manitoba character.

Voyageurs, working for commercial enterprises in Montreal, were the first Europeans to venture into the prairies. Pierre La Verendrye reached the forks of the Red and Assiniboine on September 24, 1738, following up on a journey made by two of his men four years earlier. Some of the party remained to build a fort somewhere near what is now Fort Rouge, while La Verendrye pressed on, establishing four trading posts or forts further north as far as The Pas. The French were predominant in the area until the Selkirk Settlers arrived 80 years later.

At the time of our entry into confederation, more that 50 percent of the population in Manitoba was French. Long before that, in 1809, the French Fort Gibraltar was built at what would become St. Boniface, east of the Red River. Bishop Provencher built the first little log church in 1818.

Le Museé de Sainte-Boniface Museum resides in the former Grey Nuns’ convent, the oldest building in Winnipeg.

The log church was replaced in 1825 and again in 1832, where it served a growing community for the next three decades until it burned in 1860. By the time of Manitoba’s entry into confederation, it had been rebuilt in imposing stone as a significant landmark in Western Canada—a beautiful cathedral that was the Mother Church for Catholics in Western Canada. It would be rebuilt again in 1905 as a magnificent building with two towers rising 158 feet above the Red. This lovely landmark burned again in 1968, to the horror of all Manitobans. It was rebuilt on a smaller scale, designed by Etienne Gaboury and Dennis Lussier, and remains there today, embraced within the imposing facade of the earlier church.

In 1844, the Grey Nuns arrived. Two years later, they began to build their massive two-storey residence. Immediately following Manitoba’s entry into Confederation, in 1871, the Gray Nuns established St. Boniface Hospital, with four beds. A few short years later, in 1894, they added a surgical facility. Fast forward 90 years to 1987, when the hospital became Canada’s first free-standing medical research facility.

Although St. Boniface was starting to grow, there were few buildings as substantial as the Cathedral, the Grey Nun’s home or even the three-storey brick archbishop’s residence, which had been built in 1864. It remains at 151 rue de la Cathedrale as one of the oldest stone buildings in the West.

St. Boniface itself was incorporated as a town in 1883 and as a city in 1908. It was ultimately absorbed into Winnipeg with the creation of Unicity by Ed Schreyer in 1972. St. Boniface City Hall, built in 1905, was designated a National Historic site in 1984. Today, the city is trying to sell it, although it is a designated heritage building.

Displays inside the Saint Boniface Museum portray what life was like for the Grey Nuns.

St. Boniface Hospital in 1930.

The Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface.

French-Canadian explorer La Vérendrye.

While the community that would become Winnipeg was slowly taking shape, what would become Portage and Main was still a mud trail surrounded by a rag tag group of small wooden buildings. Development of the west side of the Red River was further north. Twin Oaks on River Road, a former girl’s school built in the 1850s, and Captain Kennedy’s home with its magnificent garden are two reminders of those early days.

French Manitoba was a vibrant and industrious society that extended beyond St. Boniface, reaching out along the Red and Seine Rivers and establishing outpost communities in southern Manitoba.

Many of the original voyageurs had married Indigenous women and so began the Metis population that produced Louis Riel, who has widely been credited with hastening Manitoba’s entry into Confederation. His volatile nature, along with tensions between the Francophones in the Red River Valley and an influx of settlers from Ontario, resulted in an incident in 1869, that saw one Thomas Scott executed. To quell the “rebellion” by Riel’s provincial government, Canada sent a military expedition led by Colonel Garnet Wolseley to the Red River Valley. It included over a thousand men and their heavy artillery. While this was a bit like hitting a fly with a sledge hammer, the show of force is said to have helped settle the border issue with the United States which had expansionist plans.

A gateway in the St. Boniface Basilica Cemetery.

Many members of the expedition, given land grants, settled in Manitoba, but at least one must have returned east as recorded in the musical lament, Red River Valley. According to Edith Fowke, the original song is about a Métis girl pining for her lover, a soldier who had been part of the expedition.

By 1890, the French numbered only 10 per cent of the Manitoba population. Many of the Metis, a good portion of the original 10,000, had left for what would later become Saskatchewan and the town of Batoche, while immigrants from Ontario and east begin to flood in. The population of our then postage stamp-sized province jumped from 25,000 in 1870 to 255,000 by the turn of the century. That explosive growth continued for another 20 years, only slowing down after the First World War. Today, 13 per cent of Manitobans claim Francophone descent.

The Franco-Manitoban community has produced many illustrious people so far. It can be said that the first premier of Manitoba was Marc-Amable Girard, a former mayor of Varennes in Quebec, although some have given that title to the Provincial Secretary appointed by Lieutenant Governor Archibald, at the time. At any rate, Girard appointed the first cabinet. He also served as both an MLA and a senator until the double mandate was made illegal. Other notables include author Gabrielle Roy and international songwriter Daniel Lavoie.

Perhaps the greatest gift the Francophone community has given to Manitoba is the ability of our general population to respect and celebrate pluralistic cultures. Franco-Manitobans have sweetened our Manitoba culture with music and art and a certain flair and style.

“Red River Jig”, a woodcut from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in 1860.

The song Red River Valley is widely attributed to an American songwriter, but a Manitoba historian Edith Fowke has traced it back to our own Red River Valley. One of the clues is the word “adieu”, not a word that would have been in the American vocabulary.

The Red River Valley

The Red River Valley From this valley they say you are going, I shall miss your bright eyes and sweet smile, For alas you take with you the sunshine That has brightened my pathway awhile. Chorus: Come and sit by my side if you love me, Do not hasten to bid me adieu. But remember the Red River Valley And the girl who has loved you so true. For this long, long time I have waited For the words that you never would say, But now my last hope has vanished When they tell me you’re going away. When you go to your home by the ocean May you never forget the sweet hours That we spent in the Red River Valley Or the vows we exchanged mid the bowers. Will you think of the valley you’re leaving? Oh, how lonely and dreary ’twill be! Will you think of the fond heart you’re breaking And be true to your promise to me. The dark maiden’s prayer for her lover To the spirit that rules o’er the world His pathway with sunshine may cover Leave his grief to the Red River girl. There could never be such a longing In the heart of a white maiden’s breast As dwells in the heart you are breaking With love for the boy who came west.

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/72/ redrivervalley.shtml