In 1977, Keith Spicer, Canada’s first-ever Commissioner of Official Languages, met with parents across Canada who wanted their children to learn French as a second language (FSL) but who ran into roadblocks at their local school boards. Spicer went on to organize a national conference of like-minded parents that same year, which resulted in the creation of Canadian Parents for French, an advocacy group whose mission was to ensure that children would have the opportunity to become bilingual in the Canadian school system. This organization developed autonomous chapters in each province, each with its own elected Board of Directors and its own provincial programs and advocacy.

As Canadian Parents for French made organizational changes that centralized operations in Ottawa, the New Brunswick chapter risked losing its independence and being amalgamated into a single Atlantic regional office in Halifax. Our Board of Directors determined that this arrangement could not meet New Brunswick’s unique needs as Canada’s only officially bilingual province.