At the beginning of the year 2022 in Victoria, BC, Canada, we will be able to discuss the general theme: "(Re)Building together", underpinned by the reflection that we wished to deepen: "Engaging in uncertainty" since it corresponds well to the challenges of our time. We wanted to approach this theme from the angle of resilience to crises and the processes of emerging from crises, whether they be environmental, economic, health-related or political, at all levels, both in the material aspects of reconstruction and in social reconciliation.

Also, by sharpening criticism and calling for urgent change, the pandemic but also movements like Black Live Matters and the macabre discovery of the reality of residential schools act as a crisis, a defining moment turned towards renewal. A time to engage! And this, even if the uncertainties and worries seem to slow down and even suspend all action.

For this debate, we have brought together actors of commitment, who think about the future in the present of the crisis, with passion and with hope. Linguists, who will talk about justice and identity: justice in the end of discrimination and hope in the fight against racism, justice in the recognition of the right of communities to their language, hope in the diversity and freedom of ways of speaking.

An artist, who sees the ecological disaster and carries the "hope of colours": to show the beauty of life, to make it burst and to call for its protection. A director of an association who has to show resilience in the face of cancellations, despite long-standing commitments. Finally, a political scientist and ecologist who proposes not to despair but to act. Without ignoring the seriousness or the enormity of the damage, they are acting for a future, towards a future.

And we will be, together, listening to them and talking to them, towards the future, seizing the suspended time of postponements and cancellations to make it the time of projects and unions. Let us take the time to "engage in uncertainty" in order to "build (again) together" on our certainties.

This stage welcomes two musicians, three teachers, an artist, a researcher, a journalist, two community associations and an as yet unknown public: all of them are here because they believe in the time of commitment, of study, of art, of sharing and of coming together. Because being together is already (re)building...

It is therefore a great joy for us, Alliance Française de Victoria, to partner with the Department of French at the University of Victoria (UVic) and to be able to offer our Francophone and Francophile community this opportunity to share the fruits of our reflections with our local network but also to extend it beyond.

We are pleased to welcome Marie Villeneuve as the moderator of this virtual roundtable, thanks to a collaboration with ICI British Columbia-Yukon. Marie is the host of the morning show Phare Ouest on ICI Première.
Mr. Nicolas Baudouin, Consul General of France in Vancouver, will give us the privilege of welcoming us.

The programme :
Day of the Night of Ideas event: Thursday 27 January 2022
Time of the exchanges: from 6.55 pm to about 8.20 pm, PST

Access is online with a Zoom connection (see www.afvictoria.ca) and the event is recorded.

6.55pm: Musical welcome: Musical duo Le Hot Club des Insulaires (Tim Croft)

7pm: Welcome speeches: Alliance Française de Victoria, UVic Department of French and Consulate General of France in Vancouver

19h05: Introduction of the theme and the speakers : Marie Villeneuve and Hélène Cazes, Director of the Department of French at UVic

• Including the excluded, how to overcome racism: Moustapha Fall,
  linguist, UVic professor
• Discovering and accepting the diversity of French with puppet animation:
  Catherine Léger, linguist, UVic teacher
• Community Resilience: Casey Edmunds, Executive Director of the Société Francophone
  of Victoria

Questions from the audience, musical interlude,

• The hope of colours with the diffusion of his works : François Michaud, visual artist from Victoria
• Ecology to reduce inequalities in the face of climate change: Vanessa Jérome, political ecologist

Questions from the public

20:15: Closing remarks and musical finale

Partners