Why are the “Université de l’Ontario français” job ads and website in English? And why the “DEI” obsession in the promotion?

Bambi would like to thank Louis for sharing this job advertisement (ad) at a university that was supposed to be strictly French-speaking. You can see this ad below, along with the website, all in English.

What seems to matter more to this university is the so-called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) mantra or slogan. Perhaps some funds came from the federal government, along with an ideology that would likely exclude intellectual diversity. Anyhow, DEI or not, where is the French, UOF?

This university’s website: https://myuof.ca/

4 thoughts on “Why are the “Université de l’Ontario français” job ads and website in English? And why the “DEI” obsession in the promotion?”

  1. Being a veteran of the Translation Bureau, I did some checking. The site Bambi and Louis were looking at is an English version. The correct address and in French is https://uontario.ca/
    There, the content is in French.

    1. Thank you, Fred, for the clarification. Seeing their French website reassures Bambi a bit, but not much as: (1) the ad is still in English (only) and (2) this university has been heavily promoted in 2018, 19, and even up to 2020 as just a French-speaking university (the first one!): “Le gouvernement fédéral et le gouvernement provincial ont signé, le 22 janvier, une entente de financement permettant la création de l’Université de l’Ontario français (UOF), la première université de langue française “gouvernée par et pour les francophones de l’Ontario” (taken from L’Express, Jaunuary, 29, 2020): https://bit.ly/3FUuteB

      1. Maybe the adverts are for recruitment among anglophones as the setting is still Ontario and they have the right to participate. I attended the University of Montreal, for example and was graduated. In other words, language of instruction does not guarantee all the students will be native French speakers.

        1. Maybe? Who knows. However, it has been advertised, over and over, precisely as “the first French-language university governed by and for the Francophones of Ontario”. L’express even wrote that this is the pride of the French-Ontarians. Remember that Ontario already has bilingual universities, Laurentian university and the University of Ottawa for instance. In Bambi’s opinion, Canada at large has a serious issue keeping the French language alive. It is in large part due to massive immigration– half a million new immigrant every year, as per the CBC (https://bit.ly/3UBO9rE). Well, how many of them would be francophone, do you think? Or are going to integrate French communities in Ontario and elsewhere. Ask Québec if it is not worried about that; especially with much less control over the immigration strategy of our country when it comes to language.

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