LETTER

LETTRE

 Aylmer's 175th: not all smiles and laughter

 

In reference to your reporting on Aylmer's 175th celebration with all the amusing old costumes, classic cars, and self-congratulations -- especially after thinking about Rick Henderson's excellent letter to the editor on this very event -- I have a single, simple question to ask our municipal leaders: isn't the massive cover-up of Aylmer's anglophone origins and history an actual act of cultural genocide?  This question covers the city's re-naming of streets and locations. Our version is very small, but isn't this what it is?
    Who are these obviously-francophone functionaires who designed this "celebration" and who decided to exclude all but the most minor mention of our city's actual founders?  I have seen this done in some of our regions, too. In the Pontiac there was a determined effort in the 1990s to show that Pontiac was settled by French pioneers, not the English-Irish-Scots farmers and loggers who have left their names in so many places?  
    Surely this is not what Premier Legault means when he orders that French needs even more protection?   All this reminds me of the nationalistic wars of Eastern Europe.  But here, in this land of plenty-for-all?  We're in this together, folks.
Stephane Hepworth
Aylmer / Gatineau