Queen acknowledges Acadian deportation
Dec. 3rd, 2003 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbcMONCTON - The Queen is acknowledging the wrongs caused by the deportation of Acadians from the Maritimes nearly two and a half centuries ago. The Acadians were allowed to return to Nova Scotia in 1764. Most of today's Acadians live in New Brunswick, P.E.I. and Nova Scotia with some in parts of Maine and Quebec. Some deported Acadians settled in Louisiana, where their Cajun descendents have become a major cultural influence.
In what was likely its final meeting, the federal cabinet endorsed the proclamation earlier this week, said Euclide Chiasson, head of the Societé Nationale des Acadiens. After decades of asking for an apology from the British Crown, the society wrote to Queen Elizabeth several months ago looking for an acknowledgement of what happened. Beginning in 1755 and ending about eight years later, Acadians were forced to leave what would later become Atlantic Canada. Some went to France, but most were scattered throughout the Americas.
The response came back from Buckingham Palace that the Queen would defer to the judgment of her ministers in Canada. The cabinet endorsed the idea this week. Chiasson said the proclamation would acknowledge the deportation and the wrongs it caused, and would recognize July 28 as the anniversary of the deportation order beginning in 2005. "I think this recognition, this proclamation is very important for our people," he said.
There is no compensation involved. Chiasson said the Acadians just want the record set straight.
Gov. Gen Adrienne Clarkson will sign the declaration next week. Chiasson said he would like to see the Queen herself come in 2005 to mark 250 years since the deportation by reading the declaration. Heritage Minister Sheila Copps played a key role in getting the cabinet to deal with the issue. She has ancestors on her mother's side among the approximately 11,000 Acadians deported.
THE ACADIANS Who are they?
Acadians are the original French people who settled Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht made them British subjects. At the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754), the British government demanded that Acadians take an oath of allegiance to the Crown. Most of them refused. British Governor Charles Lawrence retaliated by deporting the Acadians from the area and dispersing them among the 13 colonies. Many colonies refused to take refugees and deported the Acadians back to Europe. This was referred to as the Grand Dérangement (or Great Expulsion) of 1755.
[http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/03/acadians_031203]
In what was likely its final meeting, the federal cabinet endorsed the proclamation earlier this week, said Euclide Chiasson, head of the Societé Nationale des Acadiens. After decades of asking for an apology from the British Crown, the society wrote to Queen Elizabeth several months ago looking for an acknowledgement of what happened. Beginning in 1755 and ending about eight years later, Acadians were forced to leave what would later become Atlantic Canada. Some went to France, but most were scattered throughout the Americas.
The response came back from Buckingham Palace that the Queen would defer to the judgment of her ministers in Canada. The cabinet endorsed the idea this week. Chiasson said the proclamation would acknowledge the deportation and the wrongs it caused, and would recognize July 28 as the anniversary of the deportation order beginning in 2005. "I think this recognition, this proclamation is very important for our people," he said.
There is no compensation involved. Chiasson said the Acadians just want the record set straight.
Gov. Gen Adrienne Clarkson will sign the declaration next week. Chiasson said he would like to see the Queen herself come in 2005 to mark 250 years since the deportation by reading the declaration. Heritage Minister Sheila Copps played a key role in getting the cabinet to deal with the issue. She has ancestors on her mother's side among the approximately 11,000 Acadians deported.
THE ACADIANS Who are they?
Acadians are the original French people who settled Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht made them British subjects. At the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754), the British government demanded that Acadians take an oath of allegiance to the Crown. Most of them refused. British Governor Charles Lawrence retaliated by deporting the Acadians from the area and dispersing them among the 13 colonies. Many colonies refused to take refugees and deported the Acadians back to Europe. This was referred to as the Grand Dérangement (or Great Expulsion) of 1755.
[http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/03/acadians_031203]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-03 06:12 pm (UTC)Too bad you don't have a userpic with Maggie Simpson waving the wonderful Acadian tricolor-with-gold-star, but I'm imagining it.
As overdue symbolic make-goods go, an apology from Her Nibs is a good thing.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-03 10:21 pm (UTC)'Tis a kewl flag, you're right.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-04 01:54 pm (UTC)But surely the Acadians in Louisiana have better cuisine than those who returned to the Maritimes?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-05 02:38 pm (UTC)BTW, on a tongue in cheek note, has France apologised to the Huguenots yet?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-05 05:34 pm (UTC)Too funny--has France ever apologized to anyone for anything? The Vichy régime? Roger Vadim? Jacques Chirac? Je pense que non
no subject
Date: 2003-12-05 10:11 pm (UTC)