Joe Fratesi says city council ‘picking at an old scab’ with French-language vote

The former Sault mayor who brought forward the 1990 French-language resolution — declaring English as the only working language of the municipal government — says if city council truly wants to move on from the issue, bringing it up every few years is not the way to do it.

Joe Fratesi, former mayor and CAO of Sault Ste. Marie, told SooToday by telephone today that he didn’t tune in to Monday’s meeting of city council, during which current Mayor Matthew Shoemaker declared the 1990 resolution as “a mistake that had lasting impacts on our city."

Last night’s resolution was written and read in French and English. An apology was made in 2010 by then-Mayor John Rowswell and in 2015, during the tenure of Mayor Christian Provenzano, the Franco-Ontarian flag was raised at city hall for the first time.

SooToday's coverage of the resolution at council can be found HERE.

“I didn't watch it,” Fratesi said. ”I'm not surprised that this this mayor and this council would think that that's important. I would have however hoped that they would have checked with the people to see, on a scale of one to ten, with the issues that are going on in our community whether this is one that deserves that kind of attention or whether things like doctor shortages and emergency department waits and homelessness and drug addiction and people being able to put food on their table, whether those are the kinds of issues that they would hope that they would deal with.”

Fratesi questioned what is to gain by bringing up the resolution 34 years to the day it was passed. If council really wants to move on, said Fratesi, it’s time to leave it in the past.

“By raising that, it’s like picking at an old scab,” he added. “I'm kind of disappointed that they would think that this is important when there are other issues to deal with but obviously it's their prerogative. They answer to the public now, not me.”

In a 30-minute interview recorded last year, Fratesi told SooToday's Up Close & Personal host Scott Sexsmith that he doesn't apologize for the 1990 resolution, but said he would like to have done it differently.

Bringing up the issue every couple of years is not the way to leave it in the past, he said.

“I don't know if it does that or does the opposite You know it it could very well just open the whole thing up again,” said Fratesi. 

The original resolution was not anti-French or anti-French language and not meant to be hurtful, said Fratesi. It simply noted, he said, the reality that the municipality conducts business primarily in English and would continue to do so.

“Were we trying accommodate the French-speaking? Yes," Fratesi said. "Were we trying to accommodate Indian speaking? Yes. Were we trying to accommodate Italian speaking? Yes. But we can't institutionalize it. That takes time and effort and they're bigger fish to fry at this point in our history."

The most recent resolution drafted by Shoemaker instructs the CAO’s office to ensure there is an ability for francophone residents to navigate municipal services in French on a go-forward basis. That will be achieved through scheduling of existing employees or filling vacancies that arise for resident-facing staff.

“Do we really have a problem?” asked Fratesi. “Are there enough people showing up at city hall saying that they can only be served in the one language because that's the language that they understand best?”  

He added: “If I were a First Nation resident of Sault Ste, Marie, I'd be demanding that the services be provided in Ojibwe. If I'm a newcomer from East India in Sault Ste. Marie and I come to city hall, I'd be demanding that there'd be someone there too, given the new demographics.”

During Monday’s meeting, current Ward 5 councillor Corey Gardi recalled conversations he had with his grandfather, Victor Gardi, who served on the city council and voted in favour of the original resolution in 1990.

“He admitted to me what a mistake it was, so I am happy one to make some personal amends for him and I am glad we are making amends to the community at large,” said Gardi. “It was undoubtedly an unnecessary mistake.”

Editor's note: an earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the name of Corey Gardi's grandfather. SooToday regrets the error.