Tournée Bonjour my Friend! Tour

Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Project Description

To mark the 50th anniversary of Canada’s Official Languages Act, Laura Lussier and Shaunpal Jandu took a 50-day road trip across the country to share their passion for linguistic duality, a fundamental principle that lies at the very core of our Canadian identity.

Background

In 2019, for the 50th anniversary of the Official Languages Act, the Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue launched the "Tournée Bonjour my friend! Tour." The project's two ambassadors, Laura and Shaunpal, drove an RV across the country to explore how ordinary Canadians experience linguistic duality.

People across Canada could go online to access daily videos of the many memorable conversations, educational activities geared toward students and a wealth of information about linguistic duality, a treasured Canadian value.

Objectives

Reaffirm our national commitment to linguistic duality
Demystify what linguistic duality means for all Canadians
Acknowledge the heritage of Indigenous peoples and their spoken languages
Celebrate two typically Canadian values: open-mindedness and inclusivity

Results

Thousands of people reached from coast to coast (video projections, festival booths, promotional items)
Memorable encounters with Canadians from all walks of life
141 recordedinterviews conducted by the ambassadors in over 20 cities
And last but not least, finding that the large majority of Canadians not only support linguistic duality, but also proudly see it as an asset.

Videos

Group of students in front of Bonjour my friend’s caravan

Want to Know More About This Project?

The Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue aims to support and promote dialogue between the different components of Canadian society. The Foundation was created in 2004 as a result of the need to promote dialogue between different communities following the publication of the report “Parlons-nous” in 2001 and the pan Canadian tour of the Dialogue working group. Since its beginnings, the Dialogue Foundation has lead numerous projects that have as an objective to promote dialogue between communities across the country such as its annual project: “Les Rendez-vous de la Francophonie”.

Want to Share Your Own Project?

Have you launched an inspiring project bringing our linguistic communities together? Have you started an initiative that connects Anglophones and Francophones? Let us know by sending us an email. We want to share and promote innovative and unifying projects from across Canada!