About 1,200 Ottawa Catholic School Board students celebrated Franco-Ontarian Day this year with a four-legged guest of honour: Grizzly, a St. Bernard who stars in a French storybook created especially for the board.
The event, according to the Ottawa Catholic School Board, was the board's first board-wide Franco-Ontarian Day party, organized for students from Kindergarten to Grade 6. The French as a Second Language (FSL) department developed the celebration as a livestream that connected classrooms across the board. Many students joined live, while others watched a recording the following Monday.
The celebration centred on the book Grizzly fête la journée Franco, written by Kelly Nolan-Tam and illustrated by Sophie Beaulne. The book comes in primary and junior versions so that students at different stages of their French learning can enjoy the story.
The main character is based on Beaulne's own St. Bernard, and Grizzly's appearance at the event gave students a chance to meet the real dog behind the illustrations. According to the board, Grizzly and other team members' pets appear in books created by the Board Elementary FSL team, giving French learners familiar characters to connect with.
A day rooted in Ontario's Francophone history
Franco-Ontarian Day is marked every September 25 to celebrate Ontario's Francophone community — its history, culture and contributions. The date honours the first raising of the Franco-Ontarian flag at the University of Sudbury in 1975. The day became an official provincial celebration in 2010.
The flag itself carries its own story: its green and white colours represent summer and winter, its trillium symbolizes Ontario, and its fleur-de-lys represents the French language.
French learning in OCSB schools
For students in the board, the celebration connects to their everyday learning. French instruction begins in the bilingual Kindergarten program, where children spend equal time learning through play in French and English. In Grades 1 to 3, a quarter of the school day is spent learning in French, and starting in Grade 4, families can choose between Core French and French Immersion.
The board says celebrations like this one help link classroom lessons to the wider Francophone community, giving students a chance to see French as a living language connected to people, places and a shared sense of belonging — whether they speak it at home or are discovering it at school.
The board thanked its FSL department, the Board Elementary FSL team and its educators for organizing the first board-wide celebration — along with Grizzly, who, it noted, is "a very good dog and a very special guest."
