Each year, the President's Awards are presented to recognize the work of University of Ottawa staff who have consistently contributed to the enrichment of the university experience and the achievement of the T2030 strategic plan. One of the University’s missions is to foster the development of the French language and culture. For the first time in the University's history, the President's Awards include a Francophonie category associated with the "More Connected" pillar of T2030.
The Best Practices in Francophonie and French Language Services Award recognizes the work of an individual or team who has made an outstanding contribution to the protection and promotion of French at the University of Ottawa. The Vice-President, International and Francophonie, salutes the exceptional contribution of the two winning teams, who, through their exemplary work, contribute to the University's vision of the Francophonie.
Here is an overview of the work of the Faculty of Medicine's Francophone Affairs team and the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute's (OLBI) Marketing and development team, who have received a President’s Award.
Warmest congratulations!
Francophone Affairs
Faculty of Medicine
Daniel Hubert, Salomon Fotsing, Chloé Desjardins, Geneviève Côté, Isabelle Briand-Turpin. Diane Bouchard-Lamothe, Nandrianina Andriamanantena, Virginie Albert, Lauranne Larose and Camille Perreault
The mandate of the Francophone Affairs team is to promote and support all Francophone activities at the Faculty of Medicine, thus ensuring its influence and image, while conducting many projects of local, provincial, national and international scope. The team works closely with several organizations such as the Ontario hospitals, the Consortium national de formation en santé and Médecins francophones du Canada.
The team conducts or contributes to research projects on the health of francophone minorities, on the well-being of learners and physicians, and on medical education in French. The team was instrumental in the creation of the first-ever French-language undergraduate PharmD program outside of Quebec and recently received a major grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada for a project to understand Francophone reluctance to vaccinate against Covid-19.
The team is responsible for offering a comprehensive continuing medical education program in French, which has been particularly successful during the pandemic. This is complemented by public webinars, faculty support and research training. In addition, Francophone Affairs recently launched the "Rétro action franco" project to improve the quality of French in the Faculty of Medicine.
Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) Marketing and development team
Faculty of Arts
Renée Bélec, Karen Massey, Paco (Bojan) Lalovic and Naïma Messadh-Imgaline
Promoting the Francophonie, and the resources and services that allow us to celebrate it and add French to our lives, is a key part of OLBI’s mission. This mission is well supported by the professionalism, creativity and agility of the ILOB's promotion and development team. The team plays a central role in organizing and valorising research events, services, and testimonials from the community highlighting the value of Francophonie on campus.
The team’s many achievements include creating the ILOBify app, a repertoire of linguistic tools and resources to maintain, improve and perfect language skills. The team is also responsible for content like the Sur le bout de la langue column, an article on a recent graduate’s vision and efforts to fight language insecurity and build confidence and pride among francophone and francophile students, and activity recommendations for the Mois de la Francophonie, in March, including OLBI’s cultural picks and Learn the language of Lupin star Omar Sy.
The team also organized activities for Franco-Ontarian Day including a musical playlist of Franco-Ontarian artists, vox pop video vignettes and the distribution of OLBI branded reusable masks to allow the student population to proudly display their desire to live in French on campus.