Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Sault Ste. Marie ("Sault" pronounced "soo;" nicknamed "the Sault;" 2001 population 78,908) is a city on the St. Mary's River in Ontario, Canada. It is the second largest city in Northern Ontario.Across the river is the United States and the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
The town got its name in 1669 when French Jesuit missionaries came across the site. "Sault Ste. Marie" is French for "St. Mary's Rapids". Sault Ste. Marie was incorporated as a town in 1887 and a city in 1912.
The city made a name for itself in steel-making, and Algoma Steel is still the largest employer. Forestry is also a major local industry. The city is the site of the Sault locks which let ships travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes.
Famous natives of Sault Ste. Marie include hockey great Phil Esposito and astronaut Roberta Bondar.
The city is home to Sault College, a college of applied arts and technology, and to Algoma University College, a federated school of Laurentian University in Sudbury.
On January 29, 1990, the city of Sault Ste. Marie became a flashpoint in the Meech Lake Accord debate when its mayor, Joe Fratesi, shepherded a resolution through city council declaring the city English-only. Although Sault Ste. Marie was not the first Ontario municipality to pass such a resolution, it was the largest and the most controversial.
Responding to a French-language education controversy which began in 1987, the Sault Alliance for the Preservation of English Language Rights began circulating petitions to have this resolution passed by council. The group worked in concert with the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada, a lobby group which was concurrently campaigning against the provincial government's French Language Services Act. (See also Franco-ontarian.)
Although that law dealt only with provincial government services, APEC's strategy was to convince municipalities that they would be required to provide services in French, regardless of cost or benefit, in an attempt to convince the municipalities to pass this type of resolution. As a result of the schooling controversy, Sault Ste. Marie was fertile ground for APEC's campaign, and the SAPELR petition quickly garnered 25,000 signatures.
On January 27, 1990, the city's daily newspaper, the Sault Star, reported that council would debate the language resolution two days later. This triggered the attention of the national media, and with reporters from all across Canada in town to cover the debate, the resolution passed council 11-2.
Many political figures, including Brian Mulroney, Jean ChrÃÂétien and Ontario premier David Peterson, expressed their opposition to the city's move. Both Peterson and his successor as premier, Bob Rae, refused to meet with Fratesi on several subsequent occasions, even to discuss unrelated matters.
In particular, the resolution was seen as a slap in the face to Quebec, where it was widely viewed as racist. (One Environment Canada meteorologist sent out a weather report for Sault Ste. Marie in which the forecast called for "a chance of flurries and Nazis", although she was suspended.) Coming as it did just six months before the Meech Lake ratification deadline, the Sault Ste. Marie resolution was a direct contributor to the resurgence of nationalist sentiment in Quebec in the 1990s, and thus to the 1995 Quebec referendum as well.
Fratesi, who was viewed by Sault Ste. Marie voters throughout the controversy as standing up for the city's interests, was re-elected mayor in a landslide in 1991. He later became embroiled in a conflict of interest controversy in 1995 when he applied for the job of Chief Administrative Officer of the city, while still sitting as mayor -- and therefore in charge of the city council who were responsible for the hiring decision.
In July, 1994, a court ruling struck down the English-only resolution as ultra vires the council's authority. However, with the city's reputation badly damaged by the affair, it is widely believed that even today, the city's economy is still suffering from the fallout.Bilingualism Controversy