SUDBURY – Isabelle Carignan is the new recipient of the Francophonie Prize from the Association canadienne-française de l’Ontario (ACFO) du Grand Sudbury this year, succeeding Germaine Paquette. The Prize was presented as part of the traditional Francophonie banquet organized as part of Franco-Ontarian Day.
The presence of Isabelle Carignan was noted at this Banquet to which she attended Wednesday evening for the first time since her arrival in Sudbury in 2011, a few hours after also attending the flag raising at the University of Sudbury.
Originally from Princeville, Quebec, Ms. Carignan says she is honored to have been nominated and to receive this prestigious award recognizing the commitment and contributions of a French-speaking person from the region since 1983.
“I am originally from Quebec and the fact of receiving an Award like that here in Ontario is even more touching,” she confided in an interview with ONFR.
Joyce Choquet, administrator on the board of directors of the ACFO of Greater Sudbury, left, presented the Francophonie Prize to Isabelle Carignan on Wednesday evening. Photo credit: Léo Duquette
“When I arrived in Sudbury, I was far from my roots and my cultural references and the French-speaking community allowed me to feel a little more at home »she continues, specifically citing the support of mentors such as Laurentian University professors Michèle Minor-Corriveau, Louise Bourgeois and the late Ali Reguigui.
Since January 2016, she has been part of the school teaching team in the Education department of TÉLUQ University and has also been an associate professor at Laurentian University since 2012.
Passionate about research
For Isabelle Carignan, research is second nature. The one who is also an administrator at the French Canadian Association for the Advancement of Sciences (ACFAS) writes columns in the Quebec professional journal Living primary school which is intended for teachers and future teachers.
It was after contacting Geneviève Carpentier, editor-in-chief of the magazine, that the project was able to see the light of day: “I told her that it would be good for us to have a column that talks about French-speaking minorities across Canada and She said yes to that idea.”
“The fact that we have three pages in this Quebec magazine which makes room for the minority community, for me it is a great victory”
— Isabelle Carignan
This column entitled Francophone minorities in action published four times a year for three years.
Since then, people from Ontario, New Brunswick, Alberta and even Manitoba have been published: “The fact that we have three pages in this Quebec magazine which makes room for the minority community, it’s a great victory. »
The professor is also an associate researcher of the Multimodal Media Literacy Research Group (LMM), the Research Collective on the Continuity of Learning in Reading and Writing (CLÉ) and the Interuniversity Research Center on Training and the Teaching Profession (CRIFPE ).
Educational videos
Among her many accomplishments, Isabelle Carignan also counts the creation of video clips explaining cardiac surgery.
Why heart surgery? “It’s because I’m a French teacher and I’m very interested in understanding and, for me, patients are like students who are learning,” she says.
With her husband, Dr. Rony Atoui, the only French-speaking cardiac surgeon at Horizon Santé-Nord (HSN), she is embarking on a project that will make her proud.
“At one point, we started talking and I realized that there were a lot of things to do in this area so we joined forces to create videos explaining heart surgery not only to patients who are going to undergo an operation, but also for their families. »
Isabelle Carignan spends many hours every day volunteering with several organizations. Photo credit: TÉLUQ University
These capsules were subsequently integrated into courses at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) as part of a module on cardiovascular health.
In the end, according to Ms. Carignan, “the goal is really to make a difference, it is to ensure that everything linked to the Francophonie in a French-speaking environment can be valued.”
University of Sudbury, Place des Arts, Voyageur
In addition, when she is not teaching, she has volunteered her time for two years to the Senate of the University of Sudbury, which studies and approves the programming of the establishment which will welcome its first students in 2025.
“It allows me to participate in the creation of the unilingual French-speaking university by for and with French-speakers in the North,” specifies the adopted Franco-Ontarian who has also been an associate professor at the establishment since 2021.
The mother of two young children also says she was asked to develop opportunities for the Théâtre du Nouvel Ontario (TNO) and the Librairie Panache at Place des Arts: “We would like to work on cultural mediation and further develop the aspect of culture with schools. »
In her few spare hours, she also writes columns in the Journal The Traveler or even gets involved as a public relations officer on the parents’ council of her children’s school.
