The Contributions Of Yukon Francophone Women: With Angélique Bernard
Angélique Bernard
Angélique Bernard was born in Brossard, on the south shore of Montréal.
When she was in grade 5, her school welcomed an explorer who skied from Northern Quebec to Alaska via the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. This ignited her curiosity about the Canadian North and she wrote a four-page essay on the topic.
Angélique studied translation at Concordia University. As part of her cooperative program, she did her last work term at the Yukon French Language Bureau in the winter of 1995. After two weeks, she knew that this is where she wanted to live. She went back to Montréal to finish her degree and came back to Whitehorse in the fall of 1995.
Angélique was the first development officer of Les Essentielles, worked as a court recorder and launched her translation business in 2000. In March 2018, she was appointed as the Commissioner of Yukon, the first francophone in the history of the territory. Her mandate ended in May 2023, and she relaunched her translation business in the fall of that year.
In addition to representing the Yukon on various national boards of directors in the fields of women’s health, francophone issues, education and women’s issues, she was the president of the Association franco-yukonnaise. She was a host of the Rencontres radio show, an actress in francophone plays and the president of the Whitehorse Women’s Soccer Association.
In the Yukon, Angélique has found a place where she can carry out her motto of “Being open to all opportunities.”
Danielle Bonneau
Danielle Bonneau was born in Saint-Charles de Bellechasse in Québec.
Danielle studied leisure management and intervention at the Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup. From 1988 to 2002, she worked at Charlesbourg High School as a school recreation technician.
In January 2002, Danielle, her husband Jean-Marc, and their two children Jérôme (9) and Francis (7) decided to move to the Canadian North. They drove and took the time to visit Canada.
Danielle worked as the cultural integration coordinator at École Émilie-Tremblay from 2002 to 2007. She was a language assistant from 2008 to 2012 and finished her career as the French Cultural Partnerships Officer at the French Language Programs, Yukon Department of Education, from 2012 to 2024.
Danielle was a founding member of the a cappella groupe Les Ceusses-qui-ont-du-fun-quand-y-chantent (from 2002 to 2024). She was a member of the Whitehorse All-City Band’s Senior Band, where she played saxophone for 16 years.
Danielle volunteered at the sugar shack, was a volunteer host of the francophone radio show Rencontres, was a member of the Board of Directors of Les Essentielles for two years and conducted a children’s choir for the francophone Constellation show in 2017. She co-hosted a francophone gala with her son Jérôme, took part in several francophone shows and became a referee for the Northern Improvisation League in 2024.
Danielle is now a grandmother to four grandchildren.
For Danielle, coming to the Yukon represented the discovery of another francophone community, the experience of solidarity and applying the principle that “anything is possible.”
Émilie Tremblay
Émilie (Fortin) Tremblay was born on January 4, 1872, in the Lac Saint-Jean region, in Quebec.
When she was 15, her family moved to Cohoes, New York. This is where she met her future husband, Pierre Nolasque (Jack) Tremblay, who was visiting from the Klondike where he had been prospecting since 1886. The couple married in December 1893 and set out for the Klondike on their honeymoon.
The couple lived in Miller Creek in a small log cabin. They were known for their generosity. On their first Christmas in the territory in 1894, they invited all the miners in the area to Christmas dinner.
They had no children but adopted two nieces. Émilie was godmother to 26 children. The couple often visited family in Cohoes and Saguenay. It was during one of their absences from the Klondike that gold was discovered. By the time they returned, all the rich concessions had been taken, so Jack prospected on various creeks.
In 1913, Jack and Émilie moved to Dawson and Émilie opened a women’s clothing store. Émilie was widowed in 1935 and in 1940, she married Louis Lagrois. She was very involved in the social life of the area with the Ladies of the Golden North, the Yukon Order of Pioneers Auxiliary and the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire. She died in Victoria in 1949 after a battle with breast cancer.
Émilie Tremblay was an example of the French-Canadian spirit. Today, the French elementary school in Whitehorse bears her name.
Virginie Hamel
Virginie Hamel was born in the City of Québec. She divided her time between crafts and piano lessons.
Virginie studied and worked in the field of scenography. She arrived in the Yukon in 2007 and joined the Arts and Culture team at the Association franco-yukonnaise (AFY) as a contractor for some events and then as an employee in various positions. Her work as an arts and culture manager and then as director led her to collaborate daily with professionals from the arts industry across the country. Since 2023, Virginie has been working for the Government of Yukon as an arts advisor. She stays in contact with artists and artistic organizations.
The last few years have been filled with visual arts. Since 2022, exhibit projects such as La Chasse-galerie and her collaboration with the project Look Up have kept her busy. Between the spring and fall of 2024, she worked on an illustration project for the online magazine À ciel ouvert (based in Saskatchewan) and prepared an exhibition for the Francophone Manitoban Cultural Centre in Saint-Boniface in collaboration with Françoise La Roche and Michel Gignac. Virginie spent most of the 2024 holiday season preparing 20 works for an exhibition at La Manzanilla on the Pacific coast of Mexico. For Virginie, moving to the Yukon has translated into acquiring a national and even international artistic experience. She had the opportunity to participate in an artistic festival in Myanmar and artist residences in India and
