4121 4th Avenue

From 1979 to 1983, the No Pop Shop restaurant, today replaced by Antoinette’s, was the first headquarters for Francophones. This artwork was well known by regulars since it proudly graced the wall.

During that period, the Francophone population was heterogeneous; young, newly arrived Quebec counterculture “hippies” mingled with miners who had been in the Yukon for a while—many of them having recently lost their jobs due to mine closures. It was then that the idea to create the Association franco-yukonnaise was born.

Photo: No Pop Shop painting
Photo credit: Stéphanie Chevalier

In 1979, Yukon Francophones got together in the hopes of watching Hockey Night in Canada in French.

November 20, 1980
Sir,
We Francophones and other interested parties in Whitehorse, Yukon, are pleased to present you with a request that is very dear to us: we would like to have French radio and television programs. […]
We are given to understand, however, that such a project cannot proceed immediately. We ask that Radio-Canada look into our request in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, please allow the WHTV company in Whitehorse to broadcast French programming on existing cable or satellite channels. […]
Thank you for your kind consideration,
Francophones from the Yukon, the truly “pays d’en haut”

Photo : lettre à la direction de Radio-Canada
Source: Association franco-yukonnaise Archives