French-language student newspaper at Laurentian University revived

Along-standing French-language newspaper serving the Laurentian University campus in Sudbury is being revived after not publishing for the last two years.

L'Orignal Dchan started in 1987 and was the voice of francophone students at the university.

It stopped publishing in 2022because there were no students available to jump in as editor.

But Katherine Lehoux, a second-year student in Laurentian's business administration program, has now stepped into that role.

Lehoux's parents are Laurentian alumni and she identifies as a proud Franco-Ontarienne who grew up in Sudbury.

She says she jumped at the chance to revive l'Orignal Dchan.

"I was really interested in the idea because I'm studying entrepreneurship at the university, which is building your own business and running your own business," she said.

"[This] is a pretty good experience for that."

During high school, at cole secondaire MacDonald-Cartier in Sudbury, Lehoux contributed to a series called Le Tapage by the local French-language newspaper Le Voyageur. The series featured stories written by high school students from across the region.

L'Original Dchan was revived this month with a thinner physical edition.

Lehoux says so far, the reaction from students and staff at Laurentian has been positive.

"A lot of the staff have heard of it, but all the new students don't really know what it is," Lehoux said.

"So lots of people know of it and some are just getting to see it for the first time in this new form."

Lehoux says she hopes the newspaper will grow organically as more student journalists get involved. An online edition will also get regular updates as stories develop.