It is correct. These chairs were created to support publishing in French, which we tend to see moving backwards right now at the University of Ottawa. Many, many, many francophone professors tend to make the decision that if you publish in English, your impact factor will increase substantially. It will change your reputation internationally, because everyone knows in the world of research that if you publish, for example, in the Journal of Applied Gerontology, which is an American journal, your reputation as a researcher will increase incrementally.
If I decide to publish in a francophone journal, of course my reputation, my influence as a researcher, will be obviously reduced.
That's a fact, per se; hence the importance of creating support for francophone researchers with a translation service, for example, that could help them translate their publications from French to English and as such increase their influence and reputation worldwide.
Personally, as a researcher, I have often decided to switch from French to English in my scientific production, although I am a francophile. I can see quite clearly that when I publish in English, I have an impact that is not at all comparable to what I can have when I publish in French, since there is a bigger pool of readers. That is unfortunate and it prompts many francophone researchers to give up and decide to publish in English only.