[1] It was established in 1995 as Ontario's third college specifically serving the Franco-Ontarian population, after La Cité collégiale in Ottawa and Collège Boréal in Sudbury.

[2] It began as a "virtual college" which had no central campus, and instead offered instruction through student access centres in Toronto, Hamilton, Penetanguishene, Welland and Windsor.

[15] Some community members and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union continued to fight for the college to be reopened under the constitutional principle of respect for and protection of minority rights;[16] the case, Gigliotti v Conseil d'administration du Collège des Grands Lacs, was heard by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2005.

[17] The court dismissed the case, ruling that minority language rights had not been violated since Collège Boréal had stepped in to continue offering French-language college education programs in the regions formerly served by Grands-Lacs.

[18] A 2012 report by the provincial Commissioner of French Language Services into French language education in Southwestern Ontario identified both the school's original "virtual college" model, which left it unable to truly build a profile as a French-language cultural institution or community hub in the cities it served, and the financial challenges resulting from its subsequent conversion to a more conventional campus-based model, as factors in the school's eventual failure.