Quebec’s self-defeating language fetish

The following opinion piece could be found at the national post here. It does a good job of showing the dilemmas afflicting the protection of French in Quebec.

Special to the National Post June 4, 2010 – 7:40 am

Last summer, after close to 20 years in The Netherlands running the Dutch campus of a top U.S. university, I returned home to Montreal to accept the post of Director General of Marianopolis College. Three of our children returned with me and my wife, the fourth remaining at university in Amsterdam. Bringing children ages 10 to 16 and a Dutch wife to Canada was a challenge, but I underestimated how difficult it would be to bring them to Quebec.

A year later, I am increasingly concerned about Quebec and its direction. I worry — as a father, as the leader of one of the province’s top higher-education institutions and as a global citizen — that Quebec is moving opposite to global trends.
For example, on Wednesday, the provincial government unveiled its response to the recent Supreme Court of Canada judgement declaring Bill 104 unconstitutional.

Bill 104 amended Bill 101 — Quebec’s French Language Charter — to prevent parents not educated in Canada in English from securing eligibility for their child to attend English schools after spending one year at an un-subsidized English private school. The high court gave Quebec a year to find another way to plug that loophole, while protecting Charter rights. The Quebec National Assembly’s response, Bill 103, further limits access to English schooling.

This has happened despite the fact that the English community has evolved significantly while I was abroad. There is an openness to learning French that didn’t exist when I left in 1991. Graduates of English schools are increasingly fluent in both French and English, and the bridges that have been built between different ethnic communities are remarkable.

Yet, when I speak with the university-bound students at Marianopolis, many of whom attended francophone high schools, and with the academic leaders of Quebec’s French and English colleges and universities, it is clear: The brain drain out of the province persists.

Worse still, this flight of talent and economic prowess is not being replaced by immigrants: Only 18 percent of all immigrants to Canada come to Quebec, too few for a province with almost a quarter of the nation’s population.

Quebec’s auditor-general was the latest to call attention to immigration-related shortcomings, in his May 12 report to the National Assembly. In response, no less an authority than Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James warned that making it a priority to recruit immigrants who speak French — the current policy — limits Quebec’s options.

Meanwhile, globally minded francophone and allophone students are choosing to attend English-language Cegep (as Quebec’s unique college system is called) at English schools at the first moment they are legally allowed to, when the Bill 101 restrictions are lifted after high school. Many stay in the province due to Quebec’s unreasonably low tuition, funded by the highest taxes in North America, but eventually they pay their taxes elsewhere when their careers take them outside the province.
Despite our high taxes, which are equivalent to those in socialist Holland, the services in Quebec are far fewer and less robust than they are in Holland: Health insurance, social welfare and the general infrastructure of the province seem to be lower here. As a hockey dad, I see many parts of Montreal. Too often, I am shocked by the poverty and crumbling roads and buildings.
Quebec’s protectionism translates not just into ill-qualified immigrants, fleeing educated people, fewer services and crumbling infrastructure, but into a society that is out of synch with the rest of the world.

Keeping in mind the undeniable decline of the French language worldwide, let’s compare Quebec’s language policy with that of The Netherlands. The Dutch welcome English as the international language. U.S. and English TV shows are never dubbed, but subtitled; most music on the radio is in English; even more tellingly, universities have converted all masters programs to English-only in order to prepare the Dutch for the global economy.

Does that mean the Dutch culture or language is on the decline? On the contrary, both thrive and the Dutch enjoy a most “distinct society,” despite being surrounded by large countries.

Quebec, meanwhile, has decided that language preservation is more important than economic progress. This has many costs, and it limits the ability of young people to be global citizens.

A recent analysis by the Quebec Ministry of Finance shows the province has one of the industrialized world’s most heavily indebted economies: When considering Quebec as a nation — as some say it ought to be — it ranks a disconcerting fifth in terms of public debt as a percentage of GDP. First on the list? Greece at 102%. Canada’s debt is calculated at 69.7% of its GDP; Quebec’s is at 94%.

My sense is that we need to have the courage to admit that the world has changed since Bill 101 was introduced, as has Quebec. We need to take a fresh look at the situation, and my bet is that together we can continue to protect the French language while developing strategies to strengthen our economy and convince our young people to stay home.

Len Even
National Post

Len Even is director general of Marianopolis College in Montreal.

Decline and resistance in quebec

Many French-speaking observers of the French language in Quebec point out its decline over the last few decades. While this will be dismissed by some as a gimmick used to drum up French-Canadian resistance, studies paint the picture of an erosion that mass immigration from more or less Francophone countries hardly helps slow down.


source

En tant que président du Réseau de Résistance du Québécois (RRQ), Patrick Bourgeois tient à féliciter le citoyen Jean-Roch Villemaire pour le geste qu’il a posé contre la candidate Barbara Charlebois, elle dont l’équipe a osé poser des affiches unilingues anglaises dans le secteur d’Aylmer, en Outaouais.

Bien qu’il s’agisse ici d’une initiative personnelle de M. Villemaire, le Réseau tient à dire qu’il se sent solidaire et fier de ce patriote. Le Réseau est convaincu qu’il a bien fait de retirer une douzaine desdites affiches unilingues anglaises.

« Je partage l’opinion de M. Villemaire lorsqu’il dit que les citoyens, quand les élites politiques abdiquent, ont la responsabilité de combattre eux-mêmes les situations injustes. Lorsqu’il y aura des centaines et des milliers de Québécois qui imiteront Jean-Roch Villemaire, la question du français sera enfin réglée au Québec », a dit M. Bourgeois.

La question du français préoccupe au plus haut point la direction et les membres du Réseau de Résistance du Québécois. « Il est clair qu’il faut faire quelque chose de signifiant pour enfin renverser la tendance à laquelle on assiste depuis quelques décennies maintenant au Québec, tendance qui établit clairement le déclin de la langue française. Et la désobéissance civile est très certainement une des possibilités que nous envisageons pour assurer la pérennité du fait français au Québec », a soutenu M. Bourgeois. En cela, Jean-Roch Villemaire vient peut-être de lancer un mouvement.

More and More Franco Enrolments in Quebec's English-Language Schools

In spite of strict language laws, English retains its attraction in Quebec and many a Francophone wishes his children to become Anglos. Those who can afford the costs of private education even send them in ever greater numbers to English-language schools:

Montreal People See French Losing Ground

Mathieu Turbide
Le Journal de Montréal
18/02/2009 09h10

La langue française perd du terrain à Montréal, et l'économie se dégrade, constatent une majorité des Montréalais interrogés dans le cadre d'un sondage Léger Marketing-Le Journal de Montréal.
Trois Montréalais sur cinq trouvent que l'état de la langue Française dans leur ville se détériore.

L'opinion des Montréalais rejoint donc les conclusions de plusieurs rapports -et d'une récente enquête du Journal de Montréal -qui démontrent que l'utilisation du français recule à Montréal, particulièrement dans les commerces du centre-ville.

Le gouvernement a lancé plus tôt cet hiver une vaste campagne pour promouvoir l'usage du français dans les commerces montréalais.

Click here to read more

Useless Govt Ad Campaigns Try To Halt Decline of French In Quebec

CBC ran a story in October of last year on Quebec's Bonjour campaign:

A new Quebec-funded ad campaign that encourages people to speak more French is getting bad reviews from some English-speaking Montrealers.

The $1.5-million "Bonjour" campaign urges Quebecers to greet each other in French.

The radio version tells listeners that "Bonjour is the best beginning" for every conversation.

Montrealers don't need to hear that, especially when the province has bigger problems at hand, said Ted Duskes, who runs a technology equipment business.

"Don't spend all these kinds of money when you don't have the money to spend," he told CBC News. "You have people lining up in the halls in the emergency rooms, and you haven't got nurses. It's frustrating."

The campaign comes after months of public debate over the vitality of French in Montreal.

Recent provincial studies suggest French is losing favour as the main language of commerce on the island of Montreal, especially among small businesses.

The majority of Quebec francophones feel the French language is threatened in Quebec, but the ad campaign misses the mark, said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies.

"In terms of outcomes, in terms of the degree to which non-francophones are going to say 'bonjour' more, or use more French in retail outlets of downtown Montreal, I doubt this will have any meaningful impact," he said.

Government officials wouldn't comment on the campaign.

But Quebec's Office de la langue francaise, the province's language watchdog, said it expects similar campaigns to be rolled out soon.

Bill 101 Has Failed

Even the Angry French Guy has to concede defeat: the unilingual Anglos are back in business in Quebec, especially in Montreal. Enjoy the bitterness of the post:

English is Back in the Québec Workplace

with 233 comments

“I just love Montreal”, I overheard a lady tell her friend in Avenue Video in Montréal. “I’d live here if I spoke French.”

“I don’t speak French”, scoffed a passerby. “Don’t worry about that.”

English is getting stronger in Montreal. I’m not the one saying it. The Montreal Gazette is saying it. There’s just no way around the numbers. Québec’s English-speaking population rose by 5.5% between 2001 and 2006 according to StatsCan.

How did this happen?

“The easy answer to the question of why young anglos aren’t leaving Quebec like they did a generation ago”, writes David Johnston, “is that they speak better French, and aren’t being chased away by political uncertainty.”

You will all remember that the “political uncertainty” started in the 1950’s and 1960’s when francophones started asking why they were paid less than any other nationality in Québec, why no francophones held any management position in Canada’s banking and finance industry and why they were forbidden to use their language to speak to each on the shop floor.

English-Canada’s business elite responded by moving the country’s entire financial sector and 800 000 jobs from Montreal to Ontario where discrimination against French-speakers was allowed.

But a more important reason, according to the Montreal edition of the Winnipeg Free Press, is that it’s getting easier and easier for English-speakers to live and work in Montreal because there has been a “cultural shift” that has made English “acceptable” in the workplace.

“By the 1990s”, continues our man, “speaking English had become more acceptable in Quebec as firms came to see the need to improve the capacity of their workforces to operate in English. This created new opportunities for anglophones.”

As if English had ever disappeared from the Québec workplace! As if the French-speaking majority of Québec that had been forced to work in English for 250 years suddenly found itself unable to communicate with the outside world in the international language of business after bill 101 gave them the right to work in French!

The failure of Bill 101

When I was a truck driver satellites communications between French-speaking drivers and French-speaking dispatchers had to be in English so the English-speaking security team in Toronto could understand what was going on.

In 2005 the Metro chain of grocery stores bought A&P Canada and Christian Haub, the CEO and chairman of the board of A&P got a seat on the Québec company’s board. Thirteen Francophones and one Anglo. Guess what language the board meeting are in now?

Yep. Even when the French businessmen win, they lose.

That’s the way the modern workplace functions. It is entirely structured around the needs of the less qualified people. French-speakers in Québec, and all non-English speaking people around the world, are required to acquire additional language skills so that unilingual Anglos won’t have to.

Québec briefly tried to change that with the Charter of the French language, but the truth is that the rules that were supposed to protect the right of Québec workers to work in their language are broken. They don’t work anymore.

They were designed for businesses that could be contained in a building, to make sure that the 15th floor would communicate in French with the 6th and 2nd floor, all the way down to the shop floor.

But businesses don’t work like that anymore. Management is in Toronto, accounting’s in Alberta and IT is in Bangalore. Toronto’s and New York’s business culture is once again being imposed on the workers of Québec, and the entire world, actually.

Québec’s workforce has always been the most multilingual in Canada, and probably one of the most linguistically versatile in the World. Québec’s business culture did not change, it’s the world’s business structure that changed.

And once again, after only a brief interruption, unilingual Anglos can come back to work in Montreal.

And just in time, as the stellar generation of brilliant financial minds that left Montreal a generation ago have now managed to completely scrap Ontario’s economy and is now ready to come back home.

Hat tip: Edward J. Cunningham

The Inevitable Decline of French in Quebec

Le Devoir, a Quebec media outlet, published this letter from a francophone reader, on January 2008:

For a few years, I have read, I hear and I feel that a decline of the French language is inevitable within the current Canadian institutions: many immigrants are moving to Quebec, but where they are really moving to is Canada.

English suits them better and, with French classes being now cut, all they do is mangle the language of Molière when ... they can't help using it. Many manage to avoid French school over generations (see private schools, English-speaking cégep) and continue to grow up to become Canadians first (Anglos, if you want): they gorge themselves on anglophone media, music and attitudes.

What enables me to make such statements? Simply put, my experience. I was born in Bas-de-Rivière, lived there 16 years, then I went to Quebec to study at the Cégep and the University for seven years. Until then, I had lived all my life in French; even foreign students and teachers had to speak French to become integrated, or else they would end up alone.

Yet at the Laval University Hospital (CHUL), I had my first experience of working in English, in the lab of a researcher who had recently arrived and spoke only English. Since I can speak English, I accepted this situation. However he soon had to speak French for survival, and his three daughters are now little Québécoises like any others: demographic pressure had been at work.

Things changed when I arrived in Montreal: first I worked for a Lachine company, then with the McGill university. Needless to say, virtually everything that happened there was conducted in English, even when no more than one English-speaker was present. Why? Because, at every given moment, everyone on the staff included a number of immigrants for which English was easier...

However, I started to ask myself serious questions when I had to see a doctor at the Jewish Hospital. On several instances, the staff could not utter a word of French, or even give me forms and regulations in French, except sometimes in bad French!

After six years of this, I began inverting word order («bleue porte», for example) or answering a spontaneous “What?” when asked a question. I reacted in a Draconian way to this change and I tried to reject English. Since then, I have practically stopped listening to English-speaking music or movies and I am less keen to learn new English words. Survival was somehow at stake.

Finally, we moved (with the family now) to Gatineau and have been there two years. Here, I sense a demographic crush: unilingual English-speakers are served in English by mechanics and grocers, without an "au revoir", why, the checkout clerk even treats them to a heartfelt “Have a good day!” and a broad smile.

Also, when riding the bus to Ottawa General Hospital where I work, I sometimes hear French-speaking people meet their anglophone friends (always in Gatineau) and greet them in English. As soon as the river is crossed, another country begins for me: 99% English-speaking commercials, unilingual drivers, businesses serving their customers in English only. What can French-Ontarians do about it? Some whinge a little against it but a majority of them folds, and… does so with pleasure!

More often than not, I can make out three French words in between two English sentences, or else someone speaks English and receives an answer in French. One might call it symbiosis, but English-language dominance is felt all the same.

click here to read the rest of the letter in French

Quebec's Lib Gov't Deceives Francos to Relax Anti-English Laws

Quebec's Franco bloggers are fuming: the team currently running the Quebec administration is more concerned with saving la Belle Province's economy than propping up what passes for French there. In order to undo the harm done by the fanatics previously in government, ministers like Christine  Saint-Pierre are seeking to surreptitiously relax the worst provisions of the infamously xenophobic Bill 101. To help Francos swallow the bitter pill and save face, government makes up figures suggesting that French-language decline has been reversed  in Montreal when the opposite is true and claims on the strength of these fake figures that Bill 101 is a success and therefore needn't be toughened. As a result, desperation pervades French online rants such as this one from earlier this year: 

Pourquoi suis-je ainsi en furie après la ministre libérale, me direz-vous? Parce qu’elle a eu le culot de dire que son gouvernement ne durcira pas la Loi 101 afin de redresser la situation du français au Québec, dossier qui a été ramené au devant de la scène par l’enquête effectuée par une journaliste du Journal de Montréal dernièrement. Les libéraux disent qu’ils comptent tout simplement faire de la sensibilisation auprès des commerces montréalais qui s’entêtent à fonctionner en anglais au Québec, dans un pays français. Quelle bande de baveux! Mais qu’y a-t-il de si étonnant à ce que les lâches que sont les libéraux ne fassent rien pour sauver la langue française, me répondront certains. Considérant leur triste bilan en la matière (enseignement de l’anglais en 1ère année, coupures importantes dans les programmes de francisation des immigrants et hausse des taux d’immigration par exemples), l’on ne pouvait après tout s’attendre à rien d’autre de leur part. Effectivement! Mais alors pourquoi suis-je autant en colère?

Je le suis, et profondément, parce que Christine-Saint-Pierre-la-traîtresse a osé balayé du revers de la main tout durcissement de la Loi 101 en arguant qu’une étude de l’Office de la langue française avait démontré à l’automne 2006 que 90% des commerces à Montréal fonctionnaient déjà en français. C’est ce que l’OLF avait fallacieusement indiqué dans un communiqué diffusé en janvier 2007 afin de convaincre les Québécois que le français se porte bien au Québec. Par conséquent, ajoute la ministre, nul besoin d’agir de manière drastique dans ce dossier.

Il faut toutefois savoir que l’étude dont se sert l’OLF pour prétendre une telle chose, il la garde secrète, la cache, la dissimule. Il ne veut pas la montrer à personne. (...)Mais ce qui devient carrément scandaleux avec cette fumisterie, c’est quand le gouvernement national des Québécois y réfère pour justifier l’orientation de ses décisions dans le dossier linguistique qui sont d’un laisser-aller navrant. Exactement comme l’a fait aujourd’hui Christine Saint-Pierre, cette grande colporteuse de mystifications, en nous proposant de ne rien faire pour empêcher le lent déclin du français au Québec, et ce, parce qu’une étude camouflée laisse faussement entendre que tout va bien à Montréal. link

15/01/2008 16:39

The Office Québécois de la Langue Francaise (OQLF), formerly used as a tool for persecuting Quebec's English speakers, is now key to the current government's efforts to cover up the decline of French in Quebec and the failure of decades-long paranoid anti-Anglo policies:

Something is rotten in the state of the Office québécois de la langue française. The chaotic sortie of its five-year report is one more sign of how disturbingly politicized it’s become over the years.

On Wednesday, OQLF president France Boucher released a 200-page report, 1,000 pages of studies and a mishmash of statistics. Although many statistics confirm data from the 2006 census showing a decline of the French language, especially on the Island of Montreal, Boucher refused to deliver any analysis or even qualify the state of the French language.

She even had the gall to ask ordinary Quebecers to read the studies themselves to make their own analysis. There was also her Soviet-style treatment of the members of the committee in charge of reviewing the report. She asked these independent academics to take a vow of silence, told them they’d be sent into a locked room to read the report with no cellphones, no computers and no documents of their own. They had to destroy their notes before they left.

The academics refused and denounced what they called the OQLF’s paranoia. The head of the committee, Simon Langlois, resigned over what he described as an abusive climate of distrust, excessive control and improvization. Boucher even refused to brief journalists before she released more than 1,000 pages of studies for them to go through in just a few hours.

In any normal government, she would have been fired on the spot for any or all of those things. But ever since Lucien Bouchard, who feared the language issue like the plague, turned the OQLF into a neutered extension of the premier’s office, Boucher’s silence and bullying tactics should assure her a long life at the head of the OQLF.

In fact, Boucher had nothing to say about French losing ground on the Island of Montreal and the suburbs, or about only 65 per cent of people working in French on the island, or about only 45.7 per cent of allophones choosing French as a second language, compared with the 54.3 per cent who choose English. No word, either, on the 40 per cent of allophone kids who went to French high school choosing to go to an English CEGEP.

Boucher is a problem. Parti Québécois language critic Pierre Curzi said Boucher is either incompetent or the victim of pressure from the premier’s office. Sorry, but it looks like both.

But the real problem behind the growing politization of the OQLF is its very nature. Contrary to what Language Minister Christine St-Pierre says, the OQLF is not independent from the government. You couldn’t tell by the power struggle between Boucher and St-Pierre, but the OQLF answers and reports to the minister by law. Part of its mandate is to monitor the language situation. So contrary to what Boucher contends, it the OQLF’s mandate to analyze.

Since it is not independent, the OQLF’s president is named by the premier’s office. This opens the door to nominations based on politicial affiliation, not competence. Such was the case for Boucher, a former Liberal aide.

Over the years, OQLF presidents learned quickly that if they want to keep their job - a lucrative five-year posting that can be terminated at any time - it’s crucial to reflect what’s politically desirable for their real boss, the premier.

It all makes one thing painfully obvious : The OQLF should be rendered as independent from the government as the auditor-general. This means making it answerable to the National Assembly and having all sitting parties choose its president based on competence, not based on the political masters he or she once served.

If the OQLF is not changed, it will continue to follow the whims of the government du jour and fail to inform Quebecers fully about the state of French.

It is absolutely irresponsible that the monitoring and analysis of what most distinguishes the Quebec nation from the rest of the continent - its language - isn’t handled by a competent and politically independent agency.

link

Josée LEGAULT
The Gazette (Montreal)
vendredi 7 mars 2008

French Faces Uncertain Future in Canada

Quebec,Canada

Pierre S. Pettigrew, The New Politics of Confidence, Stoddart, 1999, review by Howard Cukoff:

an independent Quebec would face a decline of prestige and presence in our (forgive me) global economy. Quebec would lose its geographical bridge to the once and future burgeoning Pacific Rim. Pettigrew is also correct to point out an often-overlooked matter. Quebec carries on an extensive interprovincial trade which would almost certainly be disrupted in the wake of secession.

(...)

Pettigrew holds that the federal system is flexible and adaptive, qualities which effectively position the country to compete in contemporary market conditions. Flexibility is enhanced by the constant squabbling between federal and provincial jurisdictions, since the levels of government compete to provide better services and a better economic climate. These advantages would be lost in the centralized model of government an independent Quebec would follow. As examples, Pettigrew mentions the bureaucratic bungling in Quebec’s manpower training department, which the province wrested from federal control a few years ago, and the short shrift municipalities get in Quebec. Pettigrew maintains that the Quebec government is inept at regional development and has been unable to arrest the decades-long decline of the city of Montreal.

As Pettigrew sees it, the sovereigntist movement is parochial and out-of-step with economic reality. Nationalism is about much more than economics, needless to say. The French fact in Canada has entered a demographic crisis. The proportion of francophones in the country is declining, and political power (in a democracy, at least) follows the demographic trend. The insecurity of francophones both in Quebec and in the Rest of Canada (where the cultural assimilation of francophone communities is a critical danger) – of which the sovereigntist movement is one expression – is real, the future of the French language and culture is not assured.

Quebec Short On Francophone Immigrants

On world-news.dxinginfo.com, october 23, 2008:

Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James says the government won't require that candidates for immigration understand the French language before arriving in the largely French-speaking province. Mrs. James says the government will encourage them to learn Quebec's official language before arriving, but the potential numbers of francophone immigrants is too small to allow the government to achieve its immigration targets. The government wants to increase numbers of immigrants arriving yearly from 45,000 to 55,000 by 2010. Sixty-per cent of immigrants to the province are now estimated to understand French.

Anglophone police at French summit

ANDREW CHUNG in thestar.com, oct 20, 2008 04:30 AM:

QUEBEC CITY–Just outside the Hilton hotel, part of the official site of the summit of la Francophonie, two RCMP officers stood chatting with each other in English. A woman walked up and asked in French whether they could tell her which shuttle to take.

"I think it's that way," one officer replied in English, and pointed down the road.

The woman looked confused, then started again in halting English. "That way?" she asked.

The officer, who later asked that his name not be used in this article, went to find a French-speaking counterpart for help.

It's a curious development in Quebec City – where representatives from 55 French-speaking countries and hordes of francophone media descended for the summit, the raison-d'être of which is the French language – that if attendees try to speak to police, there's a good chance they won't understand what the officer says.

After being deplored in many corners – the president of the Mouvement national des Québécoises et Québécois called it "scandalous and shameful" – the RCMP is now the subject of a complaint with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.

Impératif français, a Gatineau, Que.-based group that promotes the use of French, made the complaint. Jean-Paul Perreault, the group's president, told The Canadian Press the situation was insulting to the population and dignitaries who expected to communicate in the language of Molière but were forced to speak the language of Shakespeare.

"We know it's a sensitive matter," said RCMP spokesperson Luc Bessette in an interview, adding not enough francophone or bilingual officers were available.

'Bonjour' campaign promotes French, wastes money:

CBS News:

A new Quebec-funded ad campaign that encourages people to speak more French is getting bad reviews from some English-speaking Montrealers.

The $1.5-million "Bonjour" campaign urges Quebecers to greet each other in French.

The radio version tells listeners that "Bonjour is the best beginning" for every conversation.

Montrealers don't need to hear that, especially when the province has bigger problems at hand, said Ted Duskes, who runs a technology equipment business.

"Don't spend all these kinds of money when you don't have the money to spend," he told CBC News. "You have people lining up in the halls in the emergency rooms, and you haven't got nurses. It's frustrating."

The campaign comes after months of public debate over the vitality of French in Montreal.

Recent provincial studies suggest French is losing favour as the main language of commerce on the island of Montreal, especially among small businesses.

The majority of Quebec francophones feel the French language is threatened in Quebec, but the ad campaign misses the mark, said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies.

"In terms of outcomes, in terms of the degree to which non-francophones are going to say 'bonjour' more, or use more French in retail outlets of downtown Montreal, I doubt this will have any meaningful impact," he said.

French Racism in Quebec

At lifeinmotion.wordpress.com, August 11, 2008;

However, I was discriminated when I was enrolled at a Quebecois school in Brossard (back then there were no Chinese people in that town). The racism was so bad at times that I decided to unlearn French when I moved to America and I still feel I can relate to those ethnic minorities who rioted in Paris and now Montreal.

More here

At the same blog:

I remember going to a “Quebecois” school in Quebec where I first learned about racial discrimination when I was younger. The difference between a “Canadian” school and a Quebecois school in Quebec is the Quebecois school generally have separatist influences, they are relatively less diverse than the Canadian schools, there is no trace of anything distinctly Canadian, and there is no assistance to students who do not speak French as a native language.

Canadian schools, on the other hand, had a diverse student body, had some programmes for non-French speaking students, and put down racism in their school by promoting multiculturalism. My early experiences were both at a Canadian and Quebecois school where I spent 2 years in each school when I was young.

The first instance of racism I experienced at a Quebec school called Ecole Samuel-De Champlain, was when I was entering the school in the morning. While I was walking to class, some French kid kept making “Ching-Chang-Chong” noises while looking at me. The kids that were around me simply ignored it as if it was normal while a handful laughed. At another instance, some French kids beat me up, trashed the things in my bookbag, and told me to “Go back to China” in French because they felt immigrants were taking his parents’ jobs or diluting the Quebecois spirit.

Then there was that second grade teacher named Sylvie. At that time she was in her late thirties, and I learned later that her husband was unemployed. I knew when I was younger I was a bit of a troublemaker, but I always thought it was strange how she would only give stern warnings to the White kids in the class while throwing me out of her class for the entire day when I did something wrong. This was strange because I did similar things to the other kids, but I got a harsher punishment and she never called me back to class once she threw me out.

I think these things were related to immigration and that’s why I get disgusted when people opposed to immigration rabidly deny that the issue has a racist element to it. I can definitely say, it has a racist element since I had the luxury of experiencing it first-hand in Quebec, Canada.

I really don’t like talking about this part of my life but it is a crude reminder of who I am. It’s also a reason why I unlearned the French language, abandoned my Catholic faith, and one of the reasons why it took several years to come to terms with myself.

My experiences in America are much better than Quebec. Although there is more ignorance than rampant racism here compared to Quebec, I want to do what I can to eliminate negative racial stereotypes and explore what it means to be Asian-American.

French Language Policies Have Impoverished Quebec

ADIEU, QUEBEC … AND GOOD RIDDANCE, by Robert Sauvé:

(a) in 1961, year One of the sacred Quiet Revolution, average family income in Québec lagged behind Ontario by 11 percent, (b) in 1991, year 30 of said Revolution, average family income in Québec had worsened, sliding to a 21 percent deficit with Ontario, and (c) in 2001, the situation had not improved.

Robert Sauvé
245 Augusta
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1N 8C6

First Edition, revised
February, 2004

“A neglected relic of a city, where non-Francophones are generally unwelcome”

The result of totalitarian language policies in Montreal, in tripadvisor.com, a review by waddling:

First off, if you don't speak Quebecois French, stay home. If you speak any other language, especially English, then you'll be ignored and will more often than you ought to be the recipient of a rude people. Sure, if you're spending big bucks on your hotel or your meal, you'll be OK. But, if you're in the less-touristy, regular-Joe kind of places, be prepared not to be treated well, no matter how nice you are to them. That's not to say we didn't find people who were gems, but we were more likely to find the lump of coal.

OK, so the people aside, the city itself is kind of a dump. We stayed at the Hotel Gault in Vieux Montreal. The hotel itself was fantastic. Stepping out the front door of the hotel, it smelled like it probably did in the 1600's - yes, like an open sewer. Our friend who lives in Montreal said that it was the caleches, the horse-drawn carriages, and all the horse-dung that made it smell like that. But there isn't much horse dung anywhere, and to get a smell that pervasive, there would have to be horse poop on every corner. No, it just smelled bad. But, on the plus-side, you kinda get used to it.

The buildings in much of the city, at least the commercial buildings, were either simply dreary or in a state of disrepair or outright abandonment. Many of the buildings are empty and for rent, decrying a sad economic state of affairs for this once proud city.

Architecturally, the few buildings that have any character seem to be completely out of place. The majority of the modern buildings look as if they were built no later than the 1970's.
(...)
In all, I felt a little sorry for Montreal, especially after having just arrived from a visit to Toronto, where that city is so vibrant and full of such great energy.

Other reports confirm this general impression of decay:

The Quebec government is so obsessed with language it’s letting important services like health care and road maintenance go. Montreal roads are rotting away with holes. Old and poorly maintained infrastructure means more of the kinds of disruptions that send me into meltdowns. The climate is so harsh that even the best buildings are falling apart. The city is filthy and infested with pests like squirrels. As I said in my first letter, health and social services are next to nil
here. If any of you take the trouble to help me find resources in this city, don’t be fooled by the glitzy websites our CLSC network (government run health and social services network) so proudly displays. The CLSC system is a province-wide joke.
(...)
I don’t know if it’s a Montreal thing or a millennium trend, but sad songs are so popular here I can’t go anywhere without them whining in my ears. Our stores sound like funeral parlors.

Quebecois Lie to Statistics Canada

A plausible explanation:

In April 2006, about one month before the Census, an anonymous e-mail written in French was circulating on the Internet. It contained false information and urged bilingual Francophones not to report, at the Census of Population, on May 16, 2006, that they knew both official languages, purportedly to ensure that the federal government would not cut services to Francophones. Francophones were encouraged to say that they knew French but not English. The e-mail spread across the country.

A note was posted on Statistics Canada's website alerting Canadians to the e-mail's erroneous contents and asking them to answer the questions accurately. Statistics Canada representatives also made a number of statements to the media in an effort to remedy the situation. In view of the data, however, it seems plausible that the e-mail influenced some Francophones in their responses to the question on knowledge of official languages. In the 2006 Census of Population results for this variable, the figures are probably low for the 'English and French' category and high for the 'French only' category, particularly for Francophones but also for the population in general. Users should therefore exercise caution in interpreting those data.

French has served its purpose

Sebastian Anders,Director of Media Relations Language Fairness National:

Consequently, as a guest on a French talk show on Rogers Cable, the host asked me whether I had suffered some traumatic experience in my life that would cause me to take the stand I was taking in what I perceive as fighting for justice for all Canadians, regardless of their "mother tongue". The French media and commentators perceived me as being against the French. As the show's host and most Quebecers and Franco Canadians see it, I am a traitor because I am of French ancestry, born in Quebec, and if I am not against the English, then I must be against the French.

However, my perspective is somewhat different. It is not based on linguistic or cultural bias. I have lived in more than a dozen countries and at one time spoke as many as five languages fluently. I had the pleasure of reading Scott Reid's book "Lament for Notion", among numerous other books I read on the subject, from various perspectives.

French is a beautiful language. At the beginning of the last century, it was the principal language of diplomacy in the European Royal Courts and at most official levels. Language is but a reflection of a culture, which evolves with the people using that language. We are now in a new century and for a very long time French has not been a world dominant language. In fact it is low on the statistical scale of language usage. And all the false "Francophonie" fanfare attempts at reviving it to its former or even pretence of its former glory will not succeed. Like other living things, languages must be allowed to evolve and survive naturally, or fade into disuse or oblivion. And the more attempts are made to force it into continued existence by forcing people to speak it, is a sure fire way to kill it outright. French has served its purpose and should be allowed to survive only as a secondary romantic language for those who freely choose to learn it. However much we like horses and wagons, like French, they are of another era, and just do not suit the times.

Sebastian Anders,
Director of Media Relations
Language Fairness National
www.languagefainess.com

The Charest Govt: a Victory for Quebec's English Speakers

Even before France's Sarközy government was forced by economic necessity to soften the application of the notorious Toubon law, Quebec voted in an administration that was not interested in pursuing the totalitarian bill 101 language policies. Here is a quite accurate analysis of recent Quebec politics from a francophoniac point of view:

10/02/2008, at Denis au Quebec:

Triste constat, qui n'est sans doute que l'un des nombreux exemples de ce déclin de la présence française au Québec.
La situation s'est nettement détériorée depuis 2003, après l'élection du gouvernement Charest. Ce gouvernement élu par les anglophones (il n'a pas l'appui de 20 % des francophones et parmi les francophones qui votent pour lui, une grande partie parlent anglais la plupart du temps : j'étais au restaurant, il y a quelques jours : un homme et une femme tous deux francophones, ont parlé anglais toute la soirée) a donné un signal très fort aux anglophones : nous allons relâcher les contrôles linguistiques.
On sait très bien que ce gouvernement n'aime pas les questions de langue, qui sont plutôt des sujets qui font augmenter la popularité du Parti Québécois associé à la défense de la langue et de la culture francophones. Ce gouvernement à nommé à la présidence de l'Office québécois de la langue française, organisme de défense de la langue, une ancienne attachée politique libérale dont la mission semble être de laisser entendre que tout va bien au Québec, que le français s'y porte très bien. Or on apprend récemment que cette militante politique, au lieu de jouer honnêtement son rôle de présidente de l'organisme de surveillance, joue plutôt le rôle de militante libérale en cachant des études alarmantes qui démontrent le déclin du français au Québec. Elle ne travaille donc pas pour les Québécois mais pour son chef John James Charest, premier ministre du Québec (!!!), qui ne veut rien entendre de la question de la défense du français...
Je crois que ça va barder un peu au cours des prochains mois. Les magouilles et les jeu de cache-cache de ce gouvernement, de la pauvre tête de l... de ministre Saint-Pierre, ne berneront plus les Québécois, qui vont exiger des mesures plus énergiques pour assurer la vitalité du français au Québec. Les conseils de John Parisella en matière de communications stratégiques ne suffiront plus à ce gouvernement pour séduire les Québécois ; il devra prendre des décisions au lieu de se laisser porter par la vague comme il le fait depuis 2003.
Tu as raison de préciser que ce ne sont pas les anglophones de souche qui représentent le problème ; eux, ils ont compris depuis 1977 (et ceux qui n'ont pas voulu comprendre sont partis entre 1977 et 1980). Bien entendu, ils ne protesteront pas si on donne plus de place à l'anglais en matière d'affichage et de langue de travail).
Les vrais récalcitrants, ce sont tous les « Ginos » (de toutes origines) qui arrivent non pas au Québec mais au Canada, qui n'ont qu'une idée en tête : s'enrichir et pouvoir partir du jour au lendemain faire fortune où bon leur semble. Ces personnes n'ont absolument aucun intérêt à apprendre le français et ils se fichent carrément de la langue et de la culture au Québec.
La plupart du temps, ces personnes ne parlent que très mal l'anglais et ils vous imposent la conversation dans un anglais que tout le monde a du mal à comprendre, à commencer par eux-même.
Et que fait notre bon gouvernement Charest pour tenter de corriger la situation ? Il nomme au Conseil de la langue française la présidente du plus important lobby de la communauté anglophone qui a toujours lutté contre l'application de la Loi 101 !

The question that the author of the above text does not address is why a number of Francophones voted for Charest, making his election possible. The obvious answer is that Quebec's language policies have harmed its economy and hampered its growth, which spells disaster even for French speakers in the long run.
The Quebecers have no option other than to let Quebec become American and its tongue be English.

On the Bloc Quebecois blog, similar views are found on the political situation in Quebec:

Langue française : désertion du gouvernement Charest
L’OQLF a déposé hier son bilan quinquennal de la situation de la langue au Québec, bilan qui ne pose pas de véritable diagnostic sur l’état du français au Québec, sinon qu’il met en lumière le déclin du français.

Sauf que la réalité est que le gouvernement Charest a pour sa part déposé les armes dans la défense du français, en prenant soin de cacher son drapeau blanc à la population et de ligoter les observateurs.

...

Cela dit, voici quelques faits saillants du bilan de l’OQLF sur l’évolution de la situation du français au Québec :

-Un recul du français au Québec
-La population de langue française se renouvelle moins

Dictatorship of the Majority

Do linguistic minorities [actually French speakers are the majority in Quebec] want too much? Over the water, in Canada, the once despised French-speakers of Quebec province are getting their own back. Marc Angenot, is a francophone professor who teaches at Montreal's anglophone McGill University:

"The most ludicrous law is about the size of letters that you can use on posters. In Quebec, English must be one third the size of letters used in French. And the colour, of course. The hue of the colour must be also more prominent in French. That means that all the time people are in front of the courts, challenging such and such aspects of laws that are not applicable in many ways, because they are contrary to the Charter of Rights in terms of freedom of expression".

Laurence McFalls, meanwhile, is an anglophone professor at the francophone University of Montreal:

"The only thing that's keeping Montreal from losing its French face is the official protection given to the French language. If the city were officially bilingual, the forces of assimilation to English would be even greater. The language laws which, for example, force immigrants to send their children to school in French, end up with the result that their children at least know some French by the time they're adults because they learn English anyway. At least the bilingual character of the city is maintained - as certain anglophones would say - by ramming the French language down people's throats."

Quebec: Students Switch to English as Soon They Can

«Le poids des francophones à la baisse»
Martin Pelchat
Le Soleil (Québec)
Le mercredi 05 mars 2008:

Dans son bilan, l'OQLF constate, dans l'ensemble, que la proportion de Québécois de langue maternelle française est passée de 82 pour cent, en 1991, à 81,4 pour cent, en 2001, pour enregistrer ensuite «un recul significatif» de deux points en 2006, à 79,6 pour cent.
Dans l'île de Montréal, une diminution de 3,4 pour cent a aussi été notée, de 2001 à 2006. Ainsi, le nombre de personnes dont la mère parlait français était de 49,8 pour cent pour cent lors de cette dernière année.
...

«De façon générale, les derniers recensements montrent un vieillissement généralisé de la population, cependant cette tendance est plus marquée chez les personnes de langue maternelle française», a dit Mme Boucher.
...

Le document synthèse de l’OQLF souligne que la population de langue maternelle française connaît un vieillissement plus marqué et se renouvelle moins. Son âge médian a augmenté de 4,5 ans entre 1991 et 2001, pour passer à 38,6 ans et ainsi dépasser celui des groupes linguistiques anglophone et allophone.

...

Le document constate une «régression» du taux de réussite des jeunes Québécois aux épreuves de français du secondaire et du collégial. Au collégial, la baisse générale d’effectifs a engendré une chute des inscriptions dans les cégeps français, alors que depuis 2000, elles sont légèrement à la hausse dans les cégeps anglais. Dans les universités, les étudiants de langue maternelle française sont proportionnellement «sous-représentés».

These facts are evidence enough that young people are turning their back on French and that non-French speaking students, and probably even French speaking ones, after being forced by Quebec's stringent language laws to attend French elementary and high schools, switch to English-language education as soon as they can, which normally means when they reach age 17, at post-secondary level (Cegeps). This says something about the desire of Quebec's pupils to learn English at native level. So-called allophone students are not ready to give up their mother tongues in order to become native speakers of French. A smattering of French is enough for their needs even in Quebec. When it comes to English, however, only proficiency will do. Quebec's language policies have failed for all their coerciveness. Quebec's language totalitarians have been hoping that third-world immigrants could be forced into saving the French language in Quebec from the sterility of its speakers, or that native English speakers could be coerced and discriminated against into adopting French as a main language, but it is now clear that nothing can prevent the French language from slipping into obscurity in Canada in the long run.