31 October 2012

Quebec’s image gets uglier with each new language-based attack | Full Comment | National Post

Quebec’s image gets uglier with each new language-based attack | Full Comment | National Post

Three times in two months since the election of a Parti Quebecois government, English-speaking Quebecers have been confronted with the fact they’re not welcome by a segment of the French-speaking population.
Three incidents is not a tidal wave, but none of the incidents was minor. In September, forty-eight-year-old Alex Montreuil had a sandwich thrown at him in a cafe at the Jewish General Hospital after speaking English to a woman behind the counter. As it happens, Montreuil has a severe allergy to tomatoes, and the tomato in the sandwich set off a dangerous reaction.
A few weeks later, a couple in Vaudreuil-Dorion, just outside Montreal, called paramedics when their two-year-old suffered a seizure. Mark Bergeron speaks French, but says he had trouble understanding the medical terminology used by the attendants and asked if they could have the conversation in English.

29 October 2012

William Johnson: French is not in danger

French is not in danger

How could so many have so misrepresented the results? They relied on percentages - French compared to all other languages. So the number of French speakers increased across the country, but the number speaking other languages increased even more. That was the "decline" reported by so many - as though French were in a life-and-death struggle against all other languages.
This slanted perception of reality is not innocent. In 1988, in the Ford v. Quebec decision, the Supreme Court of Canada accepted the Quebec government's argument that the very survival of French was threatened. The numbers alleged in court mostly dated from before the Quiet Revolution. And so the court ruled that, because French's very survival was threatened, it was acceptable for the Quebec government to restrict the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights. The government could impose a "marked predominance" on commercial signs. Marked predominance of French, or, more accurately, the near-total dominance of French, has become accepted as the norm, and not just for commercial signs, but in all areas of life.

24 October 2012

Don Macpherson: Census shows language laws working

Don Macpherson: Census shows language laws working

MONTREAL — As Montreal goes, so goes Quebec, the advocates of restrictions on linguistic freedom in this province have argued for nearly 50 years; once the metropolis went English, the hinterland would surely follow.
Defending Montreal against anglicization is still the end used to justify such means as the “new Bill 101” that the Marois government is to propose this fall.
Yet there’s little evidence that English is taking over in Montreal, based on the data on language from the 2011 census made public on Wednesday.