"On accommodation, let the quiet revolution begin"

http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/accommodation+quiet+revolution+begin/2198526/story.html

... All of this reasonable accommodation nonsense makes me heartily glad I don't live in Quebec. Especially since any society with the faintest pretension to being free and democratic never presumes to dictate to its citizens what they can and can't wear.

As I type this, I am wearing a chain with a little pendant on which is inscribed in Hebrew the Shema, the prayer that is central to Judaism. I'll wear what I please in this free country, regardless of whether I work in the private or public sector. It is none of the government's business that I'm wearing this chain, just as it is none of the government's business if someone, including a civil servant, wears a crucifix, a head scarf, a turban or any other symbol that expresses their identity and beliefs in some way.

The burka, however, does not fall into that category because it's about hiding, not about expression. However, as Bouchard said, "(A woman) has her right to choose to wear a burka in the street." Here again, no democratic government should be singling out an article of clothing for banning. Legislators telling women what they can't wear is just as chauvinistic and paternalistic as the men these women know in their own culture who are telling them what they must wear ...

Does it never occur to these commentators (mostly women) that some women in these social groups also uphold conservative dress values?

"Extending 101 [to CEGEPS] is nonsensical"

http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/710

.. In 2000, the Larose Commission on the State and Future of the French language ...reviewed the idea of extending Bill 101 limits on English eligibility to the CEGEP level. The arguments and statistics then were much the same as they are today. Unanimously, we did not carry the idea forward ...

While the proposal – if ever adopted – may satisfy a few into a false sense of security over the French language, it fails to address a far greater menace to the use of French at home and in the workplace. And that menace is not the English-speaking community or the English language, but rather the quality of French that is taught in Quebec schools regardless of whether those schools teach in French or English ...

... the percentage of allophones had reached an overall majority of enrolment in the French system’s primary and secondary levels on the island of Montreal. The Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste likened it to the “Louisianisation” of Quebec ...

Many factors weigh in on a young adult’s choice of which CEGEP to attend, some substantive, some trivial. The ultimate choice may not just be a question of language, but also proximity, curricula and other considerations particular to each student regardless of linguistic background ...

And let’s not forget that this proposal would also apply to francophone students who likely will be less than amused at having their rights stripped from them in a misguided attempt to restrict the rights of allophones ...

The Latin SentiMentality

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec-doctors-cautiously-endorse-euthanasia/article1350279/

... Theories abound to explain the public-opinion gap between Quebec and the rest of Canada on euthanasia. Quebeckers, who rejected religion en masse starting in the 1960s, tend to be more liberal on a range of issues.

Mr. Bureau, who has promoted euthanasia for 25 years, said Canadians outside Quebec tend to defer to doctors and nurses who provide palliative care in the determination of how terminally ill people end their days. In Quebec, more people believe patients should have the last word, he said.

“Maybe it's because we're Latin and we tend to be less rational, more emotional,” said the college's president, Dr. Lamontagne.

-30-

Chantal Hebert: "Language law to face foe from within"

http://tinyurl.com/ygtm7af

...While the Bill 104 debate has focused on immigrant parents, the reality is that some francophone parents had also been using the private school loophole to get their children into the English school system.

Their numbers may be small but they are part of a larger trend that increasingly sees French-speaking parents aspire to more effective English-language training for their children.

In the future, the competing aspirations of Quebec francophones are more likely to erode the consensus that underlies Bill 101 than the House of Commons or even the Supreme Court.

The quality of French is strained. By the French.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/language+limits+CEGEP+choice/2168964/story.html

... Anglophone students, after years of French in primary and secondary school, study more French in CEGEP, and the great majority of them emerge effectively bilingual. Many francophones naturally want the same advantage ...

The best thing Quebec's self-declared defenders of French could do for its continued survival is to ensure that it is taught well in primary and secondary schools - including English ones ...

The real language scandal is how poorly too many of the province's French-language school graduates speak and write French, one of the world's most elegant languages ...

"Prince Charles should apologize to francophones: SSJB"

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Prince+Charles+should+apologize+francophones+SSJB/2162879/story.html

MONTREAL - Prince Charles should use the occasion of his visit to Quebec next month to apologize on behalf of the British Crown for past harm caused to French culture in North America, says the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, will touch down in Montreal during the couple's visit to Canada from Nov. 2 to Nov. 12.

The SSJB says it has sent the prince a letter Friday to say he will be welcome in Quebec if he apologizes for "ethnocide" of francophones after New France passed into the hands of Britain in 1763 ...

Vaillancourt hones skills with NHLers

Give 'em enough ice time ... they'll hang the education system in Quebec.

http://tinyurl.com/c2sqmq

The academic rigors that accompany a Harvard education were even more of a challenge for Vaillancourt. She attended the Pomfret School in Connecticut for two years before enrolling, simply to enhance her English language skills.

"It was pretty much a struggle my first year here,” she said. “I’ve always been right around 85 percent [as a student]. It’s gotten better every year. I went to a public high school in Quebec, and we would have English once a week for an hour, so I knew my verbs and tenses.

Some of my teammates are so impressive in the classroom, some as pre-med students.”

"Young minds soak up intensive English"

http://tinyurl.com/yfnqje2

... Quebec's Education Department estimates about 10 per cent of elementary students at French-language schools in Quebec take part in an intensive English program every year ...

Most students have incredible confidence in their knowledge when they finish English intensive programs, said Joanna White, an associate professor at Concordia University's TESL (teaching English as a second language) Centre. "They're ready to go with more challenging things like reading almost age-appropriate novels, watching television, using the computer and so on." ...

The majority of Lafleur's students go on to enriched English courses in high school. When former students come back to see her, they say " 'Wow, we're lucky to have had this' because they see the difference," Lafleur said. They tell Lafleur they understand everything in English but their peers don't ...

Hooray for our side

http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/saturdayextra/story.html?id=0db12f9e-4d13-4bb8-b081-8918172cb983

Despite restrictive language laws, a remarkably stable one in five of all immigrants to Quebec, over the past 20 years, arrives here with a knowledge of English and no knowledge of French, says Jedwab. The Quebec government uses a point system to assess immigration applications and Jedwab says anglophone applicants need to score very highly on job skills and education in order to offset the loss of potential points for speaking French.

"If they can't speak French but they're still being accepted by Quebec, then they clearly have something Quebec likes," he says. Quebec has had the right to choose its own immigrants since 1978, although family-reunification and refugee cases are still under federal jurisdiction.

Floch and Pocock conceded in their study that Quebecers of English mother tongue who have remained in Quebec are still better-educated overall than the Canadian average. The researchers also noted that anglos who come to Quebec from other provinces are three times more likely to hold Ph.D.s than the Canadian population as a whole.

Speaking out: Quebec's debate over language laws - Canada - CBC News

Speaking out: Quebec's debate over language laws - Canada - CBC News

Debate over language legislation is certainly nothing new in Quebec.
An unidentified war veteran demonstrates outside the Montreal offices of the Quebec government's language commission in 1987. Bill 101 and subsequent legislation have stirred passions and protests in Quebec - both for and against the laws. (Bill Grimshaw/Canadian Press) The first laws governing the use of French in the province were passed early in the 20th century. The first was the Lavergne Law, passed in 1910, which required that tickets for buses, trains and trams be printed in both French and English.