Opinion: Jean-François Lisée, ‘put yourself in the place of an anglophone’

Opinion: Jean-François Lisée, ‘put yourself in the place of an anglophone’

Dear Jean-François,
Congratulations on your appointment as minister responsible for the Montreal region. You have also been mandated by Premier Pauline Marois in this role to establish a dialogue with Quebec anglophones. It will be a big challenge, especially as it didn’t help last spring in L’actualité magazine that you concluded that young anglophones were particularly hostile to the French language.
But, for now, let’s try to move beyond that.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/News/813072/story.html#ixzz27orbRqyh

Parizeau: The Importance of Being Bilingual

« Mon Dieu, je botterais le derrière de quiconque au Québec qui ne saurait parler l'anglais. En effet, à notre époque, un petit peuple comme nous se doit de le parler. » — Jacques Parizeau (Time Magazine, 1992)

Quebec Election 2012: Parti Québécois plans to shake up provincial premiers’ forum - thestar.com

Quebec Election 2012: Parti Québécois plans to shake up provincial premiers’ forum - thestar.com

Marois was confronted at an earlier campaign stop by a school board official who objected to her party’s plan to prevent students whose mother tongue is French from enrolling in English colleges in the province, known as CEGEPS.
“It is our responsibility to offer the possibility for the citizens who want to be bilingual to have access to English courses, but we don’t want to put money into the Anglicization of Quebecers."

Charte de la laïcité - Quand un séparatiste se sépare | Le Devoir

Charte de la laïcité - Quand un séparatiste se sépare | Le Devoir

Jean Dorion - Sociologue, l’auteur a été attaché politique du ministre de l’Immigration Jacques Couture, directeur de cabinet du ministre Gérald Godin, agent de liaison avec les communautés culturelles, président de la SSJB de Montréal, délégué général du Québec à Tokyo et député du Bloc québécois  22 septembre 2012  Québec

 

Les sondages annonçaient un gouvernement péquiste et nous en avons un. Au moins, on ne pourra pas traiter mon virage électoral d’opportuniste: pour la première fois depuis qu’existe le PQ, je n’ai pas voté pour ce parti.

Cette rupture m’a déchiré. Elle me fera perdre des amis, décevra des militants sincères, sera mal interprétée. Je ne l’ai pas rendue publique avant l’élection : elle eût été vue comme une trahison plutôt qu’une occasion de réflexion. Non, je ne suis pas le Guy Bertrand des temps modernes. Et je refuse à l’avance toute invitation à venir me reposer à Sagard. Mais un moment arrive où il faut trancher.

 

 

 

Macpherson: New NDP policy can be summed up as '50 per cent plus one — plus'

Macpherson: New NDP policy can be summed up as '50 per cent plus one — plus'

Other than some talk about forming a provincial New Democratic Party, an idea that has since been shelved, did you hear anything about the NDP during the campaign for the Sept. 4 Quebec election?
No? Then it was a good campaign for Thomas Mulcair.
There could have been trouble for the NDP and its leader if any of its Quebec members of Parliament had come out in favour of one of the sovereignist parties in the election.

Anglos: le choix de Lisée fait jaser | Le Devoir

Anglos: le choix de Lisée fait jaser | Le Devoir

Il y a les pour, il y a les contre. Pour certains, Pauline Marois a posé un geste apaisant envers la communauté anglophone en faisant de Jean-François Lisée son interlocuteur désigné. Mais pour d’autres, c’est au contraire de l’huile sur le feu qu’elle a jetée en choisissant un homme qui a plusieurs fois fait bondir ceux à qui il doit désormais tendre la main. Alors ? « The proof will be in the pudding », dit-on. 

M. Harper doit dire «non» | André Pratte | André Pratte

M. Harper doit dire «non» | André Pratte | André Pratte

Une des pièces maîtresses de la «gouvernance souverainiste» de la nouvelle première ministre, Pauline Marois, sera de multiplier les revendications adressées au gouvernement fédéral. Secteur par secteur, le gouvernement du Parti québécois exigera qu'Ottawa transfère des compétences à Québec, avec les budgets associés évidemment. À ces exigences, le gouvernement Harper doit répondre fermement, poliment: «non».

NDP on defensive over Quebec policy - The Globe and Mail

NDP on defensive over Quebec policy - The Globe and Mail

The federal New Democrats, who head back to Parliament promising to act like a government-in-waiting, could find themselves on the defensive over the conditions they would establish for the breakup of Canada.
Members of the 100-person caucus confirmed at a meeting in St. John’s this week that they remain committed to party policy that states Quebec could separate if sovereigntist forces muster 50 per cent plus one vote in a future referendum.

William Johnson: The real Thomas Mulcair

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-real-thomas-mulcair/article557613/

Mr. Mulcair is confusing two decisions of the Supreme Court. Sept. 28 was the 30th anniversary of the court’s decision on Mr. Trudeau’s original intention of patriating the Constitution with support from Ontario and New Brunswick. The court ruled that was legal, but to be legitimate in a conventional sense required a consensus of the provinces.
So Mr. Trudeau convened the first ministers and won the support of nine premiers. And the Supreme Court ruled on Dec. 6, 1982: “The Constitution Act, 1982 is now in force. Its legality is neither challenged nor assailable.”
A CROP opinion poll published last Thursday indicated that 80 per cent of Quebeckers believe the patriation of the Constitution was a good thing. But Mr. Mulcair prefers reading history through the eyes of the Bloc Québécois

William Johnson: The PQ aims to divide

The PQ aims to divide

Pauline Marois, at 63, after a political career that began in 1978 when she served as Jacques Parizeau's press attache, now will become the first woman to govern Quebec. That's the good news. But her reign promises to be more bane than blessing, more xenophobic than gracious.
She has promised in her first 100 days in power to enact the most divisive aspects of the most radical electoral program in the history of the PQ. What remains to be seen is whether the Coalition Avenir Québec and the Quebec Liberal Party prove willing and able to act together to vote down her proposals, even at the price of precipitating an early election.
Clearly, any prospect of holding a referendum on secession is now out of the question, since both the CAQ and the Liberals, with or without Jean Charest, would be adamantly opposed. But on issues affecting language and culture the position of the opposition parties is less certain. Jean Charest had suggested at one moment in the campaign that he would support asking the federal government to force Quebec firms under federal jurisdiction to operate in French rather than having a choice of French or English. Moreover, during the 2008 federal campaign, he challenged Ottawa to give Quebec control over communications and federal spending on culture. This is a position not far from that of Pauline Marois. As we shall see.