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.

The Falardeau File

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jef_cOVbH0aPM-19xLBlFD_bdlag

MONTREAL — Pierre Falardeau, the enfant terrible of Quebec cinema who suggested federalist anglophones should leave the province and once slammed Canada as a "colonizing power," has died of cancer in Montreal. He was 62.

After all, les gens need their own lebensraum.

Just ask the Cree.In 2008, he dismissed David Suzuki as "a bearded little Jap, just another nuisance from the West Coast" after the environmentalist said hewas disappointed in Quebecers who voted Conservative in the 2008 federal election.

I wonder how that reads in the original fascist?

In an open letter explaining why he refused to have his film entered in the competition, he wrote: "To be recognized for 'my genius' in Flin Flon or Saskatoon or Corner Brook leaves me as cold as their Rockies, mounted police and their Governor General.

But he didn't scruple to acceptTelefilm CANADA money, even if he had to fight for it.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign ... with French predominance

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/years+later/2018306/story.html

1989: " ...the Liberal government's use of the notwithstanding clause to override a Supreme Court decision that banning English on outdoor signs violated freedom of expression. The clause allowed the Liberal government to hastily pass Bill 178 to maintain the ban, a move that was regarded as a severe slap in the face from anglophones' traditional political ally."

1993: "The Liberal government changed the law four years later when the notwithstanding clause came up for renewal, finally allowing English on outdoor signs, with French predominance."

Corrupter and corrupter

Quebec union denies Hells Angels link; FTQ tries and fails to block investigative report by CBC's French-language service

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/09/23/quebec-ftq-hells.html

The head of Quebec's most powerful construction union is denying allegations the Hells Angels were involved in his election.

An investigative report by the [Radio-Canada] to be aired Thursday has revealed the role played by organized crime in the union vote.

Richard Goyette was elected director general of the construction wing of the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ-Construction) by a two-vote margin in November 2008, succeeding Joceyln Dupuis ...

"What if Montcalm had won?"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/what-if-montcalm-had-won/article1276863/

What if, 250 years ago, the Marquis de Montcalm had defeated James Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham? Would French-speakers today be more numerous on this continent, more socially and culturally developed, more prosperous and secure? Would the Québécois be happier?

That assumption has been cherished by generations of nationalist weepers. Their lamentations will fill the air this weekend on the anniversary.

But is it justified? On the contrary, if you study the fate of each of France's American colonies in the years after 1759, it emerges unquestionably that only Quebec has prospered, and in French ...