Matthew Ross is the founder of ContentServicing.com, a content and communications provider. You can view/join its Facebook group. He is also the host of Game Points on THE TEAM 990AM in Montreal, Canada.
As an anglophone residing in Montreal, Canada, I am afforded many great luxuries in life. I have free access to healthcare, crime is fairly irrelevant and my education was more than affordable. But there’s one element that has always been a battle for me and for all 13% of us English-speaking Quebeckers: our right to speak our own language in public.
For many years now, it has become increasingly harder to function in our own tongue. You can’t call any government service, provincial or federal, without getting a unilingual francophone on the other end of the line. The last time I checked, no referendum on sovereignty was passed as of yet and a new country was not declared. As long as Quebec is a part of Canada, they too must be a fully bilingual province just like every other province. Imagine, living in a country, no matter where, and not being served in one of the official two languages.
Now comes word with the Quebec provincial election approaching, that the separatist Parti Quebecois wants to make things even tougher for English people in the province (read this article ASAP) – and English businesses too for that matter. Citing the erosion of the French language as carte blanche to continue to violate the rights of English people in the province, the PQ are acting as though if they get into power they are saving the French language from the big, bad English people.
These are the same people that brought us a funded language police, allowed to go around to stores and shops and fine businesses for having any English signs or lettering that is the same size as French lettering. They have also managed to ensure that any non-Quebec born English person living in the province has to send his/her children to French schools. Riiiiight, and the French language is the one eroding. Makes sense.
The upcoming December 8th election in Quebec could actually determine the fate of English people in the province for the next decade. If somehow the underdog PQ overtake the incumbent Liberals for control of Quebec, they will continue their systematic dismantling of everything and anything English.
With Montreal hosting this year’s CFL Championship termed the Grey Cup, thousands of Canadians have flocked to the city. You’d think Quebec would be welcoming of the tourist bump, roll out the red carpet for visitors and make them feel at home. Wrong. The city couldn’t even mandate bilingual menus at public festivity food stops – no doubt the work of the meaningful language police.
Bottom line, let’s hope the Liberals win the election so us English folk are allowed to continue practicing our crazy way of speaking. If not, I may be forced to translate this blog into French and perform several hundred hours of community service. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if indeed Quebec did separate and I simply missed the memo. “Sigh,” I miss Canada already.
Matthew Ross is the founder of ContentServicing.com, a content and communications provider. You can view/join its Facebook group. He is also the host of Game Points on THE TEAM 990AM in Montreal, Canada.
Tags: action democratique, bill 101, canada, election, language, liberal, parti quebecois, politics, quebec
November 22, 2008 at 4:09 am |
Matt,
Thank you very much for presenting this rather crucial matter in a manner which a lay man may comprehend, and understand fully its consequences.
When it comes to issues such that of language, it is important that we place interest of Quebec as a whole in the fore front. neither encouraging slow and gradual English take over nor out right French separatism is the answer to a peaceful Canada.
Mr. Ross, now that you have taken an interest in this issue and you actually have put pen to paper, why not start the ball rolling by suggesting something which both parties can be content with. I am sure there are less confrontational avenues which may be explored if we put our heart to it.
Re: French menus at the food stops; Tourists from all over the world including from the rest of Canada come to Quebec expecting to hear, live, talk, eat and drink French. The children practice their broken French and adults take out their phrase books and they make a few comments about how things are different because “its French” and they go back with a smile on their face. Menus are a big part of this French image. Businessmen on a general level are not at all discriminating, they will generally do anything to make their clients happy and it seems odd that at the expense of unhappy customers Quebecor business community continued to roll out French menus. I have not been there so I may be jotting utter rubbish but I am sure you understand the general point I am trying to raise.
Being an English speaking, immigrant Quebecor of non French speaking parents, I know very well the dilemmas many in my situation have to go through. I am not trying to discredit that, I am only trying to encourage a middle path a path where both parties are relatively happier and Canada remains one and Canada remains united!
Good piece of writing, seems like sports writing is not cutting it for you any more hence the jump in to the more exciting world of political writing.
Best,
Hammad Baig
November 22, 2008 at 4:29 pm |
As a fellow-Montreal born English speaking Quebecer (yes, the dying breed), I can understand and empathise with the plight of the fellow endangered anglo-saxon. In fact, growing up as one of 10 English-speaking families in an entirely French speaking community hastened a well-fed anger in me towards most French Speaking Quebecers, even though they made up 50% of my family tree. It took 12 years of living in “Canada” (Ontario, to be precise), to actually help me realize excatly how much my French roots and counterparts really meant to me. The bigotry goes both ways.
It astounded me that the first comments that I received after just having moved to Ontario was just how good my English was. Ignorance in Canada about our compatriots is overwhelming. We are such a large country, it truly breeds segragation, regarless of what your beliefs are, simply due to geographic seperation. Even the news from province to province is regulated by our silent political “Big Brother”. I just happened to be newly living in Toronto in 1995 when the now-famous referendum results were being “calculated” (read: influenced) and remember the complete inacurracy with which the Ontario news crews explained and debated the history of Quebec, and exactly how and what had gotten us to such a crucially important moment in history.
No, we do not have a perfect society. And, no, I do not believe in the measures that the government is taking in order to “save” the french language. But, we are also the province who receives the most federal money because of all of this “continued impeding doom” being thrown about by the politicians. We are the golden children of Canada, only needing to cry for attention before Daddy buys us another Mercedes. (And, most of that is funded by Ontario and Alberta…).
So, do we really have it that bad? Do all of the other minorities have complaints about Quebec laws? Believe it or not, English speaking people in Quebec are now outnumbered by pretty much every other ethnic group going, which does not buy us much clout when it comes to having things our way.
In any event, I am ecstatic about living here. Montreal is where my heart is, politics and all. Yes, there are ignorant people, but this is only a symptom of fear and panic. Recognize this, and move on with your life. Be the bigger person. And, on December 8th, exercise your right to speak English and voice your opinion to the Block. Vote.
December 6, 2008 at 10:49 pm |
From our friend Mike S. – Just read your blog, and maybe have a small note of correction: New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province under section 16 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Every province and territory offers most services including education in both official languages, though very little actually mandates them to do so. Not saying it’s right by any stretch, but that’s the situation.
January 13, 2009 at 4:45 am |
As usual, Matthew, you have eloquently portrayed what I would have, in a more vulgar sense, emoted in a fit of frustration.
As an “immigrant” to this “new country” I find it increasingly frustrating to operate even with my working use of the French language. The few times I attempt to use my language skills (for which I have been granted an official bilingualism certificate from the Department of National Defence) I am met with misunderstanding and English responses in a patronising tone. Although I do not share your view about the benefit of the Liberals improving upon this matter, I do agree that there is a need for change.
I noticed at the Metro Station at Namur that there was a hand made sign which said (in french of course) “Here we conduct business in French”. I took great offence to that, and when I requested my ticket in English, I was met with a french response which was ” Why don’t you speak French” I answered, in French “Because I was raised to speak English, may I have one ticket please.”
I think that either Quebec needs to join New Brunswick in being an officially bilingual province, or they need to become more tolerant to Anglophones. I have honestly received more tolerant service from people in Quebec City.
Speaking as an Anthropology minor (which makes me someone who has read on the subject but certainly NOT an expert), the deviation of the quality of the French language in Quebec is not a result of the English influence of the rest of Canada, but a result of the fact that a) the Settlers of Quebec were from the French countryside, so spoke a more rural form of the French language and b) centuries of seperation from the original mother tongue have caused a completely typical culturalization of the language. Compare, if you will, Mexican Spanish, the French of the African Country of Congo or Algeria, Belgian French, Swiss French or German if you will, the list can go on. It is the inevitable evolution of language. This must be accepted as a form of progress of humanity.
That’s all for my rant for now. Thanks for posting this, it was really inspiring.