For weeks, the Mouvement Montréal français has been touting a demonstration in support of French usage in the public service and an end to bilingual services.The rally which took place on Saturday in an east-end Montreal park had been hawked widely in nationalist circles and I even received my very own invitation via an email from the organization.
Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, addressed the 'crowd' and reminded them that 200,000 workers in Quebec are not subject to the application of Bill 101, the language law that decrees French as the only official language of business.
Too bad none off these people showed up to the demonstration.
The rally, which promised a multitude of speakers as well as musical entertainment, attracted a mere 200 people.
There were probably more organisers than demonstrators.
The fact that the rally was a complete bust remained conveniently unreported in the mainstream press.
One would think that in view of the current brouhaha about the unilingual mayoral candidate, Louise Harel, that even more people would want to show support, but I guess it was not to be.
Last August, on a similarly nice summer day, over ten times as many people showed up to demonstrate against the Tory governments funding cuts to the arts programs.
I guess when it comes down to it, money is more important than language....
Today radio-Canada announced a demonstation infront of the Education Minister's office, organized by the Federation Autonome des Enseignats (the CSDM teachers union) and Stoppons la reforme. Today is the 10th anniversary of the announcement of the education reform by then-minister Francois Legault.
ReplyDeleteChannel 10 had cameras on site. Police were nearby.
And. come time for the demo, not only did hundreds of buses not arrive but - in front of the flatbed truck with all the loadspeakers were: 15 demonstrators.
Nice comment. Very interesting.....
ReplyDelete