Monday, March 8, 2010

Cultural Genocide..... Where?

In a pamphlet entitled "Le génocide culturel des francophones au Canada" the author argues that Canada has undertaken a program of 'cultural genocide' against Quebec Francophones.
"The figures speak for themselves: Since 1867, Francophones in Canada have suffered a decline that will ultimately lead to their disappearance. In Quebec, the future of the French is threatened."
(Les chiffres parlent d’eux-mêmes : les francophones au Canada subissent depuis 1867 un déclin qui les mènera à terme à la disparition. Au Québec même, l’avenir du français est menacé.
The author uses a table to show that French, as a mother tongue has declined in Canada from from 29% in 1861 to 22% today.

When I saw the reference and read the arguments made to describe Francophone Quebeckers as the subject of cultural genocide, I decided to use the same test and applied the same criteria to the Anglophone minority in Quebec.

Let's re-phrase the statement and exchange the word 'Francophones' to the word 'Anglophone Quebeckers.'
"The figures speak for themselves: Since 1867, Anglophone Quebeckers in Quebec  have suffered a decline that will ultimately lead to their disappearance. In Quebec, the future of  Anglophones is threatened."
Just as the pamphlet shows that French has declined in Canada, I too can use a chart to show how precipitously English has fallen in Quebec.

From a high of 25% in 1844, English as a mother tongue, has declined to just 8.5% in Quebec today.
 So which group if any, has suffered cultural genocide?

Now I'm not going argue against the assertion by French language militants that they are the subject of cultural genocide, it's a nasty term that indicates racism and hate, by it's very definition.

The United Nations describes "cultural genocide" in part, as;
"the deliberate destruction of the cultural heritage of a people or nation for political, military, religious, ideological, ethnical, or racial reasons." LINK
The assertion that Canada is deliberately trying to 'cleanse' the country of Francophones is nonsense, but even if it were to be true, what do militant Quebeckers have to complain about when their own actions towards the minority English community in Quebec actually fits the terms of 'cultural genocide' a lot better than any actions by Canadians.....

For militant and even mainstream Francophones Bill 101 has become a sacred cow, an untouchable and unassailable 'necessity' required to save Francophones from what they perceive as the inexorable fall and decline of the Francophone fact in Canada and Quebec.

Bill 101 was conceived back in 1977 to make French the one and only official and working language in Quebec and one of it's many provisions was to restrict access to English schools narrowly, resulting in French and immigrant families losing the right to send their children to English schools. The definition by which families could send their children to English schools was somewhat complicated, but ultimately came to mean that if any parent or sibling spent a reasonable amount of time (one year) in an English school anywhere in Canada, that family was eligible for English schooling. The law however only applied to public schools and so a loophole was left open.
Ineligible parents could still choose an English education by sending their children to a private English school. Worse (or better) still, some parents sent their children to a private English school for as little as one year and them switched them to a public English school, claiming eligibility under the terms of the law that allowed children to attend English school if they had previously been schooled in English!

Then in 2002, along came Bill 104, an amendment to Bill 101 meant to close this loophole. It was passed unanimously by the Quebec National Assembly, to specifically bar the use of these 'bridge' schools to circumvent the spirit of Bill 101 and it immediately faced a constitutional challenge by English rights activists. Portions of that amendment were struck down in Quebec courts and in response, the Quebec government appealed the decision all the way to the Supreme Court, where the issue was finally decided last year in favour of the Anglo rights. The court allowed the province one year to revise the law so that it fell in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This of course sent French language militants into a linguistic rage. They were furious that the 'evil' Supreme Court  thwarted the will of the Quebec people, and it's National Assembly, conveniently forgetting that the law was shot down twice in Quebec courts before ever seeing the docket in Ottawa.

Today militants are demanding that Bill 101 be amended to cover both private and public schools and that no child be allowed into any type of English school if he or she doesn't qualify under Bill 101. Some are even proposing that the law be extended to college and universities and comically, even to daycare centres.
 
The language law was passed thirty-three years ago and since then, Canada and the rest of the democratic western world has suffered from a catastrophic decline in it's birthrate, with immigration the only option available, to shore up the population base. LINK

In Quebec, both the English community and the French community cannot maintain their numbers strictly by reproduction.
So immigrants make up the difference.
But since immigrants are not allowed to go to English schools, how can the English community remain viable?

I put this question to a militant acquaintance of mine and asked him, that in fairness, "Shouldn't 8.5% of immigrants be allowed to enter English schools, so that the community can maintain itself?  Otherwise, isn't the community doomed to wither and die?"

"Nope!" he answered and went off into a lengthy convoluted explanation as to why it was fair to restrict any access to English schools by immigrants.

"French is so badly under attack, that the English minority may very well be sacrificed if need be.  After all the whole continent is English and Anglos can all immigrate if they don't want to live in a French society..."

Hmmmm.......Now that sounds to me, painfully like 'Cultural Genocide," with a generous spattering "Ethnic Cleansing!"

That being said,  I don't like using any of these terms, they infer a level of hate that doesn't exist, except in the minds of a very small minority.
 This whole brouhaha over Bill 104 and the closing of the loophole is another great big discussion about something very small.
Over the last thirty years only 10,000 students have used the loophole to gain access to English schools and this fact, according to Pauline Marois. In the meantime over 30,000 Anglophone students have chosen voluntarily to attend French schools themselves, so what's the big deal?

Now 10,000 people out of almost 8 million Quebeckers, what does it mean demographically?

Only that the English community will decline at a little slower rate, that's all. 
If immigrants aren't allowed to bolster Anglo numbers, the writing is on the wall.

But even a slower decline of Anglo Quebeckers infuriates certain French language militants. They want to destroy the English community once and for all and by any means possible. They firmly believe that Quebec can never be truly French, until the English are gone.
If they can't do it through sovereignty, they will use the back door.

By screaming about 'cultural genocide' they attempt to spread fear throughout the mainstream Francophone community and hope to artificially boost support for militant positions. It's high time that these "Chicken Littles" whose "sky is falling" refrain, be outed for what they are.

Bill 104, or the whatever law will eventually replace it, may make it illegal to use the back door to get into English schools, but the real issue is that the front door remains firmly locked.
That is the injustice.

11 comments:

  1. Actually the gist of what the report says is broadly true (although the 99% figure strikes me as absurd. Weren't the aboriginal people much more numerous then in percentage terms? What about the Anglo communities in the Maritimes?) But Canada as a whole has been growing steadily less French since it was created, very largely because of immigration. Why Francophones don't oppose immigration is one of the great mysteries of Canadian politics to me. Please consider. In 1867 Canada had one largely French-speaking province, one partly French-speaking province and TWO largely English-speaking provinces. Today Canada has EIGHT largely English-speaking provinces. It is TRUE that the Anglophone population in Quebec has declined. (Sad that Canada missed the potential opportunity in the 1840's to begin digesting Quebec and at least "Louisianaizing" it), but those Anglos and/or their descendents have simply moved to other English-speaking areas of Canada. The overall demographic weight of the Anglophone community in Canada was not affected.

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  2. http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/hugo/archive/2010/02/15/first-public-hearing-against-quebec-s-pension-fund-manager-the-beginning-of-proof-multiple-laws-were-violated-before-sabia-took-over.aspx I agree with you Leo, it's the minorities, especially les Maudits Anglos who are being ethnically cleansed from the workplace, as has been tried on my person several times - when it happened at the CDPQ, I stood up and filed complaints. Thankfully the Working Standards Commission is behind me. These losers who speak of cultural genocide are extremists - French is here for 400 years already and will not disappear.

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  3. Perhaps Canada would be much better off if it adopted the language system in use in Switzerland. There the 'territorial principle' is applied very, very strictly. There are French, Italian, German and Romansh language zones. In each area that is the ONLY language in use for official purposes. You want to live in French? Then you move to a French area of the country. You want to live in German? Then you move to a German area (and so on,). There is a lot to be said for this system. It heads off trouble. Everybody KNOWS UP FRONT AND IN ADVANCE where they stand. In Canada nothing like this was ever done. So when Francophones from Quebec went to other provinces they caused all kinds of trouble. This would have been avoided if they had known the deal up front. Likewise Anglos in Quebec would have had too long ago have accepted a 'Bill 101+' situation in Quebec. With the primacy of French unshakeable in Quebec the Francophones there would have had little cause for insecuriy or fear.

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  4. I was hoping Canada would be more tolerant, and the extreme Swiss example should not be required, but with the rise of the Blue and Rednecks, seems inevitable.

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  5. "You want to live in French? Then you move to a French area of the country. You want to live in German? Then you move to a German area (and so on,). "

    Sure, as long as someone makes up the difference in the funds you would require for a relocation as compensation. Try selling your home in Montreal and moving to another city in Canada and you'll be in for a surprise at how small your buying power is. Thirty years of 101 has turned the province into a backwater compared to what it once was or could've been. Either way, this won't stop the whining because it seems to be a pathological condition that stems from a deep seated political envy and insecurity.
    The only option that makes sense to me is a referendum to unify the island of Montreal and its western suburbs with Ontario leaving the purists to their own devices.

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  6. A reply to Hugo Shebbeare:

    I don't think it is an issue of "tolerance" at all. I would say it is more an issue of good sense and practicallity. Say what you will but the Swiss have achieved that rare goal for linguistically diverse countries - language peace. There has been no FlQ, terrorism, October crisis in the alps. There are no separatist parties there unlike in "more tolerant" Canada. The French-Swiss are probably happier and more secure then the much more numerically larger Quebecers are. "Bilingualism" isn't really about "tolerance", modern political correctness notwithstanding. It is a fatally flawed policy that ignores the territorial realities of language.

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  7. After having virulently opposed sovereigntists, national-statists, institutionalized unions for franco-favoritism, I have to tell you that to me bill 101 might have been a necessary ill at the time but not it's nothing more than an obsolete law in 2010 and I wonder why the liberal party, if it's the party of ethnic and anglo as Normand Sphincter (Lester) put it on today on 98,5FM doesn't get rid of it.

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  8. I would like to expand on my earlier comment in favour of Swiss-style language laws being applied in Canada. As I said before the GREAT STRENGTH of this system is that trouble is immediately lopped off in advance because everybody KNOWS exactly where they stand. A Francophone in Quebec moves to Ontario or Manitoba? Then he can expect ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in way of French language services. A bit of history... 900,000 Francophones left Quebec from 1840 to 1930 to settle in the American New England states. Their now fully assimilated descendents number several millions. But America never had any "language problems" with these Quebecers arrival. Francophones who went to the USA KNEW FULL WELL they could not make any language fuss for the Americans. They KNEW they would have to accept life in an English-speaking environment. If they were NOT prepared to accept this then they would NOT move to the USA. In contrast when Francophones came to the other provinces in Canada they caused all sorts of trouble. Consider the whole Manitoban school issue in the 1890's. Look at all the problems the French caused in Ontario from the 1880's to WW1. This finally led to bill 17 in 1912 "outraging" Quebec. Had Canada adopted Swiss-style laws, Francophones from Quebec would not have been able to push the envelope and they would have been treated just like any other ethnic group, (Italians in Ontario, Poles in Manitoba, Ukrainians in Saskatchewan, etc). There would be no Franco-Manitoban or Franco-Ontarians today. As we have seen America would never have tolerated for one minute the nonsense Francophones caused in the other provinces. It was precisely because they didn't KNOW where the boundary was that they pushed the boundaries. Territorial unilingualism would have headed off all of these issues. Conversely Quebec would have been SOLIDLY French-speaking. The overseas arrivers who settled in Montreal would have to KNOW up front that French was the ONLY language in use there. No exceptions. If they were not content with this then they would have to settle in Halifax, Toronto, etc. The primacy of French in Quebec would be 100%.

    As far as the cost of selling ones homes in Montreal I would point out that huge amounts of money are wasted on bilingualism. Nor does this count the many indirect costs. For example a Canadian clothing retailer cannot "piggyback" his order of shirts on the back of a huge American order because the labels must be bilingual. This requires a separate and more expensive run. Buy a big plasma TV? The instruction booklet must be twice as expensive to print because of bilingualism, etc. As Peter Brimelow noted "somebody has to pay for all those bilingual boxes of cornflakes".

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  9. Your blog is really interesting, and overall you're a great writer, but I notice you use the contraction "it's" in place of the pronoun "its." Could you please do your best to stop doing that? Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Hi,

      I agree with Anonymous... I wouldn't wnat this to lower your credibility... here are the areas where it's was used incorectly:

      "Now I'm not going argue against the assertion by French language militants that they are the subject of cultural genocide, it's a nasty term that indicates racism and hate, by it's very definition"

      its very definition.

      "Bill 101 was conceived back in 1977 to make French the one and only official and working language in Quebec and one of it's many provisions"

      its many provisions

      "This of course sent French language militants into a linguistic rage. They were furious that the 'evil' Supreme Court thwarted the will of the Quebec people, and it's National Assembly"

      its National Assembly

      "The language law was passed thirty-three years ago and since then, Canada and the rest of the democratic western world has suffered from a catastrophic decline in it's birthrate"

      its birthrate

      Thanks

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  10. let us not forget, the school boards had been separated by religion before and now it is divided by language. people who pay into the French school board which is automatically assumed unless otherwise requested pay very little but if you want to pay to the English board be prepared to pay hundreds more.

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