Thursday, September 30, 2010

Anglos Still 'Rule' Much of Montreal

One of the strange myths of the French language nationalist movement is that English is taking over the island of Montreal. This is based partly on the perception that immigrants are adopting English in a greater demographic proportion than French and anecdotal evidence that English use is on the upswing in private and public use in Montreal.

There's no doubt that outside the greater Montreal area (with a couple of exceptions), the English influence has been largely decimated and so in comparing Montreal to the rest of the province, it's easy to see why this misconception exists.
While the face of Quebec has radically changed towards a French only society, Montreal appears to become more and more English, by virtue of it changing at a much slower pace.

Montreal remains stubbornly resistant to this Francisation, and remains in many respects, what it always has been, a bilingual city.
Claims by language militants that Montreal is a French city is nothing more than bravado and wishful thinking, unsupported by the facts.

While the numbers of English residents has diminished, particularly over the last forty years, Anglos still make up a significant percentage of the city and in many areas of the city, actually dominate.

The comprehensive study released by Statistics Canada, which I cited yesterday paints a very different picture of Anglophone society in Quebec and particularly Montreal, than what French language militants would have us believe.

Here, from that study is a table indicating the percentage of Anglos living in the various cities on the island of Montreal;


For those unfamiliar with the Montreal region, it is an island that is politically divided between it's largest component, the City of Montreal, and about two dozen towns, most of them located in the central and western part of the island. The farther west one goes, the greater the English influence, as you can see from the map below.(Red=equals English)

While the StatsCan study says that Anglos make up one-third of the residents of the island of Montreal, it doesn't consider that the eastern half of the island is completely bereft of Anglophones.
If one were to consider the downtown core plus the areas west only, Anglos make up  at least 50% of the residents, perhaps more.

So is it any wonder that in this area of Montreal, English is spoken widely, and that English culture flourishes?

French language militants refuse to face the unalterable fact that Montreal is still a bilingual city, or if not, a two language city. Though coercive language laws may have changed the outward appearance of the city, by ripping down English public signage, this underlying fact remains. Trying to sell the fiction that Montreal is a French city and that Anglos are interlopers is the core of the language 'problem.'

So instead of complaining that Montreal is becoming too English, it would be fairer if French language militants complained that Montreal is still too English.

This is isn't splitting hairs, there's a big difference between the concepts.

If the first scenario is true, the concept that Montreal is becoming too English, militants can fairly claim to be defending the French nature of the city.

But if the second scenario is true and Montreal has always been a two-language and two-cultured city, with that English element remaining stable or declining slowly,  it would expose the ugly truth that efforts to curb this English influence is nothing more than ethnic cleansing.

34 comments:

  1. Replies
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  2. Mississauga Guy said...

    "Zero is too English"! Even if every last Anglophone left Quebec, it's STILL not as if 100% of Quebec would be speaking French 100% of the time. This would be the paradise the zealots would seek, but then Quebec, instead of being a predominantly French speaking enclave in North America, would become a prison unto itself.

    Since English is the language of communication spoken and written by the overwhelming majority in North America, Quebec wouldn't be able to function outside Quebec. Assuming nobody replaced the departed Anglophones, the Quebec market would reduce to six million people or so. Adding Francophones in Canada outside Quebec and in a few Caribbean countries would add a couple or three million more, so nine million maximum.

    Excluding Mexico and a few Caribbean countries, there are still over 300 million English speakers. Even if you include the Hispanics, they alone still make up a population about ten times greater than French speakers.

    The only way Quebec commerce could expand beyond its linguistic cohorts would be to communicate in English or Spanish in addition to French. More potential customers, more potential for commerce. Considering English surrounds Quebec (much to the chagrin of the language zealots), in the rest of Canada and the United States, the ratio of English outnumbers Spanish in excess of 3 to 1 in North America, and considering English speakers are much more affluent than Hispanics, it's really a no-brainer.

    If Quebec wants to become a language prison, go for it! If they could not or would not communicate in English, their crippling debt now would turn them into a third world country lickety split. They would become a third world nation if they separated "as is" without the federal goodies coming their way like they do now.

    Since Quebec now relies on immigration, and all Quebec governments whether federalist (yeah, right) or separatist program these immigrants to live in French, the simple fact of the matter is most immigrants see North America for what it is: Primarily English speaking! They know it, and even if their children are forced to attend French instructional schools, they'll still communicate in English at home or with some of their friends, they'll still watch English TV and radio programs, and they'll still deal with Canadian chartered banks and not necessarily the caisse populaires.

    I work in Mississauga for a Canadian chartered bank, deal with customers all across Canada, mostly in French. Many of the people I speak with speak French, and there are branches in Roberval, Alma, Chicoutimi, Jonquière, and Dolbeau-Mistassini that I communicate with. Isn't the Lac-St-Jean region deep in the heart of Quebec nationalism? Interestingly, we have thriving branches filled with customers and they successfully compete with the caisse populaires!

    In any case, Editor, we BOTH know the second scenario is true, no ifs ands or buts! At the same time, most non-Francophone children who immigrated to Quebec or were born there post-Bill 101 are now better prepared to communicate with the majority. They'll communicate in French when they have to, but that's still only about ¼ of their week (assuming a 40-hour work week within the 168 hours constituting a week), even only about 40% of their waking hours.

    Vive la langue anglaise au Québec!

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  3. " efforts to curb this English influence is nothing more than ethnic cleansing."

    As my kids would have said when they were
    younger - "Well duh!", figured that one out
    over 30 years ago.

    To our nazi troll @2:06 AM, please tell us
    you didn't reproduce because stupid people
    shouldn't breed!

    DD

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  4. Racism, bigotry, xenophobia, ethnic language cleansing, hatred, intolerance…all of these words stick, or work when defining what has gone on in Quebec for the last 5 decades. Any informed thinking person knows this.

    Whats not being told is that its left Quebec. The same thing in going on in Ottawa, Ontario, New Brunswick, all in the name of this phony French-bilingual policy. The simple facts are as more francophone’s get hired for all government positions less and less English speakers are working for their own governments across the country. Don’t believe me; Go check the stats for yourself. Francophone’s are over-represented in all levels of government including hospitals, law, policing...etc. No fairness, no representation by population. They call it bilingualism, yet the term is never defined on purpose and believe me it doesn’t mean fluency in 2 languages in Canada, at least to the French it doesn’t. No political party will speak for the English speaking majority in Ontario, NB and the country. Practical bilingualism, where numbers warrant… is never defined on purpose. In Ontario and NB it now means segregation. The French are demanding French only facilities all over the provinces, not bilingual, French only.$ Bilingualism is really nothing more then a hiring quota for francophone’s and that is a fact…just ask yourself, why are francophone’s over-represented in all government jobs and how come more and more positions are being designated bilingual?

    Who will put a stop to this?

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  5. Les nazis vont refrapper a nouveau.Vous savez ce que font les exterminateurs avec les "bed bugs" quand ils prolifèrent un peu trop rapidement?
    Première étape : Attaquer le milieu favorisant leur multiplication.
    Le produit utilisé :La loi 101 non diluée et a forte dose aux endroits stratégiques.Gare aux anglos car les exterminateurs reprendront bientôt du service,le temps de se débarrasser de la carpette a charest qui a peur d'utiliser la clause dérogatoire pour des raisons d'image négative extérieure (sic).

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  6. “Trying to sell the fiction that Montreal is a French city and that Anglos are interlopers is the core of the language 'problem.'”

    You hit the nail on the head. Right from the beginning, the nationalists have been revising history and lying to Quebecers in an attempt to erase the Anglo community’s contributions to the province and create the impression that Anglos are nothing more than rapacious colonial oppressors who never belonged. For many Anglos this insult is a stinging slap in the face, and only inspires defiance. With this culture of Anglos persecution in Quebec, is it any wonder Anglos tend to congregate and solidify in the west end of Montreal? Of course this pisses off the nationalist to know end, because they know that it would be easier to cleanse the province of Anglos if the community was fractured and scattered.

    No matter how the nationalist twist the truth and try to manipulate Quebecers, Montreal is a multicultural/ multilingual center and will never be an exclusively ‘French city’. The nationalists dream of a homogeneous French only society, so they superimpose this unrealistic vision on the real Montreal. They simply don’t understand Montreal, never mind accept the city’s linguistic reality. I think the city of Montreal’s multicultural makeup is far too complex and unmanageable to be controlled or socially engineered by the nationalist simpletons. Montreal will never succumb to their deluded fanaticism. Montreal is one of Canada’s greatest cities and source of pride for all Canadians. Montreal is still on Canadian soil and belongs to ALL Canadians. Canadian tax payers have directly contributed to Montreal’s success, so they have a stake in its future. If push comes to shove, I doubt Canadians will let Montreal go or let it be ruined without a fight.

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  7. Out of topic:

    An American has just been appointed the Captain of the Canadiens. He is the first full-time American captain in the 101 years history of the team. Yet no comment from the French language hard-liner hockey critics?

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  8. I completely agree with the anonymous poster that "bilingualism" is just an affirmative action program for Francophones. Anybody old enough to remember P.E.T. telling Canadians back in 1969 that its passage would satisfy Quebec and end separatism? Yeah right.

    I question M.G.s' reasoning about Quebec without its Anglophones. The absence of an Anglophone community in places like Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc, doesn't in any way preclude the English language from being very widely spoken, studied or understood there.

    On another note - can you believe this - a unanimous measure was passed today in the house censuring MaCleans for its TRUTHFUL article about Quebec being the most corrupt province in Canada. Reminds me of similar attempts to discredit Lindros and Richler. Just goes to show how deep the Liberal-created pathologies about Quebec still are. I suggest reading THE PATRIOT GAME by Peter Brimelow for more on this. The Toronto guy.

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  9. "...Yet no comment from the French language hard-liner hockey critics?"

    Informez-vous un peu plus et vous allez comprendre pourquoi.Un américain pro-français,ça vous dit quelque chose?Il est évident que ce n'est pas un canadian.

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  10. 'An American has just been appointed the Captain of the Canadiens. He is the first full-time American captain in the 101 years history of the team. Yet no comment from the French language hard-liner hockey critics? '

    Love it! This is just another example that illustrates how Montreal is different from the rest of Quebec, and how out of touch the nationalist are with the Montreal reality. As long as Montreal exists, the seppies will never realize their fascist dream state. It must drive them crazy to realize Montreal cannot be twisted and manipulated to fit their ethnocentric model for the province. Fin de la suprématie franco belligérants. Vive le libre et multilingue de Montréal!!!

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  11. Mississauga Guy said...

    Brian Gionta is NOT the first American captain. That honour went to Chris Chelios back in 1990 or thereabout. He and Guy Carbonneau received an equal number of votes by teammates and became co-captains, alternating each game or after a number of games played.

    Since I've been following hockey circa 1970, Bob Gainey was the first non-Francophone I saw to captain the team, then Chelios as co-captain, Kirk Muller, Saku Koivu and now Gionta. Since I'm born, the first captains were the Richard brothers with Béliveau in the middle and later Yvan Cournoyer. At least captaining the Habs is not limited to language, but the players looked up to by their teammates.

    That is also the way talent should be selected to play for the team, but some dinosaurs à la Réjean Tremblay can't get that through their heads.

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  12. "Il est évident que ce n'est pas un canadian"

    You know, you can get rid of your citizenship too. I suspect you'll be much happier in Algeria. There are few, if any Canadians there. On the other hand, there are darker skinned people who also happen to be Muslim, the very same kind Quebekkkers want out of the province. What is a bigotted xenophobe to do nowadays?!

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  13. Quebec is like a crack-addicted hooker, except the crack in this case is transfer payments. The ROC keeps giving money in an attempt to buy her love. Quebec resents taking the money but her character is too weak to say no. And so she takes it out on one of her kids (Anglos) while favouring the other (Francophone). As that great son of Quebec, Brian Mulroney, said: "There's no whore like an old whore." It's a pathetic story that plays out the same year after year with no end in sight.

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  14. Mississauga Guy,

    Chill down a little bit, man. Why all the hysteria in replying to the posts of others?

    If you read my post carefully, I wrote about the first full-time American Captain of the Canadiens. Full-time are the key words. As you correctly stated, Chelios was a co-captain along with Carbonneau. That makes him not a full-time captain, does it?

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  15. Mississauga Guy to Troy...

    Yes, I guess Chelios was a "part-time" captain. Moot point. Captaincy should be based on how well a player leads his team. Maybe the time distance lends enchantment, but to me the best team captain I saw was my first following the Habs, Béliveau. He held the job for ten years.

    Having read all of Dick Irvin's books (splendidly written, esp. since he was born into hockey royalty) and one thing he wrote about Béliveau was how he demanded the players under him never swear, esp. at officials. Irvin mentioned one time how an official cussed at a Habs player and Béliveau admonished him stating how he instructed his players to keep a civil tongue and therefore expect the same from him. Béliveau was classy and francophone. He was a good captain, whatever his mother tongue and place of birth was. A highly respected gentleman!

    Koivu was a very good captain as well, even serving about as long as Béliveau did. He led by example, but the French media beat him up for not talking French.

    I don't remember their doing this to Quebec Nordiques captains, esp. Joe Sakic (their longest serving captain)...or Mike Hough, and Robbie Ftorek. Being from Laval, I imagine another captain, Steve Finn, spoke French, at least to an adequate degree if not fluently.

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  16. "Quebec is like a crack-addicted hooker, except the crack in this case is transfer payments..."

    Nous n'avons jamais dit que vous les canadiens n'étiez pas généreux,bien au contraire et nous l'apprécions énormément.Le seul problème est que vous avez beaucoup de difficulté a bien vous exprimez dans la langue de Molière.Sans ce défaut vous seriez les voisins idéals.

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  17. "que vous les canadiens"

    Well if you don't consider yourself Canadian why don't you have your citizenship annulled? Put your money where your mouth is, so to speak, instead of whining which seems to be the only sport Quebekers really excell at.
    Go on, take a stand!!!!

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  18. "Montreal remains stubbornly resistant to this Francisation, and remains in many respects, what it always has been, a bilingual city.
    Claims by language militants that Montreal is a French city is nothing more than bravado and wishful thinking, unsupported by the facts."

    Tout à fait d'accord. Ce n'est pas sous le régime français que Ville-Marie est devenue le moteur économique de la colonie. Ce sont les industrialistes anglo-écossais qui ont fait de cette ville la métropole du Canada. Les ouvriers francophones venus s'y installer de la campagne au 19è siècle furent tout aussi légitimes que les anglais, écossais, et irlandais qui habitaient également cette ville.

    On a beau tenter de ré-écrire notre histoire. Ou de semer la panique ethnonationaliste. Mais ce n'est qu'en examinant notre propre histoire de façon réfléchie qu'on arrivera à la conclusion zen qui veut qu'on cohabite tous cette ville paisiblement. Plutôt que de prêcher une haine paniquée, un bilinguisme institutionnel au moins à l'échelle de l'île prônerait la légitimité de chacune des langues et des deux grandes communautés linguistiques et historiques de cette ville, de cette province, et de ce pays. On aurait tous à être fiers des exploits des deux en même temps et ainsi voir les deux côtés de la médaille. On saura alors davantage pourquoi c'est si important de sauvegarder et de promouvoir la langue française dans ce gros coin de pays tout en sachant que c'est en portant fièrement cette langue ET l'anglais qu'on prospèrera davantage - à tout le moins pour les quelques années à venir - à l'échelle internationale.

    I said it once and I'll say it again. Institutionalized bilingualism. Enforced down to each individual. Beat it into every thick skull until nobody has an accent. Or at the very least until they realize how crazy they were to be fighting it. Just like coming to terms with the potty as children, since that really is the intellectual level of the language debate in this country.

    My proof?:
    "...vous les canadiens..."
    +
    "...instead of whining which seems to be the only sport Quebekers really excell at..."

    Just don't forget, children, that some of us are Quebecers who realize that also means we're Canadian and - shock - a majority of us like being both.


    "Montreal is one of Canada’s greatest cities and source of pride for all Canadians."

    Montreal IS Canada's greatest city. And like it or not, "English Canada" (if indeed you still believe such a construct exists), there would be no Canada were it not for the French-Canadians that lived here, in addition to the Loyalists who fled the turmoil of America's birth pangs. This place is truly the only major city that both symbolizes and tangibly represents everything Canada ever has been, was, or can ever be.

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  19. Reply to Apparatchik:

    "Institutionalized bilingualism. Enforced down to the last individual."

    You sound a lot like Trudeau here. 40+ years of this has not worked. Enforcement and freedom don't mix. People are not going to learn to speak another language just because you want them to. Canada has had enough social engineering. The Toronto guy.

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  20. "Institutionalized bilingualism. Enforced down to the last individual."

    This ill fated plan by PET has been a failure of collosal proportion. What you have to understand is that in 90% of Canada there is absolutely no need to speak french. If there is no need then there is no reason for people to learn the language. Further, enforced bilingualism would be seen (and is seen now) by the majority as a policy which is biased towards one language. This language the minority official language in Canada. As Toronto Guy indicates, 40 plus years and few if any tangible positive results. Sorry, you are simply out of touch with the reality of the situation,

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  21. To Apparatchik: One more point if I may..

    The demographics today are much more unfavourable for "bilingualism" then they were even in the mid-late 1960's (when Trudeau first began his smoke and mirrors routine on a gullible Canadian public). Back then Quebec had about 28-29% of the total population of Canada. Now it is just a whisker above 23% - and still sinking with no end in sight. Quebec had much higher birthrates. Francophones still tended to move out of Quebec and settle elsewhere, making up for losses from assimilation. Now this is just no longer so. Only 50,000 Francophones OUTSIDE Quebec are unilingual. The Francophone demographic is continually getting steadily worse no matter what metric is used to measure it (look at the thirty new seats to be added to the house of commons OUTSIDE Quebec). So a policy that was very specious even with more favourable demographics 45-40 years ago, now looks pretty much ridiculous. Did "bilingualism" prevent the FLQ crisis? The election of the P.Q? Two referendums? The rise of the B.Q? How anybody can continue to support such an obviously failed, assinine policy in the face of all the evidence to the contrary is beyond me. The Toronto guy.

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  22. I'm with Appartchik, everyone should be bilingual at least. When I recently asked the head of a department at Harvard what they looking for in new doctors he said, without hesitation, "Languages. The more the better. Being able to speak multiple languages is a sign of intelligence and usually a sign of respect for your fellow man." He went on to explain that he wanted his children to attend McGill because he wanted them to live in a multi-language city.

    My only caveat to that is that some people simply don't have the intellectual or physical capacity to learn more than one language and should not be punished for it. We should make exceptions for English or French children, that for one reason or another cannot learn a second language. These children shouldn't be forced to suffer, trying needlessly to learn something they cannot, as the punishment will be a restricted job market in the future anyways. On the other hand, not wanting to, or being lazy should not be obstacles to learning a second language.

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  23. Reply to Dr. Dave;

    Do you have any idea how ridiculous and unrealistic your post is sir? Being bilingual is not a sign of superior intelligence. Where do you have studies or factual evidence to support this? Why is it a "sign of respect"? Many eastern Europeans learned Russian in the days of the former USSR. But it was hardly done out of any "respect" or love for Russia. You say "everyone" should be bilingual. Have you ever heard of free will or freedom? People are not going to go to all the time and trouble to learn another language just because you want them to, anymore then they will because Trudeau wanted the Canadian helots to. Should I learn sign language? Well maybe I would if I were dating some beautiful deaf girl or one of my children was born deaf, but right now I see no reason to bother. Does my lack of knowledge of signing imply disrespect for the deaf community? For that matter I can't speak Hebrew. Does this make me an anti-Semite? Your implication that a unilingual person is somehow inferior or defective or less intelligent then a bilingual one is way out of line. Your comments sound very, very patronizing to me (just like a good doctor who always knows best). The Toronto guy.

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  24. @Dave

    More often than not, the knowledge of multiple languages is a result of circumstances that are beyond one’s control. The fact that someone is trilingual in Montreal, for example, is nothing special. It is simply because it is a bilingual city with a large allophone population. I am a Montreal allophone, so the fact that I speak 3 languages is simply an accident of birth + an accident of my parent’s decision to emigrate + the accident of my parent’s choice of the destination. All three were beyond my control.

    I would agree with you to the extent that everyone in the world should do their best to master English, as it is the world’s lingua franca. And that in the US and ROC, Spanish should be taught (and taught very well) as the second language since it is very prevalent on our continent. But it goes no further than that.

    Certainly, some people may learn foreign languages for “show off” purposes (as you would seem to), or for fun and the love of foreign languages (I’ve met a couple of people like that – all the power to them), but the majority people will only learn a language if they need it. Thus, someone who’s a native English speaker, in most cases, doesn’t have to bother. He/she lucked out through an accident of birth, as it is their language that everyone else has to learn.

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  25. May I add that in some cases, multilingualism may be a handicap rather than an asset. The fluency in a second/third language may actually have a stigmatizing effect.

    For example, being able to speak 3 languages in Quebec immediately relegates you to the “ethnic” category, whether you’re Italian, Greek, Armenian, Portuguese, Polish, Lebanese, or Hispanic. In the US, being bilingual is immediately equated with being a “spic”, as it is the Hispanic Americans who are most likely to be bilingual. It is actually preferable to be a unilingual WASP, and there were reports of Hispanic parents in the US preventing their children from acquiring Spanish, as that might lower their social status in the future.

    In Quebec, it often seems that being a unilingual French speaker with the right name might be more beneficial to you than being trilingual and having a foreign sounding name.

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  26. Don't you see our governments play high hypocrisy politics? Ottawa veut clouer le bec à Québec, Québec rétorque et veut avoir certains droits sur ses politiques d'immigrations (les pays du maghreb francophone + la france en tête+ haïti), et vous appelez ça de l'ethnocentrisme, du nettoyage ethnique? Franchement... Honestly, this is insulting for people that really were ejected from their country under theses circumstances... In Canada, immigrants don't always have the right to go live where they want - it means that if you find mexicans people in rural Saskatchewan, it is not because it is more mexico-friendly. There are much more un-shiny reasons for that. And francophones are too much more represented? Fuck off. So women are, and immigrants too! Why do you think these measures exist? Racism, sexism. It did exist, it does exist, and racism/sexism doesn't express itself in one langage, or even two.

    So here's an option. Go to Montreal, have fun there because it is way cheaper than lots of cities in north america (or canada), study anything you like because it is cheaper than lots of cities in north america (or canada), have friends from both "official languages", get a job - it is easy, trust me, even if your french sucks, but if it happens that you like it out there, that you might want to stay there a bit longer (which I doubt, because you seem all very edgy on that topic) well, why don't you learn a bit of french? That is all we ask for. It is no big deal. And if you succeed, you will see, we have our ways - of speaking, thinking, having fun, creating, cooking, eating, debating.

    And, by the way, if you don't speak english in Quebec, it IS a problem. Employers do ask that question systematically - especially in Montreal. Of course, if you live deep down in a rural state in Quebec where there is no anglophone 200 km around, nobody is gonna care. Would you? Why would we! It is a practical issue - Montreal is almost half and half french and english - so let's speak both! Of course if you go on the east side of montreal, not much people speak english. You know why?poverty. I live in Hochelaga Maisonneuve, and kids drop school pretty young there. And school, as you know it, is the place where we learn english...
    Other thing: of course there is racism in Quebec. Like there is in Ontario, the rest of Canada, America, the whole world. But smart people, to me, are not supposed to be racist. And you still think language is the issue? Come on guys, it is politic. If french equals to Quebec autonomy, sure, I'm all in.
    Just remember Meech: provinces were united against federalism. They all wanted more autonomy as it is predicted by the project of confédération. But Trudeau wanted to bring back the Constitution (go read it!) before these "details" could be cleared, so Canada could go on, like a unified country, which it never has been... So what can federalism can do against united provinces all asking for more responsibilities? Division. Canada won. Quebec lost because his frenchie prime minister got furious in the middle of negociations, retired, and got back the morning after, fucked. Well, great country, isn't it?

    Et en passant, ça fait vraiment trop plaisir à Ottawa de voir que les préjugés raciaux persistent, tant sur les "frenchies" que sur les "maudits anglais". Pendant qu'on se chicane, Ottawa peut bien continuer à nous "fourrer" tous. Il est temps qu'on change de lunettes, et qu'on regarde le vrai problème, et à mon avis, c'est un fédéralisme trop fort, qui prend trop de décisions, qui est incapable de politique cohérente parce que, on va tous se le dire, les provinces sont toutes, toutes, très différentes les unes des autres. Leur économie, leur langue, leurs réalités, leur peuple, leurs emplois, leur éducation. Je veux bien croire au mythe du grand Canada, mais ne venez pas me faire avaler que ça fonctionne.

    p.s. Harper, vraiment? Ça, personne n'en est fier.

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  27. P.s Take a look back to your stats... A great majority of montreal cities give majority to anglophones.

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  29. OK. Let me tell you the solution finally close this case in peace.

    1) Repeal Bill 101 (the so-called language discrimination law)
    2) Accommodate 5~10 million Canadian people from other provinces into beautiful Montreal Area.
    3) Create Province of Montreal (11th province of Canada), and Territory of Nunavik (4th territory of Canada), and the rest can be the Province of Quebec.

    If you know the details, these are not radical stories but all possible and reasonable ones. Just make 2~3 out of 3 above happen, I assure you then all the problems will simply be gone. Simply be gone, that everyone will wonder how come they had so much trouble, complication, and struggle. Even the very pure French people will benefit from this and eventually be happy and prosperous.

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  30. No offence, but I thought English was a great weapon to fight with in the 21st century.
    Even Far eastern countries like Korea or Japan actively invest in English education for the greater compatibility.

    Seriously, French is fine, just keep it as much/long as you want. Let others who are interested in, learn. But why do they have to partially ban usage/education of English language? I still don't understand. How does it even possible with a rational thinking + positive heart ?

    I speak English as my third language and would love to learn French as my 4th language. But if I were to move to Montreal, for instance, it is not all about the language. Bill 101 is absolutely ruining the economy, and depression of culture, vibrancy, quality of life follows. I wouldn't want to live in such a place regardless of it's French or English ?

    I think they(Quebecers) have every reason to choose to be in the brighter side with both freedom/abundance of language AND economic/cultural prosperity/diversity ?

    Japanese called the economic depression of their own due to poor/wrong politics started in 1990s, "the lost 10(now 20) years"
    Would Quebecers call this stagnation of their economy with the wrong politics incl. Bill 101 the "lost 40 years" when they finally wake up from this dark slumber ?

    It doesn't matter if you're French or English, French Canadian or English Canadian, Native Canadian, Native, Quebecois or just Human,
    I would say let's end Bill 101 for the sake of EVERYONE's Freedom, Equality and Prosperity in Quebec.
    I consider Montreal as one of the most perfect places to build a great modern metropolis in Canada, and would really love to see Montreal back on track in the beginning of this new century, and start to grow again to be one of the greatest modern cities in the World.

    Sooner, the better

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    1. Bravo!! Quebec Used to be exactly that BEFORE the lunatic and illegal Language Loi's were illegally enacted. Illegal because these grotesque laws violate every freaking anti discrimination law in the civilized world; in spite of the fact the word "Language" was illegally REMOVED from our Charter Of Rights - when the Languages Act was created! In any event according to Our constitution - even if the word 'language' was removed - the right to live and WORK in English in Quebec - is STILL (supposed to be) guaranteed. Also: the only area that was English in the Province - pretty much was always the greater Montreal area - throughout the history of the Province; and to be debating the merits of having had OUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE and thereby OUR CULTURE and OUR ABILITY to live and work in OUR LANGUAGE in OUR PROVINCE - IN OUR CANADA - is about as BIZARRE and CRAZY as it gets, no? After all - the United Nations has made it CLEAR MULTIPLE TIMES that Language IS A FREAKING RIGHT THAT CANNOT BE ERASED and has Condemned Quebec and CANADA TWICE for what IS DEEMED A CRIMINAL ACT AGAINST A SEGMENT OF THE POPULATION. Quebec/k - before the language loi's was the RICHEST Province in the country and I REPEAT - English was LEGAL at that time and pretty much spoken ONLY in the Greater Montreal Area. The FACT that the freaking rest of the Province was ALWAYS pretty much FRENCH Only and the FACT that the French language has does nothing other than THRIVE and Grow not only in Quebec - but ALSO throughout Canada - faster than any other linguistic group in freaking HISTORY is never mentioned. Now why is that and why is it that these language law disciples - and their politician endorsers continue to SPREAD the Anti English LIES - and continue to Preach the French language is in danger and must be protected garbage? Finally ERASING the English Language - the English population and English culture - under the LIE of 'french protection'; is as we ALL KNOW - Recognized as ETHNIC CLEANSING - throughout the civilized world. Enough said for now and thanks to the people speaking up against this insane monstrosity that's destroyed Quebec and for that matter Canada as we knew it. BTW I'm a Quebecker - for those who are ready to challenge my freaking right to post about the issue. And for the young who've been brainwashed into believing the horse manure taught in QC Schools about les Anglais et ethnic.. know I'm 64 years old and have LIVED the before and after and KNOW THE TRUTH.

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  31. I am curious, what are your first two languages and where do you live? If you live outside of Québec or outside of Canada, how did you became interested in our political situation?

    Michel Patrice
    michel.patrice.qc@gmail.com

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