Bill 101- A Francophone Prison

We'd all like to believe that we all stand equally before the law and are imbued with commensurate rights guaranteed and afforded by  the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Quebeckers get a double dose of protection with the Quebec Human Rights Charter.  Both acts created to ostensibly protect our basic human rights, regardless of who or what we are.
But with all the glorious prose and good intentions of both those Charters, it isn't quite true.

You see, If you are an immigrant or are born to a Francophone family in Quebec, your rights differ from those of someone born to an Anglophone family.

That's right, Anglophones and others don't share equality before the law, not in Quebec, anyways.

If you are an Anglophone, you are born with the inherent right to receive a public education in either French or in English, your choice. For everyone else, it's tough nougies, French and French alone is your only education option, thanks to Bill 101 the language law passed by the separatist PQ government back in 1977.

In other words Francophones and Allophones are discriminated against because of language,there's really no other way to look at it, unless you're a constitutional lawyer.

Here's what the Quebec Charter of Rights says about all discrimination. Notice that language is specifically cited;

CHAPTER I.1

RIGHT TO EQUAL RECOGNITION AND EXERCISE OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

Discrimination forbidden.

10. Every person has a right to full and equal recognition and exercise of his human rights and freedoms, without distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, colour, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, civil status, age except as provided by law, religion, political convictions, language, ethnic or national origin, social condition, a handicap or the use of any means to palliate a handicap.

Now I'm no lawyer, but clearly language may not be used to discriminate against anybody. Notice that there is no proviso that limits this protection, as there is the after the word 'age', which adds the proviso-"except as provided by law." It seems to me that this proviso needs to be added to the 'language' reference, if Bill 101 is to be legal.

No matter, the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled in this matter at least three times and has come to the conclusion that language discrimination is permissible. So much for the concept that we have any real real Charter rights in Canada. At any rate, even if the Supreme Court found the practice illegal, there is an escape clause (Notwithstanding Clause) that permits provinces to bypass inconvenient decisions. How very Canadian!

As an Anglophone Quebecker, I don't think much about the Bill 101, it hardly affects me or my family.

We are the privileged class.

Aside from compulsory French signs in public, which don't offend me at all, the world turns nicely for me and my fellow Anglos.
We are educated in English, enjoy unlimited television, radio and press in our language and we can live in communities that are just about as English as we want. We can receive services from the government and our towns and cities in English and can be treated in hospitals run almost completely in English. English entertainment, be it movies, theater or music, is widely available, as is service in most  stores and restaurants.  Our children and their children are also guaranteed these same rights.
Like I said, life is good.

For Francophones, despite all the moaning and groaning by nationalists, life is also good, everything, but everything, in the Province is offered in French and one can easily get by speaking no English, which most Francophones don't..

But for some Francophones, it's not enough. Speaking French in Quebec is fine, but not so much when one leaves the province. Some parents want their children to become bilingual and that's where they come into conflict with their own government, which has a different view.

For the government and French language nationalists, bilingual Francophones are not in the best interest of the preservation of the French language and so Bill 101 was enacted not only to force ethnics into French schools, but to keep Francophones out of English schools. This, coupled with the fact that English language instruction in French schools is kept at the most rudimentary level, leaves Francophone students functionally unilingual. There is hardly a high school graduate from a Francophone institution who can order breakfast in Toronto.

Ever since Bill 101was enacted, Quebeckers have become less bilingual, a happy result for nationalists who wish to to impose the "barefoot and pregnant" syndrome, where people are deliberately starved of a skill in order to control them from leaving home.
Nationalists remind us that Quebec is surrounded by a sea of English and that French speakers make up just 2% of the North American population, yet just 35% of Quebeckers can carry on a conversation in English.
In Europe, where English is native only in Great Britain and Ireland, the rate of bilingualism reaches up to 90% in some countries.

A good comparison to Quebec, is the country of Denmark, whose 6 million inhabitants speak a language that is shared only in Greenland and one part of Germany. But the numbers are small, less than 100,000 speak Danish outside the country.  If Quebeckers think French is in danger then Danish must be on its death bed.
But in Denmark English is embraced as the language of internationalism and schools teach the language early and successfully. 90% of Danes can speak English and they speak it very well.
Graduate school classes throughout the country teach business courses exclusively in English to prepare students for the real world. Danes don't seem to be particularly afraid of becoming Anglophones or having their culture destroyed by English.

The all-encompassing fear and the major argument among Quebec proponents of the ban on English is the premise that bilingualism leads to assimilation, a false assumption if you'd  ask the Danes.

While the entire world sees the benefit of learning English, Quebec stands with countries like Islamist Somalia that forbid the teaching of English.

Not all Francophones  in Quebec are pleased with being dictated to. Last week the leader of the small conservative party the Action démocratique (ADQ)  demanded that English actually be taught in schools with the goal of getting students to become bilingual. Gérard Deltell, the leader, expressed his distress at the low rate of bilingualism among the young.
This brought out the traditional naysayers who actually used the excuse that making children bilingual was too expensive and that there is a profound lack of qualified teachers.

Switching an additional class or two into English from French has no added costs and as for teachers, here's some advice. Hire ANGLOPHONES! They are already bilingual. When I went to English high school in Montreal, most of my French teachers were Francophones who spoke almost no English!

How does the PQ react to all of this?
By announcing that they will extend the language ban to English Cegeps (junior college) where Francophones are enrolling after high school, in order to learn English.

And so the language nationalist propaganda machine drones on and on, repeating the message that English is dangerous and that bilingualism leads to assimilation. 
After forty years of getting this message hammered home, most Quebeckers (but not all) accept it as Gospel.
Those who are brave enough to break out of the language prison are seen as having betrayed the 'collectivity.' Francophones in English colleges and universities make language nationalists ill. 

Pauline Marois' quote this week, says it all.

"It is not acceptable to send this message, that it is possible to have free choice."

And that is the essential question.

Do citizens have an obligation to serve to state, or does the state have the obligation to serve its citizens?

In banning free choice, it obvious what the answer is in Quebec.

NDP -'Happy' Jack and 'Oncle' Thom Sell out Anglos

In politics, expediency trumps principles most of the time. All political parties face moral dilemmas between sticking to the values and principles that define their party or bending to public opinion in order to gain the votes that will keep them in business.

While no party is immune to public opinion (save the Greens,) there's no doubt that the NDP is the champion at selling out their ideals in the sad and often futile pursuit of votes. While the Liberals and the Conservatives flop around on occasion, at least they have some semblance of a cohesive national policy.

The NDP currently faces such a dilemma in relation to the scrapping of the long-gun registry. It would seem natural that ideologically the party would  be in favour of keeping the registry going, but many of its elected members from rural ridings are going to vote with the Conservatives to scrap the registry. In fact the Liberals, who have nothing to protect in rural Canada and whose constituency clearly support the registry, are trying to humiliate the NDP for its unprincipled stance with a nasty poster campaign. LINK

So the NDP, remains all things to all people.
In British Columbia they are a light imitation of the Greens, espousing a policy of environmentalism and sustainability. They appeal to the upper middle-class Yuppies, who are just a tad afraid of the radical greens.
In Ontario they are the union party, manning the barricades for the working man.

Between these two provinces lies the NDP constituency, the rest of the country provides a seat or two here and there but nothing sustainable. Most members outside the traditional power base have won their seats on the strength of their own candidacy or other quirks such as a constituency that is on the outs with both major parties.

Nothing hurts the credibility of the NDP as a national party as the almost complete lack of representation in the province of Quebec. And so back-stopping the NDP's lone member in Quebec,  'Oncle' Thomas Mulcair, in his Outremont riding remains of paramount importance.

Outremont is a strange riding that combines upper income Francophones with a hodgepodge of well-off English and ethnics including Canada's biggest congregation of Hasidic Jews. The riding has traditionally gone Liberal, but with the sponsorship scandal and the Liberals at the nadir of their popularity in 2007, Mulcair was able to eke out a protest vote victory, when Liberal Jean Lapierre abandoned politics in a huff. Within a year of his by-election win a federal election was called where he managed to hold onto his seat - barely.
He is by no means safe next time around, so tailoring a platform that appeals to the yuppie Francophones in the riding, who represent his major constituency is of critical importance to the NDP.

But more important than that, the NDP is now looking forward to a possible coalition with the Liberals in the next federal election. Layton and the NDP are carving out a position that will make them a popular second choice in Quebec, representing a suitable dancing partner for a coalition. Since the Bloc Quebcois has demonstrated itself wholly unacceptable to Canadians, it befalls the NDP to take up the mantle of Quebec radicalism. 

That is why the NDP has become the second national Canadian political party to espouse an anti-English/pro-Quebec nationalist platform and have been front and center promoting a French nationalist agenda. It is a NDP member who proposed that Supreme Court judges be bilingual, a wildly popular concept in Quebec, not so much outside.

Uncle Thom and Happy Jack are careful to  speak in French when denouncing Bill 103 and avoid any talk of language issues when talking to reporters in English. When the Francophone press appears, it's back to Anglo-bashing.

The latest outrage is the NDP lending its name and support to a rainbow coalition of Separatist, Nationalist and semi-violent radical organizations that have banded together to do battle against the 'nefarious' Bill 103.

Here's a press release put out by the Saint Jean Baptist Society, Quebec's leading separatist organization, who proudly welcome the NDP into its ranks of a coalation formed to fight Bill 103.

Des représentants de plusieurs autres organismes appuyant la Coalition seront présents. Ces organismes sont : Québec Solidaire, le Nouveau Parti démocratique, les syndicats FTQ, SFPQ et FAE, le Mouvement national des Québécoises et des Québécois (MNQ), le Mouvement Montréal français (MMF), le Mouvement Montérégie français, le Mouvement Laurentide français, Impératif français, le Réseau de Résistance québécoise (RRQ), le Rassemblement pour un pays souverain (RPS), les Jeunes Patriotes du Québec (JPQ) et le Mouvement Pacifique pour l'Indépendance du Québec (MPIQ) et plusieurs autres.

Welcome aboard, boys, you're in good company!

It is utterly unbelievable that the NDP's pandering to the Quebec radical movement goes unreported in English Canada. Try any Google search coupling 'Bill 103' and 'NDP' together and you'll get nothing in English. Do a French search using 'NPD' plus 'Loi 101' and you'll get a flood a flood of stories about the NDP joining forces with a coalition of radical French separatist organizations. Try it...

Bill 103- A Dog's Beakfast

If Premier Charest was trying to find some sort of middle ground with Bill 103, it a pretty safe bet that he failed miserably. Perhaps I was right when I said a few days ago that it was a plan to create language controversy so that the heat could be taken off the corruption debate.

The new law replaces the old Bill 104, which was rejected by the Supreme Court, eliminating a loophole whereby children, not eligible for English schooling, could win that right by attending a private English school for as little as one year and then switching to a public English school.

The replacement law, Bill 103, is different from its predecessor in that it extends the required period of private English instruction to three years, as well as making students and their families jump through additional hoops to qualify for public English education.
Convoluted as it is, it might just pass muster with the Supreme Court.

The original law, Bill 104, passed by the separatist Parti Quebecois back in 2002, was enacted in reaction to the approximately 500 students a year that availed themselves of this 'secret passage' to get into English public school. The English school boards, desperate for students, turned a blind eye to what was and remains an underhanded way of getting around the law. Not only French language radicals, but the average Joe is displeased that these students are essentially buying their way into English school.
While polls indicate the majority of Quebeckers believe in free educational choice, the idea of rich people circumventing Bill 101 or any other law with money is unacceptable to almost everyone.

All of this wouldn't be necessary if the government had listened and reacted fairly to the English school boards complaint that falling birthrates coupled with the effects of Bill 101 have contributed to a precipitous decline in enrolment in English schools.

Quebeckers (both Anglophone and Francophone) don't produce enough babies to keep the population stable and so immigrants are required to stave off population decline.

But if all these immigrants are forced into French schools only, it means that English school enrolment is bound to decline. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out, despite of all the phony-baloney statistics produced to the contrary, by language extremists like Mario Beaulieu.
It is a simple and incontrovertible fact, something that even blockheads in government should be able to grasp.

Anglo school boards need more students or they will die, it's as simple as that. If the government is okay with that scenario, than the government should say so.

If the government believes that the English community has a right to a viable school system, it needs to provide a way to top up enrolment. Not drastically, just enough to maintain the system as it is.

The government could have avoided all this unpleasantness by negotiating a deal with the English school boards that would stop this back door practice voluntarily, in exchange for allowing other students to fill the void and keep the English student population stable.
It would have avoided a humiliating loss in the Supreme court.

One of the simplest and fairest ways to do this would be to give a Bill 101 exemption to all immigrant children who come from English-speaking countries like the USA, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and English speaking island nations of the Caribbean. These students already speak English as their first language and forcing them into French schools doesn't make much sense anyways. There aren't that many immigrants in this category to begin with, less than 400 English families immigrate to Quebec each year from these countries. They would probably produce roughly 500 potential students, a neat compromise! It might also open the door to more Anglos immigrating to Quebec. As of now Anglophones avoid Quebec as a destination of choice like the plague.

To French language militants this solution is likely less acceptable than drinking a glass of poison, but the majority of Quebeckers would probably see it as fair.

The new Bill 103 will probably cut the number of back door entries into the English school system by half, to less than 300, but for the militants, it is 300 too many. Get ready to see demonstrations and parades, as separatist and language militant leaders wax rhapsodic over the injustice and inhumanity of it all.

A general call to arms.... all over a paltry 300 students in a Province of almost eight million people.

Of course 'Uncle' Thom Mulcair  and 'Smiling' Jack Layton of the NDP are front and center, joining a coalition composed of separatist and radical French groups formed to oppose the law. And so they are joining such ignoble groups as the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Conseil de la souveraineté, Parti québécois, Québec solidaire, Bloc québécois, Syndicalistes et progressistes pour un Québec libre plus the always threateningly popular Réseau de Résistance québécoise and Jeunes Patriotes du Québec.

'Smiling' Jack and 'Uncle' Thom have no interest in seeing the Quebec English school system remaining viable. Not enough votes in that, so better to join forces with the radical separatists and hope some votes will rub off. Ecch!   LINK

Meanwhile, lost in all this, is the fact that at any given time there are over 10,000 students, eligible for English schooling, who are attending French schools voluntarily. Ahem.....


How ridiculous is Bill 103? Very....

As you may know the law creates a point system, with 15 as the minimum required to gain entry to English school.

A reader sent me an email detailing how the point system works. The document is in French and for those of you who can read it, have a go. It is as stupid as it looks. Check out the last pages even if you don't speak French. It lists point values. Argghhh!!!!!!!!!!

Bill 103-Point System

It's hard to believe that so much effort went into this!

Forget English- Quebeckers Should Learn Greek

Watching the sad financial fiasco occurring in Greece, one has to ask if it is a portent of things to come, here in Quebec. While Greece is Greece and Quebec is Quebec, there are certain parallels to be drawn, especially when it comes to the attitude of the public in regard to fiscal responsibility.
The Greeks are living the cruel repercussions of decades of financial mismanagement and overspending. Lavish entitlements, early retirement and widespread tax evasion has finally caught up with them as the country finally ran out of money and credit.

The EEC which backstops the Euro, is demanding corrective action in order to authorize a bailout.
If implemented, these measures represent a debilitating and painful cut in expenditures and an unprecedented increase in taxes. For the average Greek, it means a 30% drop in relative income. 

Athens radio personality Georgios Trangasis is typical of Greek deniers, oblivious to the country's economic situation. For him, blame lies outside Greece, "What did European governments really know about Greece's indebtedness, and why did they allow it?"

And so the Greek financial crisis is the fault of the German and French banks as well as the IMF, controlled by the Americans. Hostility towards Germany for having the audacity to tell the Greeks that they have been living too high on the hog is particularly galling, with the deputy prime minister Theodoros Pangalos, telling Germany that it had no right to reproach Greece for anything, considering that it devastated the country under the Nazi occupation. (65 years ago.)

Quebec is not Greece, at least when it comes to  tax compliance. Greece is a country where cheating the government out of taxes is a national sport. The attitude can best be highlighted by the revelation that 75 of the country's tax inspectors have never filed a personal tax return. Wealthy Athenians cover their swimming pools with camouflage, lest it be a signal to the tax inspectors that they are rich.

While there is a robust under the table economy in Quebec, it pales by comparison to the dishonesty that is pervasive in Greece, but when it comes to lavish government spending, the Greeks can learn a thing or two from Quebec.

Parental leave, universal subsidized daycare, ridiculously low education fees and generous welfare payments are the envy of citizens of every other province, even those who are substantially richer than Quebec. Finance ministers across the country cannot fathom how Quebec can continue to pay for these types of programs in good conscious and some have injudiciously voiced concern. Recently Alberta's finance Minister Ted Morton told university students;

"You and your parents are spending a bunch of money to help Quebec, and they're paying half the tuition you are." 

Not only do Quebecers pay less tuition, they also pay far less for electricity, drugs and daycare. Quebec offers a more generous parental leave program than elsewhere, and higher corporate subsidies. LINK

The truth is that Quebec has been financing it all with smoke and mirrors à la Greque, paying for it all with a rising provincial debt, coupled with welfare payments (equalization) passed on from Ottawa, but paid for by wealthier provinces.

With the provincial debt load approaching dangerous levels, it seems that Quebec may be facing a Greek tragedy of its very own.

And so, Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand's latest budget finally attempted to come to grips with reality (at least on the revenue side) and implemented increased taxes and user fees across the board.

Like the Greeks, these new measures went over like the proverbial lead balloon with the majority of Quebeckers protesting.

Most Quebeckers are fed up with being the most highly taxed citizens in all of North America, with the government now taxing and spending over 41% of the province's wealth. But over 40% of Quebeckers pay no provincial tax at all and strangely it is they who are complaining the loudest.

The new user fees, which are universal and hit all Quebeckers, has the freeloaders up in arms.

"Together for Free- Quality- Universal Services!! " 
"Let Big Companies Pay!"            

And so to the streets they take, to protest the outrageous proposition that they help pay for the services they consume, with child-like remedies as highlighted in the placards above.

The signs  above would be humorous enough would they not reflect the sentiments of a great deal of Quebeckers.
It is likely that these protesters are just about the last group in the entire world that believes public services can be provided for free. (even the Greeks have come to terms with that reality.)

According to  Jean-Jacques Samson taxing the rich can't resolve the problem because in Quebec, there aren't that many rich people. In fact just 3% of the population make over $100,000 and they already contribute 25% of the personal taxes collected by the government.

The richest 20% of  taxpayers contribute 70% of personal taxes, so there isn't much wiggle room.

Quebec is rapidly approaching the point where it cannot tax anymore. The only choice is to tax those who pay nothing already and user fees are the only means available.

At any rate, taxes will not solve the Quebec problem, the lavish social programs provided by the government are beyond the scope of taxpayers to handle.

The next battle in Quebec will come when governments realize that they cannot fund these programs anymore and that they are out of borrowing options.

At that point, programs will have to be re-jigged to be less generous and it is likely that Quebeckers will react as the Greeks.

Blame someone else......

Does Going to French School Make You a Francophone?

One of the saddest aspects about Bill 101 is the effect it has on immigrant families that have a strong background in English, yet don't qualify for English public schooling for their children.  Immigrants are all shuffled off to French schools, with very few exceptions, with proficiency in English being of no consequence. Even those immigrants from English-speaking countries, such as the United States or England who speak nothing but English, are barred from attending English public schools.
The rationale behind this policy is the theory that schooling will act as the great melting pot and will transform students of all stripes and backgrounds into Francophones by the time they leave high school.
That's the theory...

But the reality transcends the model and as much as French language militants wish it were so, the theory fails in practice. For an English family or one that adopts English as the lingua franca of the home, the children will become Anglophones, regardless of the educational path.

********************

I'm a regular customer at a local fruit and vegetable store run by an extended Tamil family in the Notre-Dame-de Grace (NDG) district, an Anglo stronghold in western Montreal. The proprietors of the shop are model immigrants, a credit to themselves and to our collective decision to allow them join us as citizens of this country. Hard working and ambitious, they work long hours for little pay, striving to achieve the Canadian dream.
One day, I asked one of the women who worked there (in her late thirties,) how she came to speak such excellent English.

"What do you mean?" she answered quite indignantly "Sri Lanka may be a poor country, but everyone learns English in school!"
"Excuuussse me..." I answered sheepishly, "But where do your children go to school?"

"They go to French schools, where else?  But we speak only English at home and they will speak both languages when they are finished high school. When they go to university, they will go to McGill!"

Hmmm....

My wife is a client of another enterprising self-employed immigrant, a Filipina who provides in-home foot spa treatments. It's a time to relax and discuss nonsense, much as men talk hockey with their barber.
Their conversations during treatments, about this or that television show or a certain movie demonstrates clearly that English is not only her language of choice, but her culture, as well. Although her children are forced to go to French school, there's no doubt as to which cultural group the family will assimilate to.

Like my Tamil grocer family, her children to will grow up become bilingual Anglophones.
The coercive efforts of a government attempting to mold people into what they do not want to be, can only go so far.

A year or two ago, there was a great flap in one of the French schools as children were admonished for speaking English during recess and play. Tut! Tut!
It's as if the government and the schools wish to reach into the brain of every child and lobotomize the English portion.
But the heart wants, what the heart wants. That's just the way it is.

Immigrant parents who arrive in Quebec with some English, invariably make the choice to align themselves with the Anglophone community. They seek out employment where English can be spoken and adopt the language and culture in the home, believing firmly that giving their children the gift of English is the most important thing that they can do as parents. Forcing the children of these families into French schools will make them bilingual, but will not create Francophones.

This is the essential element that is misunderstood by language militants.  French schooling does not necessarily turn children into Francophones.

The same can be said for Francophone families that send their children to English schools. The children don't transform themselves into Anglophones, but rather become bilingual Francophones. (That is the subject of future post)

A couple of months ago, I caught Sugar Sammy, Montreal's hottest comedian on the French language talk-show, Tout le Monde en Parle.  Shifting effortlessly between English and French, he demonstrated the very best of what bilingual Montrealers are. Of Indian immigrant stock, he was forced to attend French school, but like the families I described above, English was spoken at home.
Despite his long years in the French eduction system, his accent-less English remains much better than his French. He is as thorough an Anglo Quebecker as I, who was born here and enjoyed a complete and comprehensive education in English .
Watch him perform in French and then do an interview in English or even in Punjabi. Amazing language skills!

Regardless of language however, his shtick is clearly from an Anglophone/Ethnic perspective. If you haven't seen his act, you are missing a treat, a comedian who will have you rolling in the aisles. If you are an Anglo, Ethnic or Francophone with a good sense of humour, don't miss it.

If you are a committed sovereignist or sourpuss language militant, stay far away. His opening joke in French, at the Just For Laughs Festival is an example of his of what his background is.

"There's two types of Quebeckers-- There are those Quebekers who are educated, cultivated and well brought up..........and then there's those who voted YES!"

YIKKESS!!!!

The propensity of immigrants who arrive to Quebec with some level of English, to adopt the Anglophone community as their own, is not lost on Quebec's immigration department.  For many years they have prioritized French speaking immigrants in order to stem the flow of immigrants flowing into the Anglo community.

That is why, of all the newly arrived immigrants to Quebec, over 30% come from France, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon and Tunisia.



Of the immigrants who came to Quebec between 2003 and 2007, (aside from their native tongue,) they also spoke;

French only....................... 23%
English only........................ 18%
French & English .................34%
No French or English..............25%

These figure are quite startling.
With all the government's effort to favour French speaking immigrants, the difference between those who come to Quebec with French only as compared to English only is not that large.

For the 18% of immigrants who come to Quebec each year who speak some English but no French, the chances that their children will become Francophones because of a forced French education is almost zilch.

The children of these families will attend French school and will likely become perfectly bilingual, but Francophones, they will not become.

If ever the saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" applies, it is in the Quebec language debate.