Five Lies Separatists Spread about Bill 21

I've watched the unfolding drama of the debate over Bill 21 with abject fascination. The separatist media is conducting a  dishonest and surreptitious disinformation campaign, an attempt to ignite an internecine war between Quebec and Canada, all in the promotion of the sovereignty option.
Bill 21 itself is of no matter, it is just a phony excuse to mount another battle against Canada in the ongoing war for sovereignty.

For years the argument that Quebec was disadvantaged economically by remaining in Canada was the plan, concocted and promoted to convince Quebecers that their interest lay outside of Canada. 
It took years, but in the end, the gambit failed as evidence mounted and the public realized, perhaps begrudgingly, that the opposite was true and that Canada represented a good economic deal.
A deal too good to give up.

So sovereigntist militants needed a new tack, clearly, it was time for a 'Plan B.'
That coalesced around the idea that Canada represented an existential threat to the French language and Quebec culture.
And so here we are, facing off over a manufactured conflict and confrontation over identity.

For sovereigntists, the debate over Bill 21 is a Christmas present wrapped neatly in a bow, an issue that checks all the boxes meant to raise the enmity between Canada and Quebec.
The few Muslim women who will lose their jobs or be refused a chance to teach because of the hijab interdiction, are but inconsequential collateral damage.

And in order to keep the fires of this manufactured controversy and the Canada/Quebec head-butting going, sovereigntist journalists have mounted a ferocious disinformation blitz that includes these five pernicious lies that I'd like to examine.

1. Hijabs are a problem

Your neighbour knocks on your door and asks you to sign a petition to place a traffic light on the corner of your street because it's dangerous.
"Really," you ask, "What's the problem?"
"Too many pedestrians struck by cars"
"I haven't heard of any accidents. How many have happened exactly?"
"Er...I can't really say."
"Then piss off with your petition!"

The government, the school boards and the media have never explained the amplitude of the so-called Hijab 'problem.'
Are there 10, 100, 1,000 or ten thousand evil hijabs being flaunted in the schools?
Why haven't we been told?
Likely because if we were told, we'd realize that it is but a trifling number leading us to conclude that with so few cases, a draconian law that contravenes both the Quebec Charter and the Federal Charter of Rights would not be in order, especially if it entailed the invocation of the dastardly "notwithstanding clause" 
In other words, the cure is worse than the disease,

2. 70% of Quebecers support Bill 21

Utter nonsense pedalled by dishonest and frustrated separatists like Richard Martineau who sell this assertion in print in the Journal de Montreal and on QUB radio as if it's an uncontested fact.
Mr. Martineau never provides links or attribution to the poll, but I found some mention of an internal CAQ web poll that indicated 65% of Quebecers supported the bill. Here
Web polls are utter garbage that no legitimate politicians or journalist should use seriously and which the public should take as seriously as horoscopes.

How accurate are online polls?

"At worst, online polls can be seriously biased if people who hold a particular point of view are more motivated to participate than those with a different point of view. A good example of this was seen in 1998 when AOL posted an online poll asking if President Clinton should resign because of his relationship with a White House intern. The online poll found that 52% of the more than 100,000 respondents said he should. Telephone polls conducted at the same time with much smaller but representative samples of the public found far fewer saying the president should resign (21% in a CBS poll, 23% in a Gallup poll, and 36% in an ABC poll). The president’s critics were highly motivated to register their disapproval of his behaviour, and this resulted in a biased measurement of public opinion in the AOL online poll."Pew Research

 Online polls rely on highly-motivated internet users to answer the question and therefore have thoroughly under-weighted 'undecided' element to the poll.

Readers should always be wary of polls created by political parties or special interest groups because they are notoriously easy to fix.

Pollster: "Madam, are you in favour or opposed to Bill 21?
Mada:     "Er, never heard of it"
Pollster: "It's an anti-Muslim law.
Madam:  "Then I'm in FAVOUR!!"

By the way, in the radio discussion, Mr. Martineau likened a teacher who wears a hijab to that of a teacher wearing an FLQ T-shirt....yup!

3. The Government must remain 'neutral' with regards to religion in public institutions.

On one side you have those who want to wear religious-type clothing in schools and on the other side, there are those opposed to all religious symbols in school.
The government claims to be "neutral" but bans religious articles, clearly siding with one side.
Pretending that banning hijabs demonstrates neutrality is a farce.

A mother is faced with a question from her two daughters.
The first daughter proposes that all the women in the family wear red dresses to the family Christmas party.
The second daughter suggests that all the girls should wear blue dresses.
The Mother looks at them both and with the judgment of Solomon replies;
"Girls, as your mother, I need to remain strictly 'neutral,' so we're going to wear red dresses...

Uggghhh!!.

4. Using the "Notwithstanding Clause" is legitimate because Quebec never consented to a Constitution that was imposed upon it by the ROC

But Quebec did create its very own Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms which pretty much says the same thing as the national version.

3. Every person is the possessor of the fundamental freedoms, including freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.

 

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, gender identity or expression, 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.

Discrimination exists where such a distinction, exclusion or preference has the effect of nullifying or impairing such right.

 

13. No one may in a juridical act stipulate a clause involving discrimination.

 

16. No one may practise discrimination in respect of the hiring, apprenticeship, duration of the probationary period, vocational training, promotion, transfer, displacement, laying-off, suspension, dismissal or conditions of employment of a person or in the establishment of categories or classes of employment.

While the defenders of Bill 21 attack the Canadian Charter of Rights and freedoms as illegitimate, have you ever heard any of them comment on the fact that the law contravenes Quebec's own charter?

5. Canada unfairly "Bashes" Quebec

This is my favourite nose stretcher because it is meant to feed and nourish Quebec's general paranoia, hopefully raising resentment of Canada.
In the debate over Bill 21, it is actually Quebec doing the bashing of Canada with journalist after journalist describing Canada in the most unflattering and insulting terms.
Aside from one University of Ottawa professor who was quite mean in his assessment of Quebec's Bill 21, the articles written attacking the law in Canada's mainstream newspaper have been pretty much respectful.
Compare that the vicious attacks made against Canada and Canadians by Quebec journalists using insulting terms like "Rhodesians, " "Colonizers" "Colonialists" "Enemies"

“ This is what Quebec has become in the eyes of many of our compatriots in the ROC. A scarecrow that they wave to avoid questioning the excesses of their crazy multiculturalism.” Link{fr}

When English Canada enters a debate like this with its big boots and its money, it damages the quality of the debate in Quebec.  Link{fr}

“Quebec is alone. We will have to fight with uncompromising and fearless energy and will. We must admit that our enemies are more devious and more hypocritical than we are inclined to believe.”   Link{fr}

“Canada is no longer a country culturally distinct from the United States.

The violent reactions of English Canada should hardly surprise us.” Link{fr}

“ The Rhodesian spirit once fought against by René Lévesque wears the face of militant multiculturalism.”    Link{fr}

“It is an old habit among radical Anglos, who have always behaved like local Rhodesians, criminalizing our collective aspiration to protect our language and to place it at the heart of collective life.”   Link{fr}

“The clash of values between English Canada and  us is massive and frontal.” 
“ There are two countries in this country.”  Link

 And as firebrand anglophobe Gilles Proulx wrote in Le Journal; 

“ English Canada wants a fight. It will happen.

What are we still doing in this madhouse?” 

The recurring theme in all these articles is the disparagement of Canada and Canadians meant to paint Quebec as a victim, unloved and misunderstood with a not so oblique subtext that Quebec has no place in Canada.

At any rate, not everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid.

I'll leave with some words of sanity by Quebec journalist Michel C. Auger,

“ Does a single case in two years pass the test of a "real and urgent goal"? Was Bill 21 intended to solve a major and urgent problem or was it not rather a fairly transparent attempt to gain political capital? Prime Minister François Legault certainly does not help himself by often repeating the fact that Bill 21 is popular.”   

“ The fact is that the Charters of Rights exists precisely to protect minorities against unjust laws but which are popular with the majority. An opinion  poll, in court does not weigh very heavily. Meanwhile, in Ottawa, there is mounting pressure on the Trudeau government to intervene in court, which it will no doubt do when the case goes to the Supreme Court. But what is certain is that the legal debate is far from over and that new players and arguments will be added in the coming months. And these will not necessarily be twists and turns that will go in the direction that the Legault government wants.”  Link{fr}

If you read French read this thoughtful piece from La Nouvelliste;

Bill 21: A retreat and a denial of the achievements of the Quiet Revolution

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Habs Owner Masterfully Sidesteps Language Issue

Geoff Molson skates effortlessly around language issue.

It seems that Geoff Molson has invented a neat language workaround for companies wanting to employ a non-French-speaking boss.

Air Canada should take note of how companies can hire whom they want to the top job without the blowback associated with the hiring of a unilingual anglo boss in a French province.

For those who don't follow hockey in general or the Habs in particular Geoff Molson fired the General-manager of the team Marc Bergevin, a long-overdue sacking made urgent by the Montreal Canadiens disastrous on-ice results this season.

Quite simply, Molson hired an anglo Jeff Gorton, a unilingual American, to replace Bergervin but re-defined his title as senior vice president, while committing to hiring a new French-speaking general manager. The two will work together but in reality, the new general manager will be a de facto assistant general manager with a general manager title.

A clever workaround.

The new 'general manager' who will work under Gorton will be the face of the team, dealing with the media while the real boss will be quietly squirrelled away in his ivory tower, making all the real decisions.

 It's a solution that is painfully transparent and I was interested if the French hockey media would go along with the charade.

After watching Molson's press conference where he breathlessly confessed that the job of leading the team is more than a one-man job in Montreal and where the necessity of working in two languages made the hiring a duo necessary, I wondered if the charade would pass muster.

It certainly did.

The commentators attending the news conference played along because that's what hockey journalists do. Not one dared ask Molson the obvious question about his hiring of the unilingual Gorton and nobody asked why Gorton did not attend the news conference.
I predict Mr. Gorton will be extremely camera-shy, understandable in the circumstances.

Bravo! Well-done. 

Mr. Molson serves us with a useful lesson in that as long as the language issue is somehow addressed, even though fakery, the public and media will go along with any charade.

But alas not everyone will accept the misdirection and already language fanatics are crying murder most foul.
It didn't take long for the anglophobes to come out of the woodwork as the insufferable  Rejean Tremblay in Journal de Montreal

"Gorton, an American, doesn't speak a word of French, but is now the vice-president of hockey, which is in fact, the real general manager of the Canadiens.
He's another Michael Rousseau, the president of Air Canada who doesn't speak a word of French.
What a sinister insult! And what cowardice.

So They're going to hire a 'frog' lap-dog to talk to the public and also to make the job easy.  

But we all understood that Gorton will have the final say when the discussions get tough"

The question is who would want such a job, a marionette required to repeat in French what is already decided in English??

Answer: Lots of people.

As fpr Air Canada, they need to hire a new French-speaking CEO while simultaneously promoting unlingual Michael Rousseau to the newly-created position of SUPER-CEO.

In Quebec, that'll work....

Anglo-Bashing Replaces Hockey as Quebec's National Sport

With the unprecedented collapse of the Montreal Canadiens, out of the playoffs before the snow even falls, a dejected and angry Quebec media has turned instead its attention to the blood sport of bashing Anglophones, which has reached a dangerous tipping point sparked by the CEO of Air Canada's lack of French during a yearly review.

The visceral outrage in the French media is wholly disproportionate to the slight and has engendered nothing less than mass language hysteria.

Politicians have piled onto  the wagon of righteous indignation led by our illustrious Prime Minister calling it "an unacceptable situation,'' noting that the minister in charge of official languages is ''following up.''

The irony of Trudeau's complaint represents the ultimate hypocrisy, having himself appointed a Governor-General who cannot speak French either.
Why a non-French-speaking CEO of a for-profit company is less acceptable than a non-French-speaking Governor-General begs a response.

The apoplectic French Quebec media reaction can be understood by the very painful truth that was laid bare by Mr. Rousseau,
Firstly, that Air Canada is an English corporation, run completely in English and a company that would have decamped its head office to Toronto years ago had it not been blackmailed into staying in Montreal by the Caisse de Depot.
The second painful truth laid bare is that yes, you still can live and work in Montreal without speaking French.

The Horror of Horrors.
Mr. Rousseau can be credited, like the fabled little boy who declared "that the emperor hath no clothes" in exposing the obvious language reality, one that nationalists refuse to face by pretending it isn't true.
It is the same nonsense whereby eliminating English signage in Montreal is meant to foster the fiction that Montreal is other than a bilingual city.

The echo chamber nature of Francophone media is best demonstrated by the universal adoption  of the word "Rhodesian" to describe Anglos like Mr. Rousseau who don't speak French or activists like myself who speak French perfectly but who reject the notion that Quebec is a "nation," and that Quebec is a "French Nation" or that everyone living in Quebec is "obliged to "Respect the French majority"

Journalists and opinion writers have invoked the scourge of  "Rhodesian" an alternate term for "White Supremacist" to describe Anglos and ethnics who don't abide.

Michel David

Patrick Lagacé

 

Emmanuelle Latraverse

 

My favourite "Rhodesian" reference comes from the tiresome ethnocentric blowhard Mathieu Bock-Coté, who referred to the black Mayoral candidate Balarama Holness as a white supremacist... "a Neo-Rhodesian." no less!  He also wrote this:

"Sadly, it is an old habit among radical Anglos, who have always behaved like local Rhodesians, to criminalize our collective aspiration to protect our language and place it at the heart of collective life." 

All of these journalists have no problem describing Quebec Anglos as toxic white supremacists but paradoxically whine about Quebec-bashing in the English media.
I wonder if they'd be okay with the Montreal Gazette or the National Post publishing an opinion piece where Quebec language militants were described as "fanatical language Nazis"

Quebec is living a language fantasy, one woven by nationalists and sovereigntists which the media and its populist politicians have wholeheartedly embraced.

Quebec is a nation
Quebec is a French nation
Minorities owe the francophone majority respect
The French language is in decline.
Not speaking French is contemptuous of the majority
Ottawa mistreats and disrespects Quebec
Quebec culture is superior.
The English media bashes Quebec
blah...blah blah. 

I'll counter these arguments in a future post but let me leave with a fanciful opinion piece written by Marc Bellemare, an ex-Justice minister under Jean Charest who demonstrates the ability to completely spin reality.

After  1976, several Quebecers boycotted Sun Life, which had announced the transfer of its head office to Ontario in response to René Lévesque's rise to power. In 1978, the boycott of confectioner Cadbury, who moved production to Ontario after 60 years in Montreal, hurt and served as a warning to many others.
Like me, will you dare to boycott Air Canada whenever you have the chance? Marc Bellemare

No, Mr. Bellemare, nobody is boycotting Air Canada or Cadbury or Sun Life or the hundreds of other companies that quit Quebec.
Unlike Sun Life most slinked out of the province quietly and without fanfare, unnoticed and unremarked upon by a government and media that wished to whitewash the exodus.
The next time a language hardliner takes a less convenient or more expensive airplane to Miami in order to boycott Air Canada, they'll be doing it board an airline that cares even less about French.
And we all know, it ain't gonna happen, anyways because talk is cheap.

At any rate, the language delirium has struck our Premier rather hard.
Buoyed by the enthusiastic embrace of his hard-line and discriminatory policies Legault has lost his marbles and channelled the mythical King Canute who set his throne by the seashore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes.
Our illustrious Premier has complained that there aren't enough Quebecers (read-Francophone Quebecers) in the National Hockey League and has hatched a plan to change the situation.

Why not? This is Quebec

Air Canada Boss Enrages Quebec....Too Bad

Air Canada Boss... Let them Eat Cake!!!

I don't know if it is sad or funny to hear the Quebec political class and its lackey media tout the sudden importance of bilingualism, the hypocrisy boggles the mind.

All this outrage over the unilingual boss of Air Canada giving a speech in English and admitting that although he lives and works in Montreal and is married to a francophone, he cannot speak French.

“I’ve been able to live in Montreal without speaking French, and I think that’s a testament to the city of Montreal,” Michael Rousseau said after making a major speech to the city's business community.  Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau 

Oh my....

The shrill and hysterical outrage is comical because it showcases a reality that language militants pretend isn't there.
Air Canada and just about every single big corporation in Canada operate in English. Period.
The need for a bilingual CEO is an unneeded handicap and limits the pool of potential candidates by at least 95%.
Quebec politicians can huff and puff about language but shareholders demand the most capable person for the job and speaking French isn't even on the radar when hiring. 

Air Canada's rarefied boardroom may be located in the head office in Montreal but it operates in English without a whimper of a complaint by the OLF.

In the asymmetric world of language politics, it's important for you to speak French but not for them to speak English.
The idea that an anglophone can live in Quebec without French is outrageous while it makes perfect sense for a francophone to live in Canada without any English.
The argument made is that in Quebec there's really no need or requirement to speak English because everything is available in French. But that of course can be said of English in the downtown and western half of Montreal.
Deux poids deux measures.

Those who call for Mr. Rousseau's resignation because of his lack of French and apparent indifference need to understand that Air Canada is a for-profit corporation whose president and CEO owe loyalty to shareholders only.

Of course, Air Canada is subject to the Official languages Act because when the government privatized it, that condition was embedded. Paradoxically it means that unilingual French-speaking employees must be able to work in their language, but for militants, this should not apply to Mr. Rousseau.
In fact, the proposed Quebec language law that the government is trying to pass making a company prove that another language is necessary before making it a condition of employment can apply to Mr. Rousseau explicitly who is unilingual and has no need to speak another language. Ha!

Language militants are making all sorts of nonsense and desperate arguments, like the fact that Air Canada received a lot of government aid during the pandemic, so the CEO must speak French because Quebec taxpayers helped foot the bill.

Does it mean that those same taxpayers must speak English because they receive equalization payments from English Alberta? 

Nonsense.

Militants also demand that the CEO speaks French because the head office is in Montreal, a situation with an easy solution à la Sun Life.
The very idea that Air Canada's head office remains in Montreal is absurd, with Toronto the hub of its corporate and business life. Quebec remains a tiny part of Air Canada's business and should be treated as such.

You know what else is nonsense?
Forcing Air Canada to have a French-speaking cabin crew on every flight, even local ones in BC where the chances are overwhelming that nobody on the flight is francophone.
In the asymmetric world of Quebec language militancy, this makes perfect sense, a bus driver on a route in the west island of Montreal where perhaps 75% of the passengers are English need not answer a question in English.

It is time to update the Official LAnguages act to make forced bilingualism apply to all or none.

Quebec cannot have its cake and eat it too. 

Mr. Rousseau should have not apologized (which he did) and rather should have told Quebec to like it or lump it.

As for rumblings of a boycott... another farcical joke.
There are only two criteria for choosing an airline, price and convenience. 

Montreal Special Language Status Is Inevitable

The recent pronouncement of Montreal longshot mayoral candidate Balorama Holness on language dropped onto the Quebec political landscape like the proverbial bombshell.

Mr. Holness had the temerity to suggest that Montreal could possibly hold a referendum seeking bilingual status which if successful would create a city that would effectively opt-out of Quebec's persecutory language laws like Bill 101 and the proposed Bill 96. 

The reaction amongst language militants was swift and furious, dripping with palpable rage and visceral scorn, the very idea of 'special status' deemed an existential threat to the very essence of Quebec.

It is a reaction to be anticipated, Quebec nationalists have been demanding and receiving exceptional and special treatment from Canada for decades and the idea that they themselves will have to consider a little water in their wine, an unacceptable affront.

I read with a measure of schadenfreude a noted nationalist who raged that bilingual status for Montreal would rip the heart out of Quebec.
Hmmm...

Let us start by exploding the myth that Montreal is and always was a French city. The lie is boldly proclaimed in nothing less than the Constitution of the City of <Montreal which proudly proclaims,

CHAPTER I

CONSTITUTION OF THE MUNICIPALITY

1. A city is hereby constituted under the name “Ville de Montréal” .

Montréal is a French-speaking city.

Now the majority of Montrealers are native French speakers as well as immigrants who identify as Neo-francophones, but around 35% of Montrealers are Anglophones as well as immigrants who identify as neo-Anglophones,

Article 1 of the City constitution smacks of hubris in declaring Montreal a 'French city,' akin to a medieval king declaring himself ruler of the universe

By the same objective standard perhaps the drafters could have added a second clause declaring Montreal a 'White' city and perhaps a third article declaring Montreal a 'Christian' city because the same threshold exists.

I wonder how language militants would react if the City of Westmount issued a declaration that it is an "English City' because Anglos are in the majority with francophones constituting only 22%  of its population

By this same rationale, the Towns of Montreal West, Cote Saint-Luc and another half-dozen towns on the island of Montreal could also declare themselves "English Cities"
By the same standard, the Town of Hampstead could even declare itself an 'English-Jewish Town.' 

 

Of course, such declarations would be seen by French language militants as a racist or colonial provocation because Quebec nationalists simply use an asymmetrical counting method to determine fairness.
To them having Montreal declare itself French is fair while considering it unfair for other towns to declare themselves English.
It is the same rationale whereby Quebec whines that it is an endangered minority while simultaneously declaring itself a proud and robust nation.
On and on it goes....

As for Montreal being historically a French city, I would remind nationalists that nothing could be farther from the truth.

Montreal was literally built by the English and Scots, with much of the heavy-lifting done by the Irish.

Look at the downtown names of streets bisecting the main drag of St. Catherine.
Simpson...Redpath.. Musée(Museum), Mountain, Drummond, Stanley, Peele, Metcalf, Mansfield, McGill College, Victoria, University, Union, and Aylmer.
Almost the entire skyline and historical infrastructure  of Montreal is an Anglo achievement.

The banks, universities, colleges, businesses, museums, libraries, waterworks, rail network were largely built by non-francophones.

Until the 1960's Montreal was an Anglo achievement, even nationalists know this.

"Before 1977, for historical reasons, Montreal was a predominantly English-speaking metropolis. French was practiced in a very minor mode." Josée Legault, Journal de Montreal 

But none of this really is important. 
Montreal's present situation is all that matters and it's strange that on the issue of Montreal's identity, language nationalists and anglo defenders agree on the most important aspect, that is that Montreal and the rest of Quebec are two different animals.

 "In the last thirty years Montreal has experienced a demographic revolution, with the massive arrival of immigrants far exceeding our capacity for integration. In the metropolis, the Quebec identity has become an identity among others, and certainly not the most powerful."   Mathieu Bock-Coté,

"French, as the official language in Montreal? No, that's over!" Richard Martineau,

In Montreal, English was the dominant language of work. Social mobility. Integration of immigrants. Commercial signage. Education for over 85% of newcomers. Etc. French was seen as the language of the "poor"  Josée Legault, Journal de Montreal .

Politically, culturally and linguistically, Montreal stands out more and more from the rest of Quebec. Joeseph Facal

Future laws that aim to protect French will not change demography. The "Revenge of the Cradles," which explains our long survival in North America, is well and truly over. Denise Bombardier,

"An anti-nationalist coalition in the making. There will certainly be no referendum on the bilingual status of the city of Montreal during the next term. The fruit is not yet ripe enough. But if there was one, what would be the result? A survey on this subject was conducted by Léger three years ago for the Association for Canadian Studies. The question was both simple and ambiguous.
In your opinion, is Montreal a bilingual city?
The sample....offered an impressive answer of clarity: a massive yes. By group: 86% among allos, 83% among Anglos, 80% among French people.
The referendum proposed by Mr. Holness would ask: Do you want the city of Montreal to have bilingual status?

The No camp would make a point of emphasizing the distinction between the real city, which has a majority of bilingual inhabitants, and its legal status, which must remain French-speaking. I would gladly participate in this effort. But I owe it to lucidity to say that the Yes would win.
Montreal would claim to be officially bilingual. Jean-François Lisée

 So it's clear from the above that French-language nationalists understand what Montreal is and though thoroughly freaked out by the reality, they clearly see the handwriting on the wall.

The language situation in Montreal is irrefutably moving towards bilingualism.

The immigration influx, characterized by language nationalists as the chief villain in the decline of French in Montreal shows no sign of abating.

The CAQ government is caught between a rock and a hard place, a labour market desperate for workers versus the inevitable demographic shift away from French on the island of Montreal with increased immigration.

During the election campaign Mr. Legault promised to reduce by 20% the 40,000 number annual immigrants welcomed to Quebec each year.
In fact, in 2022, the CAQ just announced rather quietly that Quebec will welcome 70,000 new immigrants in 2022. Link[fr}

As Mr. Lisée said in his piece, the time is not yet ripe for a head-on political fight for bilingual stats in Montreal, but it is coming.

Mr. Holness serves a usual purpose if he can play spoiler in the Montreal mayoral debate by siphoning votes away from Denis Coderre, returning Valerie Plante to the office of mayor and thus setting up the real battle for bilingualism for Montreal four years from now.
Madame Plante will be the perfect foil and easy to beat. 

With another 200,000 immigrants and an emboldened and maturing bilingualism movement in Montreal, four years hence we can expect a real mayoral race between two opposing views, that is a candidate proposing bilingual status versus a candidate who proposes the status quo.
Even language nationalists knows who will win.

As for the Quebec government who will threaten and bluster, in the end, political expediency will bring them to the table because the threat of bilingual status is a lot less frightening than a referendum on Montreal succession.

Alea iacta est