The underlining message, that French had crossed a tipping point and was no longer relevant in the NHL and more to the point, in Quebec, was a frightening development for those who can't speak English who had been promised by their leadership that they need not make the effort.
The issue of French and the Montreal Canadiens is particularly sensitive to French language militants because it strikes at the heart of their argument that learning English is not a necessity for the majority of Quebecers who work and live their lives exclusively in French.
But if hockey fans, of which there are a considerable amount among Quebecers, cannot directly understand what an English coach or player is saying, it becomes a powerful argument for learning English, an anathema to French language militants, and so the exaggerated reaction.
So panicked are these defenders of the French-only principle, that even if the Montreal Canadiens were forced to field an inferior team to satisfy the desire for players and coaches who speak French, it's a tradeoff that they are willing to make.
One can only shudder if this rule is transmitted to general society, which unfortunately, methinks it is.
Just today, I read another tedious article, complaining that the wildly successful, Quebec Summer Festival is showcasing too many English artists. It's a rehash of the same old, same old, so I won't even offer a link.
Limiting the choice of a coach to those who speak French, eliminates 80-90% of candidates available and in the end quality must suffer.
That's how the Habs ended up with the universally panned and mediocre Michel Therrien as coach, culled from decidedly slim pickings.
But militants don't see it that way and continue to whine that players aren't making an effort to learn French once they alight in Montreal, just another reason for free-agents to strike Montreal from the list of possibilities.
As it is, Montreal is the city where the highest taxes are taken out of a player's paycheck. In fact, a player making $2 million gets the privilege of paying $200,000 more in taxes than that of a player toiling in sunny Florida! Salary Table
For French language militants, it's really just a case of wishful thinking, the idea that hockey players making millions of dollars will learn a foreign language in order to give a few interviews, for the few years they play hockey in Montreal.
For blowhard sports commentators like Rejean Tremblay, the old chestnut of 'Respect' is trotted out every time he demands that players on the Canadiens learn French, reminding his readers that it is the public that pays the players salaries.
Tremblay was particularly critical and scornful of Saku Koivu for playing twelve years in Montreal and never learning French, as if learning French was part of the job description.
He and other French language militants, remind we Anglophones, on a daily basis, that we owe the Francophone majority 'respect' purely based on our minority status.
What utter balderdash.
First things first, 'respect' is never owed, it is earned.
When a father whips out his belt and decides to teach his son some 'respect' with a few disciplinary whacks, one can hardly call what the child is learning 'respect'. Some might call it 'obedience,' some might call it 'fear,' but nobody should ever confuse it with 'respect.'
Pardon me if I don't believe that we Quebec Anglophones owe the Quebec Francophone majority any more respect than the Canadian Francophone minority owes to the Canadian Anglophone majority. (That was a mouthful!)
As for the idea that hockey players owe respect to their fans, because it is they who ultimately pay their salary, it's just another convoluted argument made to justify the demand that they learn French.
Try reminding the cop who pulls you over for speeding, that you pay his salary.
Hockey is a business, nothing else. The players are employees, nothing more.
They are paid to play hockey for a team and a league that operates in English alone.
Players come to Montreal, but few if any make it a home. Like contract oil workers sent to the middle east, most live in an English ghetto where nary a word of French is ever heard. Almost all go home when they're done with hockey.
When players do make Montreal their home, people like Hal Gill, who moved his American family here, embraced the city, his children learning French in school and his wife involved in charity work, they aren't given bonus points or preferential treatment by the fans or the Canadiens organization itself.
Gill was dumped rather unceremoniously for almost nothing in return and without any consideration for him or his family and his effort to integrate.
Hockey is cruel.
Players are expendable and exchangeable, to be bartered, traded and used up for what they are worth during their short career.
I'm no expert, but what is the average career of a player donning a Montreal Canadiens uniform? Two, three years?
As for players on the Canadiens learning to speak French, I'm afraid it's a fantasy driven by an unreasonable dream of what hockey is and what hockey players are. Link{Fr}
Today, players make too much money to be bothered shilling for car dealerships on the weekend and so learning French, a difficult process that takes years to achieve, solely for the purpose of giving out a few interviews seems hardly worth the bother
When Carey Price is done with Montreal, he'll go back home to BC.
While he is here, he'll live and work in English and remain part of the Anglo community in Montreal.
It is this fact that so peeves the likes of Mr. Tremblay and his ilk, that hockey players embrace the anglophone community, instead of the francophone majority.
But really, what would you expect?
Carey Price isn't going to learn French, just as those fans in the boonies aren't going to learn English
Such is reality.
As for Saku Koivu being a bad citizen for not learning French, I beg to differ.
He was a marvelous member of the Anglo community and helped raise money for a diagnostic unit in the Montreal General Hospital.
As for 'respect,' he too was dumped rather cruely and shipped off to Anaheim for a pittance, with zero consideration for anything else but business.
That's hockey,
As for Mr. Tremblay, who makes a living covering sports, doing so means speaking English, which he does rather well.
Telling fans that players are showing bad faith by not learning French does a disservice to everyone, fans, players and the team.
Telling Carey Price to learn a third language, and newly drafted Alex Galchenyuk to learn a fourth, because fans cannot be bothered to learn a second, seems a bit cheeky.
It isn't going to happen just because people want it to happen. That is life.
There is a price (pardon the pun) to be paid for remaining unilingually French, despite what French language militants tell Quebecers, even for those who don't venture outside the friendly environs of Quebec.
Pretending that Quebec can be kept English-free is a pipe dream that can only be realized in a country like North Korea, but truth be told, it's something that the bilingual Mr.Tremblay already understands.
