Montreal City Weblog

Kate 18:52 on 2020-08-11 Permalink Reply  

• Ian 19:09 on 2020-08-11 Permalink

  Well here’s the CAQ’s dilemma… are they pro business? Or nationalist? Countdown to this minister being forced to change direction in 10…9….

  Last I saw on glassdoor Air Transat still requires fluent bilingualism for almost every position posted …

• Dhomas 19:11 on 2020-08-11 Permalink

  Ridiculous! This is precisely one of Montreal’s competitive advantages. My first “real” job was with a French company that specifically chose Montreal as it bridged the gap between France and Anglophone North America. So long as they require English _as well as_ French, we should welcome this.

• Ian 19:20 on 2020-08-11 Permalink

  There used to be graffiti in my neighbourhood that said, and I paraphrase from French, “Bilingualism only benefits the colonizers”.

  This is a very widely held belief amongst Québecois intelligentsia – they also consider multiculturalism a plot to weaken Quebec’s (ethno)National Identity.

• Roman 19:43 on 2020-08-11 Permalink

  Well, if they want all of the tech companies to leave, then sure, go ahead and crackdown. We’ve seen how this played out last time. But history tends to repeat itself ‍♂️

• Danny 20:52 on 2020-08-11 Permalink

  Agreed. Just today I had a tech support call with a Microsoft Level 2 agent who had arranged the call with me by email. When he called he introduced himself to me and gave his name (Martin) using the French pronunciation and asked if it was OK to record the call. I picked up on his pronunciation and answered in French that it would be fine and I appreciated his help. We did the 60 minute call in English, but he shared with me that he was based in QC and handled Intune support across North America (I live in the US now). These are the kinds of high-paying jobs that will vanish if English is not taught at the level of functional bilingualism.

• Kevin 22:21 on 2020-08-11 Permalink

  Legault mentioned this today and said something non committal.

  Having just finished Empty Planet and taken a peek at census trends, I don’t think there is anything that any government in Quebec can ever do to change this, because the only ideas that would work are cultural, not legislative.

• Kevin 22:26 on 2020-08-11 Permalink

  On second read, the fact that every single person quoted in La Presse’s article is male is a chef’s kiss level of perfection in being unable to identify the root cause of the issue.

• Jack 10:44 on 2020-08-12 Permalink

  This story is part of a perpetual campaign to make sure French origin Quebecers see themselves as embattled or under constant threat. Fear of English, both language and body, as an electoral strategy has only recently been surpassed by veils and Muslims.
  Legault knows this is politically productive. Graham Fraser former reporter and Biographer of Rene Levesque reported that in Legault’s first campaign he “told his riding association members that he had been raised in Montreal’s West Island among the English, ‘and I hate them as much as you do.’”
  I know he doesn’t but its sweet music to those who fear others and that fear is almost always constructed by “leaders”who recognize its power in social control and cohesion.
  This report follows the same tropes and fear mongering.

• jeather 11:36 on 2020-08-12 Permalink

  French speakers are the colonizers too.

• Ian 11:44 on 2020-08-12 Permalink

  Well yes of course, and that’s the delicious irony in their attempts to position themselves as the victims of colonialism. I guess they never thought very hard about the “Nouvelle” in “Nouvelle France”.

• jeather 11:51 on 2020-08-12 Permalink

  I guess it’s not untrue that French/English bilingualism benefits the colonizers instead of everyone here speaking Kanien’keha but surely they are not planning that change.

• Kevin 13:51 on 2020-08-12 Permalink

  MBC is rage tweeting about how Quebec and the French language are on the verge of annihilation and it’s all the fault of people not voting for independence.
  As the kids say, he’s incapable of dealing with his childhood trauma.

  Change la cassette!

• Jack 14:03 on 2020-08-12 Permalink

  Todays MBC screed was truly impressive, he took on the New York Times.
  https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/08/12/le-sermon-anti-quebecois-du-new-york-times
  “Les Québécois ne devraient pas se soumettre à cette campagne d’intimidation idéologique, même si elle prend la forme d’un sermon de la version américaine de la Pravda.”
  I often wondered how someone who could compare the New York Times to Pravda got a Phd? Then I found out when he defended his thesis at UQAM… PKP was in the front row.

• Uatu 10:31 on 2020-08-13 Permalink

  The only people who are riled up are the ones who make a living off it- MBC, the government, Geoffrey chambers of the qcgn. No one else really cares and as someone who is 50+ I’ve been hearing Chicken Little so many times that I’ve become numb to it. These guys can go fight in a corner somewhere while the rest of us can get on with trying to live and eke out happiness during a pandemic…