Montreal City Weblog

Kate 11:18 on 2020-08-26 Permalink Reply  

• EmilyG 11:37 on 2020-08-26 Permalink

  I’ve disliked that guy ever since he called people “autistic” as an insult.

• Jack 13:56 on 2020-08-26 Permalink

  Be ready for a punishing affirmation, not of the French language, but of the French ethnic majority’s supremacy. Simon Jolin-Barrette already has made it clear where this is going. “Comme beaucoup d’autres Québécoises et Québécois, je suis préoccupé par les données récentes sur la langue française. Au travail. Dans les choix que nous faisons pour nous instruire et pour nous divertir. Dans notre environnement visuel et sonore. Dans nos échanges publics.” It doesn’t take much to realize what and who will be targeted. Again this has nothing to do with the French language it has everything to do with ethnic politics.

• Kate 14:07 on 2020-08-26 Permalink

  Yes, Jack. I’m quite accustomed to having my language and culture viewed as a contaminant. It comes in waves.

  Update: Jack, did you already see this?

• thomas 14:59 on 2020-08-26 Permalink

  I am surprised, but perhaps shouldn’t be, by this statement “Le Service de police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ), qui ne compte aucun policier noir”

• Jack 15:43 on 2020-08-26 Permalink

  “Quebec was, is and should be Francophone,” said Jolin-Barrette. “This is a non-negotiable principle.”
  This conceit has no historic basis. Quebec was originally settled by members of the First Nations, who oddly didn’t speak french. Then it was colonized by France. Then came the British. By 1844 “According to the data available for Lower Canada as well as for the districts of Québec and Montréal (which include the cities and their surrounding areas), we can reasonably deduce that in 1844, francophones probably accounted for less than half the populations of the cities of Québec and Montréal.”. By Confederation Quebec was 75% French speaking and 25% English speaking.
  I would argue that this language debate has never really been about language, it is about supremacy (affirmation sounds nicer). The use of linguistic terms to identify ethnic cleavages is even more telling. Francophone, Anglophone, Allophone are used to cut us up ethnically by savvy politicians like Dr.Laurin and Labeaume.
  I am not looking forward to what Jolin-Barrette has coming because he more than anyone else knows the power of targeting minority’s in Quebec’s racial landscape. The CAQ will also use this as an opportunity to further other Anglade.
  Also let’s be honest at one point their will be a reckoning of how badly the Government of Quebec handled the Covid crisis. This issue will help them turn that page, especially if the right people are targeted.

• Ian 18:06 on 2020-08-26 Permalink

  Ratcheting up interethnic tension as a means of political misdirection is as old as the hills, and that nobody sees through it even after all these centuries is a bit saddening but not very surprising.

  Let’s be real here, the only reason the CAQ is playing this card is because they know it works – they are all about money and business, and couldn’t give a rat’s ass about people speaking English or wearing hijabs or whatever else except insofar as it keeps them in power.

  I think that Derfel is a Jewish name plays no small part in all of this. “The troublesome Jew is getting the Anglos all worked up” is Legault’s implicit message, and a lot of his constituents are hearing a name like Derfel and know exactly what Legault is getting at by singling him out.

• Kevin 20:54 on 2020-08-26 Permalink

  Absolutely nothing that any government can do will be effective.

  Francophones, like all other Canadians, don’t want to have children at a replacement level for society.

  Without that, there is no hope for Montreal bring a French city. The minister has said it himself that fewer than 50% of the inhabitants of the city are Francophones. That number will only continue to drop.

• Dhomas 23:15 on 2020-08-26 Permalink

  Let’s just see how the CAQ are hypocrites.

  Danielle McCann: Ministre de l’Enseignement supérieur. Educated at McGill University.
  Eric Girard: Ministre québécois des Finances. Educated at McGill University.
  Pierre Fitzgibbon: Ministre québécois de l’Économie et de l’Innovation. Educated at Harvard Business School.
  Mathieu Lacombe: Ministre québécois de la Famille. Educated at the University of Ottawa.
  André Lamontagne: Ministre québécois de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation. Educated at Mount Saint Vincent University.
  Lionel Carmant: Ministre délégué à la Santé et aux Services sociaux. Educated at McGill University.

  And this is just doing a 5 minute Wikipedia search. There are a number of ministers who list no alma matter.

• Uatu 10:20 on 2020-08-27 Permalink

  Typical of the double standard. These ministers are ok for English post secondary, but apparently everybody else is a weak minded fool susceptible to the Jedi mind tricks of Anglos

• DeWolf 11:12 on 2020-08-27 Permalink

  Kevin, that doesn’t make any sense. The last census showed that Montreal is 49% francophone, but 65% of the population describes French as their predominant language. Just 23% of the population use English as their main daily language. Allophones will soon represent a plurality in Montreal but most of them are de facto francophones.