Legault to Trudeau on French
François Legault has written an official letter to Justin Trudeau about the decline of French in Quebec and claiming that Quebec has the power to unilaterally change the Canadian constitution.
I heard Christopher Skeete talking on CBC radio on Friday. His cite for the decline of French in Quebec was from the OQLF, which I suppose will soon be elevated from a mere Office to a Ministry. Forgive me if I tend to feel that OQLF workers have a vested interest in stoking the belief that French is under constant attack in Quebec: I’d like to see some more objective studies. Of course politicians have to take it as a matter of faith, strategically, but I’m not sure we all do.
Arguably, Bill 101 worked. More immigrants learn French, more children are educated in French, almost all signs have been in French since the bill, and so on. Look at photos of Montreal streetscapes before that time. There are French signs but there are also a lot of signs in English, which we don’t see any more. There are not many left to be rooted out.
On the other hand, some experts think Quebec is under-counting English speakers because the official numbers are based on mother tongue, the initial language spoken at home.
I went to buy a few plants on Friday at the market. I always speak French to people there. Sometimes they catch my accent and reply in English. I don’t need them to, but it’s a simple fact of sales life: if you talk to the customer in their language, you will sell more stuff. Can you change this global rule by fiat?
As an example of what the OQLF gets up to, it recently investigated a complaint that two hospital workers spoke to each other in Creole. I think we’ve seen stories like this before but can’t find them.
dhomas 17:11 on 2021-05-15 Permalink
I think you mean “Stone Cold Chris Skeete”. 😛
Thomas 17:20 on 2021-05-15 Permalink
The sad fact of the matter is that the main obstacle to the continued thriving of the French language in Quebec is education among francophone Quebecers. I was shocked to discover upon arriving here that my Manitoba French Immersion education has me writing and speaking better French (spelling, grammar, vocabulary) than the majority of francophone Quebecers that I come across in life, be it socially, professionally or online. This has nothing to do with accent and slang (which I love), just simple mastery of the basic building blocks of the French language.
Anglos and immigrants have never spoken more French than they do today, so although it makes nationalists feel better to point at them as the problem, it’s not actually going to solve anything. In the press conference announcing these measures, one journalist tried to ask Jolin-Barrette about the quality of French among francophone Quebecers, the minister paid brief lip service to the idea that people need to be proud of their language and have a better mastery of it, but then quickly pivoted back (in the same sentence) to the idea that immigrants need to speak even more French than they already do.
Personally, I would love for there to be an Épreuve uniforme de français for every adult living in Quebec, not just francophone CEGEP students. I would be amazed if the majority of francophones could pass it, I really would. Such an exercice would put a lot of this stuff into perspective.
As an aside, this year is my 15th anniversary of living in Montreal, and earlier today I saw my first ever English-language sign (Shaun’s Auto Service), I almost walked into a post I was so shocked
Uatu 21:44 on 2021-05-15 Permalink
I wonder if oqlf staff get their friends and family to make complaints to keep them gainfully employed…. 😛
GC 07:34 on 2021-05-16 Permalink
I do wonder, Uatu, how many complaints come from unique sources. I suspect it’s a very small segment of the population that submits most of them.
Kevin 08:46 on 2021-05-16 Permalink
It’s all about mother tongue.
Last 4 paragraphs of this article
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/2021-05-13/protection-du-francais/le-plan-promis-par-quebec-suscite-de-grandes-attentes.php
Uatu 09:00 on 2021-05-16 Permalink
The quote about the dix30 ignores the fact that a lot of the clientele is cross border shoppers from the States. I know people that work there who say Americans love to spend a Saturday eating in restaurants and buy buy Buy because of the USD. I also know that the uniligual clerk is also a myth at least among the people I know that work there
Jack 11:12 on 2021-05-16 Permalink
I am more and more convinced that this has nothing to do with language. It has everything to do with ethnicity. The french-origin majority controls every lever of power in Quebec yet because of nationalist narratives that are cemented into the culture, there is an omnipresent sense of defeat, victimization and powerlessness. When in ten years the population of mother tongue franco’s goes from 79% to 78% we are in crisis mode. The political class from all parties exploits this fear and we get the politics we have. Those politics include a real emphasis on collective rights continuously trumping individual rights.
mare 19:12 on 2021-05-16 Permalink
« a […] diminué entre 2011 (80 %) et 2016 (79 %) », tout comme le « poids des personnes déclarant avoir le français comme seule langue maternelle », de 78 % en 2011 à 77 % en 2016. »
The statistical margin of error of a poll is 2% (with a large sample size) or more. On top of that, the number of people answering the expected, “correct” answer is probably also high on such a hot topic, which probably has some leading questions beforehand.
david449 21:59 on 2021-05-16 Permalink
Stone Cold Chris (SCC) is a fair dealer in this – he’s the government’s point man for Montreal/anglophones, but he’s also not dumb. I imagine that without him at the table, this legislation is dumber and worse.