Two columns on Bill 96
There’s a thoughtful column in the Globe & Mail Friday from a local CEGEP teacher on the implications of Bill 96: she sees, as I often do, echoes of Quebec’s fervent religious past in its willingness to welcome so intrusive a law. (I’m citing an archive version, not the paywall link.)
In the Gazette, Allison Hanes also writes a last gasp about the bill and about a protest planned for Saturday.
As an anglo it’s difficult to write about Bill 96 without automatically tarring oneself a bitter angryphone, so I’ll leave it there.
Update: Neither François Legault nor the PQ’s Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon – a graduate of McGill and Oxford – will deign to participate in any English‑language debate before the election.
Further update: There will be no English‑language debate.
Tim S. 10:27 on 2022-05-13 Permalink
“As an anglo it’s difficult to write about Bill 96 without automatically tarring oneself a bitter angryphone, so I’ll leave it there.”
Exactly. I’m a little disappointed that there hasn’t been more been more opposition from those francophones who have benefited from anglo CEGEPs and Universities, and from aspirational parents who hope to send their children. These are the groups losing out, more than anglophones (leaving aside the constant ‘othering’). But as a friend pointed out, probably they’re all convinced their children will make it into the tiny quota of elite francophone students who will continue to get in. Clever move, leaving that faint-hope provision.
Curious to see if tomorrow’s march gets any coverage in non-English media.
Steve 18:41 on 2022-05-13 Permalink
Despite the hand wringing over bill 96 (I do not see a need to capitalize it) things will be fine here. My window looks over an elementary school yard. 80%+ of the children screaming and running around are not white.
They are the future of Quebec.
We are living in the Decline & Fall of the Quebecois de Souche Nation. An enjoyable incongruity in the movement towards global normalization.
Kate 21:06 on 2022-05-13 Permalink
This afternoon I was all caught up on work, so I went to Jean‑Talon Market to buy a few plants to pop into the ground around my place. And all over the market, people were speaking a mixture of English and French, sometimes switching mid‑sentence – something I’m sure we’ve all done, a style of communication heard all over town. I even got to try out a bit of Spanish on a guy working for one of the stalls. (“¡Un poco, señor!”) And nobody got pissed off or felt hard done by.
Earlier this week I met with my new nurse practitioner, and she and I also communicated in a mixture of English and French. It was a good encounter and, once again, nobody got pissed off or felt hard done by.
That’s the reality here. I need to hang onto that knowledge.