French, always a good hook for a story
The Journal spoke to an arrival from France who’s appalled that he can’t work only in French here. He was a policeman in France, but it’s a brief piece and doesn’t say why he left or why he thought he could pick up the same work here, where the laws, the culture and the languages used are bound to be different.
La Presse finds out that French-speaking people coming via Roxham Road are being funnelled to Ontario now, like everyone else. That’s what Quebec wanted, isn’t it? No? Maybe give a French test at the border to separate the sheep from the goats?
steph 12:59 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
SQ has no control to stop people from entering at Roxam-Road?
DeWolf 13:43 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
The Journal story fits so perfectly within a specific political narrative it makes me suspicious. This anonymous French immigrant was fired from a bank because he isn’t “perfectly bilingual”? Isn’t that illegal? Even before Bill 96 you couldn’t force workers to speak in a language other than French. The fact that he would be fired for this after have been in his post for years beggars belief. And there’s no mention of him taking any recourse against his employer?
Remember in 2017 when TVA fabricated a story about women being banned from the construction site of a mosque? I really won’t want to disparage a journalist’s work, but the dodginess of this story combined the notoriously unethical publication it’s in raises red flags for me.
DeWolf 13:46 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
@steph, the border is patrolled by the RCMP. The SQ has no jurisdiction there.
When people cross at Roxham Road, they’re arrested for crossing the border illegally, after which they make their asylum claims and are processed as asylum claimants, which is why the federal government takes charge and sends them to a hotel.
For practical reasons I don’t think anyone is actually charged and prosecuted for the illegal crossing, but I could be wrong. In any case, the police can’t physically stop anyone from crossing, they can only arrest them when they’ve arrived.
DeWolf 13:51 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
In the case of Roxham Road, there are clearly people upset that francophone migrants are being sent to Ontario when they’ve often made a deliberate choice to come to Montreal. Despite all the news about wanting more francophone immigrants, the CAQ made a gamble that closing the door to all migrants would satisfy xenophobic public opinion. But it may not pay off politically, because it turns out there are a lot of people who are only partially xenophobic – they’re okay with foreigners if they speak French!
steph 14:13 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
I wasn’t aware their was an arrest process already in place. thanks.
Blork 18:00 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
I agree with DeWolf that it beggars belief that this guy was fired from his bank job because he wasn’t perfectly bilingual. But I’m not sure the journalist is entirely to blame. It’s a common occurrence that people who cannot find fault in themselves will find a way to focus on something external that they can blame for their lack of success. I’m thinking he might have been fired for a number of reasons, and somewhere along the line someone mentioned he should try to learn some English and boom, that’s the one thing he focuses on with his complaint. That kind of behaviour is as common as dirt.
And BTW if he wants to work as a unilingual francophone but not leave the greater Montreal area, all he needs to do is cross the bridge to Longueuil. I guarantee you no one here has any expectation that anyone speaks English. I’m not saying that as a gripe, just a fact. (While many people do speak English the point is that no one is EXPECTED to, and many don’t. From grocery store cashiers up to bank tellers and virtually 99% of anyone who comes to your door, you should not expect to communicate with them in English.)
H John 18:55 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
I’m not often a fan of Andrew Coyne, but he did a good job of explaining some of the issues of the Roxham Road crossing:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-close-the-roxham-road-loophole-in-the-safe-third-country-agreement-the/
Kate 21:14 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
That’s a level-headed analysis, H. John, I agree.
But there’s another reason Roxham Road is so popular. It’s physically passable and links two areas which are built up (although even there, if you wander off into the forest in wintertime, it can be fatal, as we saw last month).
Coyne says people could cross anywhere along the border, but given its length, there are surprisingly few viable spots. New Brunswick and eastern Quebec are mostly forest, most of Ontario is blocked by the vast moat of the Great Lakes, the Prairies are sparse and the Rockies are hostile, and then you’re in B.C. and back to forest. But there’s Roxham Road, a few kilometers from official border crossings, but you can get to the U.S. side by taxi then the Canadians scoop you up.
Nicholas 21:58 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
Banking is a federally-regulated industry, so provincial language laws don’t apply. There keep being federal bills that would apply provincial laws to federally-regulated businesses in Quebec, but iirc that hasn’t passed yet. Either way, all businesses are allowed to require other languages if it’s necessary for the business, such as dealing with clients in other provinces or countries.
JaneyB 11:12 on 2023-02-19 Permalink
The guy can work anywhere in the regions. They need immigrants badly. I see no problem.
mare 14:06 on 2023-02-19 Permalink
There are other places (not official border crossings) where the US Canadian border is easy to cross, but they’re in/near remote villages and not just a short taxi ride away from a major highway and a Greyhound bus stop (in Plattsburgh).
H John 18:21 on 2023-02-20 Permalink
La Presse had a very good piece on Roxham Road:
L’Entente sur les tiers pays sûrs en 10 questions
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/national/2023-02-20/l-entente-sur-les-tiers-pays-surs-en-10-questions.php
From the article, McGill’s Prof. Crepeau on closing Roxham ” « La solution de fermer le chemin Roxham ou d’élargir l’Entente sur les tiers pays sûrs n’a aucun sens. Ça ne résoudra rien du tout. Les migrants vont passer ailleurs. Tout ce que ça fait, c’est que ça renvoie dans la clandestinité plus profonde ces gens-là. Ça renforce les réseaux criminels qui les exploitent et ça permet à des gens qui leur promettent de leur faire passer la frontière de transformer ça en système de traite des êtres humains. »