Concordia may have to lay off workers
Concordia University is facing a possible layoff of workers as it tightens its belt under current conditions. Fewer people will be able to get a university education in English, though, and that’s a big boost for Quebec.
Quebec has also just passed a bill requiring newcomers to immediately adopt and share Quebec culture and values.
dwgs 12:03 on 2025-05-29 Permalink
You will be assimilated, resistance is futile.
Kate 12:06 on 2025-05-29 Permalink
I was thinking about that. My maternal ancestors came here in the 1840s. I’m still here and still, primarily, speaking English and consuming media in English (except for the blog, where I read everything in French as well). People do not surrender their own culture so readily.
GC 12:11 on 2025-05-29 Permalink
At what point do they have to agree to it? To get any sort of visa? To become a permanent resident? To get citizenship? All of the above?
Kate 12:31 on 2025-05-29 Permalink
The article says “Quebec can use the new law to withhold funding for groups and events that don’t promote Quebec’s common culture.” But I wonder whether that means things like festivals (which would be bad enough) or whether it would encompass grassroots cultural groups, including those that help newcomers to find their feet here.
Ian 16:24 on 2025-05-29 Permalink
You can assimilate to the dominant culture all you want but you’ll never be a white French-speaking francophone with ancestors from mainland France. There are some hoops that are impossible to jump through and all the rest is smokescreens, shibboleths, and dogwhistles.
It’s ethnonationalism, pointe final.
Kate 16:45 on 2025-05-29 Permalink
In my case, I am simply not French. My ancestors come from the British isles, mostly Ireland. I don’t speak my ancestral language – I believe the last person in my bloodline who did was my g-g-grandfather, who died in Galway in 1912. He was illiterate but spoke both Irish and English.
Have I lost something by not knowing Irish? In some sense, but not knowing it hasn’t blighted my life in any way.
Uatu 17:16 on 2025-05-29 Permalink
Better crack down on the francophone guys I know who dated and later married Asian women because according to them they were classier than Quebecois girls lol
Ian 17:39 on 2025-05-29 Permalink
My family got chased out of Europe for being the wrong kind of Protestants in the early 1700s but stopped speaking German altogether in the 1900s. Maybe MBC and I are related haha
MarcG 07:23 on 2025-05-30 Permalink
I wonder if they considered killing the parents and baptizing the children (in poutine sauce of course, now that we’re a secular society) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/84254078/mercy-brisebois?