If I may be so bold...I'm curious as to what TBBS' Canadian members think of the extremely draconian laws instituted by the province of Quebec in order to - so they claim - protect the French language. Do you think such laws are justified?
Ohboy. You're asking an Albertan, and that's like asking oil and water how they feel about each other.
No, I don't think the laws are justified.
I mean, I fully realize that Quebec is a French-speaking province and that (as a visitor) it's my responsibility to adapt to IT, rather than the reverse, but I honestly wasn't aware that the French language
needed protecting to such a degree. Is it seriously under threat, as Quebec politicians like to claim? It just seems so...absurd, the way that businesses there are penalized for
having too much English on their signs and storefronts. Can't they just have both?
This is something that really got pushed after the first provincial separatist party (the Parti Quebecois) took power in 1976. I remember that well; I was in junior high at the time and it's one of the current events situations we followed in my social studies class that year.
Back then a lot of people in the rest of Canada were appalled at the idea of one province separating (not to mention cutting the Atlantic/Maritime provinces off from the other provinces and territories). There was a "My Canada Includes Quebec" movement, to convince the PQ and other separatists that they should set aside their desire to separate.
Fast-forward a couple of decades... by the time the '90s came along, with the Meech Lake Accord, then the Charlottetown Accord (both intended as attempts at constitutional change; both failed), and the Quebec referendum on separation after that... suffice to say that the mood had changed.
Quebec had a chance to sign on to the Constitution in the '80s, and passed. They really, really, REALLY want "distinct society" status, which is something that doesn't tend to sit well outside of Quebec, since the idea of Confederation is that everybody's equal.
My own views have done a 180-degree turnaround since 1976. When somebody wrote a letter to the editor in the '90s and asked, "Why can't we have a referendum on whether or not we'll
let them stay?" I found myself not entirely disagreeing. It's been like a situation with a child who keeps threatening to run away from home unless the parents give it more and more privileges... "I hate you, you never do anything for me, I'm leaving, but I still expect you to provide me with food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, toys, and money."
Short version: The separatists want to have their cake and eat it, too.
I lost patience with that over 25 years ago. There's someone on another forum who keeps bringing up the Battle on the Plains of Abraham and complaining that the Quebecois were hard done by afterward, as the English won. My response: It happened over 250 years ago. Get over it, already.
The French language is not in any danger whatsoever of disappearing in Canada. It's one of the official languages, which means regions outside of Quebec that have enough francophones living there are automatically entitled to government services in French if they request it. The income tax forms I was sent recently give me the option of requesting that CRA correspond with me in French. My T-slips are in both languages. Everything I buy in grocery stores and most of the things I buy in department stores has French labels/instructions along with English.
Most Canadian kids take at least a few years of French in school - in the elementary grades, and it's offered as an option in junior high and high school. With the exception of my grade 7 year, I took French from Grade 5 through university. There are French immersion schools here, and French communities in my province.
Granted, I haven't used my French much in the last couple of decades, but I can still understand it if people don't speak too fast. It does come in handy in the stores if the French side is turned toward the aisle. I'll never forget the time when my dad and I went grocery shopping and he told he he had a can of bananas in his cart (we each took a cart, started at opposite ends, met in the middle, and sorted out duplications and omissions). That sounded odd, so I had a look... and it turned out to be a can of pineapple slices (if you take a really fast glance, the French word for pineapple does look a bit like "banana" - without the "b").
If you ask someone from Ontario or Quebec or the Atlantic/Maritime provinces, you'd get different perspectives. My view at this point is that Quebec has been acting like a spoiled brat who gets concessions given to him every time he stamps his feet and threatens to run away from home if he doesn't get his way.
(I know one thing's for sure...if the US tried anything like this down here with the
English language, that would get shot down in a cold minute.
)
Oh well. It's not that serious*, really...I know a
few words in French, and even though there's no way in hell I could ever actually carry on a conversation in it (my command of the French language can be summed up in one word: MERDE), everybody I have ever spoken to in Montréal - a city which I happen to love, and enjoy visiting -
speaks English just fine. I'm just curious as to what actual Canadians think about all this, that's all.
As mentioned, mixed feelings. Not that I travel much anymore, but if I did, Quebec would not be one of the places I would ever set foot. Yes, there are some beautiful places there. But I will not spend my money in a province that has made one of the country's official languages illegal, no matter what the circumstances are.
Funny thing, though, I don't actually use maple syrup when I have pancakes, since I have a low tolerance for sugar first thing in the morning.
*takes half a dozen honey-glazed Timbits and gobbles them down*
