Quebec to say ‘bye’ to Montreal’s ‘hi’

It’s a risky business that outsiders engage in when they venture into the cultural affairs of others. Comments are almost certainly destined to be dismissed as uninformed and unwelcome. Still, it’s hard to resist the urge to weigh in on the Quebec National Assembly’s unanimous adoption this week of a motion encouraging Montreal businesses to greet customers with a simple French-only “bonjour” rather than the slang-hybrid “Bonjour/Hi” that is often heard in that city’s stores and restaurants.

The motion, which passed 111-0 in the assembly but is considered non-coercive, comes in response to recently released Statistics Canada figures that suggest the number of primarily francophone workplaces in Quebec is in decline and, as of 2016, has dropped below 80 per cent.

A related statistic, compiled by Quebec’s language watchdog in 2012, shows that the use of French-only greetings in Montreal businesses has also declined, to just 74 per cent in 2012 from 89 per cent in 2010. Bilingual greetings were employed 13 per cent of the time in 2012, compared with only one per cent in 2010.

These accumulated numbers were enough to prompt the separatist Parti Quebecois to introduce the motion, which is symbolic in nature and shows signs of being immediately ignored by many Montreal business owners. Sports memorabilia salesman Sam Mokhtar told The Canadian Press this week the oft-employed “Bonjour/Hi” greeting is something dwellers in Quebec’s biggest city should continue to embrace.

“It’s good for commerce, for the city, for Montreal’s reputation to be bilingual, to be welcoming to the world,” he explained.

Another shopkeeper, who operates a souvenir store, said she’ll try a few words of whatever language she can muster to make her customers feel welcome.

“I want to keep my customers happy and leave them with good memories of when they come to Canada,” said Mariya Sadat.

And therein lies the rub of Quebec politicians’ earnest but toothless gesture in the National Assembly. The Parti Quebecois, which introduced the motion, is clearly looking for an issue - any issue - to buoy its sinking popularity, and the non-enforceable “bye” to “hi” effort is a way to score populist points without pushing for legal prohibition. It’s the kind of grassroots initiative that every Quebec politician could - and did - get behind.

But Montreal is a cosmopolitan centre whose demographic mix has become extremely diverse and whose immense tourism industry depends on being seen as inclusive and welcoming to visitors from around the globe.

Emphasizing French first is a necessary part of the Quebec cultural experience, but seeking to limit the way visitors are greeted is an invitation to diminishing returns.

Resecting the “hi” from the “bonjour” will accomplish nothing in the complex and necessary struggle to protect French language and culture in Quebec. And the introduction and debate of a motion seeking to encourage - but not demand - its removal from common parlance is an exercise in political theatre so trifling that even Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard called the exercise ridiculous.

Couillard declared a preference for French-only greetings and, obviously, voted in favour of the motion, but his acknowledgement of its pointlessness is noteworthy. Pushing big-city retailers to change the way they greet customers might, in some cases, mean the difference between “buy” and “bye.”