Immigrants plead with politicians to calm heated rhetoric over language
Along Montreal’s Saint-Laurent Boulevard are rows of greystone and red-bricked buildings dating from the early 20th century, many of which used to house businesses owned by first-generation Jewish immigrants who didn’t speak French very well. Steve Schreter’s clothing store – opened by a relative in 1928 – is one of the few from that time period remaining on the city’s famous strip. Schreter and his family, particularly the youngest among them, can all speak French, Quebec’s only official language. “People’s education was disrupted by WW2,” said Schreter, whose father, a Jew from Romania, moved to Montreal in 1948 and eventually bought the store 10 years later from his first cousin, Joseph. “They weren’t educated – in that sense. They had street smarts, they had entrepreneurial skills. They managed to learn French well enough to do their business. “But, they probably could never have passed a (French) test.” A French-language test, however, is what newcomers to the province will have to pass if they want to remain in Quebec, according to a controversial election promise by the party leading opinion polls. Francois Legault says his Coalition Avenir Quebec, if elected Oct. 1, will reduce annual immigration by 20 per cent and expel newcomers who fail a Frenchlanguage exam after three years in the province. Legault is armed with a series of statistics he says reveal how the “integration” of immigrants in Quebec has been a “failure” under the Liberals. If Quebec’s official language isn’t protected from the threat of non-francophone immigration, Legault says he worries “our grandchildren won’t speak French.” But the Schreter family, along with leaders of many of Quebec’s prominent immigrant communities, are urging Legault to be patient. First-generation immigrants might not speak French well, but their children will, they say – because their experience proves it. Moreover, these communities are asking how many of their members would be around today if their grandparents had to pass a French exam when they arrived following the Second World War. “I would not be here,” said Antonio Sciascia, 71, if his parents – who came to Canada from Italy with him in 1958 – had to pass a French test to stay in the country.