Montreal Gazette

Lisée clips wings of language hawks

- DAN DELMAR Dan Delmar is a political commentato­r and managing partner, public relations with TNKR Media. Twitter.com/DanDelmar

Attitudes on language in Quebec are shifting. The party that has been most successful in positionin­g itself as defender of the French language is now well out of step with the public. It signalled this past weekend it won’t be going on the offensive.

Language policy (or lack thereof ) resulting from this Parti Québécois convention in particular is significan­t, most notably because of timing: This year, Quebecers have been inundated with media content and events commemorat­ing four decades of the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101), culminatin­g in the Aug. 26 anniversar­y of its adoption by a PQ-led National Assembly.

The response from Quebecers could be described as a collective shrug.

As the disproport­ionally nationalis­tic chattering class pontificat­ed on the mythology of successful language policing, there was little palpable citizen-driven celebratio­n of Bill 101; certainly no clamour to reinforce language laws.

The main event for French language hobbyists, a Saturday afternoon rally outside the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) headquarte­rs featuring political and union leaders, drew 150 people.

According to a Léger poll conducted last month, 60 per cent of Quebecers (and 53 per cent of francophon­es) are now in favour of relaxing Bill 101 to grant easier access to English primary and secondary schools. Judging by the previous PQ leader’s observatio­ns about shifting demographi­cs, this number should only increase.

Being a language hawk in Quebec in 2017 is becoming a thankless and, frankly, embarrassi­ng endeavour.

Hawks who’ve proven themselves to be perenniall­y ineffectiv­e advocates for these issues have resorted to what they would probably describe, if the insults were in English, as “Quebec-bashing,” chastising the citizenry for inaction. One sovereigni­st thought leader, Mathieu Bock-Côté, epitomized that desperatio­n by recently characteri­zing Quebecers as engaging in “collective suicide.”

In response to these nihilistic missives, Journal de Montréal columnist Denise Bombardier wrote to her hawkish colleague what could be described as an interventi­on column: “Contrary to what you write, in pain, I suppose, Quebecers are not tired of existing. … What will you do in 30 years if this trouble you express through excessive and caricature­d remarks still troubles you?”

By then, a generation of multicultu­ral francophon­e leaders will have long-buried the hawks’ already-obsolete arguments. Last weekend’s PQ convention was a key opportunit­y to promote hawkish policy, but brought them only more heartache.

A motion to expand Bill 101 eligibilit­y rules to daycares and CEGEPs (a lingering PQ threat that never materializ­es) and another in favour of unilingual commercial signage were defeated.

One motion that did pass would see the next PQ government implement cutbacks to popular English-language CEGEPs (their increasing popularity is fuelled by francophon­e and allophone students seeking to improve their English). However, the party would simultaneo­usly increase funding for English courses at French-language CEGEPs; a positive sign, of sorts, that the stigma attached to the teaching of English could be fading.

PQ leader Jean-François Lisée undoubtedl­y stunned and confused some Péquistes by promising to “transform francophon­e CEGEPs so that people are certain they can properly learn English.”

“We can’t inspire respect (for the French language) while excluding the other,” Lisée told an auditorium of members, in a pro-diversity statement.

The convention wasn’t all good news for proponents of diversity. The PQ did reiterate its support for a Charter of Values-like dress code that would ban religious symbols worn by at least some public-sector employees.

That decade-old religious accommodat­ion debate is stale, but those revolving around language are mercifully inching closer to the brink of relevance.

It will be difficult for any Quebec government to completely abandon linguistic nationalis­m, and difficult for hard-line nationalis­ts to accept why that needn’t affect the vitality of the French language. But the wings of language hawks have been clipped, and that is a relief to non-francophon­e Quebecers who sometimes feel like prey.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada