Overcoming phobia – of any kind
WE CANNOT DISMISS the Uni(e)s contre la francophobie campaign out of hand, nor should we ignore its timing
In Montreal on Thursday, a campaign was launched titled Uni(e)s contre la francophobie. It was accompanied by the release of a document written by Mario Beaulieu, a well-known language activist, president of the Société St-Jean-Baptiste and Mouvement Québec français, and signed by 101 public personalities.
Signatories include former Quebec premier Bernard Landry, TV personality Julie Snyder, former student leader Martine Desjardins, and former PQ candidate and author Djemila Benhabib. It also includes a small handful of signatories from France, Switzerland, other parts of Canada and the U.S.
The declaration, accompanied by a lengthy report featuring examples drawn from Facebook, public spaces and media outlets (among others), alleges that francophobia — a fear of the French language and francophones — is on the rise. Anglophones, the English-language media and some members of the French-language media are fingered as being largely responsible for this trend.
Now, much of what this document sees as francophobia I would actually call legitimate criticism (for example, commentary in the National Post, The Globe and Mail and The Gazette). I also think some of the campaign’s supporting illustrations — bathroom graffiti, for instance — are a bit dubious. I do agree with the authors, however, that there has been an overall degeneration of political discourse on the Internet. Social media do facilitate a forum for incoherent and hateful commentary. Read the comments below many newspaper articles online (mine included) and you’ll see what I mean.
What I find puzzling is that the document offers no background or analysis to support its claim.
We need to ask a few questions here.
First, why a campaign against francophobia and why now?
Second, if discrimination against francophones is indeed on the rise — and I’m not saying whether or not it is — then what kind of conditions might have contributed to this trend?
To answer these questions, we need to zoom out in terms of focus and look at the broader context.
This campaign did not originate in Ontario or New Brunswick, where francophones are in the minority. It began in Quebec, where francophones are a powerful majority population.
It is also interesting that a Quebec-based campaign against francophobia, organized in co-operation with hardline language groups Société St-Jean-Baptiste, Impératif français and Mouvement Québec français, would surface in the context of the proposed secularism charter (or Charter of Quebec Values, as it was briefly titled).
Since the charter was intro- duced back in September, Quebec’s linguistic, racial, religious and ethnic minorities — the bulk of whom are concentrated in and around Montreal — have been increasingly vocal about the demonstrable rise in intolerance and hostility they have been experiencing, particu- larly Muslim women who wear the veil.
My concern is that the emergence of this campaign during the charter discussion becomes a way of deflecting or minimizing the other kinds of hate and discrimination that are being faced by minority groups at this point in time.
If members of Uni(e)s contre la francophobie are legitimately seeing an increase in hate against or fear of francophones, then we must work together to open up space in the public debate to have that conversation. But to make that happen, in our diverse society, we also need to be able to talk about where this francophobia may or may not be coming from. We need a shared language — and by “language” here, I don’t mean French or English. I mean a common vocabulary, and a mutual respect for each other’s day-today experiences and social realities.
Mario Beaulieu invites anglophones and, in particular, English-language media to examine their “conscience.” Here is what mine tells me: You cannot denounce one form of hatred or phobia with respect to one population group without understanding how and why it operates in tandem with hatred or phobia with respect to other groups.
I will commit to standing shoulder to shoulder beside those who are denouncing francophobia. But here is my caveat: I refuse to do this at the expense of minority groups who are today — in the context of the PQ’s proposed charter of secularism — experiencing violence, racism and intolerance.
We need to agree that criticizing the political tactics and proposed measures of the minority PQ government is not Quebec-bashing and it is not francophobic. This is called holding your government to account in its responsibility to represent all Quebecers. This is what the media and the public are supposed to do in an engaged, democratic society. celine_cooper@yahoo.com
Twitter: CooperCeline