National Post (National Edition)
Bilingualism for me, but not for thee
`Father' Legault's message to Quebec students
Quebec Premier François Legault played the calming father figure throughout the pandemic. He hosted daily news conferences. He explained the necessity of lockdowns that kept us safe in our homes under curfew for months. He permitted police officers to pull over drivers returning from night shifts to check for curfew permission slips and, on occasion, to peruse their lunch bags. Quebec's measures were the first to be implemented in Canada, the most extreme, and the longest lasting, but at least Père Legault kept us safe from our own choices.
Legault has a calm assuredness about him, too, his greatest political gift. It is also his greatest weapon. It has helped him mask a series of extreme CAQ initiatives that in any other province would seem radical and indefensible.
Legault has explained his reasoning, calmly, reassuringly: “I understand that some francophones would like to learn English by going to colleges, but I understand also ... that French is fragile.”
In April 2021, Legault announced he would extend the Charter of the French Language, Bill 101. If passed, the reforms would see francophones and allophones lose the right to attend English CEGEPs. Adult Quebecers, men and women of legal age, in a free nation, would be forbidden from attending the higher education institute of their choice due to their cultural and linguistic identity. You know who else was historically forbidden from attending the higher education
institute of their choice in Quebec? Jews.
You see, young adult francophones, Père Legault knows best. He cannot allow his citizens their trivial, selfish pursuits, like acquiring the basic qualifications for any career in commerce, science, or technology — the future of the Quebec nation is at stake! Give up this childish dream of speaking more than one language. It is a noble sacrifice! Take one for the team! Of course, Legault himself needed to become bilingual to run Air Transat, but that's not important right now. What's important is that Père Legault, as he always has, protects us from our own bad choices.
In May 2021, Legault described his own call to extend Bill 101 “extreme” and instead introduced
Bill 96, an apparent capitulation, and reset to his more familiar posture of effortless reasonability and common sense. He smiled, spoke slowly, and reassured us. But Bill 96 is not a capitulation. It is, rather, an incredibly sneaky, more complicated backdoor initiative designed to eventually achieve everything even the PQ could desire — Bill 101 with a smile.
The bill caps the number of students attending English CEGEPs and prioritizes anglophone applicants. It forces francophone and allophone students at English CEGEPs to take three French Literature courses and to take the French exit exam rather than the English one. It will turn English CEGEPs into French CEGEPs.
Bill 96 is the Borg version of Bill 101, beaming secretly into English CEGEPs and assimilating them from the inside. Francophone and allophone Quebecers entering an English CEGEP to broaden their horizons, not to mention their employability, would discover, upon arrival, that this is only mock turtle soup. The scourge of practical and forward-thinking planning on the part of our younger generations must be stopped.
The CAQ and PQ MNAs do not care what students want. PQ MNA Paul St.-Pierre Plamondon admitted his party did not consult Quebec's youth, but insisted the new policy is “in tune” with what Quebecers want. “Who should we be polling?” he asked, as if the answer were blowing in the wind.
This paternalistic attitude toward Quebec citizens is not new. Long ago, the Pères or Catholic priests of Montreal's Notre Dame Cathedral stood in elevated pulpits overlooking pews and pointed down at wives who had gone too long without becoming pregnant again.
Those Pères no doubt believed they were protecting the French people, language, and culture, and they did so without the least regard for the lives or choices of the women involved.
For Pères, the greater goal always supersedes individual choice, and this kind of thinking has throughout history been used to justify the most horrendous attacks on human rights. Our current Père will limit the future opportunities of his own young French-speaking citizens, even though he himself has benefitted from being bilingual — a case of bilingualism for me, but not for thee. The Quiet Revolution overthrew the strict paternalism of the Church, but the process has come full circle, and we arrive once again at paternalistic measures of social engineering and control. Meet the new Père, same as the old Père.
Young Quebecers want to become bilingual, frankly a necessity in the global economy and work environment of the 21st century. And so, I predict these Pères will meet the wrath of a new revolution, and be ousted from their pulpits where they make self-serving claims about protecting their flock.
THIS PATERNALISTIC ATTITUDE ... IS NOT NEW.