The division of language law reform in Quebec goes against the duality of the language that makes Montreal special.
Article author:
Josh Freed • Special to Montreal Gazette
St-Jean is a holiday I often celebrate .. I went to a huge parade for years and then to a mixed neighborhood festival.
But this year, like almost every Anglophone, noise, and xylophone in Quebec, it feels like a long time as Prime Minister Lego's Bill 96 keeps us away. I feel the separation that wasn't there.
At best, it's not just the content of the law. It's an attack on the spirit of the way we live here.
Wherever I go, Anglo and other English speakers from many who know me get angry at Bill 96 as if we were a single non-Francophone tribe. Confess.
Even the rare ex-Anglo-Saxonists are away from Bill 96. It is virtually impossible to find a non-Francophone that agrees with it.
I grew up believing that it was time to revisit my actions when everyone with a different background than me objected to what I was doing.
I won't go into the details of the bill, butmany people do, but the spirit of the law still plagues me.
Montreal has a different atmosphere than anywhere else on the planet, with two major languages coexisting seamlessly. Although officially supposed to be French, we accept the duality of the city very warmly and politely.
This is a unique thing not found in Paris or Rome.
I start a conversation in French with someone, she hears my anglo accent and switches to English, and I stick to French, and sometimes she sticks to English. We both do it from politeness, and perhaps to practice a second language.
It's beautiful and it's in our DNA. Last week I had a good chat with the store salesmanenfrançais , but realized that we were an Anglo doing language tango and switched.
This happens more often these days as Anglo loses the high school accent of "Bone Journey, Come to Talay Booing". Montreal is one of many of my favorite habits of being a very interesting, livable and civilized city.
Despite the life here, the language law, the "police" of language, and the long struggle for sovereignty, there was no linguistic conflict in Paris.
On the other hand, most Anglo-Saxons who stayed here have greatly improved their French so that their children are bilingual and do not know the other words of depanur, highway and terrace.
We are a French ally, not a threat that Legault makes us feel, but ignore our concerns and cut into any "historical" and non-historical Anglophones.
I was in a Protestant school so it's theoretically "historical", but I don't have a dissertation so how to prove it. Maybe I need to contact my 5th grade teacher who is now 105 years old to testify for me.
Bill 96's fragmentation goes against everything I experience here. The other day, when 96 arrived, I was yaking on the terrace with my Anglo friends too often these days.
Shortly afterwards, a nearby Francophone in his thirties leaned over and said he agreed with everything we felt. She teaches at a university in France. At French universities, others share their opinions, but avoid talking in public. Occasionally hardliners can listen and it's not worth fighting with colleagues.
Just as US Democrats avoid politics when meeting Republican friends and family, it's easy to avoid conflict.
However, she enthusiastically participated in the chat for an hour. This openness can be seen on the wider stage of Francine Pelletier's stunning new French film"Battle of the Soul of Quebec", which was recently screened on Radio Canada.
I was at the opening and was probably one of the three Anglos in the crowd. In this film, many federalists, sovereigns, and intermediaries, from the open-minded movement of Quebec nationalism under René Lévesque, to Francophone only, to others from the overall "Nous". It expresses a common despair about how we moved to the narrow "identity politics" of exclusion. "
Participants ranged from respected Quebec politicians such as Gerard Bouchard to former powerful PQ Minister Louise Allele.
After the movie, some young Francophones say they are not aware of themselves in Bill 96 or Bill 21 and want Quebec to embrace everything. I did. Others have said that the French are becoming under Lego, so they must be a positive invitation, not a negative disciplinary force.
Even Jandorion, the former president of the sovereign Societe San Jean Baptist, is very uncomfortable with the discourse of the Lego government's anti-others, and the young Quebécois are the final. He said that he would lead us from this era of expulsion of foreigners.
He was also angry that Quebec nevertheless casually used the clause. He reminded us that it had to be renewed every five years, and by then he was convinced that the Quebécois would stand up and refuse to allow this civil rights infringement.
It was in the French-speaking world of very different politics that I saw Montreal and Quebec in the same way as I did. It is a tolerant place open to all and must fight to protect its soul.
So whether we are English speaking, Francophone, India, Scotland, Haiti, Japan or Ophon, to ourselves this Fete National weekend before Canada Day. Let's say the message.
Despite our government's recent narrow policies and seemingly deliberate attempts at our division, Quebec is a generous communal place that belongs to all of us.
Bonne Fête.
joshfreed49@gmail.com
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