QUEBEC is mostly still French but ENGLISH is ASCENDANT as in the rest of the world

BILINGUALISM IS DEAD IN CANADA

For practical purposes, when the French were defeated by the British it never was a realistic option. The English -speaking U.S.A. as our big brother to the south made sure of that. Before any of my readers think that I fought the concept of all Canadians speaking two languages, I would like to make it very well known, that my three kids (now in their late  50`s  and early 60`s) are fluently bilingual.  That is because I personally took the problem of Canadians using French very seriously, and all my children took their first years in the early grades at the Toronto French School  whose main location now is at Bayview and Lawrence in Toronto. At that time the school was expensive but affordable, but now to send my 6 grandchildren there is out of the question.  Today this school has, I believe another location and is recognized as a well-run private school.

Pierre Trudeau, our former Prime Minister, adapted the Official Languages Act in 1969.  In 1971 French was the first language spoken by 27.2% of Canada.  By 2016 the proportion of French speakers had declined to 22.2%.  In 2021 it shrank even further to 21.4%.  A minority of Canadians today have the ability to conduct a conversation in either language and those with this ability are mostly located in Quebec.  The federal public service once wanted to set an example, but now it no longer hires French and English  speakers equally.  Francophones are seriously underrepresented in the federal bureaucracy.  Indigenous people are now a priority with the Canadian government and when Justin Trudeau appointed Mary Simon, an Indigenous person to be Governor-General,  who could speak her own language and English only.   The outcry from Quebec could be heard in Vancouver.  A group of Quebecois has filed a legal challenge to the government as to the fact that Mary Simon does not speak French.  Conducting business with Americans is more important than our Governor General knowing how to speak English.

Since politics governs all actions, the premier of Quebec tried to protect the use of French as the majority in Quebec is French speaking and has a strong attachment to the French language.  It must be admitted that the bilingual people are mostly from Quebec.

Francois Legault, the premier of Quebec, in a highly political move recently passed Bill 96.  Without going into details this act severely limits the freedom of Quebecers to choose the language of their choice.  Some of the limitations in language use are truly frightening.  In most situations doctors would be forced to address all Quebecers in french.  Recent immigrant doctors who are chosen by the immigrant because they have  knowledge of a common language used by both doctor and patient are severly hampered.  French is not common to either doctor nor their patient.  Both doctor and patient would have a major problem understanding one another and can you ever be sure medical terms are similar in both languages?  Just imagine Quebec language police on an anonymous tip, barge into a doctor’s office, take away the personal medical history of many patients and present them to a judge as evidence of misuse of language. Privacy be damned!  An estimated 20,000 companies in Quebec will be forced to operate in French only according to law. Where another language must be used, the company is obligated to use it as little as possible.  First nations, as a rule, will be mandated to give up their native tongue to use french which they do not know well.

The Parti Quebecois, the original party promoting french and separation from Canada, criticizes the CAQ, not because it is undemocratic but because it will not save the language.  Their proposals even go further in protecting french in Quebec.  Why is the english language so popular in Canada?   It makes political and business sense.  English is the Esperanto of  these times.  Esperanto is defined as “an artificial language of the past”,  invented as a means of international communication.  It was a failure.  English is used by many European nations to communicate with each other.  There are 7.8 billion people in the world, 1.35 billion speak English yet there are only 360 million people who speak English as a first language.  English is the second language in 55 countries.  Forcing  Quebecois to speak only in French will damage business in Quebec, and even French speaking Quebecers will feel they are being short-changed.  As time goes on there will always be French-speaking people in Canada but they will be fewer and fewer in numbers and most will speak English as well.  Realize that immigrants from Asian and European countries, like  Poland, Italy, India, China,  Japan, Pakistan, and what about Egypt, Jordan and Syria must communicate with each other and the only realistic alternative is English.  Mr. Legault of the CAQ thinks that by forcing Canada to allow Quebec to bring in only French-speaking people, he will address the problem.  Great idea on the surface, but find me French-speaking immigrants.  From what country?  Many Africans speak French and he could bring some in. French domination ended at the Quebec border.  How many Quebecers speak French at home?  God only knows.  The French-speaking Acadians left Canada many years ago and settled in Louisiana.  In 1968 there were about 1 million people in Louisiana, and of those, 200,000 spoke French.  I doubt that many of them still speak French. New Brunswick is a bilingual province by law and many residents of this province speak both languages.

I am a tennis fanatic and the  winners of every round, when interviewed, speak acceptable English.  The same is true for all sports.  There will always be French speakers in Quebec but their numbers will decline as it has in Louisiana.  All lingual relationships between countries take place, with few exceptions, in English.   Why is this so?   It is because of the British Empire,  and  of the countries that were conquered, many countries, taught their children to speak English. An unforeseen result to the detriment of a strong French Quebec.

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