Are the Anglophones of Quebec a threat to French in Quebec? No. The threat to French would be things like the internet, the U.S., and the 21st century economy. So, see if the following changes to Bill 101 make any sense at all for protecting French from these forces:
Courtesy of the CBC |
This is just stupid on a stick. But it probably plays well to the PQ's non-Montreal base.
Have I said lately how glad I am to have left Quebec? Probably. And, yes, Quebec was a significant part of why I left McGill. Not the entire reason as Carleton/NPSIA is a great place for me to do my work, that Ottawa has many attractions, but, yes, I did not enjoy this particular dimension of Quebec. Moreover, this nationalist politics not only had implications for the marketplace, but for the entire political system. The PQ has long competed not on providing good public service but on nationalist issues, which provided a very nice environment for corruption to grow and for the infrastructure of Montreal to fall apart. There are so many ways that this language politics stuff sucks even if it kind of makes sense from a cynical "how to we best breed ignorance and thus support for our party" kind of way.
I do believe there is a French phrase for all of this: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
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