Julia Barrett
Research Essay
ARTSSCI 2798.04
Dr. Cope/Dr. Cabral
May 28, 2014
The Bilingual Challenge
Being bilingual is not an easy thing to do. Imagine if the U.S was both English speaking, and Spanish speaking—politicians and the media would have a field day over the “controversy” it would cause. However for the province of Québec, this theory is a reality, and there were many struggles and hardships to end up where they are now—as a bilingual province. From the very beginning it was a struggle between French and English. Who would come out on top? Would they just separate all together? Well, in the end, it was proven throughout the history, present, and future that separation is and never was a good idea.
Canada—translated to “the little village”—is anything but little, with 10 provinces, and 3 territories, it spans over 3,000 miles across, making it the second largest country in the world. But can you imagine if 1/3 of it split away? In 1995, the province of Québec came very close to doing just that. Quebecers voted, and were less than 1% close to having their province separate from Canada entirely. But why do this? Canada is a nice country with nice people and plenty of space to go around…well in Québec, French is the “majority” of the population and its culture, and language engulfs the Québécois society, but on the other hand, English are the “minority” who, for a long time, governed most of Québec…this caused for a lot of controversy between the two of them.
It all started back in 1608 when a French explorer by the name of Samuel de Champlain landed in what was called “Kébec”. From there on the French would rule over this region, which is now called Québec, trading fur with aboriginals and building grand churches such as the Notre Dame cathedral. However, on September 13, 1759, the English army of General Wolfe attacked Québec, and within 15 minutes the French flag turned into an English flag with the conquering of the French General Montcalm. This made the French society forcibly intermingle with the English.
For a couple hundred years French was the dominating language and culture, but by the confederation of Canada in 1867 French culture was starting to fade. With most of the English minorities in the converse of Québec society, the French Quebecers were concerned their heritage would soon be thoroughly taken over by the English speaking minority…thus, leading to the Quiet Revolution in the 1960’s.
This revolution was anything but “quiet” though. The liberal party leading this siege on English speakers shouted their slogan through the streets “it’s time for change”, riots broke out, and the F.L.Q. (front de liberation du Québec: a liberal terrorist group) started planting bombs in many Anglophone neighborhoods and kidnapped politicians. Their search for a solely French speaking society induced fear in all Anglophones, and painted a bad image for the liberal party. The French Québécois felt so beaten down by the English Quebecers that they over dominated the government and created “les maîtres chez nous” (“masters in our own house”) philosophy.
(http://frenchcanadianrightssovereignty.weebly.com/objective-conditions.html)
In July of 1974, bill 22 was passed. It had three major impacts on the government. One, it allowed French to become Québec’s only official language. After 200 years, English was no longer considered an official language. Two, it restricted access to English schools. All of those, whose parents did not graduate from an English school, were unable to enroll in an English school. And three, it restrained the freedom of expression in corporations and on signs. Any sign that had English on them were regulated to be taken down…French Québécois were bullying the Anglophones into submission. This made it very hard on the Anglophone community who now felt the weight of being a minority on their shoulders.
Two years later the infamous Bill 101 was passed. It was designed to “protect” and “promote” the French language, but it basically mimicked Bill 22 with minor changes. With the new leader, Rene Levesque, backing this bill, the “Parti Québécois” was stronger than ever before. This bill had an even greater impact on the French speaking and English speaking communities. It made the French speakers become even more in power, and kicked many of the English speakers out of government positions. Quite literally many Anglophones just packed up their things and left—they knew a storm was a brewing, and it started with this law.
The first part in Bill 22 added on; “members of professional orders must pass French-language proficiency tests in order to practice in Québec”, to Bill 101. This was to insure more French speaking Québécois would join the government, and less English speakers would be permitted to rule in the government as they did 200 years before. As well, bill 101 said “Corporations with 50 or more employees must obtain a French language certificate”. Many of the English speaking businesses started to struggle due to these laws.
In the second part, Bill 101 added, “Children of immigrants, Canadians from outside Québec, and French speaking parents are barred from English public schools”. The decline in enrollment for English public schools started to effect the English speaking population as a whole, and Anglophones somewhat resembled African Americans in our schooling system in the 1960’s.
(nodogsoranglophones.blogspot.com)
The third added “English and languages other than French are forbidden on commercial signs”. Millions of signs were replaced in order to make way for this new law, and a lot of money was spent taking signs down and putting new ones up that were regulated. Another part was “municipalities that wish to have bilingual status must have a population consisting of 50% mother tongue other than French”. This complicated the hiring process, and fewer jobs were open for Anglophones who did not speak French. Meanwhile, all the laws from Bill 101 were enforced by the language police who could fine you up to $7,500 if a language law was broken. Some English speakers went so far as to picket the bill—calling it a fascist movement.
The Anglophone community had become more and more repressed. Looking for help they called out to the federal government for support against the Parti Québécois. The whole time Bill 22 and Bill 101 could have been totally avoided if the federal government vetoed it. But, unfortunately for the English speakers, the government’s laissez-faire attitude did them no justice and the feds did nothing to stop the tyranny of the Parti Québécois.
The Parti Québécois feared the French language would be taken over by the English minority so much that Education 101 was born. In 1992, English institutions were shut down with a leading decline in enrollment by 57%. Not only were the Anglophones being affected by this, but the French Québécois as well…French speaking children were denied equal access to public education. They were unable to go to bilingual schools, making the “bilingual schools” not so bilingual. This also went against Canada’s UNESCO language discrimination agreement which stated any child may go to any school.
Previously in 1980, Rene Levesque called for a referendum on Québec’s role in Canada. Should Québec negotiate a new government away from Canada? As a result 59.56% of voters said no they should not break away, and 40.44% said yes they should. The vote was close, but the 1980 referendum did not pass. This made many Quebecers fearful of separation, and some took the advice of the campaign slogan, “accept bill 101 or take the 401”, and moved out of Québec. This affected the economy so much that Toronto became the most important economic city in Canada, in which Québec city formally was.
However this was football fields away from how close the 1995 referendum vote was. On July 12, 1995 the previous referendum was opened up to the public once again to vote on the same issue. This time the vote was denied by less than 1%. Less than 1% determined whether or not Québec would separate or not. The results were 50.58% no, and 49.42% yes. The liberal party was furious that it was so close. Both sides accused each other of cheating on the votes. The Anglophones supposedly received helps from the federal government—finally. It was said that the feds were lining immigrants up by the hundreds in order to get them their citizenship and to allow them to vote…by doing this more immigrants could support the no voters. Although, after hearing about this the Francophones claimed many of the no votes were not clearly indicated so thousands were thrown out of the vote.
(www.segacs.com)
From all this raucous, even more people moved out. This time by the thousands, leaving Québec’s economy and real-estate to go down the drain. Houses were going up for sale, but nobody was buying so the prices were going down. Even now you can rent—what would be a $5,000 a month apartment—for just $2,000 a month.
Now a day Québec is still a province in Canada; however, the intense laws that took a hold of the Quebec society became more relaxed. Bill 178 and Bill 86 both protected English speaking rights. Bill 178 said you could not ban English entirely. It brought back English as an official language, thus, making Québec bilingual. As well it gave freedom of choice in education; therefore, students could study at any school of choice. It also opposed Québec independence. As well Bill 86 permitted the use of English on signs as long as the French font was twice as large as the English. This made it less hard for the Anglophone community to survive in Québec.
Many people now that I have talked to are opposed of separation. They state either the economy is not healthy enough, or that the English community is on the rise and it wouldn’t make sense for Ottawa or Montreal to separate. Although, one of the major benefits now for separating would be to protect Quebec Cities most precious resource—water. Yes, water…fresh water to be exact. Within the next 20 years it is estimated that fresh water will be the most in demand resource of all time. There will be wars fought over it, and many countries will soon run dry. Quebec City holds approximately 17% of the world’s fresh water, and in the next 20 years Québec will be a highlight in the world’s economy. If Québec had separated while having a good economy in the 1980 referendum then it would be on the rise to power by now in many economists’ opinions. But unfortunately now it would be a terrible idea to separate with the state they are in.
Québec now is accepting their bilingual status, and with things such as “Bonjour-Hi” it is making life a bit easier for both French Québécois and English Quebecers. When you enter a shop or food place in Québec it is necessary that you are greeted with bonjour-hi so the customer/you get a chance to speak which ever language you are most comfortable in. This is almost inviting people back in to Québec, and their economy is getting stronger by the day.
(qpirgmcgill.org)
When I originally came to Québec I was under the impression that it would be a great idea to have Québec separate—it could be a miniature France that I could drive to every summer to practice my French. But after learning about the history and what the future holds for Québec—I changed my mind. The fact of the matter is both the French and English have a lot of heritage and influence in Quebec and they just need to put up with each other in order to survive…separating is not a choice. All that it caused was violence, and fear. It is better if everyone just comes together instead of separating. Being bilingual is a challenge, but Québec can do it.
Works Cited
“Angryphone.” N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
“The Death Of A Province.” The Huffington Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2014.
“Quiet Revolution.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2014.
“Portrait of Québec.” Québecs History and Heritage: Colonial Days, Modernity. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2014.
“To Separate or No?” Interview by Bar Tender At Sky Bar, Quebec City Tour Guide, Stephanie Rivest, and Diejo Fuego. N.p., n.d.