CHAPTER 14
Language Legislation in an independent Quebec
What will language legislation be like
in an independent Quebec?
I can tell you what it will be like in Quebec West: there will be no room for
great Canadian laws like you-know-what.
There will be two official languages, English and French, freedom of choice in
language of education and commercial signs and no language police.
“What do the English want?” is often asked of Quebec’s Anglophones. To answer
this question and for a proposal as to what Quebec West’s language regime will
be I direct the reader to consider two appendices at the back of this book.
The first, Appendix C -- Bill 199, is text of the explanatory notes of a
bill introduced in the National Assembly by then Jacques-Cartier MNA and
Equality Party member Neil Cameron in 1993. Bill 199, The Charter of the
French and English Languages was drawn up as a counter-point to Bill 101.
This document outlines a language regime for English and French for Quebec West
and, by extension, those governmental institutions in an independent Quebec that
will administer linguistic matters for Quebec West.
The second, Appendix D Belanger-Campeau Minority Report, is the
dissenting statement by then Equality Party MNA for Westmount, Richard Holden,
who was a member of the Commission on the Political and Constitutional Future of
Quebec in 1991. This commission asked the people of Quebec what they wanted
politically and constitutionally and here is what the Anglophones of Quebec
want. Note the nine specific recommendations at the end of the statement.
What about the rest of Quebec…what you call Quebec Proper?
That will be for the people of Quebec Proper to decide but I would hope that
they will understand that there will no longer be a need for any restrictive
language legislation when they have their own country. It is also hoped that
Quebec Proper will adopt the same principles as Quebec West, as outlined in
Appendices C and D.
In an earlier chapter you wrote about the need to attract unilingual
Anglophones to Quebec from the “Sea of English” that surrounds Quebec.
We need our fair share of the skilled, prosperous, entrepreneurial, affluent
unilingual Anglophones from the surrounding Sea of English. Unilingual Americans
and Canadians will only come to Quebec if they are promised that they will be
able to continue to live in unilingual English splendor or they simply won’t
come (hey, it’s hard enough getting them to come and live through our winters!).
And that means: offering them English schools, the right to work in unilingual
English, the right to demand that their French employees communicate with them
(orally and in writing) in unilingual English, and the right to communicate with
all government agencies in unilingual English..
The absence of restrictive language legislation in Quebec West will go a long
way towards both attracting Anglophones from across North America as well as
repatriating those who have left for other provinces or the United States
precisely because of Bill 101 and the political uncertainty that has plagued
Quebec over the past 35 years.
Anglophones are vitally needed to provide innovation, entrepreneurship,
investment, and know-how to an independent Quebec which will no longer be able
to draw upon the billions with which Ottawa, annually, bribes Quebec in order to
stay within Canada. I refer specifically to equalization[114]
and transfer payments as well as benefits such as federal contracts and grants.
Quebec needs a vibrant and enthusiastic unilingual Anglophone population to
serve as a bridge to the surrounding Sea of English. Towards that end, it is
hoped that all of an independent Quebec becomes officially bilingual so that
virtually all governmental departments interact with businesses in English.
Indeed, as policy, an independent Quebec must make it known to the rest of North
America that unilingual Anglophones can live, work, and go to school in
unilingual English in Quebec. Quebec must actively recruit Anglophones to come
to Quebec and must publicize that an independent Quebec will be user-friendly to
unilingual Anglophones.
How would such an approach impact the quality, preservation, and protection
of the French language in Quebec?
It will strengthen Quebec’s French language and culture.
Yes, Quebec needs to be independent to protect its French identity and culture
as well as serve as a “homeland” for the Francophones of North America.
But once Quebec has the natural protection for French that the boundaries of an
independent nation will provide them, there will be absolutely no reason to have
Bill 101 on the books. It is nonsense to imagine that an independent Quebec will
somehow be able to attract enough Francophones from Belgium and France in order
to compete in North America and maintain its current standard of living. No.
Quebec must put out a welcome mat to Anglophones. Not that Francophones
shouldn’t come, it’s just that we must not hold our breath waiting.
Won’t the absence of Bill 101 hurt French in Quebec?
Quite the opposite.
Bill 101 gives Quebecers the false impression that this law protects their
culture and language when, in reality, it is weakening it. Language laws provide
Francophones with the excuse not to be pro-active on a daily basis in protecting
their culture. Why demand that a storeowner give service in French when the
“dirty work” will be done by the law? This instills a complacency in the
francophone mindset which will ultimately work against the survival of the
French language and culture.
What will protect French in an independent Quebec will be a strong economy and a
high standard of living. That’s why the unilingual Anglophones will be needed.
They will provide that foundation. But they won’t come to an imposed unilingual
French state. They will come if they will be assured that they can live, work,
study, and invest in an environment of free choice in all things linguistic,
i.e. unilingual English. They will be able to do that in Quebec West and,
hopefully, in Quebec Proper as well.
Free choice shouldn’t be reserved just for the Anglos. As economist Jean-Luc
Migué observed:
The only valid option to restore French as a language of attraction, for its development and radiance, resides in the prosperity of individuals and its political corollary, open competition and, therefore, freedom of choice. The reasoning that inspires this option is simple. Development and radiance of French are a direct function of the income of those who speak it. Francophones‘ prosperity is the only long-term guarantee for the survival of French.[115]
Independence will free French Quebec to be
comfortable with and, indeed, embrace English.
Will newly arrived unilingual Anglophones in an independent Quebec respect
the French language?
Quebecers should be prepared to welcome and have within their midst the
unilingual, stereotypical Anglophone who will, at least from appearances, be
disrespectful towards French. The unilingual Anglo will not be eager to
speak French and will, accordingly, prefer to stick to his ghetto within Quebec
West.
Let’s not fool anyone with platitudes or wishful thinking about how Anglophones
will embrace French in an independent French-majority Quebec. They won’t. Writer
and long-time Eastern Townships resident -- and Quebecer since birth -- Lionel
Albert observed:
Even if French were Canada's majority language, most Anglophones would have no reason to learn it. That is because French is lower on the global linguistic totem pole than English, which, since the middle of the 20th century, has been at the top. The bottom is occupied by languages such as Lithuanian or Hungarian. You have to be pretty dumb or lacking in ambition if one of these is your mother tongue and you don't know at least one other language, because no one else will learn yours. Further up the hierarchy, the Finns often can speak Swedish as well as German and English. The Swedes don't need to learn Finnish but they usually learn the other two. The Dutch are almost all fluent in German and English too, but virtually no one else learns Dutch.
The most instructive example is Belgium, where the majority language is also Dutch but the minority language happens to be French, which is higher on the international totem pole. The national airline is called Sabena, an acronym for Société Anonyme Belge de Navigation Aérienne. If there is a Dutch version of the name, I haven't heard of it. According to The Economist magazine, just one francophone Belgian politician has bothered to learn Dutch.
What a contrast is Canada, where thousands of Anglophones take courses, immerse their children and insist that politicians display fluency in French. The motivation is supposed to be the promotion of national unity. Yet the two European peoples who hate each other the most are the Serbs and the Croats, and they both speak the same exclusive language, called Serbo-Croat.
Of course it's nice to learn another language, but this should be a personal, not a political, choice.[116]
One of the prices to pay to have an
independent Quebec that sows a prosperous, culturally and linguistically strong
Francophone population will be to welcome into Quebec the rude, intolerant
unilingual Anglophone. He will never pause on the French language TV station as
he surfs through the 200 predominantly English U.S. channels his Quebec West
licensed cable company provides him; nor will he venture east past St. Denis
Street on the Metro. He will not order his American hamburger in French at the
Golden Arches nor will he ever greet Pierre, his quebecois-de-souche neighbour
whom he’s lived next door to for the past 25 years, in French. He will speak
English and expect to be responded to in English.
What will be the fate of the Francophones outside Quebec once Quebec becomes
independent?
Their number will continue to dwindle due to the attraction of the English
language.
However, the best way to help Francophones outside Quebec is to do what has
always been the best way, whether Quebec is independent or not: throw rights at
Anglophones in Quebec.
The policy up to now has been: bring Anglo Quebecers down to the lowest common
denominator. Because Francophones outside Quebec have less in terms of
institutional, educational, and governmental services in their language, we can
always justify chiseling away at whatever rights and freedoms Anglo Quebecers
have.
The extremist logic is that since English Quebecois were thriving, and the western provinces' French were not, we here in Quebec should be brought down to the lowest common denominator of minorities. It is, of course, a philosophy of revenge.
No truly just cause in history has ever involved taking away rights. Progress of any culture is made by bestowing rights, not removing them. The moment the first fundamental right is taken away, we begin a chain reaction of blame and recrimination that leads to
cultural implosion.[117]
Francophones in the rest of Canada have a
much greater opportunity to thrive if we adopt the highest common
denominator approach: better to bring minorities outside of Quebec up to anglo
Quebecers’ status than the other way around.
You seem to be confirming that English Quebecers are privileged in terms of
the minority rights that they enjoy. Are you saying that they truly are the
best-treated minority in Canada?
English Quebecers built the institutions from which many of their English
services flow. For that reason alone, it is unfair to compare the English
community with francophone communities outside Quebec who, in much smaller
numbers and concentrations, could not.
There are two reasons why Anglo Quebecers have what they have and it has nothing
to do with privilege or special treatment: economies of scale and critical mass.
Most of Quebec’s 575,000 Anglophone population is centered in one metropolitan
area: Montreal. 75% live within a 25-mile radius of downtown Montreal. It was
therefore much easier for Quebec Anglos to build their own hospitals,
universities, and social service network than the 975,000 Francophones outside
Quebec[118] whose members are spread
out over 7,300 kilometers, from St. John’s Newfoundland to Victoria, British
Columbia
Indeed, the province with the highest percentage of Francophones outside Quebec
is New Brunswick. Yet it takes approximately five hours to drive between the two
cities with the highest number of Francophones, Moncton and Edmonston. Moncton,
with 34.4% of its 126,424 metropolitan area population who have French as their
mother tongue, is an excellent example of economies of scale, boasting the
largest French language university in Canada outside Quebec.[119]
Moncton offers a full slate of French language services to its citizenry.
Contrast this with the minimal English language services available to the
predominantly English-speaking population of Blanc Sablon, Quebec, a small
fishing village on the North Shore of Quebec. Isolated from practically
everything and with a population of 1,263, Blanc Sablon is lucky to even have
its own kindergarten.
Should Anglophone Quebecers self-righteously beat their breasts that the
oppressed English of Blanc Sablon have practically nothing in the way of
governmental services in their own language when compared to the Francophones of
Moncton, New Brunswick who have everything? Which is the better treated
minority?
It is unfair to compare the institutions and services of a highly concentrated
minority with another minority which may even be even larger in total population
but is spread out over a greater geographic area.
The myth of the best-treated minority must be put to rest. Most importantly, it
cannot serve as justification for a policy of reciprocity once Quebec becomes
independent. Reciprocity must clearly and overtly be rejected as a condition of
independence.
What do you mean by reciprocity?
That the rights of an independent Quebec’s minority Anglophone population will
be dependent upon or negotiated in any way, shape, or form by comparing the
situation or rights of the Francophones minorities outside of Quebec.
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