I don't think it does in my view!

The constitutional legislation for schools in Québec since 1977 has been, to all intents and purposes, the Charter of the French Language ("bill 101"). The Charter has been successful in limiting the assimilation of new immigrants to English, a condition sine qua non of maintaining a francophone majority in Québec in the long term, given the birth rate of the past 50 years. The vital importance of the Charter explains why it is defended with such force. Like any good constitution, it sets down the incontrovertible minimum and avoids overreaching. I doubt that discussions about restricting English-language higher education (cégep) are anything more than election posturing, and trust that good sense will prevail, whoever forms the next government.

Put yourself in this situation and tell me if you wouldn't feel endangered, if you would'nt fear that the future generations lose the english language. Well, that ain't going to happen.

There are some Americans who would disagree with you. But yeah, it's hard for me to put myself in that situation because English isn't going anywhere.

Consider the amount of french-speaking people all over the planet and compare it to english.

In terms of native speakers, English is No. 3 (365 million) and French is No. 18 (74 million). The difference is less when counting total speakers of the languages, according to one estimate.

We don't need to be independant to take away the English schools from the English minority. Like I wrote, the Canadian Constitution require that the Québec Government provides the English minority with protestant schools; it does not mention that they must be English. Like I wrote: don't push your luck, maybe we could change our mind and replace the English schools with French protestant schools right now while we are in Canada and still be legal. To answer your question: yes in an independant Québec, the English minority could keep their English schools if they would just stop propagating such stupidities.

«Actually it's that many Quebec sovereignists (and politicians) don't care enough about French minorities in the rest of Canada.»

Most of them do care, it's just that this theme does not bring votes on election day.

«Your historical examples of Ontario and Manitoba are interesting, though I don't see why they're relevant, any more than the actions of European immigrants of the 16th century are relevant today.»

Evetything in history is relevant. We live with the errors and good deeds of our ancestors. It's called collective memory. Maybe you should ask your dad or your grand-father when the Faguys got assimilated. It was certainly not in the 16th century as your ancestor, Louis Prud'homme came to Canada in the 18th century... So, it's not that old.

«The situation of French minorities in the rest of Canada is, indeed, a concern of mine. But Bill 101 isn't going to help them.»

Bill 101 will help them as long as it can boost French culture in Québec and make pressure on the grovernments of the other provinces. In all the exemples I gave you, other provincial governments stopped boycotting French after law 101. That was when bilingual road sings appeared on Eastern Ontario highways. That was when the Ontario government started to use bilingual forms. That was when the Supreme Court judgement on Manitoba bilingual status fell. That was when New-Brunswick proclaimed itself a bilingual province. Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC, New-Foundland and Labrador all have French schools now. Abandon law 101 and a good portion of all that will disapear very quickly... They are just saying "Hey guys, look you don't need bill 101". Once it's gone, they don't need to say it anymore. While doing that they put pressure on the Québec government that the English schools remain available to the Québec English minority. They are saying: "Hey look guys, we now have French schools, we are good boys". We would look like a bunch of bullies if we were to take away the English schools while all the other provinces are opening French schools, don't we? Beleive it or not, law 101 is actually good for protecting the English school system in Québec.

I am not preventing anybody to use their own language. If you want to speak Mandarin, Italian, English, you name it; you can do it as much as you want. What law 101 does, is promote the use of French in education, in the work place and in commerce. Like I told you before, we don't trust English speaking people, we got burned before, in Ontario, in Manitoba, in Acadia, in Louisiania so we designed law 101 to protect our language and our culture. If you could not use English, you would be without a job and this blog would not exist. Isn't the Montréal Gazette, where you work, an English newspaper? If law 101 was that bad and the French speaking people of Québec were so racist, like some members of the Québec English community are saying, and with what you are writing about French Quebecers, you would be living in a concentration camp for quite a while by now.

«What's your source on this? I don't doubt that some Quebec culture is exported abroad, but governments also spend a lot of money to support culture, particularly in Quebec. If you're going to make an economic argument about culture, you're probably going to lose.»

Try this Web page: http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/donstat/econm_finnc/conjn_econm/compt_econm/tabsom0512inter.htm you will learn that the Québec culture industry brings a revenue of 9,9 billion dollars a month. That's a lot more than governments' subsidies to culture.

«It's that kind of insulting generalization that makes it hard to take you seriously. English Canadian culture is much more heavily influenced by American culture, that's true, but to extrapolate that to say it "doesn't have a culture" is ridiculous.»

Well, you just wrote it: English Canada culture is "heavily influenced by American culture".

Please, don't screw things up. Just let us protect our language and our culture for the best of Canada.

«How?»

Stop complaining about law 101. It is nothing compared to Ontario's bylaw 17 or ignoring the Manitoba constitution for a hundred years.

«Yes, although this was 10 generations ago. I don't see how it's relevant to my opinions, unless you think opinions are hereditary.»

It is very relevant: you or somebody in your ancestry got assimilated by the Québec English minority. If we let that go by, all French Quebecers will be assimilated by the Québec English minority in no time. And there will be no difference between Canada and the USA. In that situation, why not merge? There would be no reason to remain independant from the USA. Maybe we could meet in the next stupid war the USA do against a country that disagree with their values after we get drafted.

How did you became so entrenched against the progress of the french language?

«I'm not.»

If you were not, you would not make blog posts and comments like I am reading here.

By "get some respect for its language" you mean "prevent other people from using their language"? Or do you mean something else?

We mean something else, because no person is prevented from using his language.

I'm not.

Well, why do you howl when we want to strengthen law 101 to protect french more?

Not that I know of. But there could have been one if Bill 101 hasn't been voted.

''I'm not arguing that Quebec should do nothing to protect the French language. I'm arguing that when you have a population of 7 million where more than 90% speak a language, it's hard to imagine that language is in imminent danger of extinction.''

Then you are arguing that we should protect our language. You're right. French is not in danger in Quebec. But add the Canadian population and it's a new game from now. Add the American population, then we're fucked! Thikn about it this way instaed of limiting yourself to the Quebec population. 7M french-speaking population surrounded by 300M+ english-speaking folks from all over the continent. Bill 101 IS important. Put yourself in this situation and tell me if you wouldn't feel endangered, if you would'nt fear that the future generations lose the english language. Well, that ain't going to happen. Not for you. But for us, it is still a probability. Consider the amount of french-speaking people all over the planet and compare it to english.

Having the Bill is a first barrier against assimilation and having our country is a double safety measure to counter that possible assimilation. I'm not saying it could happen in 5-10 years, I'm just saying that if we can protect our culture and language and live on, then we would have accomplished something. Cause when I'm gonna be an old man, I'm gonna be proud that my grand (and grand-grand) children still speak french and I'm gonna be proud that we have done everything to prevent french from being a dialect spoken by only a small group of the population.

The English school system is a favor made to the English minority as we could offer a French protestant school system and still be legal. Don't push your luck...

So in other words an independent Quebec would have no problem eliminating English public schools?

Didn't you say that Quebecers never cared about French minorities in ROC?

Actually it's that many Quebec sovereignists (and politicians) don't care enough about French minorities in the rest of Canada.

Your historical examples of Ontario and Manitoba are interesting, though I don't see why they're relevant, any more than the actions of European immigrants of the 16th century are relevant today.

The situation of French minorities in the rest of Canada is, indeed, a concern of mine. But Bill 101 isn't going to help them.

So you don't think that we should learn from history and just let us vanish from the surface of the earth?

Is there some mass-vanishing outbreak affecting francophone Quebec that I'm unaware of?

I'm not arguing that Quebec should do nothing to protect the French language. I'm arguing that when you have a population of 7 million where more than 90% speak a language, it's hard to imagine that language is in imminent danger of extinction.

I can't really understand why you are so obstinate in not accepting the right of the french majority to get some respect for it's language and it's culture.

By "get some respect for its language" you mean "prevent other people from using their language"? Or do you mean something else?

did you know that french Québec culture bring millions in foreign revenues to Canada and it is not only Céline Dion and the Cirque du Soleil.

What's your source on this? I don't doubt that some Quebec culture is exported abroad, but governments also spend a lot of money to support culture, particularly in Quebec. If you're going to make an economic argument about culture, you're probably going to lose.

ROC doesn't have a culture of it's own; it is simply a subsidiary of USA culture which it imports to the point of affecting the balance of payments of our country.

It's that kind of insulting generalization that makes it hard to take you seriously. English Canadian culture is much more heavily influenced by American culture, that's true, but to extrapolate that to say it "doesn't have a culture" is ridiculous.

Please, don't screw things up. Just let us protect our language and our culture for the best of Canada.

How?

my genealogy research reveals that Faguy was the nick name of a guy named Louis Prud'homme who was of pure french descent as he originated from the Maine province of France.

Yes, although this was 10 generations ago. I don't see how it's relevant to my opinions, unless you think opinions are hereditary.

How did you became so entrenched against the progress of the french language?

I'm not.

It seems silly at first, but if you think about it, if the english language was about to overcome the greek language...wouldn't it seem fair from the Greek to protect their roots?

So you don't think that we should learn from history and just let us vanish from the surface of the earth? It may look unjust to you, but think about the french speaking people and their families that got assimiled back in the days... It is certainly not just to let the same thing happen nowadays, but it is definitely worth the fight to say alive...

In Québec, the official language is French and the constitution of 1867, I know that was more than one hundred years ago but it is still in force, garantee protestant schools for the English minority. It does not mention English schools. The English school system is a favor made to the English minority as we could offer a French protestant school system and still be legal. Don't push your luck...

The Manitoba constitution garantee French schools and a bilingual governement. That came to be only after somebody who had a traffic violation ticket went to court because the ticket was in English only. That went right up to the supreme court and Manitoba had to hire an army of translators to translate all it's laws, bylaws, forms, and had to setup a French school system. The following Wikipedia article documents fairly well the situation: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-manitobain Note that the supreme court judgement was in 1978, not very long before you were born... I know, before your time, but not by much.

The case of Ontario is a bit different: at first, it did not had any laws, bylaws or rules about language, it did not need any as the majority of the population was descendants of the British Empire Loyalists who came to Canada from New England, after the American revolution, to cash in on the perks offered by the British Crown. But like it is usual with that province, money was the driving force: in the early 20th century Ontario needed cheap labor for the mines, the new industrial economy and cash crops (mainly tobacco). They turned to an easily accessible work force: French Québec. At first, that was fine. But then those yong men got married and started to have children. The french clergy followed them and founded French parrishes and schools. Then some politician in Queen's Park did some arithmetic (some of them can count) and realised that with the rate of growth of the Quebec French population of the time, Ontario would be submerged in a sea of francophones in no time. That was in 1912 and Education bylaw 17 was born. I know that was a hundred years ago but it was in force until 1927 when it was abandonned because Ontario needed the help of the Québec Governement to make pressure on the federal government. This Wikipedia article covers bylaw 17: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A8glement_17 Didn't you say that Quebecers never cared about French minorities in ROC? Bylaw 17 was abandonned in 1927, but it took many years before French schools made a come back and their survival is not assured every where. Maybe the English minority of Quebec could make an alliance with the French minority of Ontario to mutually help themselves in supporting their school systems and make pressure on all level of government (school boards, cities, province and federal) to protect the integrity and the development of their respective school systems to avoid horrors like bylaw 17 in the future. Solidarity and love marches could be an idea, like the one in Dominion Square before the 1995 referendum. Law 101 is nothing like bylaw 17, it does not take the English schools away from the the English minority, it just say that if you are not part of the Québec English minority, you are not aloud in English school as these schools are for the exclusive use of the English minority, a priviledge granted onto them by the Quebec government.

New-Brunswick is the only canadian province that proclaimed itself bilingual, That was in 1981, about when you were born... This Wikipedia article covers that: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_reconnaissant_l%27%C3%A9galit%C3%A9_des_deux_communaut%C3%A9s_linguistiques_officielles_au_Nouveau-Brunswick (Sorry, it is in French; if you can't read French, I am certain somebody can fix you up).

I will leave it up to you to research other canadian provinces. You will find some surprises...

Hope this quick canadian history class shed some light on the "why" of some canadian politics of today. This your time I am talking about now.

Please, don't screw things up. Just let us protect our language and our culture for the best of Canada.

Your real surname is Faguy, isn't it? What I find curious, is that the name Faguy first appeared in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste ward of Québec City in the early nineteen century, I know, that was 200 years ago, but this is not the point; the point is my genealogy research reveals that Faguy was the nick name of a guy named Louis Prud'homme who was of pure french descent as he originated from the Maine province of France. How did you became so entrenched against the progress of the french language? Where did things go wrong? Was it you, your father, your grand-father, your great-grand-father? Where did things derail? Or is it that you are trying to capitalize on the discomfort of the English minority with law 101?

When you immigrate to Greece, you go to school in Greek. Period.

I'm not familiar with the Greek education system. But if Greece offered English public schools, wouldn't it be a bit silly not to allow an anglophone to attend it?

Immigrant anglos can't.

And why should they? When you immigrate to Greece, you go to school in Greek. Period.