BREAKING NEWS: France honours PQ's Landry

sure there no benefice for english to have a language police. but only french-canadians, quebecer and acadians need that police.

bills 101 was a modification of the bill 1 from liberal of robert bourassa
bills 101 as allowed to have english writted in public but only as little as french but with the bill 1 its was only french, simply no english at public.
but if canadians aare so open minded to the world, they should endurstand that here in quebec we speak french, and i want that laws make quebec officialy french to show to canada that here, we sspeak french and we want to live our live in french. im feel sorry for the anglo quebecer to be a minority in our province but we(french of all over canada) are simple a 1% in north america to speak french at home. if you says that you dont need to see a french province in canada and says that canada is nothing without quebec you completly ironic. go and read about how this country as benn started.

and for the federal language politic. eee its nessery to the survival of the acadians and apeasing nationalist quebecer and help everyone that has been grow up speaking french to at least endurstand something from our governement.

bref.. the benefic language politic made canada multi-cultural and help acadians cultural to survive. and first of all, help canada to survive

my 2 cents

If you truely believe your culture hangs on the duties of the Canadian Language Police.You have less faith in your way of life than I do.

im just saying that language police is impact in our way of life. i will dont like to receive bill from our federal in english.
my culture doesent hang on the federal language police
but acadians does, and they have less faith that tomorow thier son will speak french.
but in america, the french culture is in the most part in music.

song have a better political influance that a politician for a quebecer(if he listen to quebecer song and not hiphop american (bang bang boum boum pow pow).
quebec cultural= history + music
if you have time in yours time just go listen to these 3 quebecer song

les cowboys fringants - en berne
les cowboys fringants - l'hiver approche
loco locass - la censure pour l'échafaud

found this

We are tous Québécois

Jan 6th 2005 | MONTREAL
From The Economist print edition

English Quebeckers learn to live and love in French

TRADITIONALLY, the English-speaking minority in Quebec kept itself pretty much to itself, in the leafy western suburbs of Montreal or the farming towns to its south. The Anglos had little interest in mixing with the province's French-speaking majority and little ability to do so: most spoke French poorly and infrequently, if at all. So goes the stereotype of the Anglo-Quebecker in the province's (French-language) literature, film and television.

If this was once accurate, it is no longer so. Now more than two-thirds of Quebec's 750,000 English-speakers can also speak French—double the proportion of the 1970s. Even in those rich ghettos in western Montreal, French is spoken almost as much as English. “The stereotype has evolved from a real man to a straw man,” jokes Jack Jedwab of Montreal's Association for Canadian Studies and the author of a recent government report on Quebec's English-speakers. The report noted other signs of integration. As Anglos learn to speak French younger and better, frequently choosing to study in French schools, there has been a surge in marriage (or at least coupling) outside the community. Now, 40% of them have non-anglophone partners, and a quarter have paired with French-speakers.

Closer contact has eased tensions between what were once known as “the two solitudes” who share Quebec. Even the most militant English-speakers—dubbed the “angryphones”—seem less outraged by the provincial government's efforts to promote French. However, several court challenges to Law 101, the province's strict language law, remain pending.

Passed in 1977, this law has made French the first language of government, business and education. Only children who have a parent who was educated in English in Canada can attend an English-speaking public school; all others, including immigrants from Britain, must study in French—or in private schools. Law 101 has in turn created an economic incentive to learn French. Without it, a young anglophone is twice as likely to be unemployed; if he has a job, he can expect to earn only 65% as much as a bilingual colleague.

The result: many of the province's traditional English institutions are declining, and some are dying. Since the 1970s, enrolment in English-speaking schools has fallen by 60%. Dozens have closed their doors, or switched to French. Six more in the Montreal area are due to close in September. Quebec's only English-language daily newspaper, Montreal's Gazette, is in similar straits. In the early 1980s, its Saturday edition sold 280,000 copies; now it sells 163,000. English universities are faring better, because they face no language restrictions. They are recruiting French-Canadians keen to study in English.

All of this has implications for Quebec's politics. Since its rise in the 1960s, the fortunes of the secessionist movement in the province have risen and fallen in unison with tensions over language. When the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ) was first elected to the provincial government in the 1970s, English was still the language of power and public conversation—even though French-speakers outnumbered those of English by six to one. One of the PQ's first acts was to push through Law 101. Within five years, 100,000 English-speakers and many businesses left the province. Many of those who stayed have learnt French. They have been joined by English-speaking migrants from Asian countries and the Caribbean, whose children now speak French, if compulsorily.

With linguistic tension much reduced, the sovereignty movement will need a new cause around which to rally, says Deirdre Meintel, an anthropologist at the University of Montreal who specialises in minorities. Quebec provides her with rich material: both English- and French-speakers are both a majority and a minority depending on whether the reference point is Canada, North America or just the province. Perhaps that explains why most francophone Quebeckers still feel French is threatened in the province and English secure, while anglophones say the opposite. Even so, according to Ms Meintel, Anglophone openness to French is reciprocated in less “francophone chauvinism” and a more inclusive society. “You can be Québécois now without having spoken French all your life,” she says. “You can still have an accent.” So the language issue itself is now neither grave nor acute.

The bottom line is this:

Canada is enhanced by its French heritage. I can't imagine a Canada without Quebec. The Quebecois are Canadians. Quebec is just as much my land as it is anyone who speaks Francais. The Quebecois are not treated like a conquered people nor were they ever really treated that way. The Quebecois are treated as equals in this wonderful country.

If a man conspires to separate from Canada, this is seditious behavior. It does not matter if he is English or French. If a foreign power is rewarding such behavior, this should be treated as a threat to our sovereignty.

At the same time, Canadians have the right to voice their concern about our country as much as they wish. Suppressing the PQ party in any way would be against their constitutional rights and therefore a betrayal to our rights under the constitution.

Let them have all the contact in the world with France. I don't want the French language to die in our country. French is part of who and what we are.

Beyond all that .... To be quite frank (pardon the expression) I hope the separatists all go #$%^ off and die. They are ruining it for everyone else.

and to think .. those crazy newfoundlanders drop the flag for a few days and we freak.

Quebec never flys the Canadian flag over their provincial buildings.

Why are we complacent about one province but not the other?

mcpuck
you wrong, the flag is at its place at all provincial building

Yah, its just not as "important" as the "Fleur de lis"

Optinum, I think mcpuck got you there! :wink:

The gov't of Quebec has for decades now waged a propaganda war against Canada. Relatively few provincial buildings fly the Maple Leaf. My university does (it's anglo), my CEGEP did (it was anglo) but I would be floored to see the Maple Leaf at my old high school (which was franco).

As always, it's a pleasure to read Stephane Dion and his compelling defence of promoting Canada in Quebec. The guy's logic is unassailable. Too bad the sponsorship programme got corrupted...

dop i lost 1-0 for mcpuck

and bonglord : yes its does. fleur de lis flag is tronger reach me. its natural!!

(sponsorship programme got corrupted...)
meaby its was corrupted by the very start but why the need of a sponsorship programme when the best way to stop the souvreingty sentiment is to enter quebec in canada by constitution. but i wont leave this fate at spephane dion or any (neo)-liberal in federal/provincial. they lie to much.
lets see if this will end someday.

My major problem with a language police is that is could lead down a slippery slope.
And Forced assimulation is to me not a solution as optinum has said.
It still leaves bad blood and that is proven by this thread we are all debating on.
To force a people to change and to enforce those changes by acts of the goverment does not work out well in the long run history has taught us.
Natives are still suing over the fact we forced them into schools that they were abused and treated like second class humans.
Yes Quebec is a part of Canada.
Yes it is a french society and canada is richer for it.blahblahblah
But this bending over backwards so the bitching stops till the next round starts has to end asap.That is why the rest of Canada is sick of hearing about Quebec.The rest of Canada matters just as much or has that never occured to them?

for the question, its a good question nobody can generalizing(this is a frenchism word) the people of 7 000 000 individual life in quebec.
as for me, i do care the effect of a quebec secession on atlantic province,
i do care about those french-ontaria french-albertian french all over the province acadians gatinau and french ottawian. but as long that quebec is in the confederation, ottawa political men will always axing on quebec and ontario.
like the ''les zapartisme'' says : Vive le canada libre!!!