It's still English for Quebec immigrants

Hey Stoutlimb, don't worryy about Me3. You don't have to get into a competition to be the most tolerant with him.

Alberta has plenty to be proud of and it does not need to get into a tolerance competition. There are plenty of racists and anti-racists in both Quebec and Alberta. Let's not generalize.

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"True nations are united by blood and soil, language, literature, history, faith, tradition and memory". -

-Patrick J. Buchanan

Whether this story is accurate or not, there is no doubt that French is less threatened than it was in the days when English dominated even Quebec city in the 1960s. Now French domainates Quebec City and Montreal has lots of English and French.

How about taking one of the few gems from the Reform/Alliance movement and dropping the offical bilingualism nonsense that has wasted billions of dollars and ruined thousands of government and political careers due to people not being bilingual?

The program was misunderstood from the start and was worth trying perhaps....but our military needs the money like crazyabd so does our city infrastructure.

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"True nations are united by blood and soil, language, literature, history, faith, tradition and memory". -

-Patrick J. Buchanan

English did *not* dominate Quebec city (or the regions) in the 1960s. It however dominated Montreal. This often accounts for the difference in behaviours in between Québécois from Montreal and others.

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"We are all in this together somehow, some more than others somehow"

There were areas of Quebec City that were majority English however correct?

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"True nations are united by blood and soil, language, literature, history, faith, tradition and memory". -

-Patrick J. Buchanan

Incorrect. In 1960, the anglo population of Québec city numbered 40 %. From the middle of the 19th century up to approximately 1930, francophone emigration was emptying Québec and was being replaced with English immigration (up to 40 % anglos in Québec city and 55 % in Montreal) . English immigrants filled all administrative positions and also those of business and industrial management. Between 1901 and 1931, the province received an influx of 680,000 English immigrants to a loss of 822,000 francophones during the same period. --- « Il y a une belle, une terrible rationalité dans la décision d'être libre. » - Gérard Bergeron

"There were areas of Quebec City that were majority English however correct?"

Remember that Quebec City is a relatively small town (with very few immigrants). The anglo "bastions" were rather small and centered around Sillery (by les Plaines d'Abraham!). Anglos in Quebec City were likely more bilingual (and not as confrontational) than the ones in Montreal. The anglo bosses did dominate even in Quebec City. The provincial ministry of Finance mainly operated in English, for instance. I myself do not recall any animosity whatsoever against the anglos in Quebec City. Montreal was the total opposite.

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"We are all in this together somehow, some more than others somehow"

There is NO problem that the Quebec government has to study; it already knows the answer.

It has to do with the fact that there are 6 million French-speakers in a sea of 300 million English-speakers...that's never going to change and Quebec must impose draconian rules to stem off natural attrition.

Why Progressives over all these years could never see that an attempt to limit access to language by the State is a LOSS of freedom and culture, not an attempt to enhance it through homogenity and control.

Immigrants figure that out immediately; French is the language of the 'in' group and a group the immigrant will never be a part of in any meaningful way.

To continue to argue against the portability and benefits of knowing the English language in North America is just plain insanity and pure cultural conservativism.

Empson 7:

There is more than just a grain of truth in what you say; what is not generally known is that immigrants and English speaking Canadians COULD NOT SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO FRENCH SCHOOLS prior to 1975 or thereabouts. Only children fluent in French were accepted by French schools. This changed in 1975 with the passing of Bill 1, later changed to Bill 101, where all kids HAD to go to French schools unless exempted for one criterion or another. A government minister's LICENSE was required to gain admittance legally to English schools. (My family went through this drill).

Then the government blamed les anglo and immigrants for causing the demise of French in Quebec. This fairy tale has lasted and is still trotted out when deemed appropriate.

All this aided and abetted by "our" federal government, of whatever stripe. So much for free speech and freedom of expression, etc.

An old proverb has it "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar". The Quebec government used the heavy handed "big stick" approach, and people and businesses left. The remainder is propped up by Canadian's tax dollars. And the main things unilingual in Quebec are the welfare and unemployment lines......

As some wag would have it Toronto should erect a statue in honour of Rene Levesque, whose drive and passion did more to foster the growth and prosperity of that one-time fair city than the twits running it!

H.F. Wolff

h.f. wolff wrote : And the main things unilingual in Quebec are the welfare and unemployment lines...... This is a false and racist comment . --- « Il y a une belle, une terrible rationalité dans la décision d'être libre. » - Gérard Bergeron

Also, I presume that the closing of French schools in in the West back in the 1860's in the West when the French population was still in a majority had nothing to do with carrying a '"big stick" Or as one member here would like to quote : " [41] "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? [42] How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Luke 6:41-42 --- « Il y a une belle, une terrible rationalité dans la décision d'être libre. » - Gérard Bergeron

michou,

Two wrongs don't make a right.

And I didn't live during the 1800's.

And Manitoba has corrected the situation in the 1970's I believe.

But I surely lived in Quebec beginning June 1975, a supposedly more sophisticated and enlightened time; the political shenanigans and upheavals of that age even pissed off the Francophones.....how do I know? I worked with dozens of them!

Calling me a racist.....I can live with that but, coming from a Francophone its truly laughable, just as the pot calling the kettle black.

H.F. Wolff

P.S.: Instead of calling me names why not take the intellectually superior route and merely point out the error of my opinion? Unless, of course, this would be too difficult for the grey matter. HFW

Manitoba corrected the situation...100 years later. And that was another racist comment from h.f.wolff. As we say in French, "Jamais deux sans trois". One more to go. --- « Il y a une belle, une terrible rationalité dans la décision d'être libre. » - Gérard Bergeron

What was racist about what he said?

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"True nations are united by blood and soil, language, literature, history, faith, tradition and memory". -

-Patrick J. Buchanan

This article brings to light how immigration and multiculturalism may be an overlooked threat to Canadian solidarity. It shows the indifference and aversion many immigrants have to one of this country’s official languages even while settling and living in a province where the language is dominant. They act as a hindrance to the preservation and growth of the language and become a growing threat to its existence. Couple this with a policy that discourages assimilation into the greater cultural identity and encourages the preservation and growth of foreign cultures, Quebecer’s may become even more persuaded to embrace separation as the only means to perverse their “distinct society.”

Language is an important aspect to cultural identity and it seems immigrants have little interest in adopting Canada’s official languages outside of practical reasons. It isn’t only French that is getting snubbed but English as well. An article in yesterday’s Toronto Star (May, 31 2006) discussed immigration to the York region (located just north of Toronto) and it mentioned that approximately 11% (or a little more than one in ten) of the immigrants to the region could not speak either of Canada’s official languages. The many shops in Toronto’s Chinatown, the Asia Pacific mall and a myriad of other plazas in Richmond Hill north of Toronto (it sound’s like Rich Man’s Hill to them just like Rich Man B.C.) are bereft of the English language. I guess the business of us non-Cantonese speakers is not welcome. There is a group out in B.C. lobbying to get Punjabi recognized as an official language and thus lift the burden off of Sikh shoulders at having to bother themselves to learn English or French. Knowledge of either of Canada’s official languages is becoming less an issue with each new wave of immigrants and will become of even less importance to succeeding waves and their offspring as their respective colonies grow in numbers within Canada. The response to this phenomenon, of course, is to offer more multilingual services as opposed to encouraging them to learn the language. Even the subtle nuances of the English language as spoken in Toronto and southern Ontario are disappearing due primarily to immigration and multiculturalism.

The great irony of multiculturalism is that all languages are revered except those of the dominant host culture. Canada’s official languages are unique to this county. We have our own pronunciations and sayings and any effort to avoid having to learn one of these languages yet desiring to seek citizenship of this great land should be seen as an act of disrespect and defiance and citizenship should not be granted to these people. It is out of respect and gratitude that our languages should be learned.

I believe the French do TRY to get people to know or learn French whereas in English Canada we don't even try. Quebec is not offically multicultural--quite the opposite.

I have mentioned before that our unique dialect and sub-dialects are under threat but they could be saved....if a miracle were to occur and over 7 million people were deported. 2 million in the GTA alone.

I like how you mentioned in the past what I have said that immigration threatens ACTUAL CANADIAN cultural diversity--like the accent in Newfoundland, the prairies, Ottawa Valley, souther Ontario and so forth. It is cultural annihilation at a rapid rate.

**My dad was talking to a Chinese real estate agent and apparently the Chinese buy in Richmond Hill because they like newer houses as they are not handy and can't fix things....they are handy with electronics but apparently not around the house.

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"True nations are united by blood and soil, language, literature, history, faith, tradition and memory". -

-Patrick J. Buchanan