Category Archives: Quebec

Chronicling Covid-19 (15): Quebec Issues

19 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by in Bilingualism, Covid-19, Pandemic, Quebec

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a man wearing a suit and tie smiling at the camera: Christopher Skeete, parliamentary assistant to Premier François Legault on relations with English-speaking Quebecers, said an agreement had been reached to send out 800,000 English versions of the government's COVID-19 self-care guide.

Christopher Skeete “The Quebec government’s point man on anglophone affairs does not see the purpose of dividing the province by language when it comes to gauging the population’s fear of contracting COVID-19.”

—ooo—

I am revisiting my last post: Chronicling Covid-19 (14): The Mask (15 May 2020). It is not entirely clear and it did not address a serious matter: anxiety among English-speaking Montrealers. The relevant video is at the foot of this post.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/faced-with-poll-showing-covid-19-fears-among-english-speakers-legault-blames-media-1.4938123

Premier Legault’s Statement

I will write first that I did not vote for monsieur Legault, the leader of Coalition Avenir Québec, EN CAQ FR, a party Premier Legault founded.

As we have seen, there are very real problems in Quebec. For instance, the pandemic has brought to the fore the lack of safety in long-term care facilities. This problem exists elsewhere. There has just been a flare-up in Hamilton, Ontario, at the Rosslyn Retirement Residence.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/rosslyn-retirement-residence-completely-emptied-after-covid-19-outbreak-infects-62/ar-BB14buZW?ocid=msedgdhp

In Quebec, however, 4 out of 5 victims of Covid-19 lived in long-term care facilities, CHSLDs, located in Montreal. The first two persons taken to the Montreal Jewish General Hospital were not diagnosed with Covid-19, but everything soon changed. Further arrivals to the Emergency Room (ER) were infected with Covid-19.

Other victims were the poor living in Montreal North (Montréal-Nord).

Frontline Workers

  • syndicates
  • sense of duty

Moreover, at the very beginning of his statement, monsieur Legault asked health-workers who were infected, but had recovered, to return to their duties. This I should have noted. The pandemic revealed considerable reluctance on the part of Quebec doctors to be frontline workers. Their syndicate, these are powerful in Quebec, negotiated fees that could total approximately $2,500.00 per day, which is a large amount of money. Too many lack empathy, a requirement in the case of health workers.

Monsieur Legault is taking the responsibility for his province’s lack of preparedness and will correct problems, such as unsafe long-term care facilities, to the extent that this problem can be corrected. Quebec quickly ran out personal protective equipment, as did other provinces. But there can be no doubt that he had difficulty recruiting health-care workers. Fortunately, as you know, monsieur Legault was able to call on the Canadian Armed Forces. Moreover, there were volunteers. A group of immigrants wanted to help in exchange for being granted citizenship. Would that I could find that video! This is question I must explore further. As well, there were volunteers who cooked free meals that were distributed to various houses and to the frontline workers. Charitable donations should cover the cost of these meals.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/society-failed-legault-visits-montreal-as-quebec-becomes-the-worlds-seventh-deadliest-covid-19-epicentre/ar-BB148pAK?ocid=msedgdhp

William_Blake_-_Sconfitta_-_Frontispiece_to_The_Song_of_Los

The demiurgic figure Urizen prays before the world he has forged by William Blake. (Wikipedia)

Rights and Freedoms

  • Bill 21
  • secularization versus protection
  • anxiety among anglophones
  • bilingualism

I should also comment on the worries concerning rights and freedoms, expressed by the lady, a journalist who asked a question, or questions, following Premier Legault’s statement. She may have been referring to Quebec’s unthinkable Bill 21 (MacLean’s).

There are other problems in Quebec, some of which the response to the pandemic have exposed. However, after he was elected Premier of Quebec, François Legault and members of his government passed Bill 21, which promotes absolute laïcité, secularization. Monsieur Legault’s predecessor, Dr Philippe Couillard, had attempted to forbid the wearing of clothes that impeded identification of a person. He wanted to protect Quebec citizens, but the matter of rights and freedoms was raised.

If one clicks on burqa, one can see that it is a garment that covers the face and which could also be used to conceal a weapon. Monsieur Couillard was the Premier of Quebec (Premier Ministre) at a time, not so distant, when terrorist attacks were frequent. Protection, not secularization, was Premier Couillard’s goal. However, monsieur Legault and his government introduced Bill 21, An Act respecting the laicity of the State, which was assented on 16 June 2019. Bill 21 affects Civil Servants and it could be considered as an infringement on “rights and freedoms” in Quebec. Muslim women wear veils. 

French vs English/English vs French 

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/faced-with-poll-showing-covid-19-fears-among-english-speakers-legault-blames-media-1.4938123

Finally, in a survey conducted recently by Léger Marketing, it was determined that English-speaking Quebecers (68%) feared Covid-19 more than French-speaking citizens of Montreal and Quebec as a province (47%). At first, I could not understand the lady’s question. Canadians were lifting the lockdown when the coronavirus was still active. Consequently, Premier Legault urged the citizens of Quebec to wear a facemask as a protective measure. Who wants to breathe in the virus? In short, the facemask has nothing to do with Quebec’s secularization and Bill 22. But the notion came to the lady’s mind that monsieur Legault’s request could restrict personal rights and freedoms. It didn’t. As I noted, it was a safety measure. 

But Christopher Skeete, the parliamentary assistant on relations with English-speaking Quebecers, stated that an “agreement” had been reached and that 800,000 English versions of the government’s COVID-19 self-care guide were sent out. I have my copies. As quoted above, Christopher Skeete, Quebec government’s point man on anglophone affairs “does not see the purpose of dividing the province by language when it comes to gauging the population’s fear of contracting COVID-19.”

In the days of Covid-19, a Premier of Quebec addresses both the province’s French-speaking citizens and its English-speaking citizens. Monsieur Legault, Quebec’s top doctor, Horacio Arruda, and Danielle McCann, Quebec’s Minister of Health, addressed the press in both French and English, as did monsieur Legault.

So far politics has played no role in the pandemic, and there were no significant Anglo-French skirmishes. Monsieur Legault may have expressed impatience, but he has managed the pandemic very well, in both English and French and has followed the same guidelines as other Premiers. 

Conclusion

The pandemic in Quebec has made several issues surface, including bilingualism. It would be my opinion, however, that the worst issue monsieur Legault faced was his nearly futile call for frontline workers and helpers. The Quebec government was dealing with a humanitarian disaster. By the way, some schools have reopened. There is a school next to my building, I could hear the children during recreation.

The latest numbers of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 5:34 p.m. on May 17, 2020:

There are 77,001 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada.

  • Quebec: 42,920 confirmed (including 3,562 deaths, 11,754 resolved)
  • Ontario: 22,653 confirmed (including 1,881 deaths, 17,360 resolved)
  • Alberta: 6,644 confirmed (including 127 deaths, 5,453 resolved)
  • British Columbia: 2,428 confirmed (including 141 deaths, 1,932 resolved)
  • Nova Scotia: 1,040 confirmed (including 55 deaths, 938 resolved)
  • Saskatchewan: 591 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 433 resolved)
  • Manitoba: 278 confirmed (including 7 deaths, 257 resolved), 11 presumptive
  • Newfoundland and Labrador: 260 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 249 resolved)
  • New Brunswick: 120 confirmed (including 120 resolved)
  • Prince Edward Island: 27 confirmed (including 27 resolved)
  • Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed (including 13 resolved)
  • Yukon: 11 confirmed (including 11 resolved)
  • Northwest Territories: 5 confirmed (including 5 resolved)
  • Nunavut: No confirmed cases
  • Total: 77,001 (11 presumptive, 76,990 confirmed including 5,782 deaths, 38,552 resolved)
    (19 May 2002: 78,072 cases, 5,842 deaths, 39,228 resolved)

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 17, 2020.

I think the time has come to delight English-speaking Quebecers and everyone else with Le Temps des cerises, (The Days of Cherries, Wikipedia). Our colleague Manuel Cerdá (A mi manera) wrote a post about it: Le Temps des cerises.

Yves Montand sings Le Temps des cerises. (I will post a short article, the lyrics, on this song.)

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© Micheline Walker
18 May 2020
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We, Quebec doctors…

16 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Just Society, Medicine, Quebec

≈ 4 Comments

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Ozias Leduc, Église de Saint-Hilaire, détail (Encyclopédie de l’Agora)

« L’art enseigne, renseigne. Il révèle l’âme. Nul doute qu’il a le pouvoir d’ordonner en un cosmos le chaos de l’inconscient. D’un désordre, d’une souffrance et d’un déséquilibre, il conduit à la stabilité, à l’harmonie et à la joie. »
(Ozias Leduc, tiré d’une lettre à Paul-Émile Borduas, 1943)

[Art teaches, informs. It reveals the soul. It has, no doubt, the power of ordering into a cosmos the chaos of the unconscious. From disorder, pain, and imbalance, it leads to stability, harmony and joy.]

In a very recent post, entitled Comforting Thoughts, I inserted a link to an article published by the BBC. I am quoting, first, a paragraph from my post, and, second, the article published by the BBC. Nurses are overworked and there are families who do not, or cannot, for lack of money, or time, participate in the care given a mother, a father, a brother, and other members of their family.

In Comforting Thoughts, I wrote that

“[w]e stayed with him [my brother] the entire afternoon and the little group returned to the hospital in the evening. I stayed home. I don’t want to know how much we paid in parking fees, but if members of his family did not help my brother, he would require the services of at least one professional twenty-four hours a day. A nurse came in to give him morphine and she obviously kept an eye on us, but he wasn’t alone.”

Researching Health Care, I found this article published by the BBC (UK). Home news from abroad. Doctors in Quebec earn approximately three times, perhaps more, the salary of a University teacher in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and they enjoy a lifestyle most of us can only dream of.

When I moved to Quebec, I could not find a doctor. I phoned and phoned and phoned. I was put on several waiting lists, to no avail. The doctors whose office I called always had “more patients than he or she could handle.” I ended up contacting the University of Sherbrooke’s Medical School. A secretary made an appointment for me at a CLSC, Fr / En, a public clinic. I would see an intern. No problem! My intern was a fine doctor and he was supervised. When his internship was over, he asked his supervisor to take me as a patient.

And I am not the only person facing this problem. Last week, I met a young woman who had waited 4 years to find a doctor and was sitting in the waiting area of a public clinic, or a CLSC (Centre local de services communautaires). She would see an intern. I reassured her. She had come to the right place.

An Aristocracy

As I wrote in my post, doctors were becoming an aristocracy. They work from 9 to 5 (9 to 17 hours) or less, and they may be on call. Some doctors ask that medicine not be discussed in their presence outside working hours: it would be too stressful. They need their rest and a private life.

Of course, but should people go untreated and nurses be so burdened that patient care is neglected. Nurses are leaving their chosen profession.

Ozias Leduc (Google)
Ozias Leduc (Google)
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Ozias Leduc (Google)

Let us now go to the BBC.

Home News from Abroad: the BBC (UK)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43336410

“Doctors from the Canadian province of Quebec have shocked the world by turning down a pay rise.

Why would anyone turn down a pay rise?

For doctors from Quebec, the answer is simple: patient care.

An eight-year, retroactive deal struck in February would see about 20,000 of the province’s medical specialists and general practitioners receive an annual salary increase ranging from about 1.4% to 1.8% each year [bold characters are mine].

That would mean that the province, which subsidises the bulk of doctors’ salaries, would be on the hook for an additional C$1.5bn ($1.2bn, £840m) by 2023.

It is a fair agreement, according to the unions representing Quebec doctors, who pushed for the deal with the province.

But not all physicians are on board – more than 700 physicians, both GPs and specialists, have signed a petition from Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime Public [Quebec Doctors for the Public System] saying they do not want the rise, and they would rather have the extra money go to patient care and services. The group represents doctors in the province who strongly support public access to healthcare.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43336410

Their cry for fairer distribution of government funding comes at a time when the healthcare system is under intense scrutiny.

On Wednesday, an independent report commissioned by Quebec’s Health and Welfare Commissioner found that physician salaries had doubled between 2005-15, while the hours doctors spent with patients declined.

Meanwhile, the province’s nurses are fighting for better working conditions and salaries. A picture of a bleary-eyed nurse posted on Facebook went viral and was shared more than 50,000 times in January.

“I’m so stressed that I have back troubles, enough to keep me from sleeping. I don’t want to go to work because I dread the workload that awaits me,” wrote Émilie Ricard, who said she alone was in charge of caring for 70 patients in one shift. “I come home and I’m crying with fatigue.”

We, Quebec doctors…

“We, Quebec doctors, are asking that the salary increases granted to physicians be cancelled and that the resources of the system be better distributed for the good of the healthcare workers and to provide health services worthy [of] the people of Quebec,” read the letter.

This sentiment has struck a chord with people across Canada and abroad.

The letter was described as “utterly Canadian” by Washington Post reporter Amy B Wang.

In Kenya, the doctors’ letter was greeted with shock, especially since last year Kenyan doctors went on a three-month strike for higher wages.

“It is almost unheard of that a worker would complain of a high salary from their employer,” wrote an article in the Kenya paper The Standard.

At home, the Quebec doctors have been praised by officials, but some of their colleagues have kept mum.

“If they feel they are overpaid, they can leave the money on the table. I guarantee you I can make good use of it,” said the province’s health minister Gaétan Barrette.

Quebec’s physician unions have not commented publicly about the call for less than the agreed-upon pay rise.

In Canada, healthcare is public and run by the provinces, not the federal government, which means that salaries can vary quite a lot from province to province.

The average salary for a physician nationwide was $339,000, according to the most recent data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

In Ontario, Canada’s largest province by population, the average specialist made C$403,500; in Quebec, they made C$367,000.

Conversely, family physicians in Quebec made C$255,000, while in Ontario they made C$311,000.

The Quebec doctors’ rebuff of a pay rise has put them at odds with many of their colleagues in other provinces.

The Ontario Medical Association has been fighting for higher wages with the province for years.

The province has cut fees twice in three years and the association still has not negotiated a contract with the province.”

End of quotation.

Conclusion

Why should medical doctors be paid three to four times a university teacher’s salary. I suspect that many doctors, those who are doctors mostly for the money, were disgruntled when the Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime Public refused a rise in salary. They may have been motivated to vote Dr Couillard out of office. As for nurses who had to look after 70 patients, they may have believed that the premier was at fault. Not quite!

In Quebec, future doctors enter Medical School after grade 11 + 2 years in a CEGEP  (General and Vocational College). They can start earning money earlier than doctors living elsewhere. They are also protected by powerful syndicates. But so few doctors are available that when one retires, his or her patients are devastated. Yet, between 2005-15, a physician’s salary doubled while nurses looked after 70 patients.

What about the wages of an overworked nurse, old-age pensions, and disability benefits? A nurse’s salary does not double in ten years. As for disability benefits, they never go up. The amount is 60% of the salary one earns the last year one works. After 15 years, one’s financial security is endangered. At age 73, now 74, I had to take a mortgage to buy a one-bedroom apartment. But I’m not complaining.

—ooo—

I thank the doctors, the Médecins québécois pour le Régime public, who turned down a rise in salary and I am glad that the working conditions of nurses have been brought to the attention of the world.

Taking care of Jean-Pierre was a full-time occupation, and the nurse assigned to him was looking after other patients. She was a fine nurse, but she was probably relieved to see that members of Jean-Pierre’s family were taking care of him. She did not want to neglect a patient. She told us about the little beds available to family and friends who preferred not to leave a dying relative. We were happy to learn that there were little beds for the family.

Jean-Pierre died graciously. He thanked the staff for the fine care he had received. He thanked the priest who administered the Last Rites and he told all of us that he had simply reached his expiry date: sa date d’expiration, which is a date all of us have to face.

 

Love to everyone 💕

Tomás Luis de Victoria

O Magnum Mysterium -The Sixteen Christophers

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Judith, Ozias Leduc, c 1914 (Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec)

© Micheline Walker
16 October 2018
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Comforting Thoughts…

13 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by in Canada, Quebec, Sharing

≈ 20 Comments

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Colour Sketch for the Decoration of the Chapel of the Bishop’s Palace, Sherbrooke: “The Annunciation,” Ozias Leduc, 1922. (Musée des beaux-arts du Canada/National Galery of Canada)

Yesterday, my nephew François took me to see my brother Jean-Pierre. He is hospitalized in the very large building I showed in an earlier post.

When we arrived, a priest was giving him the Last Rites. The priest invited all of us to kiss him and leave him a message. No one knows how long he will live, but he is in a room for the dying.

My brother is very weak. He can barely lift his head from the pillow and he cannot sit in bed without the help of three persons, one for each arm and a person who rearranges his pillow.

We stayed with him the entire afternoon and the little group returned to the hospital in the evening. I stayed home. I don’t want to know how much we paid in parking fees, but if members of his family did not help my brother, he would require the services of at least one professional twenty-four hours a day. A nurse came in to give him morphine and she obviously kept an eye on us, but he wasn’t alone.

Good News

I have good news. Quebec doctors were becoming an aristocracy:

“On Wednesday, an independent report commissioned by Quebec’s Health and Welfare Commissioner found that physician salaries had doubled between 2005-15, while the hours doctors spent with patients declined.”

Why Quebec doctors have rejected a pay rise

By Robin Levinson-King, BBC News, Toronto
8 March 2018

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43336410

However, here is what doctors themselves did in late February 2018.

We, Quebec doctors, are asking that the salary increases granted to physicians be cancelled and that the resources of the system be better distributed for the good of the healthcare workers and to provide health services worthy to the people of Quebec, the letter posted on 26 February states

 

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L’Heure mauve, Ozias Leduc, 1921 (Virtual Museum of Canada)

L’Esprit : une expression de la transcendance

Ozias Leduc L’heure mauve, 1921 huile sur papier, monté sur toile 92,4 x 76,8 cm Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal Don de Madame Samuel Bronfman en l’honneur du soixante-dixième anniversaire de son mari © Succession Ozias Leduc / SODRAC (Montréal) 2003
Love to everyone  💕

A. VIVALDI: «Filiae maestae Jerusalem» RV 638 [II.Sileant Zephyri], Ph.Jaroussky/Ensemble Artaserse

image (3)

Ozias Leduc, L’Archange saint Michel, fusain [charcoal] sur papier, 1894, 43 x 35 cm, collection Huguette Leblanc et Guy Gagnon

© Micheline Walker
12 October 2018
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Quebec’s Elections and Notes on Ozias Leduc

10 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Canada, Quebec, Sharing

≈ 6 Comments

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Le Jeune Élève d’Ozias Leduc, 1894 (Musée des beaux-arts du Canada)

Leduc-Chasse-aux-canards-par-un-matin-brumeux2-Huile-sur-toile-11-x-15-85-000

Chasse aux canards par un matin brumeux (Hunting for Ducks on a Foggy Morning), Ozias Leduc (Galerie Michel Bigué)

I added a paragraph to my last post, after it was published. By and large, posts are not read twice. I am therefore publishing what you haven’t read.

One paragraph in Wiki2.org’s entry entitled Official Language Act (Quebec) seems reassuring. Quebec’s Language Laws, Bills 22 and 101, do not take rights away from English-speaking Canadians. Their children may attend an English-language school. But the children of immigrants, are required to attend a French-language school. All signs, such as traffic signs, must be predominantly, if not entirely, in French. I remember mentioning in a post that a Quebec café or restaurant owner was required to remove the letters WC from the door to a public toilet room. WC (water closet) may be used in France, but not in Quebec. Stop signs are called arrêts in Quebec. In short, Quebec insists on looking French. Traffic monitors and advertising displays are in French.

Concerning ‘unilingualism’ in Quebec, it is useful to read the entries entitled Official Language Act (Quebec) (Bill 22) and Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). (Wiki2.org.)

I did not quote the introductory paragraph but quoted the paragaph following it.

That English was an official language in Quebec as well, was declared on July 19, 1974, by McGill University law faculty’s most expert counsellors, disputing Bill 22. The testifiers were Dean Frank R. Scott, John Peters Humphrey, chief planner of the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, Irwin Cotler and four additional legal teachers:

Section 1, which provides that French is ‘the official language of the province of Quebec,’ is misleading in that it suggests that English is not also an official language in Quebec, which it is by virtue of Section 133 of the BNA Act and the federal Official Languages Act. … No legislation in the National Assembly proclaiming French the sole official language in the province can affect these bilingual areas protected by the BNA Act.

(See Official Language Act [Quebec], Wiki2.org.)

Although this paragraph is reassuring, to my knowledge, when Premier Robert Bourassa said that the province of Quebec would be unilingual (French), he meant ‘officially’ unilingual. Given that Canada’s official languages are French and English, why would Premier Bourassa say that Quebec would, henceforth, be a unilingual province, i. e. ‘officially’?

In other words, the rights of English-speaking Canadians are respected under the Official Languages Act of 1969, as per the paragraph I quoted. One difficulty arises for French-speaking Quebecers. After the age of 11, children are unlikely to acquire native fluency in a second language, but there are exceptions. Some individuals speak eighteen languages by the age of 18. They may make mistakes and they may have an accent, but… However, a large number of French-speaking Quebecers find ways of teaching English to their children. English is a North-American reality.

I have two students who mastered French. My star student is Gillian Pink, from Antigonish. Gillian is working at Oxford University.

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Candlelight Study, Ozias Leduc, 1893 (Google)

Language Bills, Referendums, and Sovereignty

Let us return to Bill 22 and Bill 101. I have noted that there was an exodus from Quebec when Bill 22 was passed. In my opinion, Bill 22 was seen as a step in the direction of sovereignty. So have Bill 101 and the two referendums (1980 and 1995).

Quebec’s new Premier, François Legault, has stated that there would not be another referendum, but he and members of Coalition avenir Quebec will be seeking greater autonomy for Quebec. What does he mean? Quebec Premier René Lévesque did not sign the Constitution Act of 1982, and none of his successors have done so. The fact remains that I’ve been in the midst of an identity crisis for sixteen years, or since I left Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

My Quebec Health Insurance Card does not cover the cost of appointments with a doctor in provinces other than Canada. Yet, I am a Canadian, but a French-speaking Canadian living in Québec, whose mother tongue is French, who loves French literature, but who speaks English fluently and feels Quebec is safer as a province of Canada, than a country.

I believe that all Canadians are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but the Constitution Act of 1982 enshrines the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is entrenched in the Constitution Act of 1982, which Quebec has not signed. Usually, Ottawa, the federal government, rescues Quebecers. It may have found a niche for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or the Charter may exist separately. The BNA Act may be more permanent legislation.

However, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires all provinces to provide primary and secondary education to their official-language minorities at public expense.

(See French Language in Canada, Wiki2.org.)

Conclusion

Would that Quebecers had not elected a party advocating greater autonomy for Quebec. Quebecers have to protect their language, but greater autonomy for Quebec suggests distancing Quebec from other Canadian provinces.

May all Canadians live in peace and harmony. Culturally, I am French. But home is also Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where I owned a lovely blue house, across the street from the campus of St Francis Xavier University and St Ninian’s Cathedral.

Ozias Leduc

Ozias Leduc (8 October 1864 – 16 June 1955) is my featured artist. His subject matter is often religious. But his art is nevertheless diverse and still lifes seem a favourite subject. Well-known artist Paul-Émile Borduas was one of his students. I am embedding a video. It is a French-language video with a lyrical ambiance. A couple is getting on a raft that will take them to Ozias Leduc’s house. It may be the smaller house.

Ozias Leduc’s house (Google)
Ozias Leduc’s house (Google)

 

St Ninians’ Cathedral, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Closer to me, is St Ninian’s Cathedral, in Antigonish. Paintings in our Cathedral were the work of Ozias Leduc. I was in Antigonish when they were restored.

Love to everyone 💕

St. Ninian’s Cathedral, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Leduc’s Boy with Bread, 1892-99, National Gallery of Canada (Wiki2.org.)

© Micheline Walker
10 October 2018
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Quebec’s General Election: Reason took a Leave

08 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in Canada, Quebec, Sovereignty

≈ 8 Comments

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SAINT-SIMÉON, Marc-Aurèle Fortin, 1938 (Google)

Country vs Province

The Official Languages Act: 9 September 1969 (Liberals)

Quebec is a Canadian unilingual (French) province located in an officially bilingual (French and English) country. Consequently, Quebec does not comply with the Official Languages Act of 1969. The Official Languages Act put French and English on an equal footing in every province of Canada, regardless of demographics. In 1969, the citizens of 9 out of 10 provinces were predominantly English-speaking Canadians. When the Official Languages Act was passed, French-speaking Canadians could, at long last, be educated in French outside Quebec.

To Francophones living outside Quebec, the Official Languages Act seemed a miracle. Until then French-speaking Canadians, Catholics predominantly, could not attend a public French school. Typically, if financially possible, French-speaking Canadians enrolled in English-language Catholic private schools. My parents enrolled me at St Ann’s Academy, an all-girls Catholic private school in Victoria, British Columbia.

However, in 1974, five years after a “dream come true,” Quebec, under the leadership of Premier Robert Bourassa‘s Quebec’s Liberal Party[1] declared itself a unilingual province. It passed Bill 22. There was an exodus of English-speaking Canadians from Montreal, not to mention head offices or headquarters.

Bill 101: 1977 (Parti québécois)

In 1977, when Quebec elected the Parti québécois, under the leadership of its founder René Lévesque, the province passed Bill 101, which enshrines the Charter of the French Language.

Education being provincial legislation, under Bills 22 and 101, immigrants to Quebec were required to enroll their children in French-language schools. They were not invited to do so, but compelled, in an officially unilingual province located in an officially bilingual Canada. The birth rate had declined in mostly French-speaking Quebec. So, immigrants would give Quebec French-speaking children. In fact, as soon as they arrive(d) in Quebec, immigrants (young adults and adults) who did/do not speak French, took and still take, French courses. Matters remain as they were in the 1970s. Demographics have not been kind to Quebecers.

English being the global lingua franca, there was resistance to educating children in French, exclusively. Consequently, French-speaking immigrants, such as North Africans, settle(d) in Quebec.

Despite unilingualism, children born to English-speaking Canadians living in Quebec can study in English-language school.

200px-Quintus_Horatius_Flaccus

Horace imagined by Anton von Werner (Wiki2.org.)

“The aim of the poet is to inform and delight.”

Quebec’s Referendums


Do not remove this video. The CBC is a public service.

At no point, have Quebecers given their province a clear mandate to separate from Canada. Quebec has sought sovereignty through two referendums. The first took place in 1980, when René Lévesque was Premier of Quebec. The second was held in 1995. A little less than half of Quebec’s citizens said ‘no’ to sovereignty, and a province’s sovereignty is too important a matter to be decided in a 50/50 referendum. Canada passed its Clarity Act (Bill C-20). Quebec is not a country. It is a province.

The Constitution Act of 1982

Not only is Quebec an officially unilingual province, but René Lévesque did not sign the Constitution Act of 1982, nor have subsequent Quebec Premiers. Yet, Quebec, led by George-Étienne Cartier, was one of the four original signatories of the Constitution Act of 1867. Once again, at no point have Quebecers given their province a clear mandate to negotiate sovereignty.

For my own safety, I would not visit with members of my family living on the west coast without first taking a private insurance. Yet I am a Canadian and, as a Canadian, my Health Insurance Card should be valid everywhere in Canada: banana leaves and wet ceramic floors!

Conclusion

Premier Couillard’s Quebec Liberal Party erased Quebec’s deficit and Quebecers are employed. There has to be a reason to defeat a leader and a reason to elect a leader. There was no reason to defeat Dr Couillard and no reason to elect François Legault. Under monsieur Legault’s Coalition avenir Québec (Coalition for the Future of Quebec), the province will remain unilingual. Quebecers whose French is impoverished will blame others: les Anglais. The Constitution Act of 1982 will not be signed. While monsieur Legault prospers, Quebec’s social programmes will be endangered: “austerity,” he says. More autonomy for Quebec is an objective, and a door will be slammed to curb immigration. (See Coalition avenir Québec, Wiki2.org.) Just who was behind this “victory?” On October 1st, 2018, reason took a leave in Quebec, or so it appears.

As a university teacher, I taught French as a second language and French literature to English-speaking Canadians. Concerning ‘unilingualism’ in Quebec, it is useful to read Wikipedia’s entries entitled Official Language Act and Charter of the French Language.

Section 1, which provides that French is ‘the official language of the province of Quebec,’ is misleading in that it suggests that English is not also an official language in Quebec, which it is by virtue of Section 133 of the BNA Act and the federal Official Languages Act. … No legislation in the National Assembly proclaiming French the sole official language in the province can affect these bilingual areas protected by the BNA Act.

(See Official Language Act, Wiki2.org.)

 

Love to everyone 💕
_______________
[1] Quebec’s Liberal Party has been independent of Canada’s Liberal Party since 1955.

LAFRESNIÈRE, PREMIÈRES NEIGES, Marl-Aurèle Fortin, c. 1923-1928 (Galerie Klinkhoff)

© Micheline Walker
8 October 2018
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Maria Chapdelaine

20 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by in Art, French-Canadian Literature, Quebec, Regionalism

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The Chapdelaine Farm, by Clarence Gagnon

The Chapdelaine Farm by Clarence Gagnon

This post was published on 26 January 2012. It was one of two posts on Maria Chapdelaine. These earned me an invitation, by Montreal’s Writer’s Chapel Trust, to the unveiling of a plaque honouring Louis Hémon. Unexpected events prevented me from attending, but I am thankful for the invitation and regret not attending.
See Related Post: Regionalism in Québec Fiction: Maria Chapdelaine.

Louis Hémon[i]

This is the first post I wrote on Maria Chapdelaine. I went on to write a second one.

French author Louis Hémon (12 October 1880 – 8 July 1913) moved to Canada in 1911. By then he had already published several books. As for his Maria Chapdelaine, he wrote it during the winter of 1912-1913, sent his manuscript to France and started travelling west.

Hémon died in a train accident at Chapleau, Ontario.  Had he travelled a little further he would have met the descendants of voyageurs, Métis, and aristocrats referred to as “The French Counts.”[ii] They had settled in the Assiniboia region: Count Henri de Soras, the Marquis de Jumilhac, Viscount Joseph de Langle, Count de Beaulincourt and others.

Church at Peribonka by Clarence Gagnon

Historical Background: two choices

  • L’Exode or Exodus[iii]

Louis Hémon came to Quebec during a period of its history when there was very little work for French-speaking Canadians inhabiting Quebec and Acadia. This period of Canadian history is called the Exode. Nearly a million French Canadians and Acadians moved to the United States where they could work in factories.

  • The Curé Labelle: colonisation

This could not be the Church’s best choice. One priest, the famed Curé Labelle (24 November 1833 – 4 January 1891), was the chief proponent of colonisation. He urged French-Canadians to settle north and “make land,” faire de la terre, faire du pays, as their ancestors had done. This was their mission.

—ooo—

Making Land: Samuel’s Choice

So making land had been Samuel Chapdelaine’s choice. He had taken his family to the Lac Saint-Jean area where he and his sons were turning inhospitable land into arable soil. I should think Hémon named Samuel Chapdelaine after Samuel de Champlain, whom we could call the founder of New France.

Louis Hémon in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean

When Louis Hémon arrived in Canada, 1910, he lived in Montreal. But two years later he travelled north and stopped at Peribonka, in the Lac Saint-Jean area. At first, he worked as a farmhand, helping “settlers,” but, as noted above, he spent the winter of 1912-1913 writing Maria Chapdelaine.

Hémon had sent his manuscript to France but he never savored the success of his novel. It was serialized in France in 1914 and published by J. A. Lefebvre in Quebec in 1916, with black and white illustrations by Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté. It was an  international bestseller. An English translation, by W. H. Blake, was published in 1921.

Maria Chapdelaine

There is a summary of Maria Chapdelaine (just click on the title) on the website of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, housed in Kleinburg, a village just north of Toronto. Clarence Gagnon‘s (8 November 1881 – 5 January 1942) 1933 illustrations of Maria Chapdelaine are part of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Napoléon Laliberté by Clarence Gagnon

A Summary of the Plot

However, I will summarize the summary.

Maria is the daughter of a “settler.” She is a little plump, but beautiful. One Sunday, the day on which parishioners get together and chat, Maria meets François Paradis. François is a sort of coureur des bois, voyageur, canoeman, lumberjack: the mythic fearless pioneer.

When François meets Maria, he is attracted to her and tells her that he will stop by her family’s farm before escorting Belgian travelers who are looking for fur. Maria and François fall in love. They will be married when he returns from the logging camp. However, he dies in a blinding snowstorm attempting to visit with Maria on New Year’s Eve.

Eutrope Gagnon and Lorenzo Surprenant: the other suitors

Maria has two other suitors: Eutrope Gagnon, a settler and neighbour, and Lorenzo Surprenant, who has travelled from the United States to find a bride. What Lorenzo has to offer is an easier life: no black flies, no back-breaking labour, milder weather, nearness to a Church and to stores. She is genuinely tempted to marry him, despite the fact that she is not in love with him. For Maria, love died the day François died.

However, she rejects Lorenzo. She will marry Eutrope Gagnon, a settler, and will live as her mother lived. When she is making her decision, she hears voices telling her that in Quebec, nothing must die and nothing must change: « Au pays de Québec rien ne doit mourir et rien ne doit changer… »

The names are all symbolic: Paradis for paradise; Surprenant; for surprising or amazing; and Gagnon for winning.

Beaver Coin

My summary of Maria Chapdelaine may have diminished Maria’s suitors. But Hémon makes them very real and anxious to live their lives, which means taking a wife. Although it is a simple novel, finding a more focused, but somewhat stylized, account of life as it was in 1912 would be difficult.

Hémon describes Québec as un pays, a country. In 1937, Félix-Antoine Savard will feature le délié, a person who is no longer tied (lié) to the land and is therefore looked upon as a man who sold himself: un vendu. (See Menaud, maître-draveur, Wikipedia.)

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Folklore: À la claire fontaine, Université de Moncton, Male Choir

(please click to hear the song)

Maria Chapdelaine can be read online. It is a Gutenberg Project e-book.
Maria Chapdelaine (Project Gutenberg, FR) [EBook #13585]
Maria Chapdelaine (Project Gutenberg, EN) [EBook #4383]
Maria Chapdelaine PDF FR
Canadian literature: The Montreal School, 1895–1935
First serialized in Le Temps (1914) (Paris)
Published in book form in 1916 (Montreal)
Translated into English in 1921 (W. H. Blake)
Translated into all the major languages
 
____________________
[i] “Louis Hémon.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/261010/Louis-Hemon>. 
 
[ii] Ruth Humphrys, “Dr Rudolph Meyer and the French Nobility of Assiniboia,” The Beaver (The Hudson’s Bay Company: Outfit 309:1, Summer 1978), p. 16-23. 
 
[iii] Maurice Poteet (ed.), Textes de l’Exode (Montréal: Guérin Litérature, coll. Francophonie, 1987).
 
Johannes Brahms: Drei Intermezzi, Op. 117, No. 2 
 
The White Horse, by Clarence Gagnon

The White Horse by Clarence Gagnon

© Micheline Walker
26 January 2012
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The “Canadianism” of Philippe Couillard, Premier of Quebec

16 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Canada, Liberal Party of Quebec, Quebec

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Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard speaks to delegates during the Quebec Liberal Party convention in Montreal, Sunday, June 14, 2015. Graham Hughes / THE CANADIAN PRESS

http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/don-macpherson-the-defiant-canadianism-of-quebec-premier-philippe-couillard

I am posting an article by Don MacPherson of the Montreal Gazette. It is an accurate résumé of Premier Couillard’s address to delegates. Mr MacPherson’s article should be posted.

—ooo—

By the way, I’m still working on my next post: nominations for the Versatile Blogger award.

Paul Robeson sings Antoine Gérin-Lajoie‘s Un Canadien errant. The first half of Mr Robeson‘s interpretation is in English. He then sings Un Canadien errant in very clear French. I have used this video before, but I feel it should be heard again.

Paul Robeson sings Un Canadien errant

The Canada Act, 1982
The Canada Act, 1982

© Micheline Walker
16 June 2015
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Quebec’s Liberal Party Convention

14 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Liberal Party, Quebec, Sharing

≈ 2 Comments

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32992

Black Hills Woman by Maxine Noel (Photo credit: www.mcmichael.com)

My readers from France love Maxine Noel’s art. I think her art is exquisite and others share that opinion.

quebec-premier-philippe-couillard-waves-to-the-crow-at-the-q

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard waves to the crowd at the Quebec Liberal Party convention in Montreal on Saturday. Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS

I apologize for not posting sooner. Quebec’s Liberal Party held its convention in Montreal and I was a delegate. Premier Philippe Couillard addressed us. He was reassuring. As you know, he and members of National Assembly have made cuts that many oppose. In the 60s and early 70s, Quebec leaders promised a welfare state.

Access to a free education is an admirable goal, but for this goal to be achieved, the government needs taxpayers. Separatism and terrorism caused many to leave Quebec and the money used to cover the costs of a welfare state is collected through taxation. If people leave, the number of taxpayers is reduced.

Moreover, several workers insist on being paid on a cash basis, nothing is deducted from their income. Tax evasion also precludes a welfare state. It isn’t an option. Why should people who pay their taxes support those who are able to conceal more substantial earnings? I am not discussing the wages of cleaning ladies.

Amendments

  • young Liberals given a stronger voice

We were amending the constitution. It was a long process. Therefore, I will mention only one topic. It was decided that young Liberals would be given a stronger voice in the Party.

I was a witness to the student strikes of 2012 and felt reticence supporting this amendment. In 2012, students were willing to break the law and they did break the law so their tuition fees would not be raised.

Young Liberals may well be better young citizens than other young citizens, but that is not necessarily the case. Many were brought up at the same time as the students who created mayhem in 2012. In fact, many were brought up in the same milieu.

However, I recognize that they are the future. Let them see the bills and let them also see whether or not they have the money to pay these bills.

We escaped a reenactment of the 2012 student strikes this spring. Students started to demonstrate, but injunctions were issued and the Quebec government decided it would not fund an extra semester if students had not completed their term. The 2012 strike cost millions of dollars.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-will-cancel-session-if-student-strike-continues-education-minister

Security: Staggering

At any rate, what I had witnessed here in Sherbrooke when Liberals last met was a mere sample of what I saw in Montreal. There was a large number of armed policemen and plainclothes security agents. I saw security personnel carrying machine guns. These were in bags, but the bags nevertheless concealed machine guns. One could tell by the shape. As for the delegates, all of us were meticulously screened. There was violence when members of the Liberal Party met in Victoriaville in May 2012.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/victoriaville-violence

Conclusion

Cutbacks are painful, but the government has to operate with the money it levies through taxation. Quebec’s prosperity is not endangered. It has untapped natural resources that should allow it to bounce back in the not-too-distant future. Despite cutbacks, we still enjoy universal healthcare and tuition fees will not be out of reach.

Reculer pour mieux sauter

However, there are times when one has to step back in order to get a better start (jump): reculer pour mieux sauter. The debt was too heavy.

This post is a Canadiana post, but it belongs to a subcategory: Quebec. The first in this series was Austerity in Quebec. It will appear on a Canadiana page.

There is more to tell about Gabriel Franchère. Moreover, I must report that I was nominated from the “Versatile Blogger” award by Petrel41: Dear Kitty1. WordPress.

I thank our colleague most sincerely. My next post will be devoted to this nomination.

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H3847-L50710362

Three Seated Figures by Maxine Noel (www.invaluable.com)

With kindest regards ♥

Daniel Barenboim plays Mendelssohn Songs Without Words Op.30 no.1 in E flat Major

eda8975682d6d1f11b74766ef96bb6d0© Micheline Walker
14 June 2015
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Beyond Bilingualism and Biculturalism

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in Quebec, Quebec history

≈ 6 Comments

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Statue_outside_Union_Station

Monument to Multiculturalism by Francesco Pirelli in Toronto; four identical sculptures are located in Buffalo City, Changchun, Sarajevo, and Sydney (Photo credit: Getty Images)

Bilingualism 

Investigating Canada’s status as a bilingual and bicultural nation was a difficult endeavour. It may have caused the death of André Laurendeau who served as co-chair of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism with Davidson Dunton. Davidson Dunton was not the problem. Laurendeau and Dunton were a compatible team.

Laurendeau died in 1968, at the age of 56, before the Official Languages Act of 1969  was passed. From 1963 until his death, his role “brought him considerable criticism from his nationalist colleagues. The stress caused by this criticism was blamed for Laurendeau’s relatively early death by historian Charles Godin.” (See André Laurendeau, Wikipedia.)

These years were very stressful for certain French-speaking Canadians. At the time, my father was the leader of British Columbia’s French-speaking community. He fell ill.

1. On the one hand, he had to deal with individuals who could not understand why their language was not an official language. They lived in communities where the population consisted of immigrants or the children of immigrants who were more numerous than the French-speaking community, if a French-speaking community there was. Britain yes, “they won the battle.” This could explain why Pierre Trudeau was motivated to pass a Multiculturalism Act.

2. On the other hand, my father had to face members of a French-speaking community many of whom wanted their French-language schools to be Catholic schools. For them, language and faith could not be dissociated. This question is central to the history of bilingualism in Canada, i.e. bilingualism outside Quebec. In Quebec, French schools were Catholic schools until the Quiet Revolution.

Yet, had the French language schools or Catholicism been threatened, it is unlikely that the Province of Quebec, led by Sir George-Étienne Cartier, PC, would have entered Confederation. The other three provinces that entered confederation in 1867 did not oppose Sir George-Étienne Cartier, nor did London, the senior authority in the matter. It is as though the Quebec Act of 1774 had left a permanent imprint. However, when I was a student, Catholic schools outside Quebec were private schools. I am a proud graduate of St. Ann’s Academy, in Victoria, BC. I am told changes have occurred and must investigate.

When it entered Confederation Quebec also kept its Code civil. In fact, if approved, Confederation would be an advantage for Quebec because it would rescind the Act of Union of 1841 that united Upper Canada (up the Saint-Lawrence River) and Lower Canada (down the Saint-Lawrence River).

“Maîtres chez nous”

“Maîtres chez nous” (masters in our own home)
the Language Laws
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day riot (1968)
the Parent Commission (education in Quebec)

During the not-so-quiet Quiet Revolution in Quebec, Quebecers were rebuilding their society and reorganizing their education system. The Parent Commission, named after its Président, Mgr Alphonse-Marie Parent, was established on 21 April 1961. Its mission, restructuring the education system in Quebec, and the passage of language laws in the 1970s, Quebec, are separate issues. If you know French, the video clips shown below are very revealing. It is stated quite clearly that education would be free. If students now go on strike, encourage civil disobedience, intimidate classmates and want to unionize, we can trace that behaviour back to earlier events.

Parent Commission:
http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/explore.php?
http://archives.radio-canada.ca/sports/education/clips/1137/
http://archives.radio-canada.ca/societe/education/clips/1152/

But the “maîtres chez nous” ideology was soon expressed by the Front de libération du Québec. We have already discussed the October Crisis of 1970 and the bombs. It was quite ugly. I have a good friend who saw separatist leader Pierre Bourgault direct thugs to start or join a riot during the 1968 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade in Montreal. My friend was standing a few feet away. Pierre Trudeau, the main guest, was sitting on a platform of honour but he refused to be led away by his bodyguard. Ironically, Pierre Bourgault is credited for creating Quebec’s National Day.

24 June 1968 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Riot

Multiculturalism: a “descriptive ” term

Yet official multiculturalism did happen. As we will see, it was enacted by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1988. However, Canada’s two official languages are English and French. No other language is an official language. In fact, official multiculturalism has been viewed as formal recognition on the part of Canada’s Federal Government that the people of Canada originate from approximately 200 countries (See Multiculturalism in Canada, Wikipedia). As such, it is mostly “descriptive.”

At this point in history, the majority of Canadians are no longer of French and British origin. Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced in the early 1970s that Canada would adopt a multicultural policy. Multiculturalism was recognized in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982). But, interestingly, New Zealand born and educated Peter Hogg, CC QC FRSC, Canada’s foremost authority on Canadian constitutional law,

“observed that this section did not actually contain a right; namely, it did not say that Canadians have a right to multiculturalism. The section was instead meant to guide the interpretation of the Charter to respect Canada’s multiculturalism. Hogg also remarked that it was difficult to see how this could have a large impact on the reading of the Charter, and thus section 27 could be more of a rhetorical flourish than an operative provision.’” (section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Wikipedia.)

Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is administered by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Multiculturalism was enacted by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and received royal assent on 21 July 1988. (See Multiculturalism, Wikipedia.) Quebec has not adopted multiculturalism. Its policy is interculturalism and it is an “operative provision.”

A Clarification of Terms: Canadian Multiculturalism and Quebec Interculturalism
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-group-pushes-interculturalism-in-place-of-multiculturalism/article569581/

I rather like Martha Nussbaum definition of interculturalism. She states that it involves “the recognition of common human needs across cultures and of dissonance and critical dialogue within cultures,” (Cultivating Humanity). We may differ in certain ways, but we are nevertheless all the same. Common affinities link humans to other humans. It is also very difficult not to rush to help another human being in distress. The manner in which we all became Charlie is an expression of commonality among human beings. Look at the Nepal tragedy. Kind souls have travelled long distances to help victims.

It would be my opinion that multiculturalism is a very short distance away from interculturalism. One cannot simply stand next to another human being. Canadian multiculturalism has been compared to a mosaic. At first sight, it may be. But Quebec does not want a mosaic. It wants an intercultural French-speaking society.

Conclusion

In short, I doubt very much that bilingualism and biculturalism were the goals pursued by Quebec’s Révolution tranquille “nationalists.” That was happening mostly outside Quebec and may not have been perceived as protection of the French language by Quebecers whose objective it was to protect their own language, an objective akin to the goals of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism.

Consequently, in the 1960s and 1970s, Québécois were not good candidates for biculturalism or multiculturalism, a federal project. They wanted to be “maîtres chez eux,” masters in their own home. But the declining birthrate that began in the 1960s motivated Québécois to integrate immigrants, who had to learn Quebec’s official language, French, which was interculturalism.

However, failure to learn English is not an option, not in this world. It could be that Québécois are too afraid of losing their language. Yet knowing English and other languages can improve one’s self-image and definitely benefits the human mind, not to mention, ironically, knowledge of one’s mother tongue.

Besides, in 1969, while Québécois were restructuring their education system, Canada did pass its Official Languages Act, reaffirmed by the 1988 Official Languages Act, which protects the French language and cannot possibly harm Quebec.

Please accept my best regards. ♥

  1. Front de Libération du Québec (“Separatism”)
  2. October Crisis of 1970
  3. Official Language Act of 1974 (Bill 22) 
  4. Charter of the French Language of 1977 (Bill 101)
  5. Canada Act of 1982 (the current Constitution)
114695-050-442B859D

Queen Elizabeth signing the Canada Act, Ottawa 1982 (Photo credit: Google Images)

Sources and Resources 

Royal Proclamation of 1763 (Aboriginal Rights, Article 35 of the Canada Act, 1982)
Official Languages Act (Canada; 1969, Canadian Encyclopedia)
Official Languages Act (Canada; 1988, Canadian Encyclopedia)
Official Languages Act, Government of Canada
Multiculturalism (Canadian Encyclopedia)
Interculturalism (The Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-group-pushes-interculturalism-in-place-of-multiculturalism/article569581/
A Clarification of Terms: Canadian Multiculturalism and Quebec Interculturalism
The Constitution Act (Canada; 1982, Canadian Encyclopedia)
The Constitution Acts, Government of Canada
The Canada Act PDF, Canada; 1982:
http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/CH37-4-3-2002E.pdf

—ooo—

Pierre Trudeau on Quebec

c140544
Pierre Trudeau sketch

© Micheline Walker
1 May 2015
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Quebec’s Language Laws

26 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in Quebec

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640px-Outside_Union_Station

Monument to Multiculturalism by Francesco Pirelli in Toronto; four identical sculptures are located in Buffalo City, Changchun, Sarajevo, and Sydney (Photo credit: Getty Images)

Canada is an officially multicultural society, but its official languages are English and French, with the exception of Quebec.

An Overview

Immigrants to Canada enter an officially bilingual country, by virtue of the Official Languages Act (Canada) of 1969 and the Official Languages Act of 1988.

The Official Languages Act of 1969

Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism

Canada became an officially bilingual country under the terms of the Official Languages Act (Canada), signed on 9 September 1969. Passage of the Official Languages Act (Canada) was the culmination of an inquiry conducted by the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, established by Prime Minister and Nobel laureate Lester B. Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE on 19 July 1963. The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism is sometimes called the Laurendeau-Dunton Commission. André Laurendeau, the editor-in-chief of Le Devoir, Quebec’s leading newspaper, and Davidson Dunton, the President of Carleton University, co-chaired the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. The findings of the Commission indicated that French-speaking Canadians were at a disadvantage and lived on a lower income than English-speaking Canadians and Italian immigrants. (See Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, Wikipedia.)

Laurendeau & Dunton
Dunton & Laurendeau

The Official Language Act (Quebec) 1974

Canada’s two official languages are French and English. However, since 1974, by virtue of the Official Language Act (Quebec) (Bill 22) the children of immigrants who choose to live in Quebec must attend a French-language school. Bill 22 was replaced by (Bill 101) or Charter of the French Language, a stiffer language law passed in 1977 by the Parti québécois (Parti Quécébois in English). Under Bill 22 and Bill 101, only children born to a Quebec English-Canadian parent and a French-speaking Canadian could attend an English-language school. This law was amended to include an English-Canadian parent born outside Quebec.

Bill 22 was a Law to promote the French language in Quebec (Loi pour promouvoir la langue française au Québec). It superseded Bill 63 passed in 1969, when l’Union Nationale leader Jean-Jacques Bertrand was premier of Quebec. Premier Bertrand was in office from 1968 to 1970. Bill 63, presented by Jean-Guy Cardinal, Quebec’s Minister of Education, in 1969, allowed parents to enrol their children in either French-language or English-language schools.

In 1970, the Parti libéral du Québec, led by Robert Bourassa, was voted into office. Four years later, under the leadership of Robert Bourassa, Quebec’s Official Language Act (Quebec), or Bill 22, was passed. It made French the only official language of Quebec. For Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Bill 22 was a “slap in the face.” (See Charter of the French Language, Wikipedia.) It had been a mere five years since Canada had become an officially bilingual country.

Robert Bourassa lost the 1976 provincial election to Parti Quécébois founder and leader René Lévesque, whose government passed Bill 101, or the Charter of the French Language, a stricter enactment of Bill 22.

The Charter of the French Language

Education
Unilingual posting

The main purpose of Quebec’s Bill 22 and Bill 101 was to ensure that the children of immigrants to Quebec enrolled in French-language schools. Given its rapidly decreasing birthrate, Quebec began transforming immigrants into Québécois. This movement started in Saint-Léonard with the closure of an English-language school attended primarily by the children of Italian immigrants. People protested, at times violently. Bill 63 gave citizens the freedom of choice, causing indignation on the part of a sizable group of French-speaking Québécois.

http://www.panoramitalia.com/en/arts-culture/history/saint-leonard-conflict-language-legislation-quebec/2325/

http://larevolutiontranquille.ca/en/the-bill-63.php

However, the Charter of the French Language also required that Quebecers live in visibly French communities, hence unilingual posting and penalties for “offenders.” Its chief agency was and remains the Office québécois de la langue française, established in 1961 by Quebec Premier Jean Lesage, PC, CC, CD. Related agencies are the Conseil supérieur de la langue française, the office regulating toponymie, the naming of places, and other groups. The Charter of the French Language, la Chartre de la langue française, was introduced by Camille Laurin. 

The Referendums: 1980 & 1995

Quebec held two referendums on a renegotiation of Quebec’s ties with the government of Canada, or souveraineté-association (sovereignty-association). The first took place in 1980, two years before Quebec failed to sign Constitution Act of 1982. The second was held in 1995 but the result was too close to represent a clear “yes” or “no.”  More than 49% of the population of Quebec voted “yes.” The response of the Federal government (Ottawa) was the Clarity Act. The Clarity Act “was passed by the House on March 15, 2000, and by the Senate, in its final version, on June 29, 2000.”  (Wikipedia). The Quebec Government’s response to Ottawa’s response was the Act respecting the exercise of the fundamental rights and prerogatives of the Québec people and the Québec State, passed two days after the Clarity Act.

Remedial Measures

The Québécois nation motion, a  parliamentary motion tabled by Prime Minister  Stephen Harper, Canada’s current prime minister, was approved by the House of Commons of Canada on Monday, 27 November 2006. The English motion read: “That this House recognize that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada.” I am quoting Wikipedia.

In French, the motion read: “Que cette Chambre reconnaisse que les Québécoises et les Québécois forment une nation au sein d’un Canada uni.” (See Québécois nation motion, Wikipedia). This does not differ much from the souveraineté-association concept put forward by the Parti Québécois.

Bill 101 has been deemed unconstitutional and an infringement of Human Rights, but it has not been rescinded and schools are filled up with French-speaking Quebecers originating from various countries.

Chronology of the Language Laws

  1. Constitution Act, 1867: Section 133, but no official languages
  2. Laurendeau-Dunton Commission (1963 – 1969)
  3. Official Languages Act of 1969
  4. 1969: Act to promote the French Language in Quebec (Bill 63) http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/charte/reperes/Loi_63.pdf
  5. 1974: Official Language Act of 1974 (Bill 22)FR & EN http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/charte/reperes/Loi_22.pdf
  6. 1977: Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) EN http://www.canlii.org/en/qc/laws/stat/rsq-c-c-11/latest/rsq-c-c-11.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_on_Bilingualism_and_Biculturalism
  7. 1988: Official Languages Act of 1988
    http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/O-3.01/FullText.html

—ooo—

Temporary Conclusion

Bill 115

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/after-24-hours-of-debate-english-education-bill-becomes-law-1.564054

Bills allowing education in English in Quebec have been passed. One such bill is Bill 115, passed in 2010. However, I am excluding discussion of Bills making access to English-language schools easier from this post because I need to close it. All I will write is that Bill 101 has been amended six times and that Bill 115 facilitates an English-language education.

Bill 101 is problematical in that it is at cross-purposes with the Official Languages Act of 1969 and the Official Languages Act of 1988. It is also at cross-purposes with a finding and appropriate recommendation of the Laurendeau-Dunton commission: greater prosperity for French-speaking Canadians.

We live in a world where business is often conducted in the English language, which does not mean that one has to unlearn French. I know people who spent a lifetime being impeccably French in an English-language milieu.

Immigrants to Quebec have to attend French-language schools, which seems perfectly acceptable. Quebec needs Québécois. But this does not and should not preclude learning English. English is taught in French-language schools. Why should Quebecers isolate themselves?

Learning other languages is not necessarily detrimental to mastery of one’s mother tongue. Québécois live in French-language milieu. No one has to leave that milieu. In fact Quebec offers two main milieu: a French-language milieu and an English-language milieu. In this regard, Montreal is la crème de la crème as an environment. It is home to thousands of immigrants from all over the world.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Quebec built the Manicouagan Reservoir and there is further untapped wealth in Northern Quebec. Moreover Quebec has large enterprises, such as Bombardier and SNC Lavalin. These have offices abroad.

There’s nothing wrong with a little prosperity.

My kindest regards to all of you.♥

Félix Leclerc sings “L’Écharpe” (The Scarf)
photo14© Micheline Walker
26 April 2015
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