Judging from the Parti Québécois rhetoric this election campaign, tightening Quebec’s language laws to promote the use of French and discourage the spread of English would be the major preoccupation of a PQ government.
Pauline Marois has pledged to introduce a new and more stringent version of Bill 101 within the first 100 days of a PQ government taking office after Tuesday’s provincial election. This new Bill 101 would incorporate some measures that even many francophones find excessive.
Notable among these is the plan to extend the language strictures that apply to public elementary and secondary schools to the CEGEP system. It is a measure that Marois initially opposed, but bent to under pressure from language hawks in her party who at the time posed a serious threat to her leadership.
Another major component of the PQ language policy is the plan to extend Bill 101 francization rules to businesses with as few as 11 employees; at present, only firms with more than 50 employees are so constrained.
And the latest proposal, floated this week by PQ candidate Jean-François Lisée, would favour immigrants who already use French as their main language over those who speak French as a second language.
These measures are routinely justified by the claim that they are imperative to maintain the dominance of French as Quebec’s common language, a status that proponents of more restrictive language laws maintain is under dire threat from a rising tide of English use, particularly in Montreal.
While the Péquistes are by far the shrillest fear mongers about linguistic drift, the two other major parties also seem to feel a need to pander to francophone hardliners, both by themselves proposing tougher language rules and enforcement and by shying away from vigorous denunciation of PQ excesses.
François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec would seek to extend Bill 101 rules on French in workplaces to federal agencies and private firms under federal jurisdiction, such as banks and transportation companies. It would further expand the role of the language-law enforcement agency, the Office québécois de la langue française, and increase its enforcement powers.
Even Jean Charest, whose Liberal Party has been heavily beholden to anglophone support, recently mused about matching the demand to extend Bill 101 to the federally regulated sphere, before hastily backtracking. And before the election, the Liberal government embarked on a hiring binge for OLF inspectors to toughen language-law enforcement.
In the face of this, one would think that French was in drastic decline and that the province is virulently torn by language strife. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The proportion of allophones attending French-language CEGEPs has been steadily rising to where it is now close to two-thirds, while fewer than five per cent of francophones opt for English CEGEP. Overall, the allophone and francophone CEGEP population has held steady at less than 10 per cent for going on two decades. As for workplaces, French is the sole or principal language of work for 86 per cent of employees.
In making the announcement about favouring mother-tongue francophone immigrants, Lisée cited figures showing that the number of people on Montreal Island who speak French at home has dropped to 54 per cent from 61 per cent in 1971. But that doesn’t necessarily mean a major decline of French. It is likely that most of those who don’t speak French at home can still speak it, and do so when required in their workplaces or in interactions with francophones.
In the streets of Quebec, including Montreal, there is relatively little evidence of language tensions. Complaints from francophones about not being served in their language tend to be greatly outweighed by anecdotal accounts about the joys of English-French coexistence.
Just a day ago there were two examples of this on The Gazette’s letters page. One missive was from an anglo married to a francophone (an increasingly prevalent social arrangement) recalling the free exchange of ideas in both French and English in the lobby after a Michel Tremblay play at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. Another was from a self-described French-speaking Catholic separatist effusively lauding his treatment for a spinal-cord injury at the Jewish General Hospital.
In a poll taken on the eve of the election call, Quebecers were asked what they consider the two most important issues facing voters. Protection and promotion of the French language came in 12th on a list of 15, with only seven per cent placing it in their top two.
From this it would seem that a lot of rhetoric in this campaign is being wasted on a non-existent problem.