As you can tell, I don’t know my Roman numerals.  What I do know is that feeling I get when I am seeing something for the hundredth time.  Have I lived in Montreal for a hundred days yet?  I think I have.  And what continues to strike me is that on every single one of those days, when I pick up a French newspaper, there is an article about the language wars.  I know I’ve mentioned this in my blog before, but I’ll say it again, because I don’t think many people outside of Quebec realize it.  Language is THE issue here.  It is the one issue that never, ever goes away.  It is the one issue that does not look like it will ever go away.

Here is today’s episode, culled from the Metro, a newspaper read by thousands of commuters on …  the Metro! 

“Cinq minsteres francisent leur message d’accueil.”

In this article, we discover that last year, nine provincial ministers were aggressively hounded by language militants who were outraged by the answering messages at the ministers’ offices.  The messages said, “For service in English, press 9.”  The language militants demanded that this sentence be played at the very end of the message rather than the beginning.  The leader of the Mouvement Montreal francais, Mario Beaulieu, is quoted as saying that these phone messages are “the tip of the iceberg.”  It gives the false impression that Quebec is a bilingual state.

Five ministers have since bowed to pressure from the militants to put the English sentence at the end of their phone messages.

That was not the only article today about language.  Oh no!  There is an article about Pauline Marois, who, among other things, promises a complete cleaning out of the Quebec Office for the French Language, who are not being vigiliant or assertive enough in the defence of Quebec’s mother tongue.

I really do support the protection of the French language.  Believe me, I do.  I am in Montreal because it is French.  In my opinion, I am just the sort of migrant who should be welcome here.  I speak French, and I would love to speak it even better, I deliberately chose to live with a Francophone room-mate in a Francophone neighbourhood so that I could immerse myself in the culture and learn it to the best of my ability.

But “protection” should not be the frame through which we see a language and culture.  The heavy hand of the state cannot, by itself, ensure that Quebec prospers as a French jurisdiction. 

People must WANT to live here.  What Quebec needs is to become so embarrasingly successful and prosperous and culturally rich, that people are LINING UP to come here and learn French in order to become part of the boom.  I’m not arguing that Quebec become an Alberta.  It’s not strictly in economic terms that Quebec will win the hearts and minds of immigrants.  Quebec already offers a lifestyle that in certain qualitative respects is so superior to that of Alberta that all it would take is a bit more prosperity and economic dynamism, and things could get rolling.  They could!  No?  Am I dreaming?

I want to see this province thrive and preserve French with a spirit of optimism and forwards thinking.  Not through some knee-jerk and bigoted defence of the past.  Whatever the past is.

The fact is, unlike the days of old, the Quebecois are not an oppressed people.  They truly are not!  It’s time to lose that victim mentality.  They are “masters” chez-eux.  Now they have the power, are they going to use it in the spirit of inclusion, generosity, and welcoming?

Let’s not even use the words accommodation and tolerance, which are themselves part of the ugly language wars.  Immigrants are not people to be accommodated or tolerated by the people of Quebec.  They are the people of Quebec.

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The pleurisy deserves its own blog.  I had a very very light workout at the gym today.  I did not tax my lungs at all.  I stretched a bit and tried to wear off the rust of sitting in front of the computer so much.  I think I’m getting better.  I’m almost sure I’m getting better.

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