Anglo Quebec

BRENDA BRANSWELL, The Gazette

“Quebec’s controversial new curriculum is slated to be implemented in Grade 10 this fall, but a teachers association wants a reprieve because students in English schools don’t have the textbooks they need.

In a letter to Education Minister Michelle Courchesne this month, the head of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers asked that the curriculum not be put into effect in Grades 10 and 11 until English textbooks are available.”

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DAVID JOHNSTON,
The Gazette

“What I am talking about is speaking English with my travelling companions. I have overheard comments about being a ‘tête carrée’ and how surely I must know I am in this province and need to be speaking French.”

‘Taken together, the emails I received paint a picture of alienation. As someone who has travelled extensively in Quebec for The Gazette over the past 20 years, I know what it’s like to feel occasionally self-conscious of this sense of “otherness.” ‘

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DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette

“For once, a politician addressed a real language problem instead of its effects. For contrary to what the hawks contend, the problem is not that allophones are going to English-language CEGEPs.

Rather, it’s that parents of all languages want their children to be bilingual in French and English, but lack confidence in the teaching of second languages in the schools, especially the public ones.”

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Graeme Hamilton,
National Post

“The decline of Quebec’s English-speaking community — long looked upon with indifference, if not outright glee, by the francophone majority — will be the subject of a major academic conference opening tonight at the province’s largest French-language university.

Over three days, Quebec anglophones will be subjected to the kind of scrutiny usually reserved for vanishing Third World tribes as the conference at Universite de Montreal explores ways to “revitalize” the once-powerful anglo community.”

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national post

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The Canadian Press
“The aggressive Montreal driver is rarely shackled by rules of the road, but some French-language purists are worried that the stop signs people blow through increasingly read “STOP” instead of “ARRET.”

A handful of anglophone Montreal suburbs have opted to paint the S-word on their roadside octagons instead of the more obviously French alternative.”

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Its not normal for me to add editorial to the links ive found and posted on this blog, but this is one situation which I couldn’t ignore. Here is a picture of a road side stop sign from france.

[image source]

CBC News Reports

“The owner of McKibbin’s received a letter from the Office québécois de la langue française (OLF) earlier this month inquiring about the use of English signs inside.

The wall hangings include vintage advertisements for Guinness and the St. James Gate brewery in Dublin, posters the owners say add to the charm and ambience of their downtown establishment.”

[the full story] [again with more]

“An OLF inspector ruled McKibbin’s bilingual menu, bar service and vintage posters do not respect article 58 of Quebec’s language charter. ”

[http://www.mckibbinsirishpub.com/ the pub’s own site]

It seems the management have created a site to campaign for their situation.

[http://www.byebyeolf.com/ campaign to support]

Whilst clearly in a “billingual” society, everybody has the right to be served in whatever language they see fit. The attempted removal of decrative irish style signs in this manner is just plain silly.

[http://angryfrenchguy.com/2008/02/17/language-suicide-bombers/ other blogers]

The Gazette Writes…

“And so we would again complete a familiar ritual: Language police threaten business, owner goes to English media, Quebec begins to look bad, supporters of language law criticize language police for enforcing it, and language police back off.”

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 BRENDA BRANSWELL, The Gazette

“Among the interesting -and largely overlooked - findings in the survey of 1,500 administrators is that the percentage of English public school principals who received requests for exemptions or changes to school rules and practices for reasons related to diversity was twice as high as that of their franco-phone counterparts.

English public school administrators were also far more likely to make changes without receiving requests - 47.7 per cent vs. 13.9 per cent among principals in French public schools.”

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BBC News (UK) by Neil Hallows

“The British are notoriously bad at learning foreign tongues. But with Franglais, the late Miles Kington showed anyone could get by on holiday with just a petit peu of effort.”

“Although it wasn’t known as such then, Franglais is found in Shakespeare and has probably been used for as long as the English and French have had to talk to each other.”

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