New push to promote English for business in Quebec

Last Updated Fri, 15 Jul 2005 18:41:19 EDT
CBC News

"We have to keep the working milieu French," Alexandre Stefanescu, one of the authors of a report commissioned by Quebec's language office, told CBC News. But, he says, there must also be an acknowledgment that "part of the time must be passed in English."

The report says that in order to thrive businesses in the province need employees who speak English.

Anna Deluca agrees.

She speaks Italian, French and English every day at her vegetable stand at Montreal's Jean Talon market.

From her vantage, Quebec is becoming a more global society, and she says the dominant language of that society is English.

"Wherever you go, English is important, because even if you go in Italy, they understand you in English," Deluca says.

"In Spain – wherever you go – you need English."

Historically, language has been a politically-charged issue in the province.

In fact, one of the reasons the Parti Québécois government under Premier René Lévesque passed Quebec's language law in 1977 was a concern English was dominating the business world.

The new law, Bill 101, was called the Charter of the French Language.

The bill contained the declaration that French was to be the only language allowed on commercial signs in the province. With few exceptions, the use of English was banned.

Now, close to three decades later, Stefanescu says language laws should not change. But, he does think the government has to take a new approach and encourage all Quebecers to be bilingual.

Hardline separatists, such as former PQ advisor Yves Michaud, have made it clear they don't like the idea one bit.

Michaud told CBC News the French language is, in fact, in crisis, and that, if anything, laws should be tightened to offer more protection for French.

The Quebec government says it will take time to study the new report before making any changes.

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I see that the Québecois are still doing things backwards.

You cannot protect a language, no matter how much legislation you pass. The only way to make a language dominant is to use it, and you cannot force people to use a language simply for the sake of using it.

Languages become dominant when the cultures that use them become dominant; they die out when the cultures that use them die out. In Québec, and more importantly in most of the surrounding countries, the dominant culture speaks English, and so English is gradually eliminating French. This cannot change unless the French-speaking Canadians somehow make enough of a mark on society to encourage others to learn French. I don't see that happening at any point in the foreseeable future.

France has the same problem, but in a much milder form, since France has far more influence on the world than does Québec. There is no tendency for English to replace French in France itself today; the fact that many people learn English as a second language does not appear to be lessening the use of French as the language of everyday life. But that's because France has a strong Francophone culture to support the language. France does have legislation that encourages or requires the use of French in certain circumstances, but the real reason why French survives is that it has cultural and economic clout behind it. Unless the Québecois learn this vital reality and do something about it in their own country, they'll all be speaking English in the future.