Scourge of English Unilingualism

It's encouraging (we think) that the pursuit of separation has died on the back burner, in Quebec. That, unexpectedly, surprisingly, (perhaps gratifyingly), the younger francophone cohort suddenly appears to have lost interest in nationalism that might spell separation. Perhaps they, unlike their elders, have come to a realization that Quebec needs Canada. It certainly makes things work, on a fiscal edge, with transfer payments enabling the province to offer its citizens what in other provinces would be seen as impossibly too like a welfare state.

That expensive way of life comes with its own burdens. But it would be utterly unattainable without Quebec's financial dependence on the other Canadian provinces which have good-heartedly taken up the acknowledged responsibility that each feels to the well-being of the other. It's like, however, in Quebec's case, the entitled family ingrate who grumbles unceasingly, but never fails to put his hand out when the goodies are being shared out, insisting that he's being short-changed the while.

So now that incendiary threats of separation have simmered down, the tradition of resentment has to pop up in other ways, for Quebec is notoriously ill-natured to the rest of Canada. Never feeling sufficiently appreciated, as a truly exceptional, uniquely admirable and effervescently entitled and important province whose presence in Confederation blesses Canada beyond belief. It is beyond belief, actually, when gauging the level of Quebec's schizophrenic self-love/detestation of others complex.

But on to the new mode of expressing cultural/linguistic superiority. To which language as culture is as it has always been, fundamental and up-front. Suddenly, it has become fashionable to curl one's lip in utter disdain at the efforts made by bilingual Quebecers whose mother tongue is English. And whose French however colloquial it is - which makes France curl its cultural lip - is considered to be a parody and an insult to the nobility of the language.

It has become a mark of the inclusiveness and appreciation of some French nationalists to spurn the imperfect French inflections of Anglophones who feel themselves to be comfortable in, and fluent in French. Those whose French has been adequate over the years in their public lives, sufficiently so to enable them to take up public lives in French, suddenly find their French mocked. Quebec has found a new resentment to flog.

Two recent insults, where the federal government has overlooked the imperative to appoint fluently bilingual individuals to top positions (Auditor General and Supreme Court Justice) have enraged the brittle sensibilities of Quebec francophones. (And the new francophone-dominant NDP.) French talk-show hosts have taken to sarcasm when discussing the French-language deficiencies of French anglos who pride themselves on their abilities in conversational French.

"I don't pretend to have a charming accent, and I don't pretend to speak perfectly. That's not the point. The point is nobody's ever had a problem with my French.
"Bad enough that there are people who don't speak French or haven't made an effort to learn it. For those who do to be attacked for actually working in French, that is mind-boggling to me." Montreal city councillor Marvin Rotrand

Quebec anglophones, in fact, have made a considerable effort to become bilingual. The rate of bilingualism rose to 68.6% in 2006 from 61.7%a decade earlier. And francophone Quebecers, how's their rate of bilingual efficiency? Try 35.8% on for size. That's a pathetic rate of capacity in English for people living in a majority-English country.