When In Quebec ...

"We are all at home in Quebec -- francophones, anglophones, the First Nations, the allophones. You are Quebecers. Stop doubting. Stop asking permission to be Quebecers. Stop thinking that it's in the eye of the other that defines you as a Quebecer or not. You are Quebecers. Get over it. And tell others to get over it."
Jean-Francois Lisee, MNA, Minister of International Relations, and minister responsible for the anglophone community

Quebec's anglophone community continually receives disquieting news of new government initiatives whose end result will most surely continue to erode their language rights in the province. Oops, forget; English-speakers have no legal language rights in the province. They are completely at the mercy of those governing the province to allow the courtesy of the occasional tidbit of English to be used in the public sphere. Discrete and discreet.

The latest notice of change that will impact on language is the report of a proposal to withdraw a Lachine-area hospital from the English-language McGill University health network. That Montreal suburb represents a diverse population of French, English, allophone. A staunch and influential member of the Saint-Jean Baptiste Society has lobbied for the move to transfer the Lachine Hospital to a local French-language health network.

But wait, there's more. The Laurentian town of Ste-Agathe-des-Monts must now stop including a page of English news in its town bulletin on order of Quebec's language police. Ste-Agathe is but one of many municipalities upon whom similar orders have been imposed in view of their populations not representing majority anglophone strongholds. Simple courtesy to the 'other' is forbidden.

In the Montreal neighbourhood of Notre Dame de Grace merchants have been instructed they must remove stickers used to encourage residents to shop locally, as the stickers bear the slogan Je m'active a NDG/I'm active in NDG. All very well perhaps, but illegal since the English portion is equal in size to the French. English must know that in Quebec its presence is required to be a modest one.

The minister responsible for that precious heritage, emotive commodity - language, urges in her official capacity of watchdog, that all Quebecers join her in her sacred duty to protect and promote French. They should behave as though they are "sentries: of the language, and do their duty by reporting anything their critical eyes fall upon that looks like a linguistic infraction.