Shameful Bilingualism

To permit the merest hint of language accommodation in Quebec to enable minority English-speakers to access information otherwise closed to them through a lack of facility with French is to impose a humiliating experience upon public servants in that province. A province of Canada, which is an officially bilingual country and where federal offices and many provincial offices along with municipalities in the rest of Canada make concerted efforts to provide translations for their French minorities.

That federal agencies must do so is the law. Quebec has passed a language law that explicitly frowns on the provocative presence of the English language in that pure laine province. The sound of English is painful to the ears of French speakers. We have it on the highest authority governing the province. The introduction of Bill 101 consolidated that position, making it mandatory through the Charter of the French Language that children in Quebec must attend French schools unless they or their parents have attended English elementary schools, and they are Canadian-born.

Hearings are currently in session into the new Parti Quebecois government's introduction of a supplementary bill (Bill 14) to strengthen existing legislation in support of the primacy of French, and the exclusion of English in the province. The Syndicat de la fonction publique et para-publique du Quebec (SFPQ) tabled a brief at the National Assembly, pointing out the dreadful experiences foisted upon public servants when faced with non-bilingual citizens.

Examples they provided were: A technician asked to submit an English version of a form to a company based in the province since its payroll department was located in Winnipeg, where the staff located there was not functional in the French language. A rental board clerk who deals on occasion with those incapable of understanding file decisions written in French, so he must therefore translate vital passages into English to aid in understanding.

"What emerges from these few testimonials is the obligation for frontline staff to provide services in English under pressure from citizens. While they should feel supported by their immediate superiors [in insisting on working in French], employees fear the warnings and penalties that could follow", testily observed the union. The issue of "shameful bilingualism" is making itself distastefully known in the workplace, and it is an intolerable issue, according to union president Lucie Martineau.

The PQ's new Bill 14 updating the language charter fails to address this issue. Making it abundantly clear that the 'gaping holes' existing in the original Language Bill 101 are not being adequately addressed. A government advisory body on language had something to say about the dreadful situation as well; that fewer people in Montreal work exclusively in French than was common 20 years ago. Strange; this despite research showing that the French language is secure now, and more Quebecers are comfortable using it, but this is not sufficiently satisfactory for the language police of Quebec.

"We must repair the gaping holes left by Bill 101 that allowed rampant bilingualism to infiltrate the public administration. The SFPQ asks that Bill 14 clearly state that the public administration provide services exclusively in French [except in the case of school boards, health institutions and municipalities serving majority English populations.]"  From the very minute that immigrants step onto Quebec soil all provincial government communications should be French only. And that proviso should include First Nations members.

The requirement that knowledge of English be permitted when hiring if the position demands it should also be re-thought and removed. Communication outside of Quebec should be the only instance in which knowledge of English when hiring provincial workers, should be permitted, according to the union. 

Mayors of two Montreal suburbs made their own presentations. Their concerns revolve around the issue that Bill 14 would disallow official bilingual status to their towns, from communicating in English with their citizens, to posting bilingual signs and drafting bilingual bylaws. The mayor of Cote Saint-Luc had this to say: "I can tell you that if someone tried to come to Cote Saint-Luc to touch our bilingual status and say we are going to lose our bilingual status, you are going to have chaos, you are going to have opposition that you cannot even imagine with people in the streets and you are going to lose the linguistic peace."

Question: What linguistic peace?