For over 35 years, Quebec's non-French speaking minority has been (for lack of a better word) oppressed. English has been banned in certain businesses, for a long period of time it was banned on all commercial signs. Essentially, English-speaking residents of the province (known as Anglophones, or "Anglos") are treated as though they are unwanted and inferior. Every now and then, an Anglo rights group emerges, but they always prove to be ultimately unsuccessful in maintaining public support. Well, the latest effort is being made at forming a political party to speak on behalf of those whose first language is not French: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/01/22/qc-affiliationquebec.html.
I don't know where this will go, but wish the party all the success in the world. For too long, the French majority in Quebec has trampled the rights of those who either do not speak French or for whom it is a second language.
As an aside, I have long thought that French-speaking Quebecers (or their political leaders, more specifically) are the North American answer to the Palestinians (without the rocket attacks and homicide bombings, of course). They specialize in grievance theatre, complaining constantly that any problem that affects Quebec is the fault of the English-speaking "Rest of Canada". They whine, they seethe, and generally govern themselves with a sense of entitlement that no other Canadian has. Don't get me wrong; I am not condemning all French Canadians--I grew up in Montreal, in Quebec, and spent the first 25 years of my life there (with the exception of one misbegotten year in Ottawa), and would not trade that for anything in the world. However, I feel that the province in which I grew up is not the same place it is now, and that is truly a tragedy.
1 comment:
That's why there is such a high level of uncritical, pro-Palestinian sentiment in Quebec.
But it alway puzzles me that the Quebecois do not realize that Quebec's position in North America is much more reminicent of Israel's position in the Middle East: Israel is a distinct cultural and linguistic minuscule minority in an ocean of Arab-Islamic region the way Quebecois are a cultiral linguistic minority in an ocean of English speaking continent. Both historically struggled to keep and revive their own native language, and create vibrant cultural production of any kind. If anything, Israel can serve as an example how you can modernize and keep alive and well a language even when you are in a minority.
I am less puzzled about this seeming incongruity when I remember the history of antisemitism in this province...
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