Foreword: If you are a pure separatist, or pure federalist then it's recommended for you to not read this article. This is a subject that is still very active in the politics of Quebec. I did not write this to attack a certain group. Instead I wrote this to give you a suggestion to what we can do to improve this province, what can we do to protect the very unique culture we hold here, a province that grew up as a bilingual. Enjoy...
If you live, visited or even read about Quebec you'll for sure encounter the presence of the law 101. Nearly 40 years ago this law was passed in the Quebec, and behind it was the "Parti Quebecois". This law was created to protect the French language in a "sea of English provinces and states". And ever since its creation in 1977, there has been political, public and personal tension between the English population of Quebec and the French Canadians. This is still a heated topic in our province today. Many have been affected by this law, if not all have been affected. It's been implemented into our thoughts. I'll be telling you why this law is actually damaging our province today and why it should be scrapped for a better, fairer law that will not protect only the French language, but the identity of Quebec as a whole!
Okay before I start rambling I'll explain you the Law 101 and its reason for existence. This law was approved on August 26, 1977 by Hugues Lapointe. Basically what the law demands was that services must be given in French, that the government must be running in French and that all signs must contain French to promote any business or products. It also forces immigrants to send their children to French schools. Businesses with 50 or more employees must be speaking French within the workplace. The list can continue, for quite a while. Now to many it seems fair because you do want to protect the French language in a province that has been heavily influenced by the English language for the past 2 centuries. Also the French Canadians do count for 3% of North America's population. Although French must be protected Law 101 is not a solution, actually after 40 years of dominance in the lives of Quebecers it is rather hurting the French language in Quebec.
Why does it hurt more than it protects? Well, it’s simple; it's causing a lot tension within diverse communities across Quebec, especially in the City of Montreal. This language law is the driving force behind the whole separation issue in Quebec, which is a whole different topic within itself. Although the Law 101 does not seem harmful to Allophones and Anglophones (Allophones are people whose first language was neither French nor English, Anglophones are people whose first language was English) it actually does. Let me remind you that a good 25% of Quebecers are not French Canadians. So how does it harm the English population? Well it’s simple; now with this law English services are almost illegal because now services are required to be given in French. And even if they are still allowed to do so, it's rare because they do hire monolingual French people to serve in restaurants, shops and any other establishments that offer services to the population. Today I find myself frustrated because the lady at McDonald's cannot serve me in English because she does not make the effort to even learn English! It's a shame to know that they hire monolingual French people. Many do claim that you’re in Quebec, get used to it! But that's not true, because we are still part of Canada, which by law; its official languages are English and French. The Canadian Constitution also claims that we allowed to get served in English and in French, and if possible, in any other language that will serve you best. What this law is doing is revoking us from that.
Immigrants are forced to send their kids to French school, even if they are from Britain, United States, Australia and so forth. This is actually a violation of the Canadian Constitution, even the Bill of rights from the United Nations. The law does protect the French, but not the English. We should all have the right to choose what language our children want to speak, what language they can be instructed with. The only time a child may go to an English school is when if one of the child's parent went to an English school for the majority of their education. Immigrants can also send their children to an English private school for a year, making their child valid for a public English school. Shamefully that "loophole" was almost covered when the Quebec parliament approved the law 104 (an extension to Law 101 which made it impossible for an immigrant to send children to an English private school). Luckily for the immigrants that law was revoked by the Canadian Constitution, claiming it violated the child's rights.
Signs are also in French, including the stop signs, now it says Arrete instead. By the way did you know in France the stop signs say STOP? Weird to know that in the French motherland they put stop while back here in Quebec they translated the sign to French. The law states that all commercial signs must be written in French only. Thankfully in the late 80's the Canadian government claimed that that was against the language rights of a person, so now English can be present on signs, but they must be written by half the size of the French letters. Also, the 'S is a huge no-no. So when the Law came into effect, businesses like Schwartz's, which became Schwartz, the Eaton's Center became the Eaton Center... and so on. Again seems fair to most, but what about the other 25% of the population? I keep repeating that because, yes 25% is a minority, but it's a big one and they cannot be ignored. So what if businesses decide to place an English sign or even a perfectly bilingual sign instead? Surely no one can actually stop them right? Wrong! Have you ever heard of the language police? Yes, you heard me, the language police. All they do from morning to evenings is go around town and give big fat tickets to business owners who have violated a ridiculous law. In some cases some shops have been shut down because of that. All of this is controlled by the Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise (or it's also known as OQLF) who's main goal is to crack down on these English "criminals". Come to think of it, in my opinion they are actually harassing the business owners like as if they were doing some extortion... Something considered illegal everywhere.
Anyhow it's got so bad that during the first weeks of November 2011, many French protesters have been protesting in front of Future shop, H&M and Second Cup on St. Catherine claiming that it's a "threat to the French language of Quebec". Correct me if I'm wrong but that does not actually threaten the French language, not even a little bit, it's a name for crying out loud. It's like saying that it's illegal to name your son Edward because it's not French. Honestly it's none of their business, and even though large companies did change their name to suit the French Canadians, that was their choice to do so. I mean if their wanted to, Staples could of easily said no to renaming themselves Bureau en Gros in Quebec. Now that I've mentioned that don't you see the tension between the French and the English in Quebec? It's a language war that has been with us for more than half a century. And although Law 101 did not cause it, it definitely poured fuel into the flame.
Because of this tension our education in Quebec is behind the rest of Canada. Our health care is behind comparing to the rest of the country. Our economy has basically collapse since 1977, and there are scars in Montreal to prove it. Our culture is being torn apart from both sides. Ever since this law was into effect our corrupted government has been debating over this, ignoring the actual problems that damage the province as a whole, like the roads! They are horrendous here! I mean look at the Turcot! It's a mess, instead of using money to keep this law up they should invest more into the new Turcot Interchange. What we must do is put aside this law, and make one that will protect the French language, while protecting the shrinking English language in Quebec. Much like the Law 63, which actually does that. Unfortunately people will not put their difference aside, and that is choking Quebec. This is slowing us down! We need to move on with our lives by ending this law right now! I'm not saying this because I only dislike the law; no in fact I'm saying this because I want the best for this province! I don't want the province of "Je me souviens!" I want the "La Belle Province" back!
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