Will immigrants save the French language in Quebec, or hasten its demise?

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 9:10 AM - 15 Comments

If, as one of Quebec’s own websites proclaims, the province is on the hunt for “willing, dynamic people” to immigrate to its shores, then Jessica Rosales almost certainly fits the bill. The college-trained Rosales and her husband, Roberto Belmar Torres, a design engineer, wanted to emigrate from their native Chile and, spurred by a string of cheery, unsolicited emails from Quebec’s Immigration Department, the pair chose to settle in Montreal in March 2010. “We decided on Quebec for the French culture,” the 37-year-old Rosales says. “We chose it even though we knew it would be harder.”

It certainly was. Because neither could speak the language, they each took a 10-month French course. Save for the occasional nervous breakdown (“I got burned out, I couldn’t stop crying,” says Rosales of one episode) that even prompted the purchase of a pair of one-way tickets to Toronto that they never used, the pair is quite happy with their lives here. They even found jobs in their new-found language. Jessica is an administrative assistant at a refugee resource centre, while Belmar Torres works at a large Montreal engineering firm. They work almost entirely in French.

Yet increasingly, language advocates are turning this apparent success story into a narrative of decline of the French language in Quebec. The reason: though the pair conduct much of their public lives in French, they speak their native Spanish in the confines of their home. Earlier this year, the governing Liberals announced plans to cut the yearly number of immigrants allowed into the province by 4,000, to 50,000, by 2012, while the the right-of-centre Action démocratique du Québec has called for a further clawback to 46,000. The Parti Québécois believe “immigration should be set at the ability to Frenchify new arrivals,” says PQ spokesperson Éric Gamache, and popular former Péquiste minister François Legault, who is flirting with the idea of running for premier, has called for the number to be capped at 40,000.

Others are even more strident. “We must become our own country, period,” militant sovereignist Gérald Larose told La Presse in the wake of a report detailing a decrease in the percentage of Quebec-born francophones. His argument: an independent Quebec would have absolute power over its immigration policy.

On the face of it, so-called “allophones” (immigrants whose native language is neither French nor English) would seem an odd target, and not only because, unlike the Canada-born English population living in Quebec, they are required by law to attend primary and secondary school in French. Like nearly every other province in the country, Quebec is faced with a looming demographic problem brought on by lower birth rates—a void often filled by immigrants. Ontario, for example, took in roughly 104,000 non-refugee immigrants in 2010 alone.

And even with 54,000 new arrivals a year, Quebec is falling behind. According to demographer Jacques Henripin, the province needs between 70,000 and 80,000 immigrants a year to compensate for its lower birth rate—people like Rosales and Belmar Torres. To Rosales, the idea that Quebec would cut down on the number of immigrants allowed into the province is absurd. “I’m a taxpayer,” she says. “Who needs who?”

The feeling is often mutual. By and large, Quebecers have long cast a beady eye at Canada’s official policy of multiculturalism; a recent Angus Reid poll noted that 66 per cent of francophones in the province believe multiculturalism is a threat to the French language. Practically every major demographic report released in the province over the last two decades has sparked debate and uproar about the survival of the language.

But does the decline of francophones necessarily mean the decline of French, when those immigrants arriving here must by law attend school in la langue de René Lévesque? Marc Termote thinks so. The demographer authored a recent report illustrating the demographic decline of Quebec-born francophones in the province; he says they will be overtaken as a majority by immigrants by 2031. And while he makes pains to say he isn’t a Larose-style sovereignist—“We don’t need independence to ensure the survival of a language,” he says—he believes the sheer numbers, coupled with the creeping bilingualism of Montreal, is detrimental to the language. “I am one of those people who says that the government should have no say whatsoever over what language is used at home,” Termote says. However, “the problem is that the language used at home becomes the language of the children.”

This wouldn’t be a problem in, say, the overwhelmingly francophone city of Saguenay. But roughly 75 per cent of Quebec’s immigrants settle in the 500 sq. km of Montreal where, says Termote, “there is free choice in what language you work in.” (Montreal is home to roughly 48,000 businesses with less than 50 employees that don’t fall under the province’s language provisions.) “The problem is Montreal. In the regions there are no problems. You will only speak French in Chicoutimi.”

“It’s not up to immigrants to resolve the problems of French in Quebec,” Termote adds. “We tell immigrants to have children, because we don’t want to have any. We tell them to go out to the regions, because we don’t want to, we tell them to learn French in a hurry, because French is declining. I can’t accept that the future of the French in Quebec is the responsibility of immigrants.”

Still others see no problem at all with the immigrant influx into Quebec. Jean-Benoît Nadeau, author of the book The Story of French, recently published a column decrying the accepted definition of the term “francophone” in the province. “French is no longer the language of one ethnic group, but one for all ethnic groups,” Nadeau writes. “Only in Quebec do we tolerate such a restrictive definition. Why not include the woven sash or ketchup tortière in the definition of francophone while we’re at it? It’s a disgrace.”

Jessica Rosales agrees. After being courted by the Quebec government (and spending an estimated $13,000 in fees and plane tickets) to get here, then spending nearly a year studying the language, she knows quite well that she can still vote with her feet. “I like Quebec, I like Montreal, but I can live somewhere else.”

In Quebec, construction chaos ahead

By Martin Patriquin with Philippe Gohier - Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:15 AM - 6 Comments

Photography by Roger Lemoyne

It has become a cliché to say Jean Charest has nine lives. The Quebec premier, who has spent more than half his life in politics, has made a sport out of defying expectations with his ability to spring back, catlike, from political disaster. At 36, he brought the federal Progressive Conservative Party from the brink; in 2003, at 44, he overcame an earlier loss to Lucien Bouchard to become premier, and has ruled ever since.

Until recently, Charest had seemingly turned his rather disastrous year in office into this comeback-kid narrative. This is no small feat. Over the last 12 months, Charest’s Liberals weathered allegations of favouritism in the selection of judges, an embarrassing flip- flop on the development of shale gas resources, and have been dogged by news that the party had been the recipient of hundreds of thousands of donations (some legal, some not) from several of the province’s largest engineering and construction firms—the very ones who won lucrative construction contracts from the Ministry of Transport. Far from backing down, Charest mused he might even take a fourth kick at the can.

What a difference one leak can make. Last week, a scathing report on the province’s construction industry, leaked to La Presse and Radio-Canada, stymied Charest’s legacy and, more importantly, gave Quebecers a glimpse at the scale of corruption plaguing the province’s construction industry.

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"One of the most incompetent and harmful governments this country has ever known"

By Philippe Gohier - Friday, July 23, 2010 at 4:43 PM - 0 Comments

André Pratte has an absolutely devastating editorial in today’s La Presse, in which he essentially calls for an anti-Harper mutiny by cabinet ministers he otherwise lambastes “for having such a poor handle on their files, they unjustly make the federal government look profoundly incompetent.” You really should go read the thing for yourself, but here are some translated bits:

The controversy surrounding the terms of the census is typical of the pillaging the conservatives have engaged in since coming to power. Not only is their behaviour dictated by simplistic ideology, the Conservatives impose their politics while displaying a exceptional degree of incompetence.

A competent right-wing government would have asked Statistics Canada to do an in-depth comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of mandatory and optional census forms. It would have then submitted the proposed solution to consultation, as is done with all modifications to the census. Instead, the government decided to change its approach in spite of the reservations of Statistics Canada on the sole basis of phone calls to MPs’ constituency offices. School boards are run more seriously than that.

[...]

Before this government does even more harm to the institution that is the government of Canada, the intelligent people within the federal cabinet have a duty to rise up and stop the pillaging. Otherwise, the Harper government may be remembered as one of the most incompetent and harmful governments this country has ever known.

I think it’s probably safe to say Pratte would like to politely withdraw his paper’s 2006 endorsement of the Conservatives.

Thérèse Rochette (1954-2010)

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:39 AM - 4 Comments

Thérèse Rochette was born in Lanoraie, Que., a town 60 km northeast of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, on June 6, 1954. Her father, Arthur Guèvremont, was a lumberjack; mother Antoinette stayed home with Thérèse and her brother Michel, who was older by four years. Michel remembers Thérèse as a determined child who, “once she had a goal, had to succeed.” She loved being outside, and skating was one of her favourite activities: every winter, when parts of the St. Lawrence froze over, the Guèvremont family would take to the river, which Michel calls “our skating rink.” But it was dangerous, he adds: the ice could crack, and sometimes, people drowned.

As a teenager, Thérèse struck up a relationship with Pierre, a local boy who was friends with Michel from school. The two fell in love, and talked of marriage, but their plans were cut short when, in 1975, Pierre was killed in a car crash. “She had a very hard time,” Michel says. To comfort herself, Thérèse would listen to Édith Piaf’s L’Hymne à l’amour, a song of love and loss.

It was about a year later that she met Normand Rochette, a kind-hearted man from nearby Île Dupas, Michel says. The two were married, and settled in Normand’s hometown; Thérèse took a job working with the elderly in a senior citizens’ home, and Normand, in construction. “We grew up along the St. Lawrence and we’ve never been able to leave,” says Michel, a welder, who now lives in Berthierville, just over the bridge from Île Dupas and up the river from Lanoraie.

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The first nail in La Presse's coffin: no more BlackBerrys

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 3:37 PM - 4 Comments

In case anyone thought Gesca was bluffing when it threatened to shut down La Presse and Cyberpresse on December 1 unless they strike a cost-cutting deal with the union, managers at the paper are stepping up the pressure this week. According to TVA, there’s already a plan in place to cease operations and—this is truly the first sign of a looming journalistic apocalypse—reporters will apparently be asked to turn in their BlackBerrys some time next week. Workers are scheduled to meet with the union on Saturday to clear the air—and, presumably, begin panicking.

I (heart) Chapleau

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, November 7, 2008 at 5:03 PM - 10 Comments

There are few cartoonists in the world who could get away with drawing three white people in blackface a mere three days after the election of Barack Obama and a) not come off as a raging bigot; and b) be funny as hell. Serge Chapleau is one of them.

UPDATED AGAIN: Shuffleuffagus v2.0 – It begins!

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 4:08 PM - 64 Comments

Scroll down for the latest updates!

To nobody’s surprise (except possibly Stockwell Day), Lawrence Cannon is headed to Foreign Affairs (link courtesy of NNW). This post will be updated as further news leaks out.

UPDATE: It’s a cornocopia of (seemingly) informed speculation over at CanWest! Baird or Prentice (really? Prentice?) to Transport, which will apparently be “central” to the government’s efforts to “avoid a recession” with billions of dollars for infrastructure. Everyone loves bridges and tunnels! And hockey arenas! And wharfs! Oh, and Clement might end up with International Trade, which would be — different; does anyone else have trouble imagining him as anything other than Health Minister? It’s like, his entire political identity at this point.

Jason Kenney may get Citizenship and Immigration – which I totally called earlier this week, by the way, only in my scenario, Peter Kent took over the Canadian Identity portfoliette – and James Moore could be bumped up to Canadian Heritage or Environment. The former would let him keep the Vancouver Olympics too, since Heritage is now not so much about arts and all about sports. (And human rights museums, but y’all have heard that rant more than enough times already, so I’ll spare you the rest.) (Seriously, though – Winnipeg? WINNIPEG? Oh well, at least we’re not going to buy them a football arena too, right? Right? Hello?)

Oh, and Josee Verner gets the Rona Ambrose Memorial Naughty Chair for failing to sell PMO’s culture war in Quebec. I wonder if she’ll get to go to next month’s first ministers’ meeting? Probably not – I’m pretty sure Rona wasn’t invited to the last one.

STILL MORE UPDATEY GOODNESS: L. Ian MacDonald has Baird taking over Transport, which is being spun as a plum assignment because of all that lovely cash to spread around deserving ridings, but sounds more like an attempt to spin it as Not A Demotion for whoever lands there – well, if it’s someone currently on the A-List like Baird or Prentice, anyway.  Then there’s the idea of Peter Van Loan taking over Environment. Pivvle the Pit Bull as Mr. Corner Turning Cap and Trader? Is the PM worried that there may be one or two environmental groups out there that his government hasn’t yet antagonized?

Moving on, Jay Hill as House Leader actually does make some sense, although I still think they’d be better off with Diane Ablonczy, who – as per L. Ian – will get Health. He also has Lynn Yelich headed to Revenue – and Gordon O’Connor replacing Hill as Whip, which seems like an odd pairing – and boldly predicts that Gerry Ritz will be booted from Agriculture, with one of ITQ’s very favourite Conservative MPs, Ted Menzies, as a contender to replace him. (Go Ted!)

BECAUSE WE’RE ALREADY CHATTERING ABOUT IT IN THE COMMENTS UPDATE: Stephen Taylor, on the other hand, is getting a markedly different story on who is going where from his source(s), including  the tantalizing rumour that a Quebec Liberal may Emerson up and cross the floor for a cabinet job. Oooooeeeeoooo. (ITQ suspects this may be mischievous disinfo from the Sun Tzu division of the Conservative Resource Group; if that’s the case, we can only say – well played, sirs!)

THANK GOODNESS FOR CANADIAN PRESS UPDATE: The overhaul will be “sweeping”, Alex Panetta assures us. Well, good. The last one was a bit of a snoozer, although admittedly, it was primarily to deal with that Bernier-shaped hole in the wall at Fort Pearson. Many of the same names show up in the CP piece – most of the big kids staying where they are – Prentice, Flaherty, MacKay, Day – Kenney to Citizenship (CALLED IT! FEELING SMUG! YES, I HAVE WITNESSES! PLEASE IGNORE THIS IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE WRONG!), Baird to Transport, Jay Hill as House Leader (oddly, no mention of Pivvle), Verner to the Room of No Longer Required-ment, Ambrose to HRDC, Clement to Trade, Duncan or Gerald Keddy to Fisheries, Shea to ACOA (sorry, Peter – no more pork gravy for you), Leona Aglukkaq to a newly created northern development secretary of stateship, and her fellow newbies Bob Dechert and Peter Kent to various unspecified junior mint jobs.

Workin' in a coalition mine Whoop! About to slip down

By Paul Wells - Friday, September 12, 2008 at 7:37 AM - 71 Comments

It’s been so long. Time for a new variation on a favourite old tune: The question of just what Elizabeth May will do if this election gets to the home stretch and Green votes could conceivably make the difference between a Conservative and a Liberal government is posed again by this morning’s La Presse. As you will recall, May has seemed in the past to suggest she would do anything to stop the Conservatives, including calling on less-competitive candidates in every riding to throw their support to the leading pro-environmental candidate (defined as “not Conservative”) (defined therefore, in most but not all ridings outside Quebec, as “the Liberal”).

Now there’s more. I want to emphasize that Joël-Denis Bellavance’s story in La Presse is exceptionally darkly sourced (“a Liberal source well-informed of the talks between Liberals and Greens”) and it contains a formal denial from May’s spokesperson (“It’s without basis”). But what it suggests is interesting:

“But this pact also provides for Mme May to pronounce herself in favour of the election of Stéphane Dion as Prime Minister in the final days of the election campaign…

“‘The idea of the accord, it’s like a non-aggression pact so that on the eve of the vote, we arrange it so the environmentalist forces in urban centres rally around Stéphane Dion. In the discussions with Mme May, it was implicitly understood that she put out a call in favour of Mr. Dion. That has always been the spirit of the agreement,’ said a Liberal source well-informed of the talks between Liberals and Greens.”

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Where's Mario?

By Martin Patriquin - Monday, August 25, 2008 at 11:01 AM - 0 Comments

If we’re going strictly on stereotypes, you could say that La Presse is the newspaper of the great, large, mushy middle ground between the seven librarians and half-dozen outraged separatists who read the high brow Le Devoir and the blue-collared masses who devour the Journal de Montréal along with their sandwiches de bologne and May Wests. Not all of this is true –– I actually hate baloney, and only my blood is blue –– but it’s safe to say that La Presse has forever been successful at attracting a clientele that is neither bookish sovereigntist or of the lunchbox tabloid set (or, at the very least, it is a required second read for the former, if not the latter.) It is, for good or ill, Quebec’s newspaper of record. So here’s a question for the ADQ: what happens when the newspaper of record forgets you exist?

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My thoughts exactly

By Martin Patriquin - Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 8:33 AM - 0 Comments

Translation: “George! What was it we promised about that climate changes thing? George! … George?”

As evidenced by the above caricature, published today, the consistently awesome Serge Chapleau of La Presse apparently reads this blog. Or maybe he’s just a cynical old fart. (I have my suspicions.) Either way, good on you, Serge.