Dan Delmar, Special to National Post - As the Parti Québécois scratches and claws its way closer to a possible majority government, they leave behind a path of destruction, and contempt for linguistic and religious minorities.
If polls are correct and the PQ gains power, they would attempt to implement a charter of secularism, under which religious symbols would be banned from public institutions – unless, of course, those symbols are tied to Quebec’s Catholic heritage, like the National Assembly’s crucifix, which has been perched above the heads of lawmakers since 1936. One set of rules for nous autres, another for les autres.
They would expand the reach of Bill 101 so that adult college students would be forced into French schools, when an increasing number of Francophones opt for higher education in English to make up for its absence at primary and secondary levels. The proposal comes as junior colleges (CÉGEPs) like Dawson College are renting space in shopping malls to accommodate the influx of students, many of whom are pure laine Francos. As even developing nations embrace English as the international language of commerce (while, it should be noted, preserving their respective mother tongues and cultures), those who may lead Quebec want to deprioritize – to put it mildly – the instruction of a language essential to the prosperity of this society.
Leader Pauline Marois even suggested that any citizen seeking office, at any level of government, would be subjected to some form of French test to ensure they would be able to communicate with the electorate to the PQ’s liking; because the citizenry can’t be trusted to judge the capabilities of candidates in an election. She later backtracked on that proposal, suggesting that only new immigrants be subjected to French exams; but the mere fact that she could consider such a blatantly xenophobic and undemocratic measure is frightening on its own.
There was another language policy proposed by the PQ this week that was highly underrated but just as offensive.
On Wednesday morning, PQ candidate and self-proclaimed language czar Jean-François-Lisée (best known for his work as an ultranationalist columnist with l’Actualité), interrupted a Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) event at a local Montreal board of trade. He jumped ahead of local businesspeople to be first at the microphone during their question period and engaged CAQ leader François Legault in a transit debate. It was unusual, to say the least, for a candidate – certainly one of Lisée’s prominence – to hijack an opposing party’s campaign event.
Lisée’s odd behaviour was one of the most talked-about news items for the rest of the day, and into Thursday. But later that morning, after Lisée had left the CAQ event, he held a small news conference at PQ headquarters to make an announcement, details of which were conveniently ignored in favour of reporting his strange, impromptu appearance.
Lisée proposed, and Marois later confirmed her support for, a policy to ensure that the majority of Montreal residents would always remain Francophone. His argument is that, as Quebec’s metropolis and economic engine, the population ought to better reflect the makeup of the society as a whole.
Thankfully, it would be too extreme for the PQ to go into people’s homes to monitor the languages being spoken, or to eject non-Francophones from the island. Instead, they merely want to prevent those who aren’t Francophone from ever reaching Montreal in the first place.
In 1971, 61% of Montreal residents were Francophone; in 2006, that number dropped to 54%. Lisée said that, according to studies, in two decades, Francophones could make up only 47% of the population of Quebec’s largest city.
Lisée is obsessed with these proportions. What number would be cause for alarm, he asked: 40%? 30%?
“We think that it is foolish for a minority in North America to let its Francophone population shrink in the very city where all cultures meet,” Lisée said. “Our ability to integrate immigrants into French is a function of the number of people who live in French, who go in parks in French, who flirt in French…”
His concerns may be valid, although his desire to create policy based on quantifying and dividing populations by language and location is less than comforting. The trouble arises when the PQ proposes typically statist solutions to problems that only education and persuasion can solve.
To achieve Francosupremacy in Montreal, Lisée said the PQ would add an element to immigration forms which would not only ask if applicants could speak French, but also if they lived in French. All things being equal (which, of course, they never are), potential immigrants who used French in their day-to-day lives would be prioritized over those who did not, even if they had achieved an acceptable level of competency.
“If you are an immigration candidate from Shanghai, and said you knew French,” Lisée explained, “you would be treated the same as an immigration candidate from Bordeaux, who said that they knew French.”
Reaction from residents of Shanghai’s French Quarter has, so far, been underwhelming. It doesn’t take a demographer to see that Lisée is proposing to favour immigrants from certain ethnicities, even if those from less Francophone cultures are perfectly suitable candidates.
Lisée proposed a second solution: Modifying public transit and housing policies to retain families and encourage others to move from the suburbs to the city. Encouraging Quebecers of all origins to live in Montreal will further his goal, he said, because most off-island residents are Francophones. In other words: Sustainable social policies with a veiled nationalist agenda. At least this solution isn’t overtly xenophobic.
His ideas are consistent with the Péquiste mentality that French language and culture can only be strengthened by weakening others that pose a “threat.” It is an attitude that is not only blatantly xenophobic, but insulting to Quebecers of all political persuasions who are highly educated, more than capable of learning and living with two, three or even four languages, and more tolerant than those who represent them.
It is one of many examples of why the PQ can only get elected with divide-and-conquer, negative politics. Playing on the fears of Francophones who feel as if they’re drowning in the Anglo North-American sea is the party’s bread and butter; their raison d’être. It’s worked in their favour in the past, and it’s working for them today.
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delmar@provocateurs.ca
Twitter: @delmarhasissues
Dan Delmar is the co-founder of Provocateur Communications and a talk-show host with CJAD 800 Montreal.