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The Language Nazis win again
01 April 2005
Quebec's relationship with the rest of Canada has always been a rocky marriage. It's swung between love and hate so many times, it's hard to chronicle the history without confusing who's doing what to whom. But the most acrimonious of the disputes seem to have been over language.
On March 31, 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on a challenge made by Francophone parents living in Quebec. They wanted the right to enrol their children in English schools and claimed it was a Constitutional Right. Anyone who has followed the battle knows Quebec can easily slough off Constitutional responsibilities or court rulings by using the "notwithstanding" clause that makes a mockery of the Charter. That clause allows any province to do what it damn well pleases regardless of law or rights, with a flick of the legislative wrist.
And Quebec has done so in the past. This time they didn't need to use the clause: the Supreme Court gave in first, much like Chamberlain gave in to Hitler in 1938. Doesn't anyone know about Munich these days?
The court ruled that the Quebec language law - Bill 101 - that prevents French-speaking Quebecers from placing their children in English schools was "reasonable." That's an entirely new definition of "reasonable" about to enter the dictionary. Reasonable oppression - a new oxymoron for the books.
The Court agreed that linguistic majorities have no constitutional right to receive education in the minority language. Huh? In other words: you have to send your kids to the school your government chooses for you and learn the language your government says is acceptable. Hello, George Orwell? Can you come back from the dead? We need to update your novel, 1984. The setting has moved...
Lenin, then Stalin and his successors, imposed Russian on the minorities of the Soviet Union, trying their best to wipe out national languages and culture in this very fashion. Helping them were the Soviet courts. The result can be seen today in such happy vacation spots like Chechnya. What's that line... "those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them..."
When Bill 101 was introduced, Anglophones made up about 13% of Quebec's population, a small minority mostly huddled around Montreal. Thanks to the continued repression of their rights, many have left the province and the Anglophone population has dwindled to about 8.5% now. That would hardly seem a threat sufficient enough to warrant Stalinist-style legislation, but it continues unabated.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest would have gleefully invoked the notwithstanding clause to maintain the language oppressions, had the Supreme Court not handed him the brass ring. Premier Bourassa invoked it in 1988 when confronted with the possibility his province might have to actually abide by our nation's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He created Bill 178 - the law that demanded only French could be used on signs outside of businesses. English would be allowed, but only inside.
To Canada's everlasting shame, the the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in 1993 that Quebec's sign laws broke an international covenant on civil and political rights. Quebec's response was to grudgingly allow English on outdoor signs, but only if the lettering was half or less the size of the French letters.
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Quebec government must make some minor changes in order to comply with the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms (nudge, nudge, wink, wink...) so immigrants and native-born Canadians can have access to English schools – but only as long as they have had some prior education in English.
No other province or territory is allowed to oppress rights to an education, no other province can force parents to send their kids to an English-only school, no other province can demand shopkeepers display English in larger, more prominent letters on their signs...
The Anglophones in Quebec have been disenfranchised, squeezed by repressive laws and basically ghetto-ized, all with the beaming support of Canada's Supreme Court. What next, one wonders? A bill to make Anglophones in Quebec wear yellow stars on their clothing when they travel in public? No doubt the Supreme Court will call that "reasonable" too...
Opponents feel they have good cause to call Bill 101 "racist." If that term seems a bit radical, try "discriminatory." No argument there. Few can also argue the law instiutionalizes censorhip on a provincial scale.
It hasn't helped that we've had a succession of Prime Ministers from Quebec who have done everything - including a lot that's simply downright illegal, as we're learning from the current Sponsorship Scandal - to make sure the rest of Canada gives more to Quebec than its population should allow, that we get a greater percentage of Quebecois ministers in cabinet, and French gets preference everywhere in federal agencies and offices. The rest of Canada has been made to roll over and play dead to serve Quebec's nationalism.
And who appoints the Supreme Court? Unbiased, impartial Prime Ministers from Quebec... Prime Ministers who depend on the public opinion in Quebec to get back on the gravy train... who enforces bilingualism in the rest of the country and won't challenge Quebec's language laws even when they infringe on basic rights?
You get the picture.
The Quebec language police are aggressive in their enforcement, too. You've probably heard the tale of the shopkeeper who was fined because her talking parrot spoke only English. Or the gas station attendant who owes almost $1,000 for having a "closed" sign in English only (true: see Lachan Cranswick's page on Canadian language stories.
Yes, language police: there is a special government agency dedicated to enforcing the language laws in Quebec. In 1997 they forced a Montreal computer retailler to put French on its all-English web site, disputing federal comments that Quebec had no jurisdiction on the Internet. The language police have a big budget, too - in a time when hospitals have closed in Quebec because of chronic underfunding.
It's a sad state. Quebec's government has become the Taliban of North American governments. No one contested Quebec's right to make French first, but a lot of Canadians were upset that Bill 101 took that a lot further, into the realm of overt repression of what most Canadians saw as fundamental rights.
The term "Language Nazis" was born of the enforcement methods of the Quebec language police to ensure English was trounced in every situation, no matter how petty or foolish it looked. And in so many cases, it sure looked that way...
I support bilingualism and minority rights to education and access to language throughout Canada. I don't disagree Quebec should have some protection to make French the premier language in that province. But Bill 101 is extreme, going well beyond all the bounds of civility and good conscience - after all, only one in twelve Quebecois are Anglophones, hardly a cultural threat these days. How can such oppression be justified in a modern, supposedly free and democratic state? Didn't we recently send troop to Afghanistan to eliminate this very same sort of repressive rule?
I've always believed every other province and territory should model its language laws on Quebec's. What's sauce for the goose should le linguistic sauce for the gander... pass the exact same law everywhere else, except replacing French with whatever the majority is in that province. What, you say? English is the majority everywhere else? Gee, the minority might be oppressed? Then tell Quebec to change its laws so their linguistic minorities don't get oppressed. Once Quebec passes a humane language law, the rest of Canada can follow their lead.
By the way, the parents who lost their case at the Supreme Court are taking their case to the United Nations' Human Rights Tribunal. There aren't many Quebecois judges appointed by Quebecois Prime Ministers among that august body, so they might get an impartial hearing - and face a good chance of winning. Another black eye for Canada...
I don't think we should oppose Quebec's separation any longer. If they want out so bad, let them go. Better to have a smaller nation free of the taint of Quebec's language laws than the international shame they continue to bring down on us.
But there's a caveat: they can only leave Confederation with what they brought into it.
That means Northern Quebec - stolen from the northern territories and given to the province as a bribe back in 1911 - goes back to Canada. Maybe the Cree can create a new province of their own. All those federal buildings, museums, airports, military bases, ports in Quebec - they're ours. You can have the land, but we're taking everything else right down to the light bulbs.
------
A little background history at The CBC Website. The Quebec Equality Party has its own site. An article from the UNESCO Courieron Quebec's language laws. ANd a defence of the law called Why We Need Bill 101.
On March 31, 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on a challenge made by Francophone parents living in Quebec. They wanted the right to enrol their children in English schools and claimed it was a Constitutional Right. Anyone who has followed the battle knows Quebec can easily slough off Constitutional responsibilities or court rulings by using the "notwithstanding" clause that makes a mockery of the Charter. That clause allows any province to do what it damn well pleases regardless of law or rights, with a flick of the legislative wrist.
And Quebec has done so in the past. This time they didn't need to use the clause: the Supreme Court gave in first, much like Chamberlain gave in to Hitler in 1938. Doesn't anyone know about Munich these days?
The court ruled that the Quebec language law - Bill 101 - that prevents French-speaking Quebecers from placing their children in English schools was "reasonable." That's an entirely new definition of "reasonable" about to enter the dictionary. Reasonable oppression - a new oxymoron for the books.
The Court agreed that linguistic majorities have no constitutional right to receive education in the minority language. Huh? In other words: you have to send your kids to the school your government chooses for you and learn the language your government says is acceptable. Hello, George Orwell? Can you come back from the dead? We need to update your novel, 1984. The setting has moved...
Lenin, then Stalin and his successors, imposed Russian on the minorities of the Soviet Union, trying their best to wipe out national languages and culture in this very fashion. Helping them were the Soviet courts. The result can be seen today in such happy vacation spots like Chechnya. What's that line... "those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them..."
When Bill 101 was introduced, Anglophones made up about 13% of Quebec's population, a small minority mostly huddled around Montreal. Thanks to the continued repression of their rights, many have left the province and the Anglophone population has dwindled to about 8.5% now. That would hardly seem a threat sufficient enough to warrant Stalinist-style legislation, but it continues unabated.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest would have gleefully invoked the notwithstanding clause to maintain the language oppressions, had the Supreme Court not handed him the brass ring. Premier Bourassa invoked it in 1988 when confronted with the possibility his province might have to actually abide by our nation's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He created Bill 178 - the law that demanded only French could be used on signs outside of businesses. English would be allowed, but only inside.
To Canada's everlasting shame, the the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in 1993 that Quebec's sign laws broke an international covenant on civil and political rights. Quebec's response was to grudgingly allow English on outdoor signs, but only if the lettering was half or less the size of the French letters.
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Quebec government must make some minor changes in order to comply with the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms (nudge, nudge, wink, wink...) so immigrants and native-born Canadians can have access to English schools – but only as long as they have had some prior education in English.
No other province or territory is allowed to oppress rights to an education, no other province can force parents to send their kids to an English-only school, no other province can demand shopkeepers display English in larger, more prominent letters on their signs...
The Anglophones in Quebec have been disenfranchised, squeezed by repressive laws and basically ghetto-ized, all with the beaming support of Canada's Supreme Court. What next, one wonders? A bill to make Anglophones in Quebec wear yellow stars on their clothing when they travel in public? No doubt the Supreme Court will call that "reasonable" too...
Opponents feel they have good cause to call Bill 101 "racist." If that term seems a bit radical, try "discriminatory." No argument there. Few can also argue the law instiutionalizes censorhip on a provincial scale.
It hasn't helped that we've had a succession of Prime Ministers from Quebec who have done everything - including a lot that's simply downright illegal, as we're learning from the current Sponsorship Scandal - to make sure the rest of Canada gives more to Quebec than its population should allow, that we get a greater percentage of Quebecois ministers in cabinet, and French gets preference everywhere in federal agencies and offices. The rest of Canada has been made to roll over and play dead to serve Quebec's nationalism.
And who appoints the Supreme Court? Unbiased, impartial Prime Ministers from Quebec... Prime Ministers who depend on the public opinion in Quebec to get back on the gravy train... who enforces bilingualism in the rest of the country and won't challenge Quebec's language laws even when they infringe on basic rights?
You get the picture.
The Quebec language police are aggressive in their enforcement, too. You've probably heard the tale of the shopkeeper who was fined because her talking parrot spoke only English. Or the gas station attendant who owes almost $1,000 for having a "closed" sign in English only (true: see Lachan Cranswick's page on Canadian language stories.
Yes, language police: there is a special government agency dedicated to enforcing the language laws in Quebec. In 1997 they forced a Montreal computer retailler to put French on its all-English web site, disputing federal comments that Quebec had no jurisdiction on the Internet. The language police have a big budget, too - in a time when hospitals have closed in Quebec because of chronic underfunding.
It's a sad state. Quebec's government has become the Taliban of North American governments. No one contested Quebec's right to make French first, but a lot of Canadians were upset that Bill 101 took that a lot further, into the realm of overt repression of what most Canadians saw as fundamental rights.
The term "Language Nazis" was born of the enforcement methods of the Quebec language police to ensure English was trounced in every situation, no matter how petty or foolish it looked. And in so many cases, it sure looked that way...
I support bilingualism and minority rights to education and access to language throughout Canada. I don't disagree Quebec should have some protection to make French the premier language in that province. But Bill 101 is extreme, going well beyond all the bounds of civility and good conscience - after all, only one in twelve Quebecois are Anglophones, hardly a cultural threat these days. How can such oppression be justified in a modern, supposedly free and democratic state? Didn't we recently send troop to Afghanistan to eliminate this very same sort of repressive rule?
I've always believed every other province and territory should model its language laws on Quebec's. What's sauce for the goose should le linguistic sauce for the gander... pass the exact same law everywhere else, except replacing French with whatever the majority is in that province. What, you say? English is the majority everywhere else? Gee, the minority might be oppressed? Then tell Quebec to change its laws so their linguistic minorities don't get oppressed. Once Quebec passes a humane language law, the rest of Canada can follow their lead.
By the way, the parents who lost their case at the Supreme Court are taking their case to the United Nations' Human Rights Tribunal. There aren't many Quebecois judges appointed by Quebecois Prime Ministers among that august body, so they might get an impartial hearing - and face a good chance of winning. Another black eye for Canada...
I don't think we should oppose Quebec's separation any longer. If they want out so bad, let them go. Better to have a smaller nation free of the taint of Quebec's language laws than the international shame they continue to bring down on us.
But there's a caveat: they can only leave Confederation with what they brought into it.
That means Northern Quebec - stolen from the northern territories and given to the province as a bribe back in 1911 - goes back to Canada. Maybe the Cree can create a new province of their own. All those federal buildings, museums, airports, military bases, ports in Quebec - they're ours. You can have the land, but we're taking everything else right down to the light bulbs.
------
A little background history at The CBC Website. The Quebec Equality Party has its own site. An article from the UNESCO Courieron Quebec's language laws. ANd a defence of the law called Why We Need Bill 101.
http://lachlan.blueh...er/general.html
Under "Canadian Language Links" you can find additional stories on Bill 101, OLF et al.