The Gazette

Whatever one’s opinions of the conclusions L’actualité magazine has drawn about young anglophones from its recent poll, the mindset of this French- immersion, post-Bill 101 generation is certainly worth exploring.

L’actualité starts with the reasonable operating assumption that young anglos are bilingual. It goes on to test whether or not they are familiar with various mainstream public figures in politics and culture and, more provocatively, ask them whether they think it’s their role to protect and promote French. Its article about the poll appears in the current April 15 issue.

My colleague Henry Aubin published a detailed critique of the poll in Thursday’s Gazette under the headline “L’actualité poll is nothing but alarmist exaggeration”(bit.ly/H3hZew).

Here I’d like to examine the underlying operating assumption that young anglos are bilingual – or at least as bilingual as we think. To be sure, the 2006 federal census noted that 68 per cent of Quebec anglos are bilingual; the rates are higher for younger age groups. However, new research in the anglophone community suggests that despite what the census figures say, many young anglos are unhappy with their French and insecure about their ability to find a good job in Quebec, including Montreal.

Something happened in January 2009 that shattered conventional notions about bilingualism within the English-speaking community. The Quebec Community Groups Network published a study that found many who have grown up with French immersion suddenly discover in their early 20s that their French isn’t really very good.

Read more…

The Gazette, Catherine Solyom

Call it the Arcade Fire effect – the idea that a band made up of two transplanted Texans, a woman of Haitian origin and four musicians from the Rest of Canada can be embraced by both anglophone and francophone Quebecers as one of their own, a symbol of Quebec culture to be proud of.

(Two days after the band won the 2011 Grammy for the best album of the year, even the National Assembly approved a motion saluting “the contribution of our francophone and anglophone artists in spreading our culture on the international stage.” )

For Guy Rodgers, the executive director of ELAN – the English Language Arts Network – the AF effect speaks to the vitality of English-language culture in Quebec, and the increasing, if uneasy, acceptance of it by the francophone majority.

Rodgers, a speaker at a forum for the English-speaking community held over the weekend in Montreal, said anglophone culture in Quebec has provided more success stories, with more prize-winning writers, musicians and filmmakers bridging the linguistic divide, in the last few years than in the last few decades.

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The Gazette, Catheryne Solyom

MONTREAL – Call it the Arcade Fire effect – the idea that a band made up of two transplanted Texans, a woman of Haitian origin and four musicians from the Rest of Canada can be embraced by anglophone and francophone Quebecers alike as one of their own, a symbol of Quebec culture to be proud of.

(Two days after the band won the 2011 Grammy for the best album of the year, even the National Assembly approved a motion saluting “the contribution of our francophone and anglophone artists in spreading our culture on the international stage.” )

For Guy Rodgers, the executive director of ELAN – the English Language Arts Network, the AF effect speaks to the vitality of English-lguage culture in Quebec, and the increasing, if uneasy, acceptance of it by the francophone majority.

Rodgers, a speaker at a forum for the English-speaking community held over the weekend in Montreal, said anglophone culture in Quebec had provided more success stories, with more prize-winning writers, musicians and filmmakers bridging the linguistic divide in the last few years than in the last few decades.

Read more…

Linda Gyulai, The Gazette

Quebec’s minister responsible for seniors, Marguerite Blais, announced Sunday that 73 community-based projects aimed at helping seniors become autonomous will split $5.8 million in Quebec government funding. Photograph by: Dave Sidaway , Gazette file photo MONTREAL – Quebec seniors need services and support to help them stay active and remain at home, and, if they’re English-speaking older Quebecers, they also need a voice in this province. That’s the premise of the Quebec Community Groups Network, an umbrella group of English-speaking community organizations that serve all age groups in the province. It will embark on a three-year research project to identify problems that inhibit access to government services, continuing education, housing, leisure activities and other types of services for Quebec’s 132,485 English-speakers over the age of 65.

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