The federal Action Plan funds destined to assist Anglophones in Quebec should be utilized for French-language instruction of the English-speaking community, said Quebec’s minister of the French language, Jean-François Roberge, to reporters in a scrum this morning.
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The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) has warned that if Bill 96 becomes law, it has the potential to create a “rights-free zone” in the province in the name of the protection of the use of French.
QCGN president Marlene Jennings made the statement during a bilingual virtual press conference on June 10. The QCGN has repeatedly raised concerns about the legislation since it was tabled in mid-May.
Announcement comes amid debate over state of French language and push to update Official Languages Act.
The federal government will spend $12 million over the next four years on bursaries to help English-speaking students pursue post-secondary education in French.
Approximately 3,400 bursaries worth $3,000 each will be available to anglophone secondary school graduates who enrol in French-language programs at select CEGEPs, colleges or universities. The government says the funding will be disbursed through post-secondary institutions and special consideration will be given to students from under-represented groups.
MONTREAL – Quebec Solidaire is calling on the Quebec government to put in place a plan to address the state of French in Montreal, including the creation of a special office of the Office quebecois de la langue française (OQLF) to combat the decline of French in the city.
Ruba Ghazal, MNA for Quebec Solidaire, says it has been known for years that the French language is declining in the Montreal area, but that governments are not taking the necessary measures to tackle the problem.
Vous êtes dans une chaloupe qui prend l’eau au beau milieu de l’océan.
Avec un seau, vous videz votre embarcation à répétition.
C’est ce qu’il faut faire, mais c’est une lutte contre la montre.
Vider la chaloupe est nécessaire, mais non suffisant.
Vous lutterez tant que vous aurez de l’énergie.
La seule solution durable, c’est de rejoindre la terre ferme en étant secouru ou par vos propres moyens.
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MONTREAL – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was briefly tossed the current political football of language laws earlier this week.
And while his answer may not have been exactly what Quebec Premier François Legault wanted to hear—unlike what new Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has said—it suggested that Ottawa is considering giving French some extra legal protection within Quebec.
“I would like to highlight that I completely agree with the former premiers of Quebec and [with] Quebecers who are concerned by the decline of the French language, and I am as well,” Trudeau said.
The city of Montreal has submitted an action plan on the protection of French to the Quebec government for approval.
Montreal city council passed a resolution Monday evening affirming that French is the common language of Montreal, though an opposition councillor accused Mayor Valérie Plante of being lax on the protection of the French language.
During the last city council meeting of 2020, Chantal Rossi, the councillor for the Ovide-Clermont district in Montreal North, said she supported the declaration, which calls on the Quebec government to support Montreal’s upcoming action plan to protect and promote the use of French.
“L’avenir du bilinguisme au Canada est, pour l’essentiel, une affaire de francophones. Si les trois quarts d’entre eux jugent cette langue menacée, à peine le tiers de leurs voisins anglos partagent cet avis, révèle un sondage commandé par Ottawa à la veille du 150e anniversaire du pays.”
Bilingualism’s future in Canada might only be a Francophones issue according to a survey by Canadian Heritage. In this article from le Devoir, Philippe Orfali comments on the “two solitudes” argument which seems to be validated by low results from English-speaking citizens about the state of French language in Canada. Such results might be suprising, but not shocking, comments Linda Cardinal from the Chaire de recherche sur la Francophonie.
QCGN Director General, Sylvia Martin-Laforge, commented that more contact between the solitudes might change English-speaking Canadians’ vision of linguistic minorities and their precarious state. On the other hand, Maxime Laporte, president of Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste praised the awareness campaign about linguistic issues, especially for the future of French language in Canada.
Read the full article in Le Devoir
The QCGN is funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage.
