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Do people in Quebec speak only French with you? Are the signs in French, or both French & English? Do a random person speak French or English with you? Are schools in French?
Do people in Quebec speak only French with you? Are the signs in French, or both French & English? Do a random person speak French or English with you? Are schools in French?
What's the point of this thread?
Please ... let this thread die!
What's the point of this thread?
Please ... let this thread die!
You know, you're right. I answer these things all the time here but maybe I shouldn't.
I can appreciate that some people just don't know and are curious but I have travelled all around the world and it seems to me that almost everyone I met at least vaguely knew that that Montreal and the province of Quebec were a part of Canada that was predominantly French-speaking.
Most signs are only in French, though some of them will be in both English and French. Bill 101, which was a racist law that came in 1994 forced businesses to make their signs with French being the biggest, then English which has to be smaller then the French.
You are entitled to your opinions but I don't get your racism comment (though I've heard it a million times before - or at least 999,999 times).
Since there are black people who speak French and black people who speak English, aboriginal people who speak French and aboriginal people who speak French, Asian people who speak French and Asian people who speak English, etc., I fail to see what race has to do with this.
You can agree or disagree with the law, but the use of the r-word by you and others is just for shock value and is totally unfounded.
Racist? You'd have to talk to M. Jacques Perizeau about that word- what did he mean when he blamed the referendum loss on 'money & the ethnic vote?'
Discriminative might be a better word, discrimination can also be interrupted as racism. Racism is not only about color.
I am not a PQ supporter and did not appreciate his comments, but in the interest of fairness, it is worth mentioning that Parizeau was married most of his life (until her death in fact) to a woman named Alicja Pozanska, a concentration camp survivor.
Also, regarding racism, well once again, since being of a particular race does not mean one cannot speak any single language in the world, I still don't get the point. There are people named MacFadden, Reid, Fraser and Harvey who are francophones in spite of being racially Anglo-Celtic, and there are anglos named Gagnon and Tremblay who could be called "French Canadian" in a racial sense.
It is not a racist law in any sence of the word. It is however a nationalist law. Now this will really confound our friends the American readers. The supreme court of Canada found this law unconstitutional. However the government of Quebec invoked the "Not withstanding clause" of the constitution to override the supreme court and the law stands regardless of the courts decision. I'm a English speaking Canadian fron Ontario and I totally agree with the Quebec governments decision to over ride the constitution in this case. Quebec has a distinct "French Canadian" culture surrounded by 350 million English speaking people in the USA and Canada. It's very important that the people of Quebec are able to preserve and nurture their own culture against the pressure of the the much larger culture outside of Quebec. I greatly admire the Quebecers that they have been able to do this so successfully for such a long long time. I believe that the supreme court decision was a correct one in relation to the Canadian constitution but I agree with the government of Quebec that Extrordinary measures must be taken to protect their unique and valuable culture.
Racist? You'd have to talk to M. Jacques Perizeau about that word- what did he mean when he blamed the referendum loss on 'money & the ethnic vote?'
Discriminative might be a better word, discrimination can also be interrupted as racism. Racism is not only about color.
The people who got upset at this comment by Parizeau were taking advantage of his poor choice of words, as well as their own ignorance of the French language. Parizeau, who is LSE educated, should have known better that his comments would be misinterpreted.
Most of us took no offense to what he said, because we know he was using French vocabulary structure - and besides his comments were fairly accurate. The only people who got upset, were people who were out to twist his words around to damage his political aspirations by blowing his comments way out of proporation - most of these people just happened to be Anglo (living in their Anglo ethnic neighborhoods).
Then the press took over and it was out of control...
The people who got upset at this comment by Parizeau were taking advantage of his poor choice of words, as well as their own ignorance of the French language. Parizeau, who is LSE educated, should have known better that his comments would be misinterpreted.
Most of us took no offense to what he said, because we know he was using French vocabulary structure - and besides his comments were fairly accurate. The only people who got upset, were people who were out to twist his words around to damage his political aspirations by blowing his comments way out of proporation - most of these people just happened to be Anglo (living in their Anglo ethnic neighborhoods).
Then the press took over and it was out of control...
...and to think my pure wool brothers and sisters actually apologized for Parizeau's comment on this thread... unfair and not-needed!
Good analysis.
BTW, you're right about his statement being mistranslated. "de l'argent et des votes ethniques" (what he actually said in French) literally means "money and some ethnic votes", not "money and the ethnic vote" as is always quoted in English.
There is a nuance. He wasn't actually slamming all ethnics, but was referring to ethnic groups whose leadership publicly said "All Italians must vote Non or else!", "All Jews must vote Non or else!" or "All Greeks must vote Non or else!".
Anyway, I didn't find it very statesmanlike for Parizeau to bring that up at the end of a very trying campaign and voting day for our province's people, but it was a bit rich for those community leaders to then slam him for bringing something up that they themselves had very strongly urged people to do (vote ethnically).
Well I personally think that Quebec is finally finding it's self a place within Canada and is beginning to feel comfortable with that. It makes ne very happy if a person can consider himself a Qubecois and a proud Canadian. They do not have to be mutually exclusive.
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