French vs. English: Quebec in Uproar Over Language Issue

A jewelry store in the Quebec city of Hull put up an English-language sign last December wishing customers a “Merry Christmas.” The shopkeeper was visited by provincial “language police” and told to take the greeting down or change it to French.

Two employees were overheard speaking English in a Montreal fast-food restaurant recently. Government officials sent undercover agents to eavesdrop on workers to see if they were violating laws requiring that French be spoken in the workplace.

A Montreal grocery store that posted advertisements in English and French was firebombed, causing the province to back away from plans to permit stores to display ads in a second language as long as French also was used.

During 1987, 17 businesses were fined for displaying signs in English and other non-French languages in violation of Provincial Law 101, which decrees that no language other than French may be used.

All of this, plus many other examples of efforts to reduce the use of English in predominantly French-speaking Quebec, have brought charges from Canada’s federal commissioner of official languages, D’Iberville Fortier, that Quebec’s language laws are “humbling” the 700,000 English speakers who make up nearly 20% of the province’s population. And that accusation, coming after several years of relatively peaceful accommodation between the warring language groups, has set off a furor.

The National Assembly, as the Quebec legislature is called, unanimously censured Fortier. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a native of Quebec, said he had never felt humiliated, and several French-speaking members of the Canadian Parliament called for the language commissioner’s resignation.

But the uproar goes well beyond the actual use of French and English and threatens Quebec’s place in Canada. For it comes at a time when the French-only Parti Quebecois, which has pledged to withdraw the province from Canada and create an independent nation, has taken on a new leader and is working to rebuild the separatist movement.

The controversy also has ignited a rebellion by some English-speaking members of Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative Party in Parliament against their leader’s plan to strengthen existing laws to promote the use of French throughout the rest of Canada, which is predominantly English speaking.

The row is quickly becoming a serious factor in the debate over a new Canadian constitution, which calls for recognizing Quebec as a distinct society and giving it rights in language, social and cultural areas not provided the other nine provinces.

Although the proposed constitution was approved last summer by all 10 provincial premiers, some have since had second thoughts. One premier, elected after the document was agreed upon, has announced his opposition to it. The constitution requires unanimous approval by the provinces to go into effect.

For the moment, however, the controversy is hottest here in Montreal, where the overwhelming majority of Quebec’s English speakers live and where, until 20 years ago, they dominated nearly every important aspect of life--financial, cultural and political.

It was common at that time to describe the English minority as Westmount Rhodesians, comparing the English-speaking residents of a wealthy Montreal neighborhood to the white Africans who declared independence from Britain to maintain their rule over the black majority in what used to be Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe.

But in the 1960s, reformist politicians in the province gained power and began instituting policies to give the French-speaking majority more power.

To a large degree, the strategy worked. Francophones--French speakers--made major gains in all areas of life, and many of the things they found degrading faded. Salespeople in fancy stores began addressing French speakers in their native tongue. Simpson’s department store became Simpson, dropping the English-style possessive. And French speakers were getting more important jobs in industry.

But it wasn’t enough. In 1976, the Parti Quebecois won power and immediately adopted Law 101, which severely restricted the use of English. Beyond the sign limitations, Francophones were given preference in government hiring. And Anglophones--English speakers--could send their children to English-language schools only if the parents themselves had attended such classes in Quebec. Thus, any newcomers had to send their children to French-language schools.

English was restricted in most businesses, the legislature and social services. The result was a serious exodus of Anglophones and of some major businesses from the province and the strong entrenchment of French in society.

At the same time, the remaining English-speaking population adapted. The percentage of English speakers also fluent in French rose from about half to more than 70%.

The result was an accommodation in which both sides seemed relatively satisfied, a state of affairs exemplified recently at a dinner party where six English-speakers and two Francophones spent the evening conversing almost entirely in French.

But the irony of the conversation was that its topic, from appetizer to dessert, was the attitude of most of the Anglophones that they are feeling humiliated.

“I am being treated as a second-class citizen and I resent it,” said Eric Maldoff, a lawyer and former president of Alliance Quebec, an English-language organization.

Writing in the Montreal Gazette, an English-language newspaper, former Language Commissioner Keith Spicer said Fortier’s findings that Anglophones were being humbled “stated . . . a fairly obvious truth.”

Gretta Chambers, another Montreal Anglophone, said that “what is endangered here is the recognized validity and continued viability of the English-speaking community.”

Fortier’s report gave substance to support the emotional reaction by Anglophones. He noted that only 5.5% of all federal jobs in Quebec, which are supposed to be free of language discrimination, are held by English speakers, down from 12.6% in 1976. In some key agencies, English participation is only 3.2%.

And although a wide range of English-language schools, ranging from preschool to three universities, are available in Quebec, there has been a near free-fall in enrollment in these institutions, a 53% decline since 1971.

Anglophones have scarcely been reassured by two recent developments:

-- The National Assembly has allocated $2.5 million to aid Francophone groups in other provinces while declining to spend enough money to hire bilingual employees in schools and public agencies in Quebec.

-- The new Parti Quebecois leader, Jacques Parizeau, says there will be more stringent enforcement of Law 101 if his party regains power.

Moreover, arguments that Quebec Anglophones are suffering from discrimination at a time when the federal government is pushing for stronger rights for French speakers in the rest of Canada were not helped by a recent announcement of Saskatchewan’s government that it would repeal a 100-year-old bilingual requirement and begin publishing its legislation and regulations in English only.

In an effort to keep from being outflanked on the language issue, Quebec’s premier, Robert Bourassa, has retreated from campaign promises to ease restrictions for English on commercial signs. He now argues that “social peace” is more important than strengthening equality for English speakers.

Furthermore, the 19 Anglophone members of the National Assembly, under pressure from Bourassa, voted to condemn Fortier for his findings.

But Fortier has rebuffed calls for his resignation. He insists that although the preservation of French in Quebec is necessary and justified, language legislation “should not diminish the fundamental rights of Quebec Anglophones but rather seek to protect and promote the French language.”