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If you're not prepared to read this with an objective and open mind you might as well hit the BACK button..lol.
I read a thread about racial profiling and it got me to thinking about my younger days growing up in the Province of Quebec here in Canada. For those that don't already know, Quebec is a mostly french speaking province with the exception of the West Island (Montreal) which is mostly bilingual (english/french).
I lived in Quebec for 12 years. I moved there from New Brunswick when I was 6 years old. I didn't know a word of french and all I can remember is the thought of going to school scaring the daylights out of me. It was alot for a kid to absorb; a new and much larger city AND one that embraced an entirely different language than the one I spoke.
I lived in Kirkland specifically (just outside Montreal on the West Island), and although it was just as english as it was french it didn't protect me or anyone else who spoke english as their mother tongue from the "System". You see, the provincial government in Quebec has long sought to become independent from Canada and in fact separate itself from the country entirely. It makes no sense as to how they think they can survive on their own but none the less, they want the english out and out for good.
My school days were filled with segregation. On one side, you had St.Thomas High School....cross the catwalk and you entered Ecole Secondaire St.Thomas. The same name (in french of course) but with french only curriculum and absolutely NO english. In St.Thomas we had mandatory French class and the option to take our classes in french. On the other side of the catwalk there was NO english language class at all of course, no option to be taught in english. The english side started before the french side; we had different break times, different lunch times and different dismissal times. They were set up this way to discourage us from interacting with the french students. This often caused extreme tension and there were often fights when the two sides got together. I remember the rule about the catwalk....if we got caught on their side it was a 1 day suspension (in school suspension)...2 times, out of school suspension....3 times...EXPELLED! I got caught once trying to get back at some punk that sucker punched my friend outside.
I had a friend who went to Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School...it had a damn brick wall in the school yard separating the english kids from the french kids...a damn brick wall! The school (PCHS) earned the nickname Prison Camp Hitler Style for its antics.
This was around the time that the great language wars of Bill 101 broke out. Among other things this Bill passed by the Quebec government to restrict english on commercial signs and was seemingly designed to rid Quebec of the english language all together.
OK....my conspiracy theory. With Bill 101 having a firm grip on society in Quebec and the youth separated by the "Walls" and an overall sense of being watch dogged by the "Language Police" the time would soon come when the Block Quebecois (Provincial Government Party) would be able to set the wheels for a referendum in motion. The referendum is a vote amongst all citizens of Quebec to either say Yes or No to the province separating from the country. My theory is that all the years of segregation in the schools and amongst the youth in general would have been years well spent since these children at the time of the vote in 1995, would be of legal voting age. This would sure make a victorious YES vote a good possibility. Truth of the matter is that it almost was...the NO vote came out on top with a 59.56 per cent to 40.44 per cent margin. It's widely believed that the West Island had remained too anglophone (english speaking) for the vote to succeed.
I was living in Ottawa, Ontario at the time of the referendum and though I still have incredible distain for the "Separatists" of Quebec I don't think I'd want to see the province break loose from the country. I still have too many friends living there and truthfully, the political climate is still so unstable and I can't imagine it being any worse.
Anyway, that's my time.....thought it might be an interesting read.
I voted yes back in 1994. I'm not sure how'd I'd vote in the next one though. I was in English University at the time and I was putting up with so much ignorance and prejudice from English speaking students that I voted yes to stick my finger at them.
Anyway, I believe that bill 101 had an overwhelmenly positive effect on Quebec society. It was the natural outgrowth of the Quiet Revolution.
It's not always easy to understand and appreciate the minority (French culture in a North American context) point of view. However, it's critical in understanding the background and the current day issues regarding this fact of life in Quebec. As frivolous and far fetched as it might seem, French people feel "wronged" by the English, the same way African Americans feel "wronged" by white people. Quebec is also a lot more socially liberal than the rest of Canada.
Btw, there was no such thing as a language "police". No one walked around with guns and billy clubs to arrest people. People were fined if they broke the law. I wholeheartitly agree with any effort to preserve and promote a culture and people's right to self determination.
I think the climate there is a lot more stable now than it's been in over 15 years. The provincial liberals are in power and the next generation of PQ (Parti Quebecois) leaders are pretty green. The basic cycle is that the worse the economy is, the more there is talk about sovreingty association.
Anyway, I'm proud to be a Quebecer and to have grown up in 2 cultures using 2 languages.
btw, there was no such thing as a language "police". No one walked around with guns and billy clubs to arrest people. People were fined if they broke the law.
what do you think the people who issued the fines were called?
man that makes me glad i live in the US. cause if i got "fined" for speaking english, i would whip someones ass before i take that ticket. im sure the rest of the americans would too
man that makes me glad i live in the US. cause if i got "fined" for speaking english, i would whip someones ass before i take that ticket. im sure the rest of the americans would too
not for speaking.....but if you advertised in english you got fined.
office de la langue française. Civil servants who reacted to complaints. Nothing to do with a police department.
this can't be the first time you've heard them refered to as the 'language police'? christ, even the few people I know back in MTL who also voted yes would know what that meant.
i was in canada for like a week or two. and i went to like 4 different cities on a bus tour hehe. everyone was nice to me even tho i spoke english. but i learned some french in highschool, so if people spoke french i would try to speak with them out of respect. it was weird, cause you don't know which one people there prefer at all, and its hard to figure out what to use. but no one was hostile about it, maybe cause they knew i was a tourist?
i was in canada for like a week or two. and i went to like 4 different cities on a bus tour hehe. everyone was nice to me even tho i spoke english. but i learned some french in highschool, so if people spoke french i would try to speak with them out of respect. it was weird, cause you don't know which one people there prefer at all, and its hard to figure out what to use. but no one was hostile about it, maybe cause they knew i was a tourist?
you won't find french in many other places at all except for Quebec.
wow its good to see no matter how insane the states get it will never be as ignorant as some parts of the world. I mean they have an awesome opportunity to teach their next generation 2 of the strongest(based on political power) languages in the world. Yet out of some retarded texas like pride they shove their future down.
well quebec is like its own lil world. other parts of canada have no problems like that and everyone knows english it seems. you can try and talk in french but they know both so it doesn't matter, like in ottawa, montreal, etc.
well quebec is like its own lil world. other parts of canada have no problems like that and everyone knows english it seems. you can try and talk in french but they know both so it doesn't matter, like in ottawa, montreal, etc.
Ottawa was recently made officially billingual but it's not really so bad. It's right on the border of Gatineau, Quebec and in fact many of those people cross the bridge over the Ottawa river to work in Ottawa..lol. Those same people who voted to seperate from Canada...but didn't want to give up their cushy government jobs in Ontario...
How I grew up with segregation.... 
