French Manitobans praise bilingualism

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This article was published 08/04/2014 (4411 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In Jacqueline Blay’s Histoire du Manitoba Français et Métis class at the Université de Saint-Boniface, her students discussed how bilingualism surfaced as a key issue in the Quebec election.

“We thought that was very strange, because here in Manitoba we have such a surge in immersion, it seems to us that the more languages you speak, the more things you know,” said Blay, who is the author of the 2011 Champlain Prize-winning book Histoire du Manitoba Français: Sous le ciel de la Prairie.

Philippe Couillard’s Liberals earned a majority Monday’s Quebec election while ousting the incumbent Parti Québécois and leader Pauline Marois.

‘I think we are strong enough to survive what Quebec does’

The Liberal majority meant bilingualism in Quebec had been defended, as the PQ party had taken a position against it.

Blay said Manitoba’s French community would not have been affected either way.

“I think we are strong enough to survive what Quebec does,” Blay said. “We have made so much progress in the last 25 years since the language crisis that we can stand on our own two feet and say, ‘OK, Quebec does this, but we are Franco-Manitobans and we want to live in peace with our neighbours.’ “

The campaign was considered one of the nastiest in decades, as leaders fired shots at each other mainly over sovereignty and language issues at the expense of nearly everything else.

Josée Perrin, an anthropology student at the Université de Saint-Boniface, said the election was discussed in her history class.

“There’s some native Quebecers here, and they said they were a little bit ashamed of what is going on in Quebec right now,” Perrin said.

She said voters appeared to speak out against the PQ’s proposed charter of values which, if it had been passed in the legislature, would have meant public employees in the province would be banned from wearing religious symbols such as turbans, hijabs or large crosses while at work.

“I think that really affected them (the PQ). That was appalling,” she said. “For us in Canada, we’re known as being accepting of many religious beliefs and multiculturalism, so for them to try to say ‘you can’t display your beliefs,’ I think that’s just ridiculous. Had I been voting there, absolutely I would have voted against that.”

Jean-Luc, who declined to give his last name, said he works in the St. Boniface area and every day sees the impact of bilingualism.

“It’s so important here, so I can’t really understand how someone (Marois) could say it isn’t important in Quebec.”

Blay said it seemed a sovereignty referendum, part of the Parti Québécois platform, was not a popular idea.

“I don’t know that the political environment is there, the economic environment is there. But that is from here, from somebody who has never lived in Quebec.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca