Can we talk to each other? In French please

However, the baby was looking good. Before Bill 96 was tabled, there was a rare climate of cooperation to improve the protection of the French language. Both the federal government and the opposition parties in Quebec were ready to push in the right direction.

But now the old linguistic quarrels that no one wanted are resurfacing. Between demonstrations and verbal escalation, political parties play their cards more for political gains than for language protection.

Instead of this split, could we talk to each other? Instead of this dramatization and this harmful politicization, could we take a step back and return to the starting point? Based on facts, not impressions.

Let’s be clear, French in North America will always be in a fragile position that will have to be defended. But we must not sink into a disaster scenario and impose coercive measures without obvious necessity. French is not on the verge of drowning. And Quebec is not the Louisiana of tomorrow.

Many are on the wrong track by focusing on indicators such as mother tongue or language spoken at home, which paint an alarmist portrait of the decline of French in Quebec.

It is true that the demographic weight of the population with French as their mother tongue decreased by 4.6 percentage points between 1951 and 2016. By the way, the decline was even faster among Anglos (5.2 points).

But don’t cry wolf.

Of course, Quebecers whose mother tongue is a third language weigh more heavily in Quebec, because of immigration. And it is normal that these families continue to speak their mother tongue around the dining room table, although, more and more, we see that they also speak other languages ​​at home.

And the French come out a winner.

Contrary to a common misconception, the majority of immigrants with an “other” mother tongue adopt French (65%) more often than English (33%) at home. This proportion is even higher (75%) for those who arrived 10 years ago.

In short, we are going in the right direction.

But what really matters is the language spoken in the public sphere.

In the labor market, the high-profile scandals at Air Canada and CN portend the worst.

In fact, French has experienced a slight decline, while more workers are using both French and English at the same time, according to data from the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).

This can be explained, among other things, by the fact that the Quebec economy has experienced a strong acceleration in its service exports, which requires bilingualism. And no law can change that.

On the retail side, French has lost its feathers as the language of reception on the island of Montreal, to the detriment of unilingual English or bilingual reception. But beyond the obnoxious “Bonjour Hi” mode, customers can be served in French more than 95% of the time, and that’s what really matters.

As for signage, the compliance rate has improved, particularly in the West Island and downtown.

And on the school benches, Law 101 was a success. Immigrant children must now attend primary and secondary school in French, whereas only 15% did so before 1977.

Recently, much has been made of the rise in popularity of English-language CEGEPs with French-speaking students. But we forget to say that the proportion of students who have a third mother tongue enrolled in a French-speaking CEGEP has exploded from 25% in 1985 to 66% in 2021.

This is something to be happy about.

Without falling into jovialism, it must be recognized that the overall portrait of French is rather stable in the public sphere, according to data from the OQLF. Which doesn’t mean we have to sit idly by.

For example, it is not acceptable that one-third of Anglophones do not speak Tremblay’s language. It’s better than in 1971, when it was two thirds. But there is still a long way to go.

We must improve French courses at the primary and secondary levels, which are clearly not up to par. Otherwise, the obligation to take courses in French at the college level would not have provoked an outcry from young Anglophones finding the bar too high.

Other leads?

Better integrate immigrants into the Francophone community, starting with the public service, where they are extremely underrepresented.

Retain French-speaking families who are leaving the island of Montreal en masse, so as not to further widen the linguistic gap between the metropolis and the rest of Quebec, an unhealthy divide that harms dialogue.

Because if we want to understand each other, we have to speak to each other… in French, please.