After his victory over the oath to the King of England, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon should continue his offensive to compel François Legault to act on other issues where the CAQ government should have done something a long time ago. But where he shows an unacceptable shyness and indulgence.
Secrets of the Stolen 1995 Referendum
As tensions mount with the ROC, the Parti Québécois must demand – if possible with the support of the other opposition parties, except the Liberals – that the Legault government take steps to make public the entire archives of the Grenier commission. We could thus discover how Jean Chrétien stole the 1995 referendum by illegally financing the No campaign in defiance of Quebec’s electoral laws.
These documents are currently covered by a publication ban without time limits. PPSP and the PQ must lead a national mobilization on the issue. It is to the advantage of the Parti Québécois and all of Quebec, even the CAQ, that they are finally revealed.
College graduates don’t speak French
It is a national humiliation that one can leave college in Quebec without speaking the national language. In “normal” countries, educational institutions aim to integrate newcomers into the majority. Here our tax money is used to make us a minority in our own country. It is unique on the planet. For our government not to intervene is a pathetic manifestation of our national masochism. Enough to make us the laughingstock of the whole world.
Another humiliating reality: how many countries are there in the world where patients cannot be treated in the national language? In Anglophone hospitals, it is often Francophones who ensure (in English) the administrative functioning of these institutions, while unilingual English speakers (doctors and nurses) take care of the patients.
Right-of-way to pseudo-English-speaking towns
In Quebec, a municipality can obtain bilingual status if it has 50% Anglophones, a rate that Montreal has not yet reached. But it’s coming quickly: the Anglos just have to wait a few more years.
Nearly 90 municipalities in Quebec have this status, but – hush! – don’t tell anyone: it’s a lie. Only a minority of these cities actually have a majority of English speakers. We even give them the choice. Thus Otterburn Park wants to retain its status even if only 5.7% of its population is English-speaking. How many times in our history, regarding services in French for our minorities outside Quebec, have we been given the justification “only where numbers warrant”?
One thing is consoling at the end of this political year: the dramatic decline of the Liberal Party, the spearhead of those whom René Lévesque called the “White Rhodesians” supported – to use Jacques Parizeau’s expression – by “the ‘money and the ethnic vote’.