As luck would have it, I recently sat at the same table as the new Minister for the French Language, Jean-François Roberge. That was before he said “all the lights are red” and “we’re not walking towards the wall, we’re running”. Not yet informed of the intensity of his conviction, I shouted at him somewhat sharply: “So your mandate is to reverse the decline of French in four years? Not at all taken aback, he replied, “I’m not going to reverse it in four years, but I’m going to set conditions for it to reverse afterward.” »
Stunned by his serene certainty. Two thoughts: “Does François Legault know about it? » and « Camille Laurin, stay in this body! “.
The Prime Minister’s opening statement was going to answer me. Reversing the decline was his “first duty”, an “existential question”, he said, adding that 100% Francophone economic immigration is finally on the agenda. That won’t be enough. The downward trend is so strong that the tipping point may be behind us. But, always motivated by my desire to be of service, I advance here what it is necessary, according to me, to implement to tend towards the objective.
150% Francophone immigration. It’s a way of speaking, but the minorization of the proportion of Montrealers — and soon of Laval residents and residents of the Outaouais — who have French as their first language requires urgent redress. It is no longer enough to require knowledge of French at the point of entry for all economic immigrants and their spouses. It is necessary to ensure that within this group, the proportion that has French as their first language, of use, is in the majority. This has never been done, never even measured.
One of the options is to remove the ceiling from the (federal) Working Holiday program with France and Belgium (about 12,000 places per year) so that as many of these young people who want it — easily double — come and provide their arms to our tourist industry. in the summer and then be encouraged to take root.
Mr. Legault announces that he wants to make French-language higher education the preferred channel, a proposal that I have been formulating and reformulating since the year 2000. So, yes!
Frenchified refugees on arrival. No question of asking Ukrainians or Afghan women fleeing bombs and oppression to go to Berlitz. However, they have to be paid to learn French for a few months before sending them to the labor market.
Getting angry at Roxham Road. For now, Ottawa will bring about 10% of those crossing the world’s most famous non-border to Ontario. That Quebec takes care of a more consistent sorting. Let him keep here those who have French as their first language (and non-Francos who have immediate family in Quebec) and bring all the others to Immigration Canada in Ontario.
Make young Anglos truly bilingual. The legend that graduates of our high schools are bilingual was shattered when we learned that more than a third of the best among them would fail a CEGEP course in French. A slaughter reaching 57% of future nurses, 88% of future educators. There is an urgent need to strengthen the teaching of French in English secondary, raise the level of French in the first semester of CEGEP, give a quarter of the courses in French in the second, half in the third, and have the fourth follow in immersion in a French Cegep. (17% of English CEGEP teachers have French as their mother tongue, according to the MEQ).
At the English-speaking university, 10% of the courses must be in French and an exam must confirm language proficiency at the exit point. Not adopting this approach—which presupposes immense political courage—is giving up the idea that French will one day be the common language in Montreal.
Cut off the tap of unilingual English students. No less than 30,000 of them, a record, entered during the first mandate of the CAQ, which in no way asked them to learn French before coming. The application of the previous measure to CEGEPs and universities makes this condition, eliminatory, essential.
Extend Bill 101 to English CEGEPs. And allow students from French CEGEPs who wish to perfect their knowledge of English to take an immersion session in an Anglo CEGEP.
Requalify Anglo professionals. The rain of testimonies collected recently by the Montreal Journal on the English unilingualism of members of the medical staff calls for requiring, within five years, French training and a French exam for all former health graduates from English-speaking institutions.
A great firmness in the opening. Pierre Fitzgibbon wants skilled workers to be exempt from language requirements at the port of entry. The good news is that they are, by definition, good students. That the company that hires them be responsible for leading them in two years to an advanced intermediate level of spoken and written French, certified by the OQLF. Otherwise, bye ByeCharlie Brown!
The Michael Rousseau clause. Offer the following choice to companies with more than 500 employees, whether or not they are under federal jurisdiction: either their five main managers are operational in French and half of their board members are Francophones within four years, or they no longer have access to Quebec tax credits for R&D and accelerated depreciation.
The principle of the telephone. A massive advertising campaign must explain that we can discuss in English, Spanish or Mandarin on the phone or on video with customers and suppliers, but that once these conversations are over, between us, we speak French.
The OQLF app. That people can file a complaint with the Office directly on their smart phone, in real time.
Once this list is implemented, we will probably be almost halfway there.