Hello, Sugar Sammy, or rather hailo saraSamir Khullar.
I have always followed you and I was marked by your first show francophone who was daring and who came to pick me up as the son of Vietnamese immigrants in Quebec.
Like you, my parents toiled when they arrived and opened all kinds of businesses, from grocery stores to movie rental stores. I also spent my childhood in a multi-ethnic and multilingual school which gave me all kinds of riches.
Your recent appearance in The Press1 however left me wondering in several respects.
I share your vision regarding the lack of diversity on screen and I agree that Quebec has a long way to go to open up to a multiplicity of talents and voices that are often in the shadows. And it seems widespread. Do you know Guillaume Côté? He is only one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world who is almost unknown here. It is not normal that, for example, at Everybody talks about it, the same guest comes back more than ten times. With more than 8 million inhabitants, Quebec is full of fantastic people who radiate everywhere abroad. If an international prodigy from Lac Saint-Jean struggles to make headlines in Quebec, it’s hard to think that an artist from cultural communities will succeed in breaking through when the sample seems so narrow. What do you think ?
Precious linguistic diversity
However, I don’t follow you when you associate the protection of the French language with a lack of openness to multilingualism. My wife and I are trilingual, but we attach great importance to safeguarding the French fact and its uniqueness in America precisely to preserve global linguistic diversity.
I applaud your decision to present Acadian comedian JC Surette as the opening act for your shows. As you know, the French-speaking minorities in Canada are far from enjoying all the rights and privileges of the English-speaking minority in Quebec. Considering your own origins, you are undoubtedly one of the best placed to understand, since India is certainly not spared from linguistic and regional debates.
In Montreal, a large proportion of Francophones speak or understand English minimally and will serve Anglophones in their mother tongue with pleasure. I haven’t traveled as much as you, but just enough to discover many regions in the world where you are spoken and served in several languages, in addition to the local language. However, in the greater Montreal metropolitan area and particularly downtown, it has become increasingly common to have unilingual English-speaking customer service.
So, my dear Sugar Sammy, I can’t wait to see your next issue on those English speakers who refuse to learn “hello” and “thank you,” especially from airline CEOs.
You say that people from cultural communities recognize themselves more in Anglo-American culture or have a more pronounced interest in it. There too, I agree, there is a long way to go in Quebec in terms of variety, but we often make the mistake of automatically associating English with diversity. If I enjoy consuming American cultural products like many people, I can also switch to the rest of the world, particularly French-speaking, with especially the African ascent, to draw from an almost infinite pool. Moreover, learning French makes it easier for you to learn English and several Latin languages such as Spanish, Portuguese or Italian, the equivalent of a potential of more than 2.5 billion of speakers in the world. In Ontario, a meager 10% of the population is bilingual (French-English) while in Quebec, it is more than 45%2. The same trend can be observed in New Brunswick, which is also home, curiously, to a Francophone community. I therefore agree with you on the fact that learning several languages is an invaluable asset, but perhaps you are looking at the wrong side? Canadian bilingualism is essentially driven by Francophones.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Sugar Sammy is “not necessarily the spokesperson for all ethno-linguistic or English-speaking communities”, writes the author.
Finally, even if your critical look at society is necessary, and above all hilarious, you are not necessarily the spokesperson for all ethno-linguistic or English-speaking communities. My background is different from yours (and above all a decade off!). I have traveled all over Quebec and I have always been well received despite my name and my appearance. I would never have been able to get where I am without the contribution and effort of my Vietnamese family, but also of a multitude of people within the Quebec community who encouraged me to persevere and contribute. .
And while figures of diversity are finally multiplying in prominent positions, we must indeed redouble our efforts to promote Francophone wealth so that people have the taste to adhere to an option other than Anglo-American Empire. That said, you know very well, Samir, that few languages can do the trick for the reasons you know. The idea is therefore not to demonize the lingua franca, but to establish favorable conditions to support the other languages of the world. Talk to Indigenous communities. It is in Quebec that we find proportionally the most speakers of ancestral languages in Canada, but we can do better.
I give you reason that times are changing and if we want the solitudes to become a brotherhood, we will all have to, like you, make the effort to meet others and allow the expression of different points of view, but above all, to manage to decipher the cultural sensitivities of each one.
With that, I can’t wait to listen to your new material and laugh, dear Samir.