Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Amendments
Certainly, Bill 96 needs to be amended to include that Bill 101 applies to colleges, as requested by most Quebecers as well as teachers from more than 33 CEGEPs. In addition, the regulations concerning the francization of corporate names should be strengthened.
Antoine Chartier
Blow bar
To my knowledge, it is not English that is threatened in North America. The only question: “Do we want to keep the French language in Quebec?” If the answer is yes, we will have to make a serious push to reduce the use of English in all our institutions.
Michel Goudreau, Mascouche
Investment, valuation and supervision
The pure and simple withdrawal of the law which should be replaced by an investment in the education of French in our schools, the promotion of Francophone culture in the arts and better linguistic support for newcomers.
Julien Houle
Electoral maneuver
Many elements seem to me to be of the “gossage” order, having few positive effects, while they risk creating many pitfalls, especially for immigrants. Six months to learn French… that’s not serious! Even old Quebecers who have been educated here barely manage to pass their exams. The other thing that bugs me is the fact that we consider the language spoken at home as an indicator of the “decline of French”. The most important thing is in society, at work, at school. Then, in one or two generations, the majority of these people will no longer even understand the language of their grandparents. We have plenty of examples around us. All this seems to me an electoral maneuver.
Sylvie St-Pierre
Explanations to be given
Do we really need this bill? How can the government of a democratic society justify decreeing that we need to act to the point of giving the Office de la langue française the right to override the Charter of Rights and to carry out searches in data from private companies? On what scientific studies do we base ourselves to determine that one, two or three additional French courses compulsory for students in English-speaking CEGEPs will solve the problem? And what problem do we want to solve? The Minister still has a lot of explanations to give to prove to us that this bill is not an electioneering maneuver to attract the vote of some PQ members who are disillusioned with their political party; and a populist maneuver to attract part of the vote of the population resistant to immigrants and living together.
Joanne Vezina, Montreal
humanity and harmony
We must protect our language, but do so with humanity in a harmonious social climate: we must remove the right of search from the Office de la langue française; not applying the law to the health sector; and giving immigrants more than six months to use services in French.
Daniele Gauvin
positive defense
I do not believe that the promotion of the French language in Quebec should go through the fact of taking away rights from people. We talk a lot about anglophones, but we must also consider allophones and aboriginals in the analysis. Refugees who arrive here have other things to worry about than learning another language quickly; the First Nations had the colonial language of the time imposed on them. Vulnerable humans should not bear the cost of defending and promoting French. There are plenty of other ways to promote and defend it positively.
Stephanie Vallee
Building bridges
To make the law more humane and more in line with the reality of newcomers, particularly refugees, remove the article on the obligation for newcomers to speak French within six months and the ban on intervening with them. here in English. When immigrants see that we want to establish communication with them, they are more inclined to learn our language. I have often seen this in my work.
Celine Simard, Laval
College
The provisions of Bill 101 should be applied to college education. It would make a real difference to the survival of French in Quebec.
Solange Raymond
Deadline too short
Without knowing all the details of this bill, the main thing that concerns me is the too short time allowed to learn French. After six months, if I have understood correctly, services to anglophone and allophone immigrants, apart from perhaps health care (and more), will only be provided in French. Of course, many will tear it up (to put it mildly). I don’t know who can learn French so quickly when most Quebecers my age do very poorly in English, even if we learned it at school and even if we have been dealing with this language for long years. Solving administrative or social problems in a language that we don’t know well means exposing ourselves to serious problems for us and for society. French is the official language of Quebec, but the country is bilingual and immigrants are entitled to more respect from us. Promoting French is one thing, coercively imposing it on people who are often destitute or in a post-traumatic state is another.
Estelle Dallaire