The fact that the only French-language student newspaper at McGill University fears for its survival worries the leader of the Parti Québécois and deputy for Camille-Laurin, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who sees in it a clear failure of Canadian bilingualism.
“The essential question to ask is whether institutional bilingualism policies at McGill worked. The answer is no, he says, in an interview with The duty. The 20% of French speakers in the university, even if we are in Quebec, even if Montreal is supposed to be a French-speaking capital, are in a recurring defensive posture and are constantly questioned”.
A referendum is being held at the university from November 14 to 18. The student population as a whole must vote on whether the six-dollar fee, which funds The offense and its English counterpart, the McGill Daily, will be maintained. Such a referendum takes place every five years and a victory for the no side would lead to the closure of the Offense. The fact that the newspaper is financed by everyone, but is read by a Francophone or Francophile minority, encourages students on campus to question its existence.
“It’s a reflection of Canada’s famous bilingualism,” argues Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. It is a recurring discourse in the history of Canada and English-Canadian institutions, namely that everything that is French-speaking is expensive and that it is useless”.
“For example ending the RCMP training course in French, ending communications in French or certain requests for French proficiency in Canadian foreign affairs, and the fact that French is often superfluous in the Canadian public service, he lists. French is presented as a burden in a context where it is a minority”. He fears the day when French could become a minority in Quebec, which would lead to the same kind of dynamic.
During the month of September, The offense was also the victim of vandalism. Hundreds of copies were stolen from university displays and found coffee-soiled in a garbage can. Recruitment posters were also torn down. English-language student newspapers did not suffer the same fate, says the To have to Gabrielle Genest, editor-in-chief of Offense.
“We don’t want to attribute intention to the people who did this because we don’t know who it is, it may have nothing to do with it [avec le fait que ce soit un journal francophone] “, she says, adding that it could also be caused by an article or articles that disliked. “We didn’t really look, we hadn’t published anything controversial, and we really don’t know why it happened,” she says. We cannot demonstrate that it is anti-Francophone”.