Recently, in The dutythe director of the National Institute for Scientific Research, Luc-Alain Giraldeau, rightly lamented the virtual disappearance of this great international language, French, from the field of scientific publications.
We all understand that this situation results from the sustained actions of the Anglo-Saxon world to impose English there. In his text, he also mentions that two vice-rectors of the University of Montreal are calling on the Canadian government to “counter the decline of French in science”. However, can we not doubt the effectiveness of this approach when we know the least bit of history?
He rightly points out that this is not a Canadian problem. In 2023, according to Mr. Giraldeau, we could only “be sorry to see English occupying all the space of scientific publication”. However, if we believe in the slightest that it is possible to live and exist in French, we must instead act with the powerful means of today’s world, which allow us to take our place when we have the will and the capacity.
As a first step, our directors and rectors should ensure that their establishments do honor to our culture, our vocation and our language in all their operations, because inconsistency is fatal in all things. For example, by making sure that all their programs, at all levels, are in French — and that they promote it properly. Second, by ensuring that all their departments and other organizations operate in French. Third, by having as an essential rule that all master’s and doctoral theses be written in French, the official language of Quebec, the international language par excellence.
Alas, this is not what the latest news in our academic circles tells us!
In addition, we were particularly shocked to learn that Quebec granted nearly $200 million to English-speaking Quebec universities over the past year for their students from Canada and other countries, without much reaction from our officials. academics. However, each year, these same English-speaking establishments already benefit from nearly 28% of the university operating budget allocated by the Quebec government, while the proportion of English-speakers of British origin in Quebec—the normal rights holders—is only about 7%, according to federal statistics, and self-identified English speakers, about 14%.
Is there not a very serious anomaly here, one of the causes of the anglicization of Quebec? A very abnormal situation denounced for a long time by various authors and a priority subject for action for all our rectors and directors of institutions of higher learning struggling with almost insoluble budgetary problems? We would like our university officials to act accordingly.
Now, when it comes to the language in which research results are published, in science and in all fields, there really is no longer any excuse for all researchers — in all countries — to submit to Anglo-American imperialism and not to publish in their language. This is what we have to admit today if we know the slightest bit about the powerful means of automatic translation from one language to another by computer. Indeed, any publication made in at least one of the ten main languages of the planet can be translated very faithfully into any other, with a minimum of alterations, in a matter of seconds. Alterations that any scientist will make himself in full understanding of the substance of the article in his field.
Consequently, each researcher who shares one of the ten main languages (and more) writes his article in his language, which is evaluated by an international committee. The accepted article is then published in its original language. It is then up to each interested reader to insert the text of the article into their automatic translator to read it in their language. We will then understand that it is not the Canadian state that must be appealed to, any more than just the French-speaking people of the planet more or less crushed by the Anglo-American onslaught, but the academics and researchers of all countries and all languages that are aware of the erasure they are undergoing.
It is time to end the Anglo-American hegemony over scientific publications of all kinds. It is therefore to be hoped that all our rectors, vice-rectors for research, research directors and researchers will project themselves onto the international scene to invite their colleagues from all countries to show solidarity so that, from now on, the publications of their researchers are made in their language, and this, in all the scientific publications of the planet.
Is this not the least of the steps to be taken to promote the use of French on an international scale? Can we count on the status of our intellectual elites in this process? This is the fundamental question: if their hoped-for action yields results, we will be able to review the texts of the journal with pleasure. Accounts of the Académie des sciences, the Revue de l’Institut Pasteur and others, and to pursue the development of science in all fields — in French — for our greater prosperity, as Quebecers and citizens of this planet.