I am surprised to see the canadianization of Montreal. I am beginning to realize that the Trudeau government’s multiculturalism policies are unfortunately beginning to bear fruit.
I was at the Half Moon Run show at the Olympia on July 5, 2022. Having queued before entering the Olympia and moving inside, I could clearly see that the room was made up mostly of Francophones. Half Moon Run are a much-loved band, for the right reasons, and very pampered in Montreal, Montreal audiences being what they are.
Half Moon Run, a “Montreal based” group gave an extraordinary performance. A friendly presence, a few presentations of the plays in English, but, all the same, at times, thanks in French with little shy “thank you”.
On the other hand, the artist Shaina Hayes, who was the first part of the show, did it quite differently. I understand that the members of the group Half Moon Run preferred to hire a group less good than them so as not to be upstaged. To that extent, it was perfectly successful. Luckily we were up for the five long songs of Mme Hayes, because we could have fallen asleep because his music is so empty and boring.
But what bothered me more was his arrogance as a unilingual Anglophone who lives—obviously according to his words—in Quebec, talking to us between plays in English only. The only word spoken in French was the name of her municipality (Mont-Saint-…) near Montreal to tell us about her occupation as a farmer and sell us her honey while distilling her Anglo-Saxon culture.
I am disappointed with the attitude of French-speaking Montrealers who do not seem to be concerned about this situation. As if speaking French was a must and that, deep down, they would have preferred to live in English in good Canadians.