“The Rousseau affair” arouses unanimous and legitimate indignation. But the scandal goes beyond the ignorance of Mr. for the language of his ancestors and his wife. This sheds light on the indifference, even rejection, of Quebec and Francophone culture on the part of Anglophones.
Michael Rousseau confesses that he never found the time to learn French, but it is also that he has probably never been in contact with French culture. That he never found it interesting enough to try to understand the lyrics of songs by Daniel Bélanger or Richard Desjardins. That he has never read a line from a novel by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette or Dany Laferrière. That he has never seen a staging of a play by Michel Tremblay or Fanny Britt. That he never caught a joke from Louis-José Houde. In fact, all these names are completely foreign to him.
At the origin and at the basis of this indignation aroused by Mr. Rousseau’s remarks lies the fact that he never made any effort to learn French. He never saw any interest: this culture does not arouse his curiosity. Everyone knows he is certainly not the only one.
The problem is that no law can do anything about this indifference. No social contract can force a population to take an interest in its artists, to love a culture.
We ourselves as French-speaking people consume a lot of Anglo-Saxon culture. I would even say that our cultural attention is focused on this culture. Often at the expense of ours. How many times have I heard a student tell me that he “didn’t like[t] not Quebec literature ”, although he had never read anything about it! There are many examples.
Foreigners who wish to settle here can be required to learn our language in order to work. But we cannot complain about their indifference to our culture if we ourselves do not give it the value and importance it deserves. Make complaints, yes, toughen laws, no doubt. But shouldn’t we (re) start proudly wearing our culture? To read, to listen to music, to go to the theater in French… to schedule conferences in French? To paraphrase a distant cousin of the president of Air Canada, we must not waste time saying what to do, do it or shut up.
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