About 200 people demonstrated Saturday afternoon for the defense of the French language, which they are worried about seeing the state wither away in Montreal.
Posted at 12:16 a.m.
The kick-off of the demonstration was given in the middle of the afternoon in Dorchester Square, in Montreal. The participants marched through the streets of the city center to denounce the “constant anglicization” of the metropolis.
“There are more and more businesses in Montreal where people show up and are told: no, sorry, I don’t speak French,” laments Sylvain Lévesque. “In such conditions, what else to do but fight or go live in the regions and let Montreal become Anglicized? “, he launches in joke.
Above the crowd, fleur-de-lis flags floated in the wind, which suddenly rose as the storm approached.
While Bill 96 is being debated, Raphaël Guérard deplores the attitude of certain politicians who would seek to divide Quebec with the defense of French. “The Liberal Party of Quebec and the Liberal Party of Canada are polarizing for [gagner] the electorate”, believes the activist of the Youth Forum of the Bloc Québécois.
“I think it’s important to defend the legitimacy of Bill 96. Afterwards, the details, we can discuss them calmly,” he said.
The demonstration killed two birds with one stone by highlighting the long weekend of National Patriots’ Day, which “really contributed to the French fact and to the freedom of Francophones everywhere in Quebec”, recalls Vincent Frappier, a demonstrator.