[lg policy] Canada: Quebec ’s self-defeating language fetish

Sat Jun 5 14:21:43 UTC 2010

Quebec’s self-defeating language fetish

 Special to the National Post  June 4, 2010 – 7:40 am

Last summer, after close to 20 years in The Netherlands running the
Dutch campus of a top U.S. university, I returned home to Montreal to
accept the post of Director General of Marianopolis College. Three of
our children returned with me and my wife, the fourth remaining at
university in Amsterdam. Bringing children ages 10 to 16 and a Dutch
wife to Canada was a challenge, but I underestimated how difficult it
would be to bring them to Quebec.

A year later, I am increasingly concerned about Quebec and its
direction. I worry — as a father, as the leader of one of the
province’s top higher-education institutions and as a global citizen —
that Quebec is moving opposite to global trends. For example, on
Wednesday, the provincial government unveiled its response to the
recent Supreme Court of Canada judgement declaring Bill 104
unconstitutional.

Bill 104 amended Bill 101 — Quebec’s French Language Charter — to
prevent parents not educated in Canada in English from securing
eligibility for their child to attend English schools after spending
one year at an un-subsidized English private school. The high court
gave Quebec a year to find another way to plug that loophole, while
protecting Charter rights. The Quebec National Assembly’s response,
Bill 103, further limits access to English schooling.

This has happened despite the fact that the English community has
evolved significantly while I was abroad. There is an openness to
learning French that didn’t exist when I left in 1991. Graduates of
English schools are increasingly fluent in both French and English,
and the bridges that have been built between different ethnic
communities are remarkable.

Yet, when I speak with the university-bound students at Marianopolis,
many of whom attended francophone high schools, and with the academic
leaders of Quebec’s French and English colleges and universities, it
is clear: The brain drain out of the province persists.

Worse still, this flight of talent and economic prowess is not being
replaced by immigrants:  Only 18 percent of all immigrants to Canada
come to Quebec, too few for a province with almost a quarter of the
nation’s population.

Quebec’s auditor-general was the latest to call attention to
immigration-related shortcomings, in his May 12 report to the National
Assembly. In response, no less an authority than Quebec Immigration
Minister Yolande James warned that making it a priority to recruit
immigrants who speak French — the current policy — limits Quebec’s
options.

Meanwhile, globally minded francophone and allophone students are
choosing to attend English-language Cegep (as Quebec’s unique college
system is called) at English schools at the first moment they are
legally allowed to, when the Bill 101 restrictions are lifted after
high school. Many stay in the province due to Quebec’s unreasonably
low tuition, funded by the highest taxes in North America, but
eventually they pay their taxes elsewhere when their careers take them
outside the province.
Despite our high taxes, which are equivalent to those in socialist
Holland, the services in Quebec are far fewer and less robust than
they are in Holland: Health insurance, social welfare and the general
infrastructure of the province seem to be lower here. As a hockey dad,
I see many parts of Montreal. Too often, I am shocked by the poverty
and crumbling roads and buildings.
Quebec’s protectionism translates not just into ill-qualified
immigrants, fleeing educated people, fewer services and crumbling
infrastructure, but into a society that is out of synch with the rest
of the world.

Keeping in mind the undeniable decline of the French language
worldwide, let’s compare Quebec’s language policy with that of The
Netherlands. The Dutch welcome English as the international language.
U.S. and English TV shows are never dubbed, but subtitled; most music
on the radio is in English; even more tellingly, universities have
converted all masters programs to English-only in order to prepare the
Dutch for the global economy.

Does that mean the Dutch culture or language is on the decline? On the
contrary, both thrive and the Dutch enjoy a most “distinct society,”
despite being surrounded by large countries.

Quebec, meanwhile, has decided that language preservation is more
important than economic progress. This has many costs, and it limits
the ability of young people to be global citizens.

A recent analysis by the Quebec Ministry of Finance shows the province
has one of the industrialized world’s most heavily indebted economies:
When considering Quebec as a nation — as some say it ought to be — it
ranks a disconcerting fifth in terms of public debt as a percentage of
GDP. First on the list? Greece at 102%. Canada’s debt is calculated at
69.7% of its GDP; Quebec’s is at 94%.

My sense is that we need to have the courage to admit that the world
has changed since Bill 101 was introduced, as has Quebec. We need to
take a fresh look at the situation, and my bet is that together we can
continue to protect the French language while developing strategies to
strengthen our economy and convince our young people to stay home.

Len Even
National Post

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/06/04/quebecs-self-defeating-language-fetish/
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