<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-story-h gmail-gn-speakable-title">PQ leader ‘set trap’ with ‘bonjour-hi,’ Couillard speaks English in QP</h1>
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<a href="https://globalnews.ca/author/raquel-fletcher/" title="Posts by Raquel Fletcher" class="gmail-author gmail-url gmail-fn" rel="author">Raquel Fletcher</a> </span>
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Quebec City Correspondent <span class="gmail-story-via">Global News</span> </span>
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<div class="gmail-fe-embed-caption"><p><strong>WATCH: Premier Philippe
Couillard was doing damage control in the National Assembly Thursday, a
week after his government voted in favour of a motion denouncing the
“Bonjour-Hi” greeting. Raquel Fletcher explains.</strong></p></div>
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<p>Premier Philippe Couillard was forced to do some major damage control Thursday.</p><p>A week after the government voted in favour of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3889852/quebec-passes-motion-for-store-clerks-to-stop-saying-bonjour-hi/">a motion denouncing the popular “bonjour-hi” greeting</a>, Couillard spoke out to the English community during Question Period.</p>
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<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3889852/quebec-passes-motion-for-store-clerks-to-stop-saying-bonjour-hi/">Quebec passes motion for store clerks to stop saying ‘bonjour, hi’</a></strong></p><p>“Although French is our official language, <span style="font-size:inherit"><a id="gmail-PXLINK_1_0_0" class="gmail-pxInta" href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3903544/pq-leader-set-trap-with-bonjour-hi-couillard-speaks-english-in-qp/#">the English language</a></span>
is not a foreign language in Quebec,” he said in English. He later
added in French that he had underestimated the reaction from
English-speaking Quebecers.</p><p>It’s not often the premier speaks English in Question Period, but he’s hoping his words will have an impact. <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3896678/commentary-quebecs-bonjour-hi-debate-is-cheap-and-dangerous-politics/">Anglophone Quebecers are still angry</a> the government voted for a motion that denounces “bonjour-hi.”</p><p>The Parti Quebecois (PQ) brought the motion forward last week.</p><p>“I set the oldest trap in the book,” said PQ leader, Jean-François Lisée.</p><p>And
he knew the Liberals would walk right into it, Lisée gloated at a press
conference Thursday afternoon. He said he was testing the Liberals’
language policy.</p><p><a href="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js">https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js</a></p><p>“Publicly,
he couldn’t say he didn’t want it, so he had to vote for it, even
though he didn’t like it, so what we’re doing here is show to everyone
the hypocrisy of the Liberal government on linguistic issues,” Lisée
said.</p><p>The PQ leader continued, “Clearly there are contradictions
within the Liberal party, and I simply showed to everyone … when they
pretend to further French, it’s a façade.”</p><p><a href="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js">https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js</a></p><p>Knowing
the premier underestimated how his vote would be received by Quebec’s
anglophone population, Lisée took advantage of the fiasco by bringing up
the subject again in Thursday’s Question Period.</p><p>The premier appeared prepared for the question, reading in English off a piece of paper.</p><p>“To
our English-speaking fellow Quebecers, again there are no different
classes of Quebecers here, only one, first class. And English-speaking
Quebecers are first-class Quebecers like all of us,” he said.</p><p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3900242/bonjour-hi-motion-positive-in-its-spirit-says-english-minister/">On Wednesday, the relations with English-speaking Quebecers minister tried to calm the storm</a> after the negative attention and national headlines the motion created.</p><p><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3900242/bonjour-hi-motion-positive-in-its-spirit-says-english-minister/">‘Bonjour, hi’ motion ‘positive in its spirit’ says English minister</a></strong></p><p>“There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what happened,” said Kathleen Weil.</p><p>Some anglophones thought her explanation — that the motion was amended to take out the word “irritant” — was condescending, but <em>Montreal Gazette</em> columnist, Dan Delmar said the blame lies squarely on the premier.</p><p><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/397766/quebecs-pastagate-gets-international-media-attention/">Quebec’s ‘Pastagate’ gets international media attention</a></strong></p><p>“He
should have just shelved the whole idea. He doesn’t need the support of
linguistic fundamentalists. They are never going to vote for him
anyway, so this whole exercise that he correctly described as a
potential new “<a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/406024/pastagate-scandal-cooks-head-of-quebec-language-watchdog-who-resigns/">pastagate</a>” is really just for nothing,” Delmar said.</p>
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© 2017 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. </p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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