[lg policy] Canada: Anglo-rights activist calls French language charter 'ethnocentric'

[Harold Schiffman]

 Anglo-rights activist calls French language charter 'ethnocentric'
Advocacy groups want Montreal to become bilingual city
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html> Posted:
Apr 29, 2013 9:48 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 29, 2013 3:27 PM ET *
***<http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/04/29/montreal-anglo-bill-101-ethnocentric.html#socialcomments>
 [image: Play Video][image: Conference addresses concerns about Quebec's
move to strengthen language
laws]**<http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ID/2382291369/>









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 Anglophone-rights activists spoke out against tougher language laws this
weekend at a conference organized by CRITIQ, a group advocating for English
speakers in the province. "Bill 101 is fundamentally ethnocentric,” said
Brent Tyler, a civil rights lawyer.

“It presumes that language policy is a zero-sum game, that whatever space
is given to other languages takes away somehow from the French language.”

*'We are not second-class citizens and we never have been.'**—Julius Grey,
civil rights lawyer.*

Hundreds of people attended the conference.

Much of the focus was on the Parti Québécois government and Bill 14, which
proposes amendments to Quebec’s Charter of the French Language.

Many in the audience applauded when panellists criticized the new language
bill, but they didn't agree with one speaker, civil rights lawyer Julius
Grey who defended the original language law, Bill 101.

“We are not second-class citizens and we never have been,” Grey said.

Audience member Irwin Rapoport said language laws in Quebec are already too
strict.

“Say ‘no’ to Bill 101. Say ‘no’ to the violation of rights and freedoms,”
he said.

CRITIQ also wants Montreal to be officially recognized as a bilingual city.

Audience members were asked to appeal to their local councillors to push
for the change.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/04/29/montreal-anglo-bill-101-ethnocentric.html



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