[lg policy] PQ leader ‘set trap’ with ‘bonjour-hi,’ Couillard speaks English in QP

Fri Dec 8 15:46:52 UTC 2017

PQ leader ‘set trap’ with ‘bonjour-hi,’ Couillard speaks English in QP
<https://globalnews.ca/author/raquel-fletcher/> By Raquel Fletcher
<https://globalnews.ca/author/raquel-fletcher/> Quebec City
Correspondent  Global
News

   - 2
   <https://globalnews.ca/news/3903544/pq-leader-set-trap-with-bonjour-hi-couillard-speaks-english-in-qp/#>
   - 29
   <https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fglobalnews%2Eca%2Fnews%2F3903544%2Fpq-leader-set-trap-with-bonjour-hi-couillard-speaks-english-in-qp%2F>
   -
   <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=PQ%20leader%20%E2%80%98set%20trap%E2%80%99%20with%20%E2%80%98bonjour-hi%2C%E2%80%99%20Couillard%20speaks%20English%20in%20QP%20https%3A%2F%2Fglobalnews%2Eca%2Fnews%2F3903544%2Fpq-leader-set-trap-with-bonjour-hi-couillard-speaks-english-in-qp%2F>
   -
   <?Subject=PQ%20leader%20%E2%80%98set%20trap%E2%80%99%20with%20%E2%80%98bonjour-hi%2C%E2%80%99%20Couillard%20speaks%20English%20in%20QP&body=%0D%0APQ%20leader%20%E2%80%98set%20trap%E2%80%99%20with%20%E2%80%98bonjour-hi%2C%E2%80%99%20Couillard%20speaks%20English%20in%20QP%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fglobalnews%2Eca%2Fnews%2F3903544%2Fpq-leader-set-trap-with-bonjour-hi-couillard-speaks-english-in-qp%2F%0D%0A%0D%0A%0D%0A>
   -
   - more
   <https://globalnews.ca/news/3903544/pq-leader-set-trap-with-bonjour-hi-couillard-speaks-english-in-qp/#>

*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.*
A A

Premier Philippe Couillard was forced to do some major damage control
Thursday.

A week after the government voted in favour of a motion denouncing the
popular “bonjour-hi” greeting
<https://globalnews.ca/news/3889852/quebec-passes-motion-for-store-clerks-to-stop-saying-bonjour-hi/>,
Couillard spoke out to the English community during Question Period.

*READ MORE: Quebec passes motion for store clerks to stop saying ‘bonjour,
hi’
<https://globalnews.ca/news/3889852/quebec-passes-motion-for-store-clerks-to-stop-saying-bonjour-hi/>*

“Although French is our official language, the English language
<https://globalnews.ca/news/3903544/pq-leader-set-trap-with-bonjour-hi-couillard-speaks-english-in-qp/#>
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.

It’s not often the premier speaks English in Question Period, but he’s
hoping his words will have an impact. Anglophone Quebecers are still angry
<https://globalnews.ca/news/3896678/commentary-quebecs-bonjour-hi-debate-is-cheap-and-dangerous-politics/>
the government voted for a motion that denounces “bonjour-hi.”

The Parti Quebecois (PQ) brought the motion forward last week.

“I set the oldest trap in the book,” said PQ leader, Jean-François Lisée.

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.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

“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.

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.”

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

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.

The premier appeared prepared for the question, reading in English off a
piece of paper.

“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.

On Wednesday, the relations with English-speaking Quebecers minister tried
to calm the storm
<https://globalnews.ca/news/3900242/bonjour-hi-motion-positive-in-its-spirit-says-english-minister/>
after the negative attention and national headlines the motion created.

*READ MORE: ‘Bonjour, hi’ motion ‘positive in its spirit’ says English
minister
<https://globalnews.ca/news/3900242/bonjour-hi-motion-positive-in-its-spirit-says-english-minister/>*

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what happened,” said Kathleen Weil.

Some anglophones thought her explanation — that the motion was amended to
take out the word “irritant” — was condescending, but *Montreal Gazette*
columnist, Dan Delmar said the blame lies squarely on the premier.

*READ MORE: Quebec’s ‘Pastagate’ gets international media attention
<https://globalnews.ca/news/397766/quebecs-pastagate-gets-international-media-attention/>*

“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 “
pastagate
<https://globalnews.ca/news/406024/pastagate-scandal-cooks-head-of-quebec-language-watchdog-who-resigns/>”
is really just for nothing,” Delmar said.

-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

-------------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20171208/f2e0b1a5/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list