A language bill deepens a culture clash in Quebec

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, March 28, 2024


A language bill deepens a culture clash in Quebec
Aude Le Dubé poses for a portrait at her English-language bookstore, De Stiil, in Plateau-Mont-Royal, a multicultural neighborhood with a large Francophone population in Montreal, Canada, on Aug. 3, 2021. “Language should be a bridge to other cultures,” she said. Nasuna Stuart-Ulin/The New York Times.

by Dan Bilefsky



MONTREAL.- Since Aude Le Dubé opened an English-only bookshop in Montreal last year, she has had several unwelcome guests each month: irate Francophones, sometimes draped in Quebec flags, who storm in and berate her for not selling books in French.

“You would think I had opened a sex shop at the Vatican,” mused Le Dubé.

Now, however, Le Dubé is worried that resistance against businesses like her De Stiil bookshop will intensify. A language bill that the Quebec government has proposed would solidify the status of French as the paramount language in Quebec.

Under the legislation, which builds on a four decades-old language law and is expected to pass in the coming months, small and medium-size businesses would face more rigorous regulations to ensure they are operating in French, including raising the bar for companies to justify why they need to hire employees with a command of a language other than French. Government language inspectors would have expanded powers to raid offices and search private computers and iPhones.

Language is inextricably bound to identity in Quebec, a former French colony that fell to Britain in 1763. Today, French-speaking Quebecers are a minority in North America, where their language faces a daily challenge in English-dominated social media and global popular culture.




In Quebec, French is already the official language of the government, commerce and the courts. On commercial advertising and public signs, the French must be predominant. And children of immigrant families must attend French schools.

The new bill is spurring a backlash among the province’s English-speaking minority and others, who complain that it seeks to create a monocultural Quebec in multicultural Canada and tramples over human rights.

The premier of Quebec, François Legault, has argued that the new law is “urgently required” to stave off the decline of the French language in a Francophone-majority province.

Shady Hafez, an Indigenous advocate and a sociology doctoral student at the University of Toronto, whose Indigenous community resides in Quebec, criticized the measure as tone-deaf. He said it ignored other marginalized cultures altogether, including Canada’s large Indigenous population.

Referring to efforts in Canada historically to stamp out Indigenous languages like his native Algonquin, he said, “We should be prioritizing preserving our own oppressed languages — not French.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

October 11, 2021

'Greater New York,' a show of the moment, dwells in the radical past

First ever exhibition to focus on Poussin's pictures of dancers and revellers opens at the National Gallery

Vandals tag 9 barracks at Auschwitz with antisemitic slurs

Jenny Saville's nudes bring Renaissance masters down to Earth

Dallas Museum of Art presents exemplary American art in 'Pursuit of Beauty: The May Family Collection'

Galleria Mattia De Luca opens a retrospective exhibition of the work of Conrad Marca-Relli

Hong Kong's oldest university orders Tiananmen statue removal

Diving into history: Gallipoli shipwrecks open to public

The Baer Faxt Auction Database: A new essential resource for the art market

First NFT by a contemporary African artist to be sold by Christie's in Europe

Duende Art Projects opens an exhibition of art from the African continent

A glittering honor for a master of glass

Bodleian Libraries to appoint Curator of Photography for first time in its history

Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp opens 'Eurasia: A Landscape of Mutability'

The 40-year mystery of smutty smiff and the missing rockabilly bass

Passing the time with a piano-playing pilot

A language bill deepens a culture clash in Quebec

Turkish philanthropist goes to trial again in a widely condemned case

Works by Hera Büyüktaşcıyan and Chaouki Choukini acquired by Centre Pompidou

Louise Farrenc, 19th-century composer, surges back into sound

Chinese American Arts Council gallery opens Xiaojing Yan's first solo exhibition in New York

It's all in the eye: Tunisia's veteran photographer Jacques Perez

Bolshoi performer killed in accident on stage




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

sa gaming free credit
Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful