Jean-François Roberge has a light step. He found his smile again. He even cracks jokes before sitting down for his first TV interview.
He seems liberated, even optimistic, supported by a first success.
The new minister for French language offered a unifying alternative to the controversial Louisianization of Quebec by his boss, that of a “national awakening”. Nice slogan, but still? answer the skeptics. there is something
Call a cat a cat
The task is anything but easy.
How to convince that Law 96 will not be enough to stem French’s decline when the Legault government has spent a year touting it as an essential solution? How can you be credible when your own government has abandoned THE most structuring solution, that of Law 101 in CEGEP?
Minister Jean-François Roberge appears set to finally say “the real deal”. French in Quebec will continue to decline as long as French-speaking Quebecers let it decline.
“If you are not served in French, you have to ask. And if that’s not possible, you have to complain. And English-speaking colleagues, let’s stop bowing to their preference, let’s speak to them in French, adds the minister!
And he’s right! Because if we put up with being served in English in Montreal, it’s because they know full well that we usually end up complaining, but no more.
Essential, but far from sufficient.
However, Minister Roberge’s beginnings also show a shift towards diplomacy rather than confrontation with his predecessor.
Because while his successor was talking about ventilation in education, Jean-François Roberge was in Ottawa. A sign that he has understood that as long as Quebec remains in Canada, the decline of French cannot be slowed down by a logic of isolation. You need allies.
immigration
It starts, of course, with the federal Minister of Official Languages, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, whose bill provides a haven for federal corporations from Bill 96 for the time being.
But the sinews of war remain immigration.
Far from being triumphant, he hopes to have convinced the federal government to put an end to the implicit discrimination against French-speaking students. Completing the file before Christmas and finally seeing a visa for those hoping to stay here and earn a living would offer the minister a first strategic victory.
This is all the more true in the face of a central government that wants to take in 500,000 immigrants a year!
In such a context, convincing French-speaking students to stay becomes an easy solution to raise Quebec’s immigration thresholds without too many risks for French.
But everyone understood that it will not be enough.
In a country where Quebec’s demographic weight is declining, relationships with French-speaking communities outside Quebec must be maintained.
The more they win their battle for Francophone immigration, the more Quebec will cement itself as the cradle of Canadian Francophonie.
Finally, the national awakening is also that of a government that understands it must build bridges.
