Denigrating the country’s largest minority, the Quebec national minority, is truly a Canadian national sport. The year 2022 will go down in history as a great vintage.
Iran and Law 21
In February, Macleans magazine included Fatemeh Anvari in a list of notable people. She was hired by an English school board. Because she violated Law 21 by teaching veiled, she was transferred. The person concerned had the support of their country of origin, Iran, which took the opportunity to condemn Law 21, joining a multitude of ROC critics.
Also in February, Quebec Community Groups Network lobby president Marlene Jennings drew a parallel between Bill 96 and Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine. She also spoke about the situation of English Canadians in Quebec, citing American segregation that led to the lynching of 4,075 blacks between 1877 and 1950.
Keep in mind that Anglophones, 8% of our population, benefit from 19% of education spending in college and 30% in university, not to mention the fact that in Montreal they monopolize 45% of healthcare jobs.
But what does this injustice mean to the Francophones? In May, anti-Bill 96 demonstrations were organized in English-speaking Cegeps. For example, the president of John Abbott’s fraternity, Ivana Riveros-Arteaga, called out discrimination. The reason? Three additional French lessons are imposed on English speakers who do not have a sufficient command of it.
Same story in the McGill Tribune student newspaper. According to columnist Madison Edward-Wright, Bill 96 constitutes systemic racism and violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In all Western countries, including the United States, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, our language is associated with a culture that made the West great. Learning French is part of opening up to the world and makes a person more cultured and educated. It would be inconceivable that groups would mobilize against the obligation to teach French as a second language in school. It would be even more inconceivable to classify such a measure as discriminatory, racist or contrary to children’s rights. This is unimaginable anywhere in the west… except in Canada!
worse than murder
What to say in this perspective of the press conference organized last summer by B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group. According to him, Quebecers will now let Jews die in our hospitals instead of treating them because they don’t speak French. For lawyer Julius Gray, who attended the event, in Quebec “speaking English is obviously worse than murder”.
As this hatred gripped us throughout 2022, it is interesting to note the reaction of some of our elected federal officials. Last December, Minister Marc Garneau said Ottawa must block Quebec on language matters. Instead of condemning xenophobia directed against his own nation, he joined with English Canada to overwhelm his people!