Four months ago, Minister Jean-François Roberge called on Quebecers to defend the French language.
For example by buying books in French and watching series in French.
In fact, the defense of French is not just a government matter, it is ours as well.
But protecting French is like protecting the environment: what’s the use of washing our little yogurt pots and tossing them in a recycling bin when companies like the Horne Foundry and McInnis Cement Plant go on polluting better and with impunity?
It is all well and good to appeal to citizen responsibility, but what about government responsibility?
What good does it do for us to “wake up” together when the government sleeps?
SPEAK FROM BOTH SIDES OF YOUR MOUTH
A few days after French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge (photo) sent an ad aimed at raising young people’s awareness of the dangers of Franglais, we learn that every year the Quebec government sends 200 million US Dollars for international student sponsorship provides students at McGill University and Concordia University!
On one side of the mouth, young French speakers are told to take care of their language and speak better French.
And on the other hand, we pay foreign students to come and expand Quebec’s English-speaking community!
Hello ?
To paraphrase the teller of false advertising on the Peregrine Falcon, someone is sleeping on the switch!
There’s something sick in there!
It’s like the calls for “energy starvation”… We want to sleep well with three wool sweaters on, but what if government buildings are lit up all night?
At some point the boots have to follow the chops!
Is protecting the French important to the Legault government?
Perfect !
So extend the application of Law 101 to CEGEPs as more and more experts and teacher unions are calling for it.
Stop overfunding English speaking universities at the expense of French speaking universities.
Allow the Office de la langue française to be proactive instead of just acting when a citizen makes a complaint.
And ban independent companies from naming themselves in English.
It would be a good start.
A MATTER OF PRIORITIES
Don’t get me wrong, I really like Franglais commercials, I find them funny.
But it seems to me that when you’ve done all you could do, you turn to these kinds of tools.
It’s like banana holder.
That’s the last thing you buy in a house.
If you have a banana holder but no knife or first aid kit, I’m sorry but you are bad at managing your “insides”.
As you read these lines, there are still doctors and nurses in our hospitals who don’t speak a word of French.
It’s a much bigger problem – and much more urgent – than a teenager who finds François Legault’s podcast skeptical.
