Michel Doucet dedicated his life to defending the French and today he wonders if it was really worth it.
Posted at 6:00 am
The law professor at the Université de Moncton has been involved in all academic language battles for 40 years. And many victories. But each new census better illustrates the slow but inevitable decline of French almost everywhere outside of Quebec.
If we observe a decline in French on certain indicators in Quebec, data across the rest of Canada shows rapid erosion.
“New Brunswick has always claimed to be the model for bilingualism in Canada. We obtained legal protection (an official language law) and constitutional protection. I’ve worked hard on it. But in reality I only see setbacks,” he told me on the phone.
Data from the latest census shows that the ‘native French’ population in the province is approaching the 30% threshold. If you include the language spoken at home, it drops to 26% – it was 28.6% in 2016, a relative decrease of 10% in five years.
Francophones are increasingly bilingual, Anglophones less and less.
Bilingual couples choose English almost systematically.
Nothing really surprising. The continuation of a long statistical depression for Michel Doucet. But it’s like it’s suddenly too much.
“I have nephews who no longer speak French,” says the lawyer.
The political weight of the Francophones is declining and any electoral redistribution risks the loss of constituencies and therefore influence and therefore services.
Premier Blaine Higgs, a former officially repentant member of an anti-bilingual party, is already monolingual Anglophone in the only officially bilingual province. The higher official is almost exclusively monolingual.
The Conservative Party discovered that it could win provincial elections without a single Francophone constituency. And the Liberal Party doesn’t like linguistic controversy because they want to seduce the southern part of the province.
“Since Francophones are increasingly bilingual and their percentage is lower, why should we offer them services in French? asks Professor Doucet.
“Yes, I am more discouraged than ever. »
However, those who lived to see Bathurst’s bilingual schools in the 1950s, then the rise to power of Louis Robichaud, the Acadian Prime Minister, then the first official Languages Act in the 1960s witnessed an almost uninterrupted string of legal and academic victories.
On paper, the province is bilingual, but “it’s a myth. In reality, French receives adaptations, not rights.
In other words, bilingualism elsewhere in Canada is a myth…
Some consider me a radical, even a Don Quixote, while claiming only the application of the law. Yes, I have this defect: if I am given a right, I want it to be exercised. If the motor vehicle law were applied in the same way as the official language law, there would be chaos on the streets.
Michel Doucet, Professor of Law at the Université de Moncton
“I realize that there is a lot of complacency and laissez-faire among Francophones. I wonder if I haven’t contributed by receiving reassuring legal guarantees…”
“The problem is not legal. He is political. There is no real will to implement them.
Politically and socially: “The Francophones are the first to blame. Merchants not posting signs in French in Moncton. Parents who send their children to French immersion school instead of French school. Those who don’t respect their language. No law can change that. »
New Brunswick is a kind of involuntary laboratory: such a strong assimilation trend is irreversible on the North American continent, even with a robust legal framework.
Michel Doucet has ideas to curb this (more duality in institutions, more control in healthcare, in immigration), but they are not heard, have no political relay.
When I was in Ireland I was told: the last mother who will speak Gaelic to her child is not yet born. The French will continue to live here. My fear is that it will shrink until it only remains in a few regions.
Michel Doucet, Professor of Law at the Université de Moncton
Changing the historical discourse, but oh so late: The federal government recognizes the vulnerable situation of the French everywhere in Canada.
“Anytime Anglophone rights are violated in Quebec, we see denunciations and editorials across Canada. They don’t realize that they don’t need Bill 101 in the other nine provinces. Exceptionally, the Globe and Mail recently published an editorial stating: Maybe we should be looking at the violation of Francophone language rights in the provinces, not just Anglophone rights in Quebec… This was an exception! »
He’s still handling a case in Nova Scotia these days. “But I don’t want any more. It takes years to finish. I feel like repeating the same things as if nothing has changed. I got too emotional I think. »
Slightly depressed, yes, discouraged, yes, but not desperate yet.
“Otherwise I would address you in English!” I don’t give up. I’ll be dead and buried, people will still hear me. I do not give up ! »