unimaginative2
Senior Member
There's nothing wrong with claiming that you Québécois have something in common. There's something wrong with denying the most basic and fundamental democratic rights to people who live in a territory, on the basis of a lack of "purity," whether racial or ethnic or "cultural."
Whether you like it or not, Anglophones have lived in Montreal (and a lot of the rest of Quebec) for hundreds of years, likely many hundreds of years more than your ancestors have lived in Quebec. There's something called an ethnic or cultural minority and they exist in every country in the world and any country that can claim with any legitimacy to be free protects its minorities from the tyranny of the majority. I find it deeply disturbing that you feel that your culture somehow has the right to stamp out all other cultures within an artificially created territory. What of the native peoples? They've been there a hell of a lot longer than the Québécois. If they want to speak their own language (a language older than French) or any other language of their choosing in your "French-speaking country," should they leave? Where should they go? Where should the Anglophones go whose ancestors have lived much longer in Quebec than your ancestors, if that's what this is all about? Francophone Quebeckers are a minority within Canada, yes, and their culture and distinctiveness should absolutely be protected. But why does it stop there? Why is it that Quebec, in turn, has no such obligations to its own minorities?
The hilarious thing about all these ideas is that I lived in Quebec and could easily pass a French test. I could have run for office and gotten all the other benefits of being a "Quebec Citizen" even though I only lived there for a few months. Somebody who's lived in the west island (and I really don't think Beaconsfield was French-settled before the conquest) for their entire lives and whose ancestors have lived in Quebec for hundreds of years would be denied their most basic democratic rights.
Oh, and the whole bit about everyone having the right to run for office if they have the right to vote? That's in the 1867 Constitution that Quebec inarguably "signed".
I'd add you on MSN, but I don't really use it much so that wouldn't really help.
I love Quebec and I love francophone culture in Quebec. I think that it's a strong enough culture on its own to have a little self-confidence. It doesn't need to repress or eliminate all minorities in sight to survive. People can freely choose that culture, and virtually everyone who is born into it does. A lot of people also choose it who have come from far away and don't fit into the "We came from Normandy" mould. That's wonderful, and that's what a true society is. I wish that all French Quebeckers could just reflect on the fact that they have a strong culture that is something of an island on an English continent, and it's a culture that shows no sign of dying other than by its own insularity.
That's where my comment about immigration came from. Quebec is scaring away immigrants with all the laws you propose. It already has problems attracting immigrants because, as you've said, many prefer English. The Québécois also have close to the lowest birth rate in the world. If it were independent, Quebec would be one of the fastest-shrinking countries in the world. The only thing that will defeat Québécois culture is insularity, the refusal to accept any one with the slightest bit of difference, because that's where the growth that sustains any society is going to come from.
Whether you like it or not, Anglophones have lived in Montreal (and a lot of the rest of Quebec) for hundreds of years, likely many hundreds of years more than your ancestors have lived in Quebec. There's something called an ethnic or cultural minority and they exist in every country in the world and any country that can claim with any legitimacy to be free protects its minorities from the tyranny of the majority. I find it deeply disturbing that you feel that your culture somehow has the right to stamp out all other cultures within an artificially created territory. What of the native peoples? They've been there a hell of a lot longer than the Québécois. If they want to speak their own language (a language older than French) or any other language of their choosing in your "French-speaking country," should they leave? Where should they go? Where should the Anglophones go whose ancestors have lived much longer in Quebec than your ancestors, if that's what this is all about? Francophone Quebeckers are a minority within Canada, yes, and their culture and distinctiveness should absolutely be protected. But why does it stop there? Why is it that Quebec, in turn, has no such obligations to its own minorities?
The hilarious thing about all these ideas is that I lived in Quebec and could easily pass a French test. I could have run for office and gotten all the other benefits of being a "Quebec Citizen" even though I only lived there for a few months. Somebody who's lived in the west island (and I really don't think Beaconsfield was French-settled before the conquest) for their entire lives and whose ancestors have lived in Quebec for hundreds of years would be denied their most basic democratic rights.
Oh, and the whole bit about everyone having the right to run for office if they have the right to vote? That's in the 1867 Constitution that Quebec inarguably "signed".
I'd add you on MSN, but I don't really use it much so that wouldn't really help.
I love Quebec and I love francophone culture in Quebec. I think that it's a strong enough culture on its own to have a little self-confidence. It doesn't need to repress or eliminate all minorities in sight to survive. People can freely choose that culture, and virtually everyone who is born into it does. A lot of people also choose it who have come from far away and don't fit into the "We came from Normandy" mould. That's wonderful, and that's what a true society is. I wish that all French Quebeckers could just reflect on the fact that they have a strong culture that is something of an island on an English continent, and it's a culture that shows no sign of dying other than by its own insularity.
That's where my comment about immigration came from. Quebec is scaring away immigrants with all the laws you propose. It already has problems attracting immigrants because, as you've said, many prefer English. The Québécois also have close to the lowest birth rate in the world. If it were independent, Quebec would be one of the fastest-shrinking countries in the world. The only thing that will defeat Québécois culture is insularity, the refusal to accept any one with the slightest bit of difference, because that's where the growth that sustains any society is going to come from.