The public face of the Quebecois

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Language+home/2681097/story.html

In yesterday’s (Mar. 14) Ottawa Citizen, Janice Kennedy wrote that there is, in Ontario, an army of “sickly looking” people “vent(ing) their considerable spleen”. Indeed, there probably are many who simply don’t like the French for any number of reasons. They may not like the English either.

However, there is another army, an army of thoughtful people who have, over the past couple of decades, become aware of the extent to which the Quebecois are setting the agenda in Ontario. People who normally live and let live are growing increasingly concerned, and resentful, less against individual Francophones, but more so against the public face of the Quebecois.

A couple of years ago, a man boarded an Ottawa city bus, in Ottawa, and, to the driver, said “Bonjour’. The driver responded, “Good Morning”. The man got off the bus and promptly, and publicly, complained that the driver did not respond to him in French. This churlish reaction to a polite “Good morning” is the public face of the Quebecois.

Last year, Jeanne Barr, the acting Postmistress at the Pakenham Post Office for several years, was notified by Canada Post that, because she did not speak French, she would be reassigned to other duties with an appropriate cut in salary. The French population in Pakenham is virtually zero, but because Pakenham is within the NCC, CP is required by law to appoint to such positions only bi-lingual individuals. Arbitrary legislation that dictates which Ontario citizens can work in their own province is the public face of the Quebecois.

Last year, the City of Ottawa hired a unilingual Fire Chief. The new chief is, according to reports, well qualified as a fireman, a manager, and an arbiter. These qualifications were of no interest to the Francophones among us; they wanted a bilingual fire chief and they vociferously opposed any candidate that did not speak French. Such irrational behavior is the public face of the Quebecois.

Quebec legislation systematically suppresses the English language, and English-language education, in Quebec. Ontario legislation expressly promotes the French language in Ontario plus a vast, and very expensive, array of French-language services and education. These deliberate and very public discrepancies between the rights of English in Quebec and those of the French in Ontario represent the public face of the Quebecois.

A few days ago, in response to the federal budget, Gilles Duceppe said that Canadian federalism has nothing to offer Quebec. Hmmm. Duceppe typifies the hypocritical public face of the Quebecois; their one hand is twisted into a fist to brandish at us while their other is palm-up to demand ever more welfare from us. Such blatant hypocrisy is the ugly face of the Quebecois, because every Quebecer knows that without ready access to the federal treasury – which is regularly topped up by the very people they despise - Quebec would fall abruptly into bankruptcy.

The public face of Quebec in Ontario is bifurcated. One fork is represented by those who resent circumstances that deny people jobs and promotions in their own province because they speak English only.

The other fork is represented by Janice Kennedy, who thinks it is unacceptable for people to resent being denied jobs and promotions in their own province because they speak English only.

This brief sampling skims the surface of a deep pit of bitterness welling up among people who, Kennedy says, “... leave behind a large toxic footprint.”

While my footprint is not toxic, it is clearly defined.    --JGP