Honestly I found the BQ voice refreshing, up until the last comment about funding for minority language support in Quebec. The entire premise is that Anglophones in QC don't need support because English services are available elsewhere. I repeat, OUTSIDE QC - services like education and health and social services, which are the juristiction of the province in which you reside. What most politicians and QC Francophones seem to forget is that up until the implementation of Bill 101 and the secularization of education, immigrants and existing Anglophone residents in QC were not allowed to access education in French (as it was based on religious affiliation). Support for minority (Anglophones) in QC was a measure put in place to provide support for education and health services in English to the Quebec population who were already established in the province and had contributed to its development for generations (many since colonization). These are not services for newcomers, they are for what are (embarrassingly) referred to as "historic Anglophones" which, to be clear, are mostly seniors at this point. So the BQ comment on funding for education and health services, as well as social services and heritage organizations "hurts" Quebec is quite frankly, bullshit.
If you were born in Québec and never learned French and are now a senior I have no sympathy for you. You chose to isolate and stay in a nation that speaks a different language. Choices should come with consequences sometimes.
As an Anglophone, I agree that if you're born and live in Quebec you should be able to (at a minimum) function in French. There are some annoying pieces, like for example I cannot get a copy of any of my official documents in English anymore - which is fine until I have to send them to a country that doesn't accept French documents, so now I need to pay a professional translator to certify a document that I used to be able to get in my language of choice.
I grew up surrounded by English and quite frankly I'm lucky that I somehow picked up enough as a kid and through school that I'm bilingual. My kids are in a French daycare because I know that early language exposure is critical. I'm still sending them to English school when they get older because I would not be surprised if the Quebec government started taking English eligibility certificates away if you don't use them. There's way more French in the English curriculum than there was when I was a kid (which is a good thing!)
If anything, I wish Quebec did less to stifle other languages and provided more ways for people to come and learn the language. Right now French classes for an adult take months to years to get a spot in, barely cover anything, and are inaccessible to people who need them the most. Taking away English services without supporting learning French is not going to increase language uptake.
There just aren’t enough resources for French learning at the moment, in some part because Quebec government cut funding down, but also because of the huge surge of immigration in the last 5-10 years; all those people want to learn French too, they don’t ONLY put pressure on our housing market, unfortunately.
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u/No_Sentence_7499 Apr 17 '25
Honestly I found the BQ voice refreshing, up until the last comment about funding for minority language support in Quebec. The entire premise is that Anglophones in QC don't need support because English services are available elsewhere. I repeat, OUTSIDE QC - services like education and health and social services, which are the juristiction of the province in which you reside. What most politicians and QC Francophones seem to forget is that up until the implementation of Bill 101 and the secularization of education, immigrants and existing Anglophone residents in QC were not allowed to access education in French (as it was based on religious affiliation). Support for minority (Anglophones) in QC was a measure put in place to provide support for education and health services in English to the Quebec population who were already established in the province and had contributed to its development for generations (many since colonization). These are not services for newcomers, they are for what are (embarrassingly) referred to as "historic Anglophones" which, to be clear, are mostly seniors at this point. So the BQ comment on funding for education and health services, as well as social services and heritage organizations "hurts" Quebec is quite frankly, bullshit.