Issues Relating To French Speaking Population In Canada

Discuss about the Issues Relating To French Speaking Population In Canada.

According to a news report by (Toronto Sun, 2012), the present scenario regarding the French speaking population in Quebec was  questioned, analysed and evaluated.Several point of views of various politicians were taken into account while preparing the article, which suggested that the French language and culture of Quebec in Canada was being threatened with the passage of time. The newspaper report suggested how the other French language news organizations were spreading reports of how the language and culture of Quebec were under a threat. Even though Quebec is a part of Canada, a major part of the population are native French speakers for the reason the place being a French colony earlier in the era.The news article by Toronto Sun relied upon opinions by various political people from the region and tried to give it an unbiased approach.However, the way the newspaper claimed that French language news organizations suggested threat to Quebec language and culture nullifies the unbiased approach and suggests an attacking nature of journalism.

According to a news article by (Ottawa Citizen, 2016), nearly three-quarters of the French speaking population believe that the future of French in Canada is threatened. The newspaper backed their report with the results of a major national statistical survey targeted to know the perceptions of the two official languages of Canada. The survey was commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage.The reports of the survey suggested that 80 percent of Canadians believe in the fact that learning both French and English contributes to better understanding among Canadians and improves the chances of finding a job.The French speaking population are more accepting in terms of viewing the linguistic duality of Canada in a positive way with 84 percent agreeing that it is a source of cultural enrichment for them (Sioufi, Rana and Bourhis, 2018, 136-159). A majority of French speaking people believe that all graduates from high school should have a knowledge of English and French as it increases their chances of landing a job.Canada has two official languages even though the population of the French-speaking people is less than that of the English-speaking people.The key issue addressed in the statistical article is racism that is faced by the French-speaking people in Quebec as results suggest that a minimal population of the English-speaking people agree with the French-speaking people.

According to a journalistic report by (CBC, 2016), the province of Quebec has been facing a shortage of skilled workers that is growing daily and also dealing with an aging population growing rapidly. The province has been experiencing a decrease in birth rate since six years, which was marked in 2015 at 1.6 children per woman.The aging population is also raising the issue of a lack of skilled workers because a huge population of people are expected to retire from work in between the years 2013 and 2022. The Immigration Department of Quebec addressed this issue as a need to reassert the role of immigration and its contribution to the province. The chief ambition of the measure as the article suggests is to preserve not only the French language but also all the aspects of the culture of Quebec.

Article Discussion

Thearticle by Toronto Sun stated that the French language in the province of Quebec is under a threatfrom the government, which gives English more importance. According to the article, some French language news organizations are reporting the issue in a way, which the political opposition parties are taking into their stride. The political opposition are suggesting to the people that the Quebec culture and language is under the threat of demolition. This entire statement suggests the biased nature of the English newspapers reporting the issue (Jurciket al., 2013, 662-678).  However, the political parties in Quebec especially Parti Quebecois, which is a separatist organization have relied on the language issue alone to gain their poll numbers. Whether or not the issue persists, this party has taken advantage of it to stay in power in the province of Quebec. Toronto Sun reported that the recent Leger Marketing poll conducted for the QMI Agency suggested that the Parti Quebecois is the most popular party in the province of Quebec.The article is based on opinions from multiple people, political and non-political in nature. While the politicians believe that their language and culture is threatened, Jack Jedwab, the executive director at the Association for Canadian Studies believes that the language issue is not different from the sovereignty issue(St-Hilaire et al., 2016, 1126-1150). He fears that the Parti Quebecois being a separatist party would use this issue against the people and demand for a separate nation of self-governance. The political parties are trying to plant seeds of division between them even though there is harmony between both the linguistic communities.However, the French language media reported an incident of a French-speaking woman and her family being denied service at a hospital in Montreal catering to the English-speaking population.In contrary to this, it was announced by the Liberals that the government would hire more people to work at the department that determines the language laws of the province.The language issue might seem like a political agenda but upon consideration of the history that the province of Quebec has, protecting their culture and language is the duty of the community.

The language issue report is backed by a statistical news report by Ottawa Citizen (Fleet et al., 2013, e002961), which states that a larger number of the French-speaking people living in the region believe that their language is under threat as compared to the English-speaking people. It was observed from their report that more French-speaking people had a positive attitude towards having a bilingual culture in Canada especially in Quebec. These reports suggested a common issue faced by the French-speaking population-racism. The comparison of the results based on the responses of the participants suggested that the English speakers were reluctant and discrimination prevailed across the region.

Analysis of the issue

In addition to the language issue, a decrease in birth rate and a rapidly aging population also surfaced as a problem as reported by CBC. The government of Quebec wants to increase immigration in the region becausethere is a shortage of skilled workers and the French-speaking people of Quebec want to uphold and preserve their culture (Des Granges and Cara, 2014, 25-44). There has been a loss of balance in the rate of reproduction with a massive downfall in the birth rates according to reports. Quebec happens to be one of the major producers of maple syrup, which accounts to a major contribution to the Canadian economy.Therefore, a decrease in birth rate and decrease in skilled workers will also affect the economy of the country besides affecting the French culture. Hence, the Quebec government is taking measures to increase immigration in the region. It is no longer about protecting the French language but protecting every aspect of the Quebec culture, which some immigrants who do not speak French may not share.

The major issue that is surfacing from the articles and statistical data is racism and discrimination faced by the French-speaking people of the province of Quebec. The French-speaking majority feels threatened by the fact that their language and culture is in danger.The case was not like this before (Gond, Pascal and  Boxenbaum, 2013, 707-721). The quiet revolution in the 1960s brought about huge social, cultural, economic and political transformations. The government became democratic and measures were taken to promote, protect and strengthen the French language and Quebecois culture. The new laws helped the French-speaking people of Quebec but they have also been criticized as being repressive and punitive by the minorities living within Quebec. The discontent began in the year 1982 when the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau reconstructed the Canadian constitution from that of Britain. Quebec at that time was being ruled by Parti Quebecois and refused to sign the new document of the constitution. The party claimed that the new constitution promoted centralization of power in Ottawa and weakened the provinces. It is since then this discrimination has been going on.

The present scenario suggests that the French-speaking people of Quebec believe that   their language is under a threat from the English-speaking Liberal party, which is in power of the country. However, some people from certain organizations believe that the idea of discrimination is non-existent and is being promoted by the political party of Parti Quebecois to persuade the voters to elect them in power (Walsh, Olivia, 2014, 423-449). According to them, the entire idea of discrimination is nothing but a political agenda. Even though there have been reports of incidents based on racial discrimination have surfaced on the news, many people do not believe that the incidents are true. The chief purpose according to the people of Quebec is not political but to protect and uphold their own culture and tradition.Provided the rich history that Quebec has as a French colony, it is natural for the residents to want to protect and uphold their culture.

The concept of discrimination can be figured out by another article, which published the results of a survey. It was observed that the French-speaking population had a more positive attitude towards the idea of bilingualism as compared to the English-speaking people.A majority of the French speakers support the idea of exchange programmes by the federal government to encourage understanding between the two major linguistic groups of the country (Azzi, Stephen and Hillmer, 2013, 242). Even the attendance of French speakers were more in cultural events as compared to English speakers. This indicates that the English speakers are reluctant in nature and are not ready to accept the bilingual culture of Canada even though English and French are the official languages of the country.

This is not the only issue faced by the people of Quebec. The fall in the birth rate and rapid aging also counts as a problem. The Government of Quebec has implemented measures to allow immigrants in the province. The aging of population has also created a void in the availability of skilled workers, which is a threat to the economy of the country. This is because a major production of maple syrup is generated in this region (Johns, Andrew and Félix-Brasdefer, 2015, 131-164). A lack of skilled workers proves as a threat to the production and hence a threat to the economy of Canada. Immigration also helps in diversification of culture because of the various nationalities of the immigrants. Therefore, considering the accepting nature of the French people of Quebec, it is not necessary for the immigrants to speak French because sometimes even the French speakers do not understand the culture of the place they are living in.

References:

Azzi, Stephen, and Norman Hillmer. "Evaluating prime-ministerial performance: The Canadian experience." Understanding Prime-Ministerial Performance: Comparative Perspectives (2013): 242.

CBC (2016). Low Quebec birth rate spurs some calls for increased immigration. [online] Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-low-birthrate-immigration-1.3573966 [Accessed 17 Jul. 2018].

Des Granges, Cara. "Finding Legitimacy: Examining Quebec Sovereignty from Pre-Confederation to Present." International Journal of Canadian Studies 50 (2014): 25-44.

Fleet, Richard, Patrick Archambault, France Légaré, Jean-Marc Chauny, Jean-Frédéric Lévesque, Mathieu Ouimet, Gilles Dupuis et al. "Portrait of rural emergency departments in Quebec and utilisation of the Quebec Emergency Department Management Guide: a study protocol." BMJ open 3, no. 4 (2013): e002961.

Gond, Jean-Pascal, and Eva Boxenbaum. "The glocalization of responsible investment: Contextualization work in France and Quebec." Journal of business ethics 115, no. 4 (2013): 707-721.

Johns, Andrew, and J. César Félix-Brasdefer. "Linguistic politeness and pragmatic variation in request production in Dakar French." Journal of Politeness Research 11, no. 1 (2015): 131-164.

Jurcik, Tomas, Rana Ahmed, Esther Yakobov, Ielyzaveta Solopieieva-Jurcikova, and Andrew G. Ryder. "Understanding the role of the ethnic density effect: issues of acculturation, discrimination and social support." Journal of Community Psychology 41, no. 6 (2013): 662-678.

Ottawa Citizen (2016). Nearly three-quarters of francophones believe the future of their language in Canada is threatened. But just one-third of anglophones agree. [online] Available at: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/francophones-see-threat-to-future-of-french-in-canada-survey-finds [Accessed 16 Jul. 2018].

Sioufi, Rana, and Richard Y. Bourhis. "Acculturation and Linguistic Tensions as Predictors of Quebec Francophone and Anglophone Desire for Internal Migration in Canada." Journal of Language and Social Psychology 37, no. 2 (2018): 136-159.

St-Hilaire, Alexandre, Carol Hudon, Guillaume T. Vallet, Louis Bherer, Maxime Lussier, Jean-François Gagnon, Martine Simard et al. "Normative data for phonemic and semantic verbal fluency test in the adult French–Quebec population and validation study in Alzheimer’s disease and depression." The Clinical Neuropsychologist 30, no. 7 (2016): 1126-1150.

Toronto Sun (2012). Quebec language, culture threatened?. [online] Available at: https://torontosun.com/2012/03/31/quebec-language-culture-threatened/wcm/9fae8ef8-0533-4fdb-acf2-8f6e0749a8bc [Accessed 16 Jul. 2018].

Walsh, Olivia. "‘Les anglicismes polluent la langue française’. Purist attitudes in France and Quebec." Journal of French Language Studies 24, no. 3 (2014): 423-449.