QUEBEC CITY — The Société St-Jean-Baptiste (SSJB) told immigration and diversity hearings Thursday that Allophones behave like Anglophones, and it isn’t good for Quebec culture.
“French as a mother tongue is regressing, French spoken at home is regressing, French at the office is regressing,” said SSJB President Maxime Laporte.
The SSJB wants Quebec to rein in employers who require their staff speak English and give immigrants more incentives to learn French.
“To stop anglicization and allow Montreal to reclaim its title of second-largest francophone city in the world,” Laporte urged those at the hearings.
PQ Language Critic Maka Kotto said he understands why Laporte is sounding the alarm; about half of the immigrants who land in Montreal don’t speak French.
“There is great fear French is losing ground,” he said.
UQAM diversity researcher Richard Bourhis had an overall more positive message for the commission.
“Quebec Anglophones are bilingual and they are the inter-cultural brokers, the inter-lingual brokers who help new immigrants not only learn about Quebec and integrate but understand the necessity of learning French.”
French Quebecers should stop feeling so insecure, he said.
“The Québécois Francophones have full control in the National Assembly, Québécois Francophones occupy most of the positions in the Quebec public administration.
“In that sense, Québécois Francophones should feel more secure in their capacity to welcome people from other cultures.”
The province’s Immigration Minister, Kathleen Weil, agreed English is not a threat.
“We see a lot of people who are trilingual and that’s OK.”
Despite the very different points of view heard Thursday, Weil said she believes the commission is moving towards a consensus on the renewal of Quebec’s immigration policy for the 21st century.
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