QUEBEC – Jean-Claude Corbeil is a distinguished linguist who headed the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF) in the 70s and helped draft the original Bill 101.
Sylvia Martin-Laforge is a former board member for the Conseil Supérieur de la Langue Française. Both have worked for Quebec French-language boards but their positions couldn’t be more different.
“The situation is changing and we need to react accordingly,” Corbeil told the parliamentary committee studying Bill 14, arguing Quebec needs tougher legislation to protect the French language in a world increasingly dominated by English.
Martin-Laforge, now Director General of the province’s English community advocacy group, Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), believes the coercive Bill 14 needs to be scrapped.
“Why do we need changes to the charter, why do we need to change the bilingual status (of municipalities), will that really make French stronger in Quebec?” asked Martin-Laforge.
QCGN President Dan Lamoureux told the committee what anglo-Quebecers do need are good job prospects. He pointed out only 2.7 percent of provincial civil servants are anglophones.
“What is important is maintaining our services in our language, maintaining our institutions and making sure that our young have employable skills to remain in Quebec,” he said.
The Language Minister agreed anglophones need better access to public-sector jobs.
At the end of the day, QCGN and Corbeil also agreed on one thing: the language police in this province sometimes go too far.
Corbeil is the man who wrote the regulation dealing with restaurant menus. “I don’t get it,” he said.
Corbeil told Global News he still doesn’t understand what possessed the OQLF to strike “pasta” from the list of words acceptable in Quebec.
He said purism on both sides of the issue only leads to more problems.
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