PQ leaders language hypocrisy

By Beryl Wajsman, September 12th, 2012

As much as the Identity Act and the extension of Bill 101 to federal jurisdictions has infuriated much of Quebec, perhaps no other PQ proposal is as prejudicial to the future of francophones as the curtailment of their right to send their children to English CEGEPs. Mme. Marois was even accosted by francophone parents in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu who were concerned that their children could not go to certain technical schools because the international course curriculum was in English.
The PQ seeks to build an enslaved francophone population beholden to the government for everything. It is not that francophones can’t compete because North America is English as the PQ would like them to think. It is that the PQ want to prevent francophones from having the tools to compete. Among those necessary tools is a knowledge of English. And training in English.
No nationalist politician will ever tell Quebecers that as of three years ago Montreal surpassed Boston for the largest number of university students per capita. That Monteal is a North American leader  in biopharma and avionics. That our port is the third most profitable inland port on the continent. This good news does not fit the separatist narrative that requires a mindset of a beaten and downtrodden electorate forever dependent on the state. Thankfully, almost two-thirds of Quebecers rejected this narrative. And many are voting with their feet. Some half million francophones have left Quebec aince 1976. Almost a fifth of the Université de Montréal medical graduates are leaving or have left the province. And when I give talks in French schools I literally can’t find one student at the university level who buys this nonsense anymore.
Bernard Drainville has called the extension of 101 to CEGEPs a “choix de société", a choice of the society. Except that’s not how the popular vote went. Somebody should really send him a memo.
But since the current government is so convinced that English is a threat to fancophones, we decided to look at the relationship of PQ leaders to the “notorious” language they are so scared of.
Jean-François LISÉE: The author and chief advocate for the Identity Act spent part of the 1980s as a reporter in Washington (that large French city on the Potomac) for Quebec and French media. During that decade, he began an investigation into 30 years of AMERICAN political, diplomatic, financial and media attention toward Quebec and its independence movement. Obviously those Americam sources must have been in French. The research resulted  in the book In the Eye of the Eagle, published in 1990. It won the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction. Yes, the GG. That would be the Queen’s representative in Canada.
Bernard DRAINVILLE: The former Radio-Canada journalist is the author of the 15 percent  referendum petition idea that is sec. 7 of the PQ program.  Drainville attended the University of Ottawa, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in international relations at the London School of Economics.
Denise BEAUDOIN: The MNA for Mirabel is a graduate of the University of Ottawa.
Stéphane BERGERON: The MNA for Verchères served with distinction as a Naval Cadet instructor in the Canadian Forces from 1984 to 1993. Last we heard the Forces were bilingual.
Are you getting the picture, dear reader? We could go on but let’s conclude with a review of recent PQ leaders. Bernard Landry’s first job out of law school was with the Jewish Labor Committee of Montreal. After André Boisclair left politics he attended courses at Harvard and went back to a lucrative business career in Toronto. And let’s not forget Jacques Parizeau. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.
What points are we driving home? That the same advantages that helped so many separatist leaders, they would now deny to francophone Quebecers. And a knowledge of English helped all their careers. That speaks volumes.n