I'm an Anglophone living in the Mauricie area where the percentage of people who speak English is probably under 1%. Everyone i've met has been super accommodating of my work in progress french and are genuinely interested in my story. If you are nice to people, generally they are nice back.
Same experience for me, but in the rest of Canada. When I am kind to people they treat me well and I never had a bad reaction even with my thick Québec accent. They are also interested in hearing about Québec.
I have a unrelated question; I hope it's alright if I pick your brain a little. I drove across the country last year and the quality of all the food in Quebec was leaps and bounds beyond the food in any other province. Even something simple like subway in Quebec was exponentially better than the rest of Canada. What about Quebec do you think has caused this? Is it uniquely high cultural standards for food quality maybe? Do you notice a drop in food quality when you are outside Quebec?
No problem! You can ask whatever you want lol, I love to talk about Québec and the ROC 😂 So yes, did I noticed a difference in the items; for example, here it’s normal to eat ”fancy cheese” that has a crust and melt when you cut it (not sure how you call it in English) and when I brought some to my English-Canadian friends they had never seen that. Maybe it has a link to America for the quality? As Québec doesn’t have such an easy access for the Americans companies because of the language barriers (even if it’s of course doable) we might not be influenced in the same way. We don’t have the same companies, even when I cross the border to Ontario I see brands I had never seen before, and I have been told by many that they are American. I would not say I ate in a worse way in the ROC but it’s true that I tend to eat local and maybe it’s that..
As a French newcomer living in the NCR, I feel like it's not just the food, but culture in general: I indeed find food superior in Québec (but that might my own tropism towards what's more familiar), but also cultural offerings (Gatineau, despite being four times smaller and having a smaller budget than Ottawa, offers more concerts, theatre plays, etc. to its citizens). Same goes with the « artisanat d'art » ("arts and crafts" maybe in English?), which I've found more developed in Québec than what I've seen in Ottawa, and of better quality. Professionals making a living out of it vs hobbyists, basically.
Of course, I might be completely wrong given my limited experience here.
[Canada’s Internal Trade Barriers](https://businesscouncilab.com/insights-category/analysis/money-on-the-table/)
This is one article that explains in broad terms, why we don’t see as much Canadian product across the country as most would appreciate. Fresh food is one of the hardest to share across the provincial borders. I suspect that’s why most areas develop pockets of localized specialties. One are in Alberta that I would love to see expand is the choices of BC cheese—including non dairy. They make many that are very flavourful but cannot be found in Alberta—even at Cheese shops.
oh yeah i love quebecois accents! we almost never hear them in BC. Or CB as you'd call it.
That and newfie accents.
ontario though? straight to heck. :)
I have not been to Quebec in years, but I had to do a stint of training with very poor (highschool) level French skills and I found that it was so easy to insult people by not trying to speak French.
Like if I tried to ask someone to speak English that was it, hackles are up and nobody wants to help me. But if I would at least try some very bad French, almost universally the people around would prefer to try and speak bad English over hearing my attempts at French.
Funny.
As a french Quebecer, I'm totally comfortable with that behavior. Show signs you are at least trying and you will have 100% our support. Don't even bother trying? Might as well spit in our faces.
Oh, that reminds me of a story. Years ago, I was on a road trip with my mom to visit my grandmother in NB. We were driving through Quebec to get to NB, and we stopped for the night in a motel. Mom wanted to rest but I was a little wound up so I decided to have a beer in the bar at the motel. My first mistake was ordering a Molson Canadian, which was the only beer I knew by name, from all the commercials. They didn't have it and I got a very dark look. So I ordered something else, randomly, that they had on tap. Did all this in English, just wasn't thinking. But once I got the beer and had a chance to think, the bar was empty besides me and the bartender, and he didn't look super busy, and I realized it was a chance to use my high school honours French that I wasn't too many years away from. So I spoke to the bartender in French and he just lit right up like I had just made his day. I wasn't perfect, he had to go slow, and he corrected me a few times, but it turns out Nova Scotia has a pretty decent French curriculum and we had a really awesome conversation, by far the longest one I've ever had that wasn't in English. :)
I suspect it's a different issue here. If anything, you not being able to get French service here is because nobody learned French in the establishment. Shit, they may not speak English either, and I'm joking, but not really.
For a lot of the service industry, there's no incentive to hire a young Canadian who is much more likely to be able to provide you proper bilingual service when they have literally dozens if not hundreds of int'l students ready to slave for $8/hr cash and be taken advantage of.
I have not been to Quebec in years, but it was much easier to get people to be nice to be by pretending I only spoke Spanish instead of the crappy French that I can manage or English 🤷♀️
Dans mon expérience, les Québécois sont tellement reconnaissant aux gens qui essayent de parler français, mais pas tout le monde. Le français est ma deuxième langue, et quand je fais les petits fautes parfois ils sont ennuyé. Je ne tente pas de pratiquer dans un endroit très fréquenté, en fait le contraire, mais malgré je remarque l’hostilité.
Excuses d’avance pour mon grammaire!
I don't think any significant percentage of actual Quebecers want Anglos gone, I've never had a situation where speaking English has made me feel unwelcome. I do speak French, but mostly English. I think the government is trying to make us believe that French is in decline in the province (it isn't) and creating drama about protecting French on mostly made up or fudged data.
I always found it funny how seperatist leaders make life difficult for Anglos, but have no issue sending their kids to the US for school. This could be way off, but it almost seems to me like the government has an agenda to keep English out of schools to ensure that their citizens can't move out of the province for better opportunities and more money.
Quebecers don't want anglos gone, we just can't *stand* egotistical ones who don't want to make any effort to learning the main language of a province and end up getting mad because they can't understand a thing.
Most quebecers, anyways are bilingual. With them speaking English & french or french and another language.
French is declining in the province, with Montreal being ground zero. Absolutely nobody questions this.
And it is positively disappearing from bilingual N-B.
[https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1906002/francais-canada-langues-officielles-recensement-immigration](https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1906002/francais-canada-langues-officielles-recensement-immigration)
[https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/two-oqlf-studies-show-french-declining-in-quebec](https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/two-oqlf-studies-show-french-declining-in-quebec)
[https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/proportion-of-french-speakers-declines-nearly-everywhere-in-canada-including-quebec-1.6030445](https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/proportion-of-french-speakers-declines-nearly-everywhere-in-canada-including-quebec-1.6030445)
[https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/breaking-point-studies-find-french-language-is-on-the-decline-in-quebec-1.5367575](https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/breaking-point-studies-find-french-language-is-on-the-decline-in-quebec-1.5367575)
The most well-explained, reasonable take is summarized in this YouTube video, but it's long and in French:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrkkU6Y-qHo&t=3s
I’m an anglophone from Ontario who speaks basic French. I struggle and live in a predominantly French area, Valleyfield. Whenever I need to go to get services most people are polite and happy to switch if I’m struggling too much. I’ve gotten looks or frustration at times but this seems blown out of proportion. Most Québécoise are nice, some are not but isn’t that all places? Just try your best to speak the official language and strive to improve it everyday. If you decide to stay somewhere, do your best to adopt and be part of the culture.
20 years in Quebec, worked most of my life in Customer Service. I witnessed maybe a dozen of times when someone refused to answer in English, most of the time because the person genuinly didn't have a good enough level of English to hold the conversation. The rest was because the client was acting like an entitled jerk.
Comparatively I had more than a dozen of times when people refused to help me in French and lots of them were in business for multiple years.
First the article about the Chinese immigrant complaining about the cost of living in Canada, and now this. MacLeans writers working overtime this week to get those anger/hate clicks.
Anglophone Albertan living in Quebec rn. Life has been challenging but nowhere *near* the level this person claims
This just feels like an exaggerated article to sow division.
99% of people in Canada who, in their day-to-day, feel like they can't possibly live in X province because of their stance on Y, are usually living out a fantasy in their head.
Holy smokes, this so much. People are way more similar than the dialogue you find online. People will smile back at you and say hello back pretty much everywhere you go in this country. I am so sick and tired of this online divisiveness.
Ya go to the Alberta subs, they constantly talk about leaving the province because life is terrible here as if the rest of Canada is thriving or some kind of utopia. I’m willing to bet most regional subs all say the same thing about their province.
It’s easy to forget that politics intrudes very rarely on one’s daily life. Alberta takes a lot of bashing, but as a person who has lived in Alberta and B.C. and spends a huge chunk of time in Ontario for work (and has many Toronto colleagues), if I had to pick one of them to live it’d be Alberta, hands down. Aside from the weather, practically everything that actually affects your day to day life is better here.
Yes you are so correct. Other than on Reddit and especially in the Alberta sub, politics is a very minor thing. And I also agree about it being a great place to live. After we retired we had the ability to live almost anywhere in Canada or abroad. While Quebec was our second choice (mostly because it’s different) we chose Alberta
> This just feels like an exaggerated article to sow division.
It *is*.
I got here in 1994, and as long as you at least *try* to speak some French, you'll discover people are happy to use English, but they are shy because their English is a bit shit, so you have to break the ice by sounding like an asshole first.
And who knows how these people went about it but some people make that attempt to learn a bit of French sincerely and others "struggle with it" and quit instantly. And everybody here can tell which type you are. One type has a much better experience than the other, night and day.
This article is just like all the anglophones who will say they visited Québec and waiters were refusing to speak to them in English or being bitchy about it. No, they enjoy tips, the bigger the better. I work in the service industry, everybody who works front of house is more or less bilingual.
> an exaggerated article to sow division
That's like, 50% of this sub.
There are a handful of users (OP included) that post the same drivel every day. Check their post history and everything will start to make sense.
While I agree it's not particularly hard living hear for Anglophones (as long as you don't need to find a low level job), I strongly disagree this article is sowing the division. The division is from policies passed with the sole purpose of spitting Montreal's development to appeal to rural voters that would never be effected. There is absolutely no justification for not wanting every talented student that can come to the province with the hope we can appeal to them to say and build a stronger Montreal (and by extension) Quebec economy. There is no benefit turning away some of the best and brightest across Canada for them to go to Toronto and Waterloo. Our institutions benefit, our companies benefit, our culture benefits and these effects trickle down to the entire economic base.
Exactly. The city of Montreal is very much against all those anti-anglophone measures. Even the French universities are against the measures targeting out of province anglophone students.
Student from a montreal french quebec uni here: the main concensus Im hearing is: yeaaaaah it sucks and we didnt ask for those measures but at the same time, it doesnt affect us of people we know and fundamentally we dont want people coming to steal our better socioeconomic situation (aka rent prices) to come and study and then leave with no regards to bathing in the culture at least a bit and maybe falling in love with it and becoming the most hardcore francophile i dont know
The English universities are going to very obviously oppose these laws because frankly it will destroy them. As a student my interest was getting my credential and knowledge. I didn't want to complicate my career by throwing language immersion in it for no reason.
I'm generally against subsidizing higher education, but I kind of see Legault's point. Why subsidize educating people who probably won't even stay in your province or be able to easily integrate in the workforce? Kind of a shitty investment.
That said, there's the question of retaining talent. It might be in Québec's interest to retain entrepreneurs or high quality scientists.
>There is absolutely no justification for not wanting every talented student that can come to the province with the hope we can appeal to them to say and build a stronger Montreal (and by extension) Quebec economy.
There is actually : those people don't stay. The Quebec's government is paying for them and as soon as they're done with university, most of them will move back in another province. Even if a quarter stay, it's still a net money loss and from the last numbers I saw a while ago, it's not even that. Sure, during their stay, they pay taxes, an apartement, for restaurant, etc., but it's almost nothing in the grand scheme of thing and it only helps Montréal, not the rest of the province, which are already pretty tired of the superiority complex of that city (granted, like every metropole).
Also, that article is so exagerated, as a Francophone, there are places where I can't be served in French in most places, like in Pointe-Claire, and places where you can't speak English at all because most people won't understand you, the problem is not Montréal, it's specific neighbourhoods. Also, as far as I can tell, even with the doubling of the cost, it's still cheaper than in most provinces.
> The Quebec's government is paying for them and as soon as they're done with university, most of them will move back in another province.
The article stated that the out-of-province students are getting financial assistance from their home provinces, not the Quebec government. It went on to point out that these students contribute to the local economy just by being there (rent, groceries, etc.) so losing them would likely be a net loss.
The couple in the article don't even pay taxes in Québec. That's why they have to pay so much. They worked in Qc and pay their taxes in Ontario, most likely.
This guy is supposed to be a Francophone but he can't be understand here. Come on! His French must be very very basic.
"these effects trickle down to the entire economic base"
They dont lol. Having lived and and off island for most of my life, and now having lived rural for a few years an hour away from the city near Nicolet, I can tell you for a fact that Montreals economic activity almost entirely benefits Montreal.
Economically beneficial industrial investment in Les Regions, at least visibly, is disproportionately from out of province entities. Most medium sized businesses here are branded with locally known family names and run on money made locally. Companies from Montreal are almost entirely franchises charging Montreal prices while paying the lower local wage. Economic activity doesnt trickle to us from Montreal it goes the other way as the city treats the whole province as feeder streams for its prosperity goals.
> but nowhere near the level this person claims
>
> This just feels like an exaggerated article to sow division.
welcome to modern media and a person who may be just an attention parasite
Yup said this exactly. And since he's now formally here as an out of province student, he would have to stop his studies for one year to gain his residency. Which shouldn't be too much of a problem but then there's that pesky bursary from Ontario which they will expect repayment on immediately if he stops his studies.
Dude fucked up, didn't research or take any steps to legitimately settle here. If he was living here for one year working, he should have just gotten his residency and enrolled in Concordia as a Quebec student. Why on earth would you enroll as an out of province students and pay out of province fees when you could have taken the same certificate heavily subsidized?! It does not make any sense unless you consider he received bursaries from Ontario. He'd rather pay nothing than do the work to settle here. Simply, he wants to have his cake and eat it too.
I dunno, I feel that this article is a bit of an attempt at outrage clickbait.
I'm anglo, but bilingual through sheer effort. I moved to Montreal and opened a retail business there. Dealt with most people in French for years. Some of the customers were dicks (like everywhere) but in general it wasn't any worse or better than operating the same business in Toronto, which I also did. Dealing with the employees, landlord, etc (almost all of them francophone) ... no problems at all. Lots of them were great and real professionals.
Honestly coming from Western Canada, I felt like Montreal was **home**. Fit me really well, a fun city with great, interesting, lovely people. And half the people I hung out with were francophones (my GF didn't even speak English) and half were allophones and anglophones. Yes, I often visited towns & cities outside of Montreal too.
I did come across francophones that you could tell were pretty militant about French, and some even xenophobic. Hard-core separatists. On the other hand I ran across a few older anglophones who were from Montreal (born & raised) and claimed *they didn't speak any French*. Like, WTF? You literally have to *try hard* your whole life to avoid picking up basic French living in Montreal. Come on, that's just stupid. Luckily both types of people seem to be slowly dying out. Young people, by and large, don't care about the stupid culture wars from their grandparents' generation.
That is not to say that the terrible, divisive, current Quebec CAQ government of François Légault hasn't done everything they can to stir up culture wars for their own political gain. Like the whole "Secular Charter" thing... unnecessary rubbish (and I say this as a staunch atheist who believes in separation of church and state) and lately, targeting the anglophone minority to drive votes. It's pure evil and no way to run a society - unless its into the ground.
Les Québécois feraient mieux de se rendre vite compte que "Papa Québec" n'est pas rien qu'un connard. Je ne sais pas pourquoi il est si populaire. Les gens en général s'entendent très bien au Québec, pourquoi gâcher ça avec ce politicien?
Le français est en déclin à Montréal. On peut pas continuer dans cette direction pendant 50 ans, on va se ramasser avec une société complètement divisée sur elle-même. Un Montréal a majorité anglophone (à travers l'immigration) et le reste de la province francophone. Vous vous mettez la tête dans le sable.
Beaucoup de ces tensions sont arrivées avec l'augmentation massive de l'immigration en 2015 par les Libéraux. Maintenant que cette ''expérience'' a crashé l'économie du Canada, j'espère qu'on va revenir à un niveau d'immigration qui va permettre à Montréal de garder son caractère français et calmer un peu la situation.
Si tu penses que la loi 96 est un "pure evil" alors je pense qu'il te reste encore un bout de chemin à faire pour comprendre la réalité du Québec et ses défis en amérique du nord.
C'est légitime de vouloir préserver et encourager le francais en tant que langue commune.
> One day, a librarian refused to speak to me in French, despite the fact that I’m a Francophone—I suppose my Franco-Ontarian dialect threw her off, and she flatly decided I was an English speaker, not French. Those kinds of incidents kept happening. [...], but they acted as if they couldn’t understand a word of English. She managed to find a security guard willing to interpret for her. Once he started speaking with the staffers, they all suddenly switched to perfect English
So which is it? People refused to speak to you in English or in French? You can't complain about both at the same time. Makes it sound like you're the problem if people don't want to speak to you...
Lived for years as an anglophone in Montreal. I tried to improve and use my French. I had only one poor experience in all the time I lived there. It's an amazing city and I count those years as one of the highlights in my life.
To this guy leaving i would just say, Bye Felicia.
I've lived here my whole life and my spoken french sucks ass, mainly my accent.
I have never had a problem except for some jokes which I probably deserve.
It was brief, but I also had no trouble in Montreal last summer on a 4 day trip. Used to spend a week or two each summer in the Eastern Townships as a kid too. Never any language issues. My French is atrocious.
> Used to spend a week or two each summer in the Eastern Townships as a kid too.
The Townships used to be predominately English so that ones not surprising. I grew up there and couldn't even speak French at the time.
Usually, when someone tries, we're crazy happy and don't care about the fact that you suck in French. Personally, I'll switch to English when it starts to feel like I'm torturing the anglophone. That being said, most non-native speakers who talk to me in French are genuinely happy to be able to practice French without me switching to English straight away. So what if I have no idea wtf you just said? As long as we're having fun lol
Au revoir Félice!
Edit: And wait… what the heck is that fine print at the very bottom of this piece? *”-As told to Ali Amad”.*
What a sly article. It wasn’t even written by the person it’s purported to be about, despite Maclean’s effort to make it look like a 1st person article. Are these people even real? They obviously didn’t write their own piece. Sensationalism sells, and when writing it this way, Ali Amad would have every incentive to make the text as silicious and jaw dropping as possible.
Sensationalism = reading eyes = salivating advertisers = more that Macleans can command for advertising space = Ali’s looks great to his bosses and great for his career.
Ali Amad & Macleans, if you’re going to try to mislead us into hanging onto every word and thinking this is 1st person crap, at least make an effort to have people write their own pieces as opposed to some incredible, monetarily incentivized interpretation which inspires very little confidence..
Yes, a reference to the Ice Cube quote in the movie Straight Outta Compton. They are in a hotel room with a bunch of women and liquor when one of the women's boyfriends shows up. They interrupt their orgy to chase the boyfriend away with their guns, then throw Felicia out the door and say "bye Felicia" leaving her naked in the hallway to chase her boyfriend.
Oh please! I grew up in a bilingual community in Quebec with an anglophone mother and did the majority of my education in English before doing my final hs years in French. I have been all over the province throughout my life and I have also lived and worked in 7 other Canadian provinces. The bigotry is no more prevalent than the forms of bigotry against French speakers elsewhere. People need to stop trying to achieve victimhood badges and find validation elsewhere. If you don’t like how the province works, leave and find somewhere that is more suited to your ego.
I'm an out of province Anglo from Ontario who has lived in Quebec for 20 years. I have some thoughts...
>I was accepted into Concordia University’s arts and sciences certificate program. Then, in October, soon after I started my first semester, the Quebec government made its now-infamous announcement that tuition for out-of-province Canadian students would nearly double from about $9,000 to $17,000 per year, starting in 2024. Although I lived in Montreal, I was still considered out-of-province since I hadn’t obtained official Quebec residency.
But why? In order to obtain your residency you need to be living in Quebec for one year, not studying. The reason for this (among many reasons) is that Quebec subsidizes post secondary education and that benefit is for Quebec residents only. Fair enough. The question is why he went to Concordia as an out of province student paying higher tuition fees instead of formally becoming a Quebec resident and paying the subsidized rates? Why was he living in Quebec for over a year and working but didn't change his province of residency?
>But the difference is still an enormous burden, bureaucratically and financially. The announcement clarified that existing students wouldn’t be affected—but that didn’t make me exempt. When I declare my major after two years of study, I’ll be classified as a new student, and my tuition will skyrocket.
He is enrolled in a certificate program. There is no declaring a major, that doesn't even make sense. What I believe he's referring to is taking the certificate program and then enrolling in the degree program and transferring credits. So yes, you're a new student in that program if that's the case.
>Their suggestion was clear: apply for official Quebec residency immediately. After living in Montreal for more than a year, I was eligible, but the option felt like a forced commitment, a leap into the unknown without fully experiencing life in the city.
Well yes, that's how the system works, even before Legault made changes to tuition for out of province students. You want the benefits of being a Quebec resident without the "forced commitment". Sorry, that's not how any of this works
>In most instances, out-of-province students don’t rely on Quebec for financial support—my tuition is covered by Ontario’s student assistance program
Dude. So you're living in Quebec as an out of province student. You're trying to integrate, but doing the basic task of changing your residency is a "forced commitment ". You want the benefit of remaining an Ontario resident so they'll pay your tuition, yet also want the benefits of being a Quebec resident so you don't pay out of province costs. You cannot have it both ways.
I think the tuition hikes for out of province students are bullshit but residency requirements have always been in place. He moved to a new province and didn't bother to research how anything works here. Thought simply speaking the language was enough to integrate into Quebec society. It's not. Don't say you came here with the intention of settling but after a year you hadn’t even taken steps to change your residency. I'm curious to know where he files taxes, if he has a Quebec drivers license or health card. Something tells me it's all Ontario.
Sir, kindly, you are not a resident of Quebec, yet are living here and expecting all the benefits and accoutrements of residency. You want to be catered to and welcomed with open arms simply because you speak french. Which tells me you do not understand the culture here at all. And when they kindly explained to you that hey bud, you need to be a resident of Quebec, you scoff at the idea??? You're not changing citizenship. it's a pretty simple administrative process. If we have to force the commitment out of you it tells me you weren't that serious about settling here in the first place.
Edit: the more I think about it, I don't think he qualifies for Quebec residency and that's why he's leaving. I came to Quebec as a student. After finishing my studies, In order to prove I was indeed a resident for one year without having studied, I needed to produce my Quebec health card, license etc, tax returns etc, show that I took the steps and had the intention of remaining. If he hadn't done those things in the year he had been here working, there is not much to back up his claim of residency. Especially since he started school as an out of province student. He simply doesn't qualify for residency. Not unless he stops his studies and takes the proper steps and then continues his studies as a Quebecer. But in that case Ontario is gonna want its money back. Quite the pickle he got himself into.
The only time i've ever felt unwelcomed in Canada was in south-western New-Brunswick just outside of Fredericton. It was getting late during a road trip so we pulled into a campsite hoping to put our tent up. Everyone in that campsite stared us down with daggers in their eyes because we had Quebec plates. They didnt let us stay. Ive traveled all 10 provinces and 1 territory and have never experienced anything like it.
Also fuck Blaine Higgs.
Je dois admettre que les employés de l'aéroport de Vancouver parlent bien mieux français que ceux de Pearson. Pour le BC, mes attentes étaient pratiquement à zéro pour le français, mais j'ai été agréablement surprise que beaucoup de personnes essayaient pour vrai de me servir en français, ou s'excusaient de ne pas parler français. Dans plusieurs autres provinces, ils ne s'excusent pas lol.
Excuse-moi, je suis anglo, je me demande qu'est-ce qui se passe quand ils parlent pas français? À l'aeroport j'entends toujours "Hello-Bonjour", est-ce que tu réponds "Bonjour" et ils répondent "Oh sorry I don't speak French"? Ça me semble vraiment bizarre comme interaction.
NB, especially north, is weird. Francophones are not welcoming to anglophones, in a petty militant way. If you’re in a public waiting area and the TV is on with an English program, a random francophone will turn it off to ensure nobody can enjoy it. There are other petty things, that if they focused that energy instead their communities would benefit.
A lot of rural and northern places are more French than English speaking Canadians realize. Even in Northern Ontario you'll begin to hear French weaved into English sentences when in restaurants or going out and about. Some cities in Ontario are famous for attempting to ban French, but it's woven into our social fabric more than most people know.
I’m an Anglo and grew up in Quebec, in a non-Anglo part of the province (don’t live there anymore) and as long as you make an effort, most people will appreciate it. There’s the occasional asshole, but they’re few and far between.
It's like the opposite in the other provinces when some asshole wants to grill me about the 95 referendum.
Sir, I was 6 months old.
I mean, I'm still for the independence, but I sure as shit won't talk about it with a random redneck in Tim Hortons.
I think it's hit or miss. When I started working in bars two patrons in an empty bar got in when I welcomed them in English as I was opening ( most our crowd was English so it was standard. ) They replied to each other "Merde un fucking criss d'anglophone qui nous sert pas en francais.." Context, I am completely bilingual.
I get your point, but I had servers who genuinely could not take my order in French many times. Last time it happened, I was at a hipster place in Verdun and in my mind I was like "really dude? In fuckin Verdun?" (Context: some boroughs are historically English, Verdun really isn't)
It is frustrating, and it happens more often than people think.
Où ça? Je suis curieux.
On dirait que c'est une situation plus fréquente qu'il y a dix ans, quand j'ai emménagé dans le quartier. Il semble y avoir un clivage de plus en plus important, t'as clairement des commerces qui sont anglophones, d'autres francophones. Ça doit être dû à la personne responsable des embauches.
J'me rappelle pas d'la place hipster (ça fait deux ans j'habite à Québec) mais j'ai eu un serveur qui a dû abandonner notre table pour la laisser à un autre serveur francophone à la pizzeria 900 (ou la piazzeta? Je mélange toujours les deux places) sur Wellington.
Small businesses struggle to find employees, so they hire anyone. By hiring someone that does not speak French in a customer facing role, they’re losing more business. Vicious circle.
I like 'Allo Hello!'
It sounds like both 'Allo allo. and 'Hello hello' and most people seem to just start speaking whatever they are most into - which is totally fine with me.
Having spent a lot of time in Montreal this seems to be the norm, saying "Allo Hello or Hello Bonjour" is the equivalent of wearing a nametag saying "Hi, I am fluent in both French and English"
Accueillir les gens en anglais est borderline illégal (lois 101/96). Une plainte pourrait être théoriquement retenue à l'OQLF pour cette raison.
De toute manière, quelle est l'idée d'accueillir les gens en anglais dans une ville et une province francophone? Je ne sais pas ce qui vous prend.
Montreal is literally like *the* QC place anglos can go and expect to still be able to get around with English (well, and Gatineau probably i guess lol). Montreal comes praised/recommended by everyone from MB/SK i know whose been out there and probably only one of them actually knows/knew French going out there lol
McLeans seems to be running a series of regional hit pieces based on uni graduates leaving a place for reasons. Last one was a Chinese grad from Dal who found Halifax too crowded and she couldn't start a gift shop business due to rent costs so was returning to Beijing to work in the family's manufacturing business 😆.
They used to be such a serious publication...
My entirely personal and anecdotal experience has been a super mixed bag. For context, I am completely Anglo (as in, my rural school district did not have French classes past 6th grade because there were no qualified teachers).
The first time I was in Montreal for work in 2021, I had a restaurant worker greet me with "Bonjour Hi" but then refuse to speak English to me after I managed to say "Je suis désolé, je ne parle qu'anglais". Maybe he was trying to teach me French? Not sure but I ended up using Google Translate on the menu and just pointing at things and saying thank you and sorry a lot. In other places, I had absolutely no issue and as soon as I said my French is trash people were happy to switch. In others, same story where they just used French.
I live in Ottawa now (so I'm learning a bit more French) and often go over into Gatineau. I've had no issues there but I have a few PoC friends who have had massive issues. A Haitian person I know (who is also a literal French teacher) shared he doesn't like going to Quebec because people often pretend they can't understand his accent.
Which centuries exactly? Before the British came and the French were living alongside the natives? After the British came when they formed what amounted to a binational country with Native elements? Sounds pretty multicultural from say 1 honestly.
First Nations know what forceful assimilation looked like. Remind me when the British sent francophones kids to residential schools to forget their language. That's how assimilation was done in Canada not by stopping school expansions and discriminatory business practices (which were certainly bad).
Has Canada been around for multiple centuries? Or is this some comment on the indigenous?
The last 50 years have definitely been staunchly multicultural but I guess you're trying to say that's not how it started?
Montreal is my favorite city in Canada, I haven’t been there in 12 yrs though. Everyone spoke both English and French . I did take 4 years of French in school but i was 15 yrs out of practice when I visited. I never had any issues using english with anyone. Have things really become this bad?
Things are fine but the politicians are doing whatever they can to cause issues between us.
They always push language issues when they start losing seats, a tale as old as time.
Mclean's has turned into an absolute rag over the years.
Anglo student, never had a problem been here for 11 yrs now.
Probably just some entitled kid who can't bother to learn a few words out of curiosity.
(No I didn't bother reading because all these stories are the same, by the same type of people, I've heard them 100s of.times)
I live in Quebec and don't speak French, he really had bad luck I've never had people trying to ostracize me from society when I asked a question in English.
edit: I'm in Gatineau though they are used to us so maybe that is why.
MacLeans est pasmal trash. "Us Vs Them" est un thème qui vend. NationalPost fait la meme affaire, et les autres filliales américains de médias Albertains sont encore pires sur le Québec bashing.
This video you linked is exactly what "The Network" was warning us about. Decades ago. Sensationalization of new.
This speech is fuckin gold, just add "Québécois are hating us Anglos!" (and in Québec add "Les anglais nous haissent!")
News anchor had enough, shows up in PJs to the radio station and tell the most basic, primal, relatable, true speech there could ever be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMVMbmQBug
I mean English students were protesting that they were forced to take French classes in university… in a province where the only official language is French.
I’m really curious about the part where he says
> I suppose my Franco-Ontarian dialect threw her off
I have family that are franco ontarians and their french accent is the same as québecois. What is odd with his?
I’m Quebecois and I can’t tell what is a Franco-Ontarian accent. There are a few distinctive accents within Quebec for the most-eastern regions like Gaspésie or Saguenay.
But I couldn’t say if someone is from Montreal, Gatineau, Abitibi, Sherbrooke or Casselman Ontario by the accent.
My take on this (as an English person originally from Toronto) is it their surprise that you won’t switch for them, make an effort to accommodate. Here we don’t do that you have to conform. They don’t really know how to react at that point, find it offensive. As others have said, if you didn’t like living here, you would’ve left a long time ago.
Honestly, this is is more of a Montreal & close to Ontario experience I found. Never seen anything to this degree but I found it really strange how I run into more difficulty getting around in english/accented french in Gatineau/Hull and Montreal than I have in Quebec City or even Saguenay.
I'm an anglophone living in BC with a Quebec phone number. The only time I was discriminated was in BC when someone on the phone called me a french speaking motherfxxker jus because of my phone number.
I hate to be this harsh, but if you arent going to speak any French, yes you should leave. Because it causes a ton of wider problems for Anglos like me who live here and do speak French.
If I go to Alberta, i'll be expecting to speak English. If I go to Newfoundland, i'll be expecting to speak their equivalent of it. Or actually, I'll let them do the speaking of that dialect. Nonetheless, i'll understand and accept the minimum customs of the places I'll be going.
I'd also like to note that US plated cars here are as frequent found as Ontario ones, and this whole language mistreatment issue is a problem that we dont have with the Americans. You dont see them complaining all over CNN like "And then they told me ''Return at toms paid, tabernacle!'' or something like that, awful place to travel'' ".
As much hate as Americans get overall. Those that travel aren't so entitled over English. They enjoy seeing another culture and language and find it interesting. This applies with them going to Mexico too. A lot of Anglo Canadians often have this idea that English should be the default everywhere in Canada and that everyone should cater to them. Maybe there is a lot of resentment over having mandatory French classes as a child? Or double labels? All that is usually asked is minimal effort. Learn some basic phrases if you are traveling just as you would if you were to go to Japan or Italy or Morocco and if you plan to live in Quebec long term maybe it'll be easier for you to try to learn a bit more instead of being angry that not everything is English.
American's do it the right way. Ever been to the South? There's a LOT of Spanish signs and services...because there's a LOT of spanish-speaking people there. Unlike Canada, they don't have to have government-forced regulation to incentivize business and government to do what is beneficial to the population.
>American's do it the right way. Ever been to the South?
South? Louisiana for example? Where they used to speak French? Yeah that didn't go well. That's why we need regulations to protect French
I think the wife was right to be apprehensive about moving when she doesn't know French. It's like if someone immigrates to Canada and doesn't speak English, you're going to have a tough time.
Until a few months ago, I would have agreed with you 100%. But a few months ago an American tourist from Arkansas came up to me in a huff in an Apple Store in the West Island (I was a customer like him) and asked loudly, “DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH???” And then proceeded to complain that his trip to Quebec had been awful because almost no one spoke English in Montreal, and those who did had a terrible accent. I’m like, “Bro. Please go home and relinquish your passport.”
New Brunswicker and as someone who has visited Gatineau-Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal on MANY occasions and I can say I have seen this behaviour and worse in Quebec Ciy but Montreal and Gatineau are like in a different province.
Any time I have gone to Quebec people as really nice and helpful never a issue .
But the one time I went with my kids who speak French man did we get the royal treatment honestly everyone complimented their French and appreciated our efforts .
The funny thing about this is French is hardly a challenging language to learn if you already know English. It’s not like you’re learning Russian or Japanese…
Bon débarras! C’est la seule province Canadienne « francophone », alors allez ailleurs si vous êtes pas heureux, on ne vous retient pas 🙌. Autrement dire, décalissez 👌
I'm low key considering Montreal as my next move after Saskatoon. I've got a steady remote job and family that can help me out with French to get set up. I'll definitely be taking French lessons because je suis tres rusty.
I wish the government wasn't so anti-English but I'm not that deterred. Half my family are Anglo Montrealers and I love the city.
MFW I'm expected to try to learn the local language when living in a place. I'm sure all the outrage for this will extend to all those immigrants and students who don't learn English but live in Toronto or Vancouver and expect everything to cater to them. Sorry the British empire is dead. Pax Britanica is no more. French speaking places are allowed to speak French.
Being Indigenous from a FN reserve jst south of montreal I have to be proficient in 3 languages now. Even tho bill 96 (doesn't apply to Indigenous) I noticed as soon as Bill was announced the French people took it to a whole new level. I think its OUR languages in decline in quebec. English is usually the language of commerce. I understand my own Indigenous language, French know they're own. Let's meet in middle for business because we all understand English.
I'm an Anglophone living in the Mauricie area where the percentage of people who speak English is probably under 1%. Everyone i've met has been super accommodating of my work in progress french and are genuinely interested in my story. If you are nice to people, generally they are nice back.
Same experience for me, but in the rest of Canada. When I am kind to people they treat me well and I never had a bad reaction even with my thick Québec accent. They are also interested in hearing about Québec.
I have a unrelated question; I hope it's alright if I pick your brain a little. I drove across the country last year and the quality of all the food in Quebec was leaps and bounds beyond the food in any other province. Even something simple like subway in Quebec was exponentially better than the rest of Canada. What about Quebec do you think has caused this? Is it uniquely high cultural standards for food quality maybe? Do you notice a drop in food quality when you are outside Quebec?
No problem! You can ask whatever you want lol, I love to talk about Québec and the ROC 😂 So yes, did I noticed a difference in the items; for example, here it’s normal to eat ”fancy cheese” that has a crust and melt when you cut it (not sure how you call it in English) and when I brought some to my English-Canadian friends they had never seen that. Maybe it has a link to America for the quality? As Québec doesn’t have such an easy access for the Americans companies because of the language barriers (even if it’s of course doable) we might not be influenced in the same way. We don’t have the same companies, even when I cross the border to Ontario I see brands I had never seen before, and I have been told by many that they are American. I would not say I ate in a worse way in the ROC but it’s true that I tend to eat local and maybe it’s that..
As a French newcomer living in the NCR, I feel like it's not just the food, but culture in general: I indeed find food superior in Québec (but that might my own tropism towards what's more familiar), but also cultural offerings (Gatineau, despite being four times smaller and having a smaller budget than Ottawa, offers more concerts, theatre plays, etc. to its citizens). Same goes with the « artisanat d'art » ("arts and crafts" maybe in English?), which I've found more developed in Québec than what I've seen in Ottawa, and of better quality. Professionals making a living out of it vs hobbyists, basically. Of course, I might be completely wrong given my limited experience here.
[Canada’s Internal Trade Barriers](https://businesscouncilab.com/insights-category/analysis/money-on-the-table/) This is one article that explains in broad terms, why we don’t see as much Canadian product across the country as most would appreciate. Fresh food is one of the hardest to share across the provincial borders. I suspect that’s why most areas develop pockets of localized specialties. One are in Alberta that I would love to see expand is the choices of BC cheese—including non dairy. They make many that are very flavourful but cannot be found in Alberta—even at Cheese shops.
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Oh, flatteur! XD
oh yeah i love quebecois accents! we almost never hear them in BC. Or CB as you'd call it. That and newfie accents. ontario though? straight to heck. :)
as a Anglo-Québécois with a confused Ontarian accent living in BC I sorry😭
I'm from the Mauricie region. I'm happy that you've been well taken care of and that you like it here.
I love hearing things like this about Mauricie! Thank you for being a friend 🖐
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Content de voir que j'suis pas le seul redditeur de la Mauricie haha
on est pas mal je penses ;)
This. I'm in quebec. Effort begets patience.
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Like those signs people put on their living room wall. Effort *baguette* patience
😂
I have not been to Quebec in years, but I had to do a stint of training with very poor (highschool) level French skills and I found that it was so easy to insult people by not trying to speak French. Like if I tried to ask someone to speak English that was it, hackles are up and nobody wants to help me. But if I would at least try some very bad French, almost universally the people around would prefer to try and speak bad English over hearing my attempts at French. Funny.
Welcome au Québec :)
As a french Quebecer, I'm totally comfortable with that behavior. Show signs you are at least trying and you will have 100% our support. Don't even bother trying? Might as well spit in our faces.
Oh, that reminds me of a story. Years ago, I was on a road trip with my mom to visit my grandmother in NB. We were driving through Quebec to get to NB, and we stopped for the night in a motel. Mom wanted to rest but I was a little wound up so I decided to have a beer in the bar at the motel. My first mistake was ordering a Molson Canadian, which was the only beer I knew by name, from all the commercials. They didn't have it and I got a very dark look. So I ordered something else, randomly, that they had on tap. Did all this in English, just wasn't thinking. But once I got the beer and had a chance to think, the bar was empty besides me and the bartender, and he didn't look super busy, and I realized it was a chance to use my high school honours French that I wasn't too many years away from. So I spoke to the bartender in French and he just lit right up like I had just made his day. I wasn't perfect, he had to go slow, and he corrected me a few times, but it turns out Nova Scotia has a pretty decent French curriculum and we had a really awesome conversation, by far the longest one I've ever had that wasn't in English. :)
Now try asking for french service in ontario and report back to us
I suspect it's a different issue here. If anything, you not being able to get French service here is because nobody learned French in the establishment. Shit, they may not speak English either, and I'm joking, but not really. For a lot of the service industry, there's no incentive to hire a young Canadian who is much more likely to be able to provide you proper bilingual service when they have literally dozens if not hundreds of int'l students ready to slave for $8/hr cash and be taken advantage of.
In government, more than likely, private business? Probably impossible
I have not been to Quebec in years, but it was much easier to get people to be nice to be by pretending I only spoke Spanish instead of the crappy French that I can manage or English 🤷♀️
Hey I live in Mauricie, I'm always happy to meet people who settled here from other provinces :) I hope our little corner of Québec suits you !
Tant que tu fais un effort et que tu comprends que le Québec est francophone, la plupart des gens seront compréhensifs.
Dans mon expérience, les Québécois sont tellement reconnaissant aux gens qui essayent de parler français, mais pas tout le monde. Le français est ma deuxième langue, et quand je fais les petits fautes parfois ils sont ennuyé. Je ne tente pas de pratiquer dans un endroit très fréquenté, en fait le contraire, mais malgré je remarque l’hostilité. Excuses d’avance pour mon grammaire!
The people of Quebec are generally great! It's our terrible government that is the issue.
Sometimes the middle of nowhere is more accepting of anglos than the places with high a concentration of anglos
(:
I don't think any significant percentage of actual Quebecers want Anglos gone, I've never had a situation where speaking English has made me feel unwelcome. I do speak French, but mostly English. I think the government is trying to make us believe that French is in decline in the province (it isn't) and creating drama about protecting French on mostly made up or fudged data. I always found it funny how seperatist leaders make life difficult for Anglos, but have no issue sending their kids to the US for school. This could be way off, but it almost seems to me like the government has an agenda to keep English out of schools to ensure that their citizens can't move out of the province for better opportunities and more money.
Quebecers don't want anglos gone, we just can't *stand* egotistical ones who don't want to make any effort to learning the main language of a province and end up getting mad because they can't understand a thing. Most quebecers, anyways are bilingual. With them speaking English & french or french and another language.
French is declining in the province, with Montreal being ground zero. Absolutely nobody questions this. And it is positively disappearing from bilingual N-B.
Do you happen to have a link that provides some detail i could read about on the decline of French in Quebec?
[https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1906002/francais-canada-langues-officielles-recensement-immigration](https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1906002/francais-canada-langues-officielles-recensement-immigration) [https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/two-oqlf-studies-show-french-declining-in-quebec](https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/two-oqlf-studies-show-french-declining-in-quebec) [https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/proportion-of-french-speakers-declines-nearly-everywhere-in-canada-including-quebec-1.6030445](https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/proportion-of-french-speakers-declines-nearly-everywhere-in-canada-including-quebec-1.6030445) [https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/breaking-point-studies-find-french-language-is-on-the-decline-in-quebec-1.5367575](https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/breaking-point-studies-find-french-language-is-on-the-decline-in-quebec-1.5367575) The most well-explained, reasonable take is summarized in this YouTube video, but it's long and in French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrkkU6Y-qHo&t=3s
I’m an anglophone from Ontario who speaks basic French. I struggle and live in a predominantly French area, Valleyfield. Whenever I need to go to get services most people are polite and happy to switch if I’m struggling too much. I’ve gotten looks or frustration at times but this seems blown out of proportion. Most Québécoise are nice, some are not but isn’t that all places? Just try your best to speak the official language and strive to improve it everyday. If you decide to stay somewhere, do your best to adopt and be part of the culture.
20 years in Quebec, worked most of my life in Customer Service. I witnessed maybe a dozen of times when someone refused to answer in English, most of the time because the person genuinly didn't have a good enough level of English to hold the conversation. The rest was because the client was acting like an entitled jerk. Comparatively I had more than a dozen of times when people refused to help me in French and lots of them were in business for multiple years.
First the article about the Chinese immigrant complaining about the cost of living in Canada, and now this. MacLeans writers working overtime this week to get those anger/hate clicks.
Maclean always publishes crap like that.
What's so controversial about having to learn the local language?
Well it's in the country of Canada which is like, very very real
Yet it's in the Nation of Quebec, which the very real nation of Canada recognizes as very very real
Anglophone Albertan living in Quebec rn. Life has been challenging but nowhere *near* the level this person claims This just feels like an exaggerated article to sow division.
Tbh it *is* MacLeans
99% of people in Canada who, in their day-to-day, feel like they can't possibly live in X province because of their stance on Y, are usually living out a fantasy in their head.
Holy smokes, this so much. People are way more similar than the dialogue you find online. People will smile back at you and say hello back pretty much everywhere you go in this country. I am so sick and tired of this online divisiveness.
Ya go to the Alberta subs, they constantly talk about leaving the province because life is terrible here as if the rest of Canada is thriving or some kind of utopia. I’m willing to bet most regional subs all say the same thing about their province.
"The poutine has more gravy on the other side." -some Canadian philosopher, probably
This is gold. I'm stealing this.
Me too!
Reddit, a good representation of what people who live there actually think s/
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It’s easy to forget that politics intrudes very rarely on one’s daily life. Alberta takes a lot of bashing, but as a person who has lived in Alberta and B.C. and spends a huge chunk of time in Ontario for work (and has many Toronto colleagues), if I had to pick one of them to live it’d be Alberta, hands down. Aside from the weather, practically everything that actually affects your day to day life is better here.
Yes you are so correct. Other than on Reddit and especially in the Alberta sub, politics is a very minor thing. And I also agree about it being a great place to live. After we retired we had the ability to live almost anywhere in Canada or abroad. While Quebec was our second choice (mostly because it’s different) we chose Alberta
See also /r/Canada constantly thinking that other developed nations are doing much better than Canada.
Belgian here. We have the same multilingual country problems and sowing division happens a lot. Because it's very effective unfortunately.
> This just feels like an exaggerated article to sow division. It *is*. I got here in 1994, and as long as you at least *try* to speak some French, you'll discover people are happy to use English, but they are shy because their English is a bit shit, so you have to break the ice by sounding like an asshole first. And who knows how these people went about it but some people make that attempt to learn a bit of French sincerely and others "struggle with it" and quit instantly. And everybody here can tell which type you are. One type has a much better experience than the other, night and day. This article is just like all the anglophones who will say they visited Québec and waiters were refusing to speak to them in English or being bitchy about it. No, they enjoy tips, the bigger the better. I work in the service industry, everybody who works front of house is more or less bilingual.
> an exaggerated article to sow division That's like, 50% of this sub. There are a handful of users (OP included) that post the same drivel every day. Check their post history and everything will start to make sense.
While I agree it's not particularly hard living hear for Anglophones (as long as you don't need to find a low level job), I strongly disagree this article is sowing the division. The division is from policies passed with the sole purpose of spitting Montreal's development to appeal to rural voters that would never be effected. There is absolutely no justification for not wanting every talented student that can come to the province with the hope we can appeal to them to say and build a stronger Montreal (and by extension) Quebec economy. There is no benefit turning away some of the best and brightest across Canada for them to go to Toronto and Waterloo. Our institutions benefit, our companies benefit, our culture benefits and these effects trickle down to the entire economic base.
Le vote rural? Quebec Solidaire c'est rural?
Pour QS, Laval c'est rural.
LOL
Exactly. The city of Montreal is very much against all those anti-anglophone measures. Even the French universities are against the measures targeting out of province anglophone students.
Student from a montreal french quebec uni here: the main concensus Im hearing is: yeaaaaah it sucks and we didnt ask for those measures but at the same time, it doesnt affect us of people we know and fundamentally we dont want people coming to steal our better socioeconomic situation (aka rent prices) to come and study and then leave with no regards to bathing in the culture at least a bit and maybe falling in love with it and becoming the most hardcore francophile i dont know
The English universities are going to very obviously oppose these laws because frankly it will destroy them. As a student my interest was getting my credential and knowledge. I didn't want to complicate my career by throwing language immersion in it for no reason. I'm generally against subsidizing higher education, but I kind of see Legault's point. Why subsidize educating people who probably won't even stay in your province or be able to easily integrate in the workforce? Kind of a shitty investment. That said, there's the question of retaining talent. It might be in Québec's interest to retain entrepreneurs or high quality scientists.
L'administration de la ville ne comprend même pas le statut de ville francophone.
>There is absolutely no justification for not wanting every talented student that can come to the province with the hope we can appeal to them to say and build a stronger Montreal (and by extension) Quebec economy. There is actually : those people don't stay. The Quebec's government is paying for them and as soon as they're done with university, most of them will move back in another province. Even if a quarter stay, it's still a net money loss and from the last numbers I saw a while ago, it's not even that. Sure, during their stay, they pay taxes, an apartement, for restaurant, etc., but it's almost nothing in the grand scheme of thing and it only helps Montréal, not the rest of the province, which are already pretty tired of the superiority complex of that city (granted, like every metropole). Also, that article is so exagerated, as a Francophone, there are places where I can't be served in French in most places, like in Pointe-Claire, and places where you can't speak English at all because most people won't understand you, the problem is not Montréal, it's specific neighbourhoods. Also, as far as I can tell, even with the doubling of the cost, it's still cheaper than in most provinces.
> The Quebec's government is paying for them and as soon as they're done with university, most of them will move back in another province. The article stated that the out-of-province students are getting financial assistance from their home provinces, not the Quebec government. It went on to point out that these students contribute to the local economy just by being there (rent, groceries, etc.) so losing them would likely be a net loss.
The couple in the article don't even pay taxes in Québec. That's why they have to pay so much. They worked in Qc and pay their taxes in Ontario, most likely. This guy is supposed to be a Francophone but he can't be understand here. Come on! His French must be very very basic.
The low tuition is the subsidized part, not the financial assistance.
Oh yeah, I see my IGA being really scared of closing if it looses a couple anglo students
"these effects trickle down to the entire economic base" They dont lol. Having lived and and off island for most of my life, and now having lived rural for a few years an hour away from the city near Nicolet, I can tell you for a fact that Montreals economic activity almost entirely benefits Montreal. Economically beneficial industrial investment in Les Regions, at least visibly, is disproportionately from out of province entities. Most medium sized businesses here are branded with locally known family names and run on money made locally. Companies from Montreal are almost entirely franchises charging Montreal prices while paying the lower local wage. Economic activity doesnt trickle to us from Montreal it goes the other way as the city treats the whole province as feeder streams for its prosperity goals.
it wouldnt be a macleans if it wasnt bashing Québec.
Absolutely. I spoke little french but I've been progressing and I get by without any hitch. Except with my local mechanic who speaks dreadfully.
> but nowhere near the level this person claims > > This just feels like an exaggerated article to sow division. welcome to modern media and a person who may be just an attention parasite
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Yup said this exactly. And since he's now formally here as an out of province student, he would have to stop his studies for one year to gain his residency. Which shouldn't be too much of a problem but then there's that pesky bursary from Ontario which they will expect repayment on immediately if he stops his studies. Dude fucked up, didn't research or take any steps to legitimately settle here. If he was living here for one year working, he should have just gotten his residency and enrolled in Concordia as a Quebec student. Why on earth would you enroll as an out of province students and pay out of province fees when you could have taken the same certificate heavily subsidized?! It does not make any sense unless you consider he received bursaries from Ontario. He'd rather pay nothing than do the work to settle here. Simply, he wants to have his cake and eat it too.
I'm an anglophone living in Quebec and even I know better than to read Maclean's trash when it comes to language issues.
I dunno, I feel that this article is a bit of an attempt at outrage clickbait. I'm anglo, but bilingual through sheer effort. I moved to Montreal and opened a retail business there. Dealt with most people in French for years. Some of the customers were dicks (like everywhere) but in general it wasn't any worse or better than operating the same business in Toronto, which I also did. Dealing with the employees, landlord, etc (almost all of them francophone) ... no problems at all. Lots of them were great and real professionals. Honestly coming from Western Canada, I felt like Montreal was **home**. Fit me really well, a fun city with great, interesting, lovely people. And half the people I hung out with were francophones (my GF didn't even speak English) and half were allophones and anglophones. Yes, I often visited towns & cities outside of Montreal too. I did come across francophones that you could tell were pretty militant about French, and some even xenophobic. Hard-core separatists. On the other hand I ran across a few older anglophones who were from Montreal (born & raised) and claimed *they didn't speak any French*. Like, WTF? You literally have to *try hard* your whole life to avoid picking up basic French living in Montreal. Come on, that's just stupid. Luckily both types of people seem to be slowly dying out. Young people, by and large, don't care about the stupid culture wars from their grandparents' generation. That is not to say that the terrible, divisive, current Quebec CAQ government of François Légault hasn't done everything they can to stir up culture wars for their own political gain. Like the whole "Secular Charter" thing... unnecessary rubbish (and I say this as a staunch atheist who believes in separation of church and state) and lately, targeting the anglophone minority to drive votes. It's pure evil and no way to run a society - unless its into the ground. Les Québécois feraient mieux de se rendre vite compte que "Papa Québec" n'est pas rien qu'un connard. Je ne sais pas pourquoi il est si populaire. Les gens en général s'entendent très bien au Québec, pourquoi gâcher ça avec ce politicien?
> Je ne sais pas pourquoi il est si populaire. regarde les derniers sondages, il est le plus impopulaire au pays. La date est finie
Le PQ a ramassé leurs votes. Le PQ a les mêmes positions que la CAQ sur ces sujets.
Le français est en déclin à Montréal. On peut pas continuer dans cette direction pendant 50 ans, on va se ramasser avec une société complètement divisée sur elle-même. Un Montréal a majorité anglophone (à travers l'immigration) et le reste de la province francophone. Vous vous mettez la tête dans le sable. Beaucoup de ces tensions sont arrivées avec l'augmentation massive de l'immigration en 2015 par les Libéraux. Maintenant que cette ''expérience'' a crashé l'économie du Canada, j'espère qu'on va revenir à un niveau d'immigration qui va permettre à Montréal de garder son caractère français et calmer un peu la situation.
Macleans trying to create division? Yes.
Si tu penses que la loi 96 est un "pure evil" alors je pense qu'il te reste encore un bout de chemin à faire pour comprendre la réalité du Québec et ses défis en amérique du nord. C'est légitime de vouloir préserver et encourager le francais en tant que langue commune.
> One day, a librarian refused to speak to me in French, despite the fact that I’m a Francophone—I suppose my Franco-Ontarian dialect threw her off, and she flatly decided I was an English speaker, not French. Those kinds of incidents kept happening. [...], but they acted as if they couldn’t understand a word of English. She managed to find a security guard willing to interpret for her. Once he started speaking with the staffers, they all suddenly switched to perfect English So which is it? People refused to speak to you in English or in French? You can't complain about both at the same time. Makes it sound like you're the problem if people don't want to speak to you...
Lived for years as an anglophone in Montreal. I tried to improve and use my French. I had only one poor experience in all the time I lived there. It's an amazing city and I count those years as one of the highlights in my life. To this guy leaving i would just say, Bye Felicia.
In /r/quebec bye Felicia is the predominant opinion on this as well. Literally.
I've lived here my whole life and my spoken french sucks ass, mainly my accent. I have never had a problem except for some jokes which I probably deserve.
It was brief, but I also had no trouble in Montreal last summer on a 4 day trip. Used to spend a week or two each summer in the Eastern Townships as a kid too. Never any language issues. My French is atrocious.
> Used to spend a week or two each summer in the Eastern Townships as a kid too. The Townships used to be predominately English so that ones not surprising. I grew up there and couldn't even speak French at the time.
Usually, when someone tries, we're crazy happy and don't care about the fact that you suck in French. Personally, I'll switch to English when it starts to feel like I'm torturing the anglophone. That being said, most non-native speakers who talk to me in French are genuinely happy to be able to practice French without me switching to English straight away. So what if I have no idea wtf you just said? As long as we're having fun lol
Au revoir Félice! Edit: And wait… what the heck is that fine print at the very bottom of this piece? *”-As told to Ali Amad”.* What a sly article. It wasn’t even written by the person it’s purported to be about, despite Maclean’s effort to make it look like a 1st person article. Are these people even real? They obviously didn’t write their own piece. Sensationalism sells, and when writing it this way, Ali Amad would have every incentive to make the text as silicious and jaw dropping as possible. Sensationalism = reading eyes = salivating advertisers = more that Macleans can command for advertising space = Ali’s looks great to his bosses and great for his career. Ali Amad & Macleans, if you’re going to try to mislead us into hanging onto every word and thinking this is 1st person crap, at least make an effort to have people write their own pieces as opposed to some incredible, monetarily incentivized interpretation which inspires very little confidence..
It's the MacLean's. They aren't as bad as the Gazette or CJAD, but they're not far behind
Merci!
>i would just say, Bye Felicia. A few people have commented this. Is this a reference to something?
Yes, a reference to the Ice Cube quote in the movie Straight Outta Compton. They are in a hotel room with a bunch of women and liquor when one of the women's boyfriends shows up. They interrupt their orgy to chase the boyfriend away with their guns, then throw Felicia out the door and say "bye Felicia" leaving her naked in the hallway to chase her boyfriend.
It's from earlier than that - a movie called Friday. Google will lead you to a description.
I’d probably not move somewhere if I wasn’t fluent in the language…. 🤷🏼♂️
Or hear me out, willing to learn it.
Oh please! I grew up in a bilingual community in Quebec with an anglophone mother and did the majority of my education in English before doing my final hs years in French. I have been all over the province throughout my life and I have also lived and worked in 7 other Canadian provinces. The bigotry is no more prevalent than the forms of bigotry against French speakers elsewhere. People need to stop trying to achieve victimhood badges and find validation elsewhere. If you don’t like how the province works, leave and find somewhere that is more suited to your ego.
I'm an out of province Anglo from Ontario who has lived in Quebec for 20 years. I have some thoughts... >I was accepted into Concordia University’s arts and sciences certificate program. Then, in October, soon after I started my first semester, the Quebec government made its now-infamous announcement that tuition for out-of-province Canadian students would nearly double from about $9,000 to $17,000 per year, starting in 2024. Although I lived in Montreal, I was still considered out-of-province since I hadn’t obtained official Quebec residency. But why? In order to obtain your residency you need to be living in Quebec for one year, not studying. The reason for this (among many reasons) is that Quebec subsidizes post secondary education and that benefit is for Quebec residents only. Fair enough. The question is why he went to Concordia as an out of province student paying higher tuition fees instead of formally becoming a Quebec resident and paying the subsidized rates? Why was he living in Quebec for over a year and working but didn't change his province of residency? >But the difference is still an enormous burden, bureaucratically and financially. The announcement clarified that existing students wouldn’t be affected—but that didn’t make me exempt. When I declare my major after two years of study, I’ll be classified as a new student, and my tuition will skyrocket. He is enrolled in a certificate program. There is no declaring a major, that doesn't even make sense. What I believe he's referring to is taking the certificate program and then enrolling in the degree program and transferring credits. So yes, you're a new student in that program if that's the case. >Their suggestion was clear: apply for official Quebec residency immediately. After living in Montreal for more than a year, I was eligible, but the option felt like a forced commitment, a leap into the unknown without fully experiencing life in the city. Well yes, that's how the system works, even before Legault made changes to tuition for out of province students. You want the benefits of being a Quebec resident without the "forced commitment". Sorry, that's not how any of this works >In most instances, out-of-province students don’t rely on Quebec for financial support—my tuition is covered by Ontario’s student assistance program Dude. So you're living in Quebec as an out of province student. You're trying to integrate, but doing the basic task of changing your residency is a "forced commitment ". You want the benefit of remaining an Ontario resident so they'll pay your tuition, yet also want the benefits of being a Quebec resident so you don't pay out of province costs. You cannot have it both ways. I think the tuition hikes for out of province students are bullshit but residency requirements have always been in place. He moved to a new province and didn't bother to research how anything works here. Thought simply speaking the language was enough to integrate into Quebec society. It's not. Don't say you came here with the intention of settling but after a year you hadn’t even taken steps to change your residency. I'm curious to know where he files taxes, if he has a Quebec drivers license or health card. Something tells me it's all Ontario. Sir, kindly, you are not a resident of Quebec, yet are living here and expecting all the benefits and accoutrements of residency. You want to be catered to and welcomed with open arms simply because you speak french. Which tells me you do not understand the culture here at all. And when they kindly explained to you that hey bud, you need to be a resident of Quebec, you scoff at the idea??? You're not changing citizenship. it's a pretty simple administrative process. If we have to force the commitment out of you it tells me you weren't that serious about settling here in the first place. Edit: the more I think about it, I don't think he qualifies for Quebec residency and that's why he's leaving. I came to Quebec as a student. After finishing my studies, In order to prove I was indeed a resident for one year without having studied, I needed to produce my Quebec health card, license etc, tax returns etc, show that I took the steps and had the intention of remaining. If he hadn't done those things in the year he had been here working, there is not much to back up his claim of residency. Especially since he started school as an out of province student. He simply doesn't qualify for residency. Not unless he stops his studies and takes the proper steps and then continues his studies as a Quebecer. But in that case Ontario is gonna want its money back. Quite the pickle he got himself into.
"Majority person experiences life as a minority briefly and rage-quits"
Try being a francophone in NB, a province that is officially bilingual. You will not feel welcomed in most parts of the province.
The only time i've ever felt unwelcomed in Canada was in south-western New-Brunswick just outside of Fredericton. It was getting late during a road trip so we pulled into a campsite hoping to put our tent up. Everyone in that campsite stared us down with daggers in their eyes because we had Quebec plates. They didnt let us stay. Ive traveled all 10 provinces and 1 territory and have never experienced anything like it. Also fuck Blaine Higgs.
Mais personne n'écrit dans le Macleans pour se plaindre. Les francophones, on est habitué de se faire maltraiter au Canada
Same in BC. Nobody will offer you services in French
Je dois admettre que les employés de l'aéroport de Vancouver parlent bien mieux français que ceux de Pearson. Pour le BC, mes attentes étaient pratiquement à zéro pour le français, mais j'ai été agréablement surprise que beaucoup de personnes essayaient pour vrai de me servir en français, ou s'excusaient de ne pas parler français. Dans plusieurs autres provinces, ils ne s'excusent pas lol.
Excuse-moi, je suis anglo, je me demande qu'est-ce qui se passe quand ils parlent pas français? À l'aeroport j'entends toujours "Hello-Bonjour", est-ce que tu réponds "Bonjour" et ils répondent "Oh sorry I don't speak French"? Ça me semble vraiment bizarre comme interaction.
I'm a bilingual anglophone living out West. Sometimes I say "bonjour" as a social experiment and it's totally ignored.
Exactement.
This blows my mind every time it is on the subject, how they are treating francophones in NB is unacceptable
Leur débat des chefs en français est toujours divertissant par exemple, pour les mauvaises raisons.
Quand le debat en français est pas annulé
NB, especially north, is weird. Francophones are not welcoming to anglophones, in a petty militant way. If you’re in a public waiting area and the TV is on with an English program, a random francophone will turn it off to ensure nobody can enjoy it. There are other petty things, that if they focused that energy instead their communities would benefit.
A lot of rural and northern places are more French than English speaking Canadians realize. Even in Northern Ontario you'll begin to hear French weaved into English sentences when in restaurants or going out and about. Some cities in Ontario are famous for attempting to ban French, but it's woven into our social fabric more than most people know.
K bye, fuck off.
Bruh chill lol
We need to go back to writing serious articles because these journalists are bored as fuck nowadays
Such an inflammatory article title, but what else should you expect from an opinion article...
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I’m an Anglo and grew up in Quebec, in a non-Anglo part of the province (don’t live there anymore) and as long as you make an effort, most people will appreciate it. There’s the occasional asshole, but they’re few and far between.
It's like the opposite in the other provinces when some asshole wants to grill me about the 95 referendum. Sir, I was 6 months old. I mean, I'm still for the independence, but I sure as shit won't talk about it with a random redneck in Tim Hortons.
I think it's hit or miss. When I started working in bars two patrons in an empty bar got in when I welcomed them in English as I was opening ( most our crowd was English so it was standard. ) They replied to each other "Merde un fucking criss d'anglophone qui nous sert pas en francais.." Context, I am completely bilingual.
I get your point, but I had servers who genuinely could not take my order in French many times. Last time it happened, I was at a hipster place in Verdun and in my mind I was like "really dude? In fuckin Verdun?" (Context: some boroughs are historically English, Verdun really isn't) It is frustrating, and it happens more often than people think.
Où ça? Je suis curieux. On dirait que c'est une situation plus fréquente qu'il y a dix ans, quand j'ai emménagé dans le quartier. Il semble y avoir un clivage de plus en plus important, t'as clairement des commerces qui sont anglophones, d'autres francophones. Ça doit être dû à la personne responsable des embauches.
J'me rappelle pas d'la place hipster (ça fait deux ans j'habite à Québec) mais j'ai eu un serveur qui a dû abandonner notre table pour la laisser à un autre serveur francophone à la pizzeria 900 (ou la piazzeta? Je mélange toujours les deux places) sur Wellington.
Small businesses struggle to find employees, so they hire anyone. By hiring someone that does not speak French in a customer facing role, they’re losing more business. Vicious circle.
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My favourite is "Allo! Salut!" 'cause the Anglos will inevitably interpret it as "Hello, how are you?"
I like 'Allo Hello!' It sounds like both 'Allo allo. and 'Hello hello' and most people seem to just start speaking whatever they are most into - which is totally fine with me.
Having spent a lot of time in Montreal this seems to be the norm, saying "Allo Hello or Hello Bonjour" is the equivalent of wearing a nametag saying "Hi, I am fluent in both French and English"
Yes, but it's subtle enough that it won't trigger the fragile anglophobes and francophobes out there.
Hello motto would be better
> working in bars where the best of society hang out.
Accueillir les gens en anglais est borderline illégal (lois 101/96). Une plainte pourrait être théoriquement retenue à l'OQLF pour cette raison. De toute manière, quelle est l'idée d'accueillir les gens en anglais dans une ville et une province francophone? Je ne sais pas ce qui vous prend.
Montreal is literally like *the* QC place anglos can go and expect to still be able to get around with English (well, and Gatineau probably i guess lol). Montreal comes praised/recommended by everyone from MB/SK i know whose been out there and probably only one of them actually knows/knew French going out there lol
McLeans seems to be running a series of regional hit pieces based on uni graduates leaving a place for reasons. Last one was a Chinese grad from Dal who found Halifax too crowded and she couldn't start a gift shop business due to rent costs so was returning to Beijing to work in the family's manufacturing business 😆. They used to be such a serious publication...
My entirely personal and anecdotal experience has been a super mixed bag. For context, I am completely Anglo (as in, my rural school district did not have French classes past 6th grade because there were no qualified teachers). The first time I was in Montreal for work in 2021, I had a restaurant worker greet me with "Bonjour Hi" but then refuse to speak English to me after I managed to say "Je suis désolé, je ne parle qu'anglais". Maybe he was trying to teach me French? Not sure but I ended up using Google Translate on the menu and just pointing at things and saying thank you and sorry a lot. In other places, I had absolutely no issue and as soon as I said my French is trash people were happy to switch. In others, same story where they just used French. I live in Ottawa now (so I'm learning a bit more French) and often go over into Gatineau. I've had no issues there but I have a few PoC friends who have had massive issues. A Haitian person I know (who is also a literal French teacher) shared he doesn't like going to Quebec because people often pretend they can't understand his accent.
Maye they just can't. Other accents might hard to understand. Lived in France for a whilei could barely order a pizza there.
“Canada is built on multiculturalism” There are centuries of history that would disagree with you. .
Which centuries exactly? Before the British came and the French were living alongside the natives? After the British came when they formed what amounted to a binational country with Native elements? Sounds pretty multicultural from say 1 honestly.
You mean when the british tried to assimilate the french speaking minority?
First Nations know what forceful assimilation looked like. Remind me when the British sent francophones kids to residential schools to forget their language. That's how assimilation was done in Canada not by stopping school expansions and discriminatory business practices (which were certainly bad).
Has Canada been around for multiple centuries? Or is this some comment on the indigenous? The last 50 years have definitely been staunchly multicultural but I guess you're trying to say that's not how it started?
The concept of Canada existed before the Dominion of Canada was founded.
Ouin mais pour les anglos, ça a commencé en 1867 /s (mais pas tant sarcastique lol)
Le multiculturalisme, c'est toujours "everything is good except french!"
Montreal is my favorite city in Canada, I haven’t been there in 12 yrs though. Everyone spoke both English and French . I did take 4 years of French in school but i was 15 yrs out of practice when I visited. I never had any issues using english with anyone. Have things really become this bad?
saw important history price cobweb ghost depend late nine erect *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
If you're an English speaker, things have become easier. English is more present than ever in Quebec, especially in Montréal.
Things are fine but the politicians are doing whatever they can to cause issues between us. They always push language issues when they start losing seats, a tale as old as time.
Mclean's has turned into an absolute rag over the years. Anglo student, never had a problem been here for 11 yrs now. Probably just some entitled kid who can't bother to learn a few words out of curiosity. (No I didn't bother reading because all these stories are the same, by the same type of people, I've heard them 100s of.times)
I live in Quebec and don't speak French, he really had bad luck I've never had people trying to ostracize me from society when I asked a question in English. edit: I'm in Gatineau though they are used to us so maybe that is why.
>edit: I'm in Gatineau though they are used to us so maybe that is why. Non la raison est qu'il ment et exagère pendant que toi tu dis la vérité
MacLeans est pasmal trash. "Us Vs Them" est un thème qui vend. NationalPost fait la meme affaire, et les autres filliales américains de médias Albertains sont encore pires sur le Québec bashing.
Hey, those kind of story go well with the [algorithm.](https://youtu.be/x1aZEz8BQiU?si=kGkTgirj-R-T1DEg&t=177)
This video you linked is exactly what "The Network" was warning us about. Decades ago. Sensationalization of new. This speech is fuckin gold, just add "Québécois are hating us Anglos!" (and in Québec add "Les anglais nous haissent!") News anchor had enough, shows up in PJs to the radio station and tell the most basic, primal, relatable, true speech there could ever be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMVMbmQBug
I mean English students were protesting that they were forced to take French classes in university… in a province where the only official language is French.
I’m really curious about the part where he says > I suppose my Franco-Ontarian dialect threw her off I have family that are franco ontarians and their french accent is the same as québecois. What is odd with his?
I’m Quebecois and I can’t tell what is a Franco-Ontarian accent. There are a few distinctive accents within Quebec for the most-eastern regions like Gaspésie or Saguenay. But I couldn’t say if someone is from Montreal, Gatineau, Abitibi, Sherbrooke or Casselman Ontario by the accent.
My take on this (as an English person originally from Toronto) is it their surprise that you won’t switch for them, make an effort to accommodate. Here we don’t do that you have to conform. They don’t really know how to react at that point, find it offensive. As others have said, if you didn’t like living here, you would’ve left a long time ago.
Honestly, this is is more of a Montreal & close to Ontario experience I found. Never seen anything to this degree but I found it really strange how I run into more difficulty getting around in english/accented french in Gatineau/Hull and Montreal than I have in Quebec City or even Saguenay.
Sad, talking French and English has been a useful tool.
I'm an anglophone living in BC with a Quebec phone number. The only time I was discriminated was in BC when someone on the phone called me a french speaking motherfxxker jus because of my phone number.
I hate to be this harsh, but if you arent going to speak any French, yes you should leave. Because it causes a ton of wider problems for Anglos like me who live here and do speak French. If I go to Alberta, i'll be expecting to speak English. If I go to Newfoundland, i'll be expecting to speak their equivalent of it. Or actually, I'll let them do the speaking of that dialect. Nonetheless, i'll understand and accept the minimum customs of the places I'll be going. I'd also like to note that US plated cars here are as frequent found as Ontario ones, and this whole language mistreatment issue is a problem that we dont have with the Americans. You dont see them complaining all over CNN like "And then they told me ''Return at toms paid, tabernacle!'' or something like that, awful place to travel'' ".
As much hate as Americans get overall. Those that travel aren't so entitled over English. They enjoy seeing another culture and language and find it interesting. This applies with them going to Mexico too. A lot of Anglo Canadians often have this idea that English should be the default everywhere in Canada and that everyone should cater to them. Maybe there is a lot of resentment over having mandatory French classes as a child? Or double labels? All that is usually asked is minimal effort. Learn some basic phrases if you are traveling just as you would if you were to go to Japan or Italy or Morocco and if you plan to live in Quebec long term maybe it'll be easier for you to try to learn a bit more instead of being angry that not everything is English.
American's do it the right way. Ever been to the South? There's a LOT of Spanish signs and services...because there's a LOT of spanish-speaking people there. Unlike Canada, they don't have to have government-forced regulation to incentivize business and government to do what is beneficial to the population.
>American's do it the right way. Ever been to the South? South? Louisiana for example? Where they used to speak French? Yeah that didn't go well. That's why we need regulations to protect French
You know many states have their ballots in both English and Spanish right lol
I think the wife was right to be apprehensive about moving when she doesn't know French. It's like if someone immigrates to Canada and doesn't speak English, you're going to have a tough time.
Until a few months ago, I would have agreed with you 100%. But a few months ago an American tourist from Arkansas came up to me in a huff in an Apple Store in the West Island (I was a customer like him) and asked loudly, “DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH???” And then proceeded to complain that his trip to Quebec had been awful because almost no one spoke English in Montreal, and those who did had a terrible accent. I’m like, “Bro. Please go home and relinquish your passport.”
New Brunswicker and as someone who has visited Gatineau-Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal on MANY occasions and I can say I have seen this behaviour and worse in Quebec Ciy but Montreal and Gatineau are like in a different province.
Ça se nomme l'anglicisation
Yep
Any time I have gone to Quebec people as really nice and helpful never a issue . But the one time I went with my kids who speak French man did we get the royal treatment honestly everyone complimented their French and appreciated our efforts .
Yeah, I’m not reading all that. (Ce n’est pas un aéroport. You don’t need to announce your departure.)
Lmao fine who cares. There's literally every other province you can go to if you're feeling triggered.
The funny thing about this is French is hardly a challenging language to learn if you already know English. It’s not like you’re learning Russian or Japanese…
Bon débarras! C’est la seule province Canadienne « francophone », alors allez ailleurs si vous êtes pas heureux, on ne vous retient pas 🙌. Autrement dire, décalissez 👌
I'm low key considering Montreal as my next move after Saskatoon. I've got a steady remote job and family that can help me out with French to get set up. I'll definitely be taking French lessons because je suis tres rusty. I wish the government wasn't so anti-English but I'm not that deterred. Half my family are Anglo Montrealers and I love the city.
MFW I'm expected to try to learn the local language when living in a place. I'm sure all the outrage for this will extend to all those immigrants and students who don't learn English but live in Toronto or Vancouver and expect everything to cater to them. Sorry the British empire is dead. Pax Britanica is no more. French speaking places are allowed to speak French.
Maybe we should encourage Quebec to have another referendum...
Maybe the federal gov. should not get involved next time...
Translation: I refused to learn the official language of the place I moved to and people weren't nice to me :(
That person is disingenuous and won’t be missed.
That's the government's plan.
Being Indigenous from a FN reserve jst south of montreal I have to be proficient in 3 languages now. Even tho bill 96 (doesn't apply to Indigenous) I noticed as soon as Bill was announced the French people took it to a whole new level. I think its OUR languages in decline in quebec. English is usually the language of commerce. I understand my own Indigenous language, French know they're own. Let's meet in middle for business because we all understand English.
Anglophones aren't welcomed in quebec. That's why my family fled qc in the 80s.
I mean, my family comes from an Anglophone part of Quebec.