Issues Relating to French Speaking Population in Canada

This article discusses the issues faced by the French-speaking population in Quebec, Canada. It covers the threat to the French language and culture, racism and discrimination, and the decrease in birth rate and aging population. The article provides insights into the problem and its analysis.

Running head: ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN
CANADA
ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
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1ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
Table of Contents
Article Summaries:.....................................................................................................................2
Article Discussion:.....................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the issue:.................................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................8

2ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
Article Summaries:
According to a news report by (Toronto Sun, 2012), the present scenario regarding the
French speaking population in Quebec was questioned, analysed and evaluated.Several point
of views of various politicians were taken into account while preparing the article, which
suggested that the French language and culture of Quebec in Canada was being threatened
with the passage of time. The newspaper report suggested how the other French language
news organizations were spreading reports of how the language and culture of Quebec were
under a threat. Even though Quebec is a part of Canada, a major part of the population are
native French speakers for the reason the place being a French colony earlier in the era.The
news article by Toronto Sun relied upon opinions by various political people from the region
and tried to give it an unbiased approach.However, the way the newspaper claimed that
French language news organizations suggested threat to Quebec language and culture
nullifies the unbiased approach and suggests an attacking nature of journalism.
According to a news article by (Ottawa Citizen, 2016), nearly three-quarters of the
French speaking population believe that the future of French in Canada is threatened. The
newspaper backed their report with the results of a major national statistical survey targeted
to know the perceptions of the two official languages of Canada. The survey was
commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage.The reports of the survey suggested
that 80 percent of Canadians believe in the fact that learning both French and English
contributes to better understanding among Canadians and improves the chances of finding a
job.The French speaking population are more accepting in terms of viewing the linguistic
duality of Canada in a positive way with 84 percent agreeing that it is a source of cultural
enrichment for them (Sioufi, Rana and Bourhis, 2018, 136-159). A majority of French
speaking people believe that all graduates from high school should have a knowledge of

3ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
English and French as it increases their chances of landing a job.Canada has two official
languages even though the population of the French-speaking people is less than that of the
English-speaking people.The key issue addressed in the statistical article is racism that is
faced by the French-speaking people in Quebec as results suggest that a minimal population
of the English-speaking people agree with the French-speaking people.
According to a journalistic report by (CBC, 2016), the province of Quebec has been
facing a shortage of skilled workers that is growing daily and also dealing with an aging
population growing rapidly. The province has been experiencing a decrease in birth rate since
six years, which was marked in 2015 at 1.6 children per woman.The aging population is also
raising the issue of a lack of skilled workers because a huge population of people are
expected to retire from work in between the years 2013 and 2022. The Immigration
Department of Quebec addressed this issue as a need to reassert the role of immigration and
its contribution to the province. The chief ambition of the measure as the article suggests is to
preserve not only the French language but also all the aspects of the culture of Quebec.
Article Discussion:
Thearticle by Toronto Sun stated that the French language in the province of Quebec
is under a threatfrom the government, which gives English more importance. According to
the article, some French language news organizations are reporting the issue in a way, which
the political opposition parties are taking into their stride. The political opposition are
suggesting to the people that the Quebec culture and language is under the threat of
demolition. This entire statement suggests the biased nature of the English newspapers
reporting the issue (Jurciket al., 2013, 662-678). However, the political parties in Quebec
especially Parti Quebecois, which is a separatist organization have relied on the language
issue alone to gain their poll numbers. Whether or not the issue persists, this party has taken

4ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
advantage of it to stay in power in the province of Quebec. Toronto Sun reported that the
recent Leger Marketing poll conducted for the QMI Agency suggested that the Parti
Quebecois is the most popular party in the province of Quebec.The article is based on
opinions from multiple people, political and non-political in nature. While the politicians
believe that their language and culture is threatened, Jack Jedwab, the executive director at
the Association for Canadian Studies believes that the language issue is not different from the
sovereignty issue(St-Hilaire et al., 2016, 1126-1150). He fears that the Parti Quebecois being
a separatist party would use this issue against the people and demand for a separate nation of
self-governance. The political parties are trying to plant seeds of division between them even
though there is harmony between both the linguistic communities.However, the French
language media reported an incident of a French-speaking woman and her family being
denied service at a hospital in Montreal catering to the English-speaking population.In
contrary to this, it was announced by the Liberals that the government would hire more
people to work at the department that determines the language laws of the province.The
language issue might seem like a political agenda but upon consideration of the history that
the province of Quebec has, protecting their culture and language is the duty of the
community.
The language issue report is backed by a statistical news report by Ottawa Citizen
(Fleet et al., 2013, e002961), which states that a larger number of the French-speaking people
living in the region believe that their language is under threat as compared to the English-
speaking people. It was observed from their report that more French-speaking people had a
positive attitude towards having a bilingual culture in Canada especially in Quebec. These
reports suggested a common issue faced by the French-speaking population-racism. The
comparison of the results based on the responses of the participants suggested that the
English speakers were reluctant and discrimination prevailed across the region.

5ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
In addition to the language issue, a decrease in birth rate and a rapidly aging
population also surfaced as a problem as reported by CBC. The government of Quebec wants
to increase immigration in the region becausethere is a shortage of skilled workers and the
French-speaking people of Quebec want to uphold and preserve their culture (Des Granges
and Cara, 2014, 25-44). There has been a loss of balance in the rate of reproduction with a
massive downfall in the birth rates according to reports. Quebec happens to be one of the
major producers of maple syrup, which accounts to a major contribution to the Canadian
economy.Therefore, a decrease in birth rate and decrease in skilled workers will also affect
the economy of the country besides affecting the French culture. Hence, the Quebec
government is taking measures to increase immigration in the region. It is no longer about
protecting the French language but protecting every aspect of the Quebec culture, which
some immigrants who do not speak French may not share.
Analysis of the issue:
The major issue that is surfacing from the articles and statistical data is racism and
discrimination faced by the French-speaking people of the province of Quebec. The French-
speaking majority feels threatened by the fact that their language and culture is in danger.The
case was not like this before (Gond, Pascal and Boxenbaum, 2013, 707-721). The quiet
revolution in the 1960s brought about huge social, cultural, economic and political
transformations. The government became democratic and measures were taken to promote,
protect and strengthen the French language and Quebecois culture. The new laws helped the
French-speaking people of Quebec but they have also been criticized as being repressive and
punitive by the minorities living within Quebec. The discontent began in the year 1982 when
the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau reconstructed the Canadian constitution from that of
Britain. Quebec at that time was being ruled by Parti Quebecois and refused to sign the new
document of the constitution. The party claimed that the new constitution promoted

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centralization of power in Ottawa and weakened the provinces. It is since then this
discrimination has been going on.
The present scenario suggests that the French-speaking people of Quebec believe that
their language is under a threat from the English-speaking Liberal party, which is in power of
the country. However, some people from certain organizations believe that the idea of
discrimination is non-existent and is being promoted by the political party of Parti Quebecois
to persuade the voters to elect them in power (Walsh, Olivia, 2014, 423-449). According to
them, the entire idea of discrimination is nothing but a political agenda. Even though there
have been reports of incidents based on racial discrimination have surfaced on the news,
many people do not believe that the incidents are true. The chief purpose according to the
people of Quebec is not political but to protect and uphold their own culture and
tradition.Provided the rich history that Quebec has as a French colony, it is natural for the
residents to want to protect and uphold their culture.
The concept of discrimination can be figured out by another article, which published
the results of a survey. It was observed that the French-speaking population had a more
positive attitude towards the idea of bilingualism as compared to the English-speaking
people.A majority of the French speakers support the idea of exchange programmes by the
federal government to encourage understanding between the two major linguistic groups of
the country (Azzi, Stephen and Hillmer, 2013, 242). Even the attendance of French speakers
were more in cultural events as compared to English speakers. This indicates that the English
speakers are reluctant in nature and are not ready to accept the bilingual culture of Canada
even though English and French are the official languages of the country.
This is not the only issue faced by the people of Quebec. The fall in the birth rate and
rapid aging also counts as a problem. The Government of Quebec has implemented measures

7ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
to allow immigrants in the province. The aging of population has also created a void in the
availability of skilled workers, which is a threat to the economy of the country. This is
because a major production of maple syrup is generated in this region (Johns, Andrew and
Félix-Brasdefer, 2015, 131-164). A lack of skilled workers proves as a threat to the
production and hence a threat to the economy of Canada. Immigration also helps in
diversification of culture because of the various nationalities of the immigrants. Therefore,
considering the accepting nature of the French people of Quebec, it is not necessary for the
immigrants to speak French because sometimes even the French speakers do not understand
the culture of the place they are living in.

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References:

9ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
Azzi, Stephen, and Norman Hillmer. "Evaluating prime-ministerial performance: The
Canadian experience." Understanding Prime-Ministerial Performance: Comparative
Perspectives (2013): 242.
CBC (2016). Low Quebec birth rate spurs some calls for increased immigration. [online]
Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-low-birthrate-immigration-
1.3573966 [Accessed 17 Jul. 2018].
Des Granges, Cara. "Finding Legitimacy: Examining Quebec Sovereignty from Pre-
Confederation to Present." International Journal of Canadian Studies 50 (2014): 25-44.
Fleet, Richard, Patrick Archambault, France Légaré, Jean-Marc Chauny, Jean-Frédéric
Lévesque, Mathieu Ouimet, Gilles Dupuis et al. "Portrait of rural emergency departments in
Quebec and utilisation of the Quebec Emergency Department Management Guide: a study
protocol." BMJ open 3, no. 4 (2013): e002961.
Gond, Jean-Pascal, and Eva Boxenbaum. "The glocalization of responsible investment:
Contextualization work in France and Quebec." Journal of business ethics 115, no. 4 (2013):
707-721.
Johns, Andrew, and J. César Félix-Brasdefer. "Linguistic politeness and pragmatic variation
in request production in Dakar French." Journal of Politeness Research 11, no. 1 (2015): 131-
164.
Jurcik, Tomas, Rana Ahmed, Esther Yakobov, Ielyzaveta Solopieieva-Jurcikova, and Andrew
G. Ryder. "Understanding the role of the ethnic density effect: issues of acculturation,

10ISSUES RELATING TO FRENCH SPEAKING POPULATION IN CANADA
discrimination and social support." Journal of Community Psychology 41, no. 6 (2013): 662-
678.
Ottawa Citizen (2016). Nearly three-quarters of francophones believe the future of their
language in Canada is threatened. But just one-third of anglophones agree. [online] Available
at: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/francophones-see-threat-to-future-of-french-in-
canada-survey-finds [Accessed 16 Jul. 2018].
Sioufi, Rana, and Richard Y. Bourhis. "Acculturation and Linguistic Tensions as Predictors
of Quebec Francophone and Anglophone Desire for Internal Migration in Canada." Journal of
Language and Social Psychology 37, no. 2 (2018): 136-159.
St-Hilaire, Alexandre, Carol Hudon, Guillaume T. Vallet, Louis Bherer, Maxime Lussier,
Jean-François Gagnon, Martine Simard et al. "Normative data for phonemic and semantic
verbal fluency test in the adult French–Quebec population and validation study in
Alzheimer’s disease and depression." The Clinical Neuropsychologist 30, no. 7 (2016): 1126-
1150.
Toronto Sun (2012). Quebec language, culture threatened?. [online] Available at:
https://torontosun.com/2012/03/31/quebec-language-culture-threatened/wcm/9fae8ef8-0533-
4fdb-acf2-8f6e0749a8bc [Accessed 16 Jul. 2018].
Walsh, Olivia. "‘Les anglicismes polluent la langue française’. Purist attitudes in France and
Quebec." Journal of French Language Studies 24, no. 3 (2014): 423-449.

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