I had a story in today’s paper about complaints by a new sovereignist group, the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois, that Montreal’s St. Patrick’s day parade is too English. The RRQ plans to crash take part in the parade even though organizers say the group is not authorized. RRQ members will be distributing leaflets and waving [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Language’
February 10, 2008
art imitating life
I’m three weeks behind on my TV watching so I just caught the Jan. 26 episode of 3600 secondes d’extase, Marc Labrèche’s show on Radio-Canada.
One of the skits involves an anglo pretending to be a francophone who tries to bring a petition to Air Canada to complain about its lack of French language services. It [...]
February 6, 2008
the world turned upside down?
Is it the world turned upside down or is an election in the offing?
Yesterday and today, Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois has been talking up the need for – wait for it – more English in French elementary and high schools in Quebec, so that young people are bilingual by the time they hit the [...]
February 3, 2008
speak what
La Presse columnist Rima Elkouri has a column today with a different twist on the recent language dust-up. She interviewed to Marco Micone, an Italian-born Montreal writer. He has an interesting take on immigrants in Quebec and how statistics are being manipulated. More about Micone here (a bio) and here (a description of his poem, Speak [...]
January 31, 2008
lost (and found?) in translation
It’s amazing to me that after so many years of co-existing in Quebec, anglos and francos are still involved in a “dialogue de sourds” when it comes to language issues. At least, it’s that way in much of the news coverage and political discourse. Overall in day-to-day life (I think) most people get along quite [...]
January 27, 2008
franco comme moi
I had a piece in today’s paper about my personal undercover language investigation. I was initially going to write it as a blog item but it turned into a feature for the paper.
Here’s the top of it:
Speaking French in anglo ‘hoods
‘Francophone’ goes on shopping spree
ANDY RIGA, The Gazette
In Quebec’s long, tumultuous history of language squabbles, [...]
