French: after the carrot, the stick

Thereby, the government will spend $4.5 million in campaigns aimed at “promoting the French language in businesses”.

Between you and me, not sure it makes a difference.

The carrot method has been used for years, with the results that we know.

The only way to reverse the trend is to make life more complicated for those who don’t speak French.

As long as people are able to work in Montreal without knowing a word of French, as Michael Rousseau did for 14 years, no matter how well we organize beautiful “valorization” campaigns, it will go 25,000 feet over their heads. .

They will continue to live as if they were in Flin Flon, Manitoba.

ADVANTAGE TO UNILINGUAL ANGLOS

According to a study by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) published in August 2020, 63% of businesses on the island of Montreal required English language skills during their last hiring process.

Even if the Charter of the French language affirms in black and white that it is “prohibited for an employer to require the knowledge of a language other than the official language, unless the accomplishment of the task does not require such knowledge … »

Currently, it is easier for a unilingual Anglophone to find a job in Montreal than for a unilingual Francophone.

That does not make any sense.

Law 96 will, it is said, make it more complicated to hire employees who do not speak French.

Very excited to see this.

Because it’s one thing to pass a law, and it’s another to apply it and enforce it.

Take the display.

According to the current law, the name of a company must respect the Charter of the French language and must therefore be in French.

You see a lot of new businesses displaying a name in French in Montreal, do you?

Companies always find tricks to circumvent the law.

In 2020-2021, do you know which companies received the most complaints to the OQLF regarding language of service?

Tim Hortons, Walmart, Dollarama, Pizza Pizza, IGA, PFK, Metro, Canadian Tire, McDonald’s et Domino’s Pizza.

As far as I know, these are not SMEs that are not subject to the act.

BOTH SIDES OF THE MOUTH

On the site Dromadaire mauve, devoted to the labor market and access to employment in Quebec, a Colombian immigrant who settled in Quebec claims that the government speaks out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to language. of work in the Belle Province.

“Carlos had the perception that everything happened in French in Quebec. But everything changed when he arrived in Montreal. He had never been prepared for such a presence of English in the job market.

Carlos landed his first job in an international company where everything was done almost exclusively in English. The linguistic shock was total.

He feels bitter for having had to put so much time and energy into learning a third language, French. »

That’s what needs to change in Quebec.

Not finance campaigns for the “valorization” of French with beautiful photos and beautiful slogans…

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