Last fall, Michael Rousseau, CEO of Air Canada, set Quebec on fire.
Not only had he lived there for 14 years without having learned a word of French, but he had found a way to see in this situation proof of Montreal tolerance.
Happy is this city where it is possible to evolve without ever pronouncing a word of the language of the country of which it is the metropolis.
Quebecers were in a frenzy. But alas, they never hold each other for long.
- Listen to the Mathieu Bock-Côté and Richard Martineau meeting broadcast live every day at 10 a.m. via OLD radio :
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We will draw a strange lesson from this: Quebecers accept that they are piled on, but are less accepting of someone who wipes their feet on their face to point it out to them.
Anyway, the day before yesterday, Michael Rousseau was back in Ottawa, with an apology in his bag. Apparently, he had even taken French lessons. By ear, it didn’t sound too much.
At best, he lacks the gift of tongues. It happens. At worst, he doesn’t give a damn about his French lessons. It wouldn’t be too surprising either.
One thing is certain, Michael Rousseau will never speak French. That didn’t stop him from becoming CEO of Air Canada, it won’t stop him from staying that way.
But let’s not obsess over this poor sire. Michael Rousseau plays by Canadian rules, and in Canada, French is optional. To put it another way, Canada is a bilingual English-speaking country.
Michael Rousseau took advantage of the advantages of a neocolonial regime that allows the English minority and those who assimilate to it to live in Quebec without interacting excessively with the natives that we are.
We are the blue stain that spoils the portrait of the beautiful great plural Canada. We are the identity rednecks of the Canadian utopia. We are the old people that Canadian multiculturalism and demographic evolution will end up deconstructing and erasing so that “diversity” triumphs.
But in all of this, some are unforgivable.
I’m talking about those who pretend to be offended by Michael Rousseau’s lack of respect for the French language, but who support without embarrassment (and perhaps with some interest) the federal system that makes it possible.
We know them.
They pretend to criticize the situation, but they are especially mobilized against the strengthening of Law 101, and shout out of indignation against its possible application to CEGEP.
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The Legault government is content with scoops, but they see as much aggression against the English community.
They claim to celebrate “diversity”, but it is above all to tell the historic French-speaking majority to take its hole, by explaining to it that it is only one community among others in Quebec.
Michael Rousseau annoys them because he reveals the true nature of the system to which they have pledged allegiance and of which they are the prosperous transmission belt in Quebec.
The facts are however stubborn: Michael Rousseau represents well the future of Quebec in Canada: a country where French-speaking Quebecers are useless, annoying, and even too much.