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A new publicity campaign by the Quebec government promoting the use of French in daily life says it’s everyone’s job to protect the language. Everyone but the government, apparently.  

The flashy campaign — essentially public relations to the tune of $2.5 million — implicitly chastising Quebecers for using “Bonjour-Hi” (a popular expression that’s developed organically in a city as cosmopolitan and multilingual as Montreal) isn’t language protection, it’s fluff. The government is once again failing to focus on a fundamental issue: education.  

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The only way you protect a language is by teaching it. And the only way you integrate newcomers is by supporting them. I’ve said this before: If French is so important, we shouldn’t be able to walk two blocks in Quebec without coming across ads offering us free and easily accessible French-language courses. Alas, as The Gazette’s Allison Hanes mentioned this week, accessing French classes can often feel like an obstacle course. The desired destination is clearly indicated, but good luck getting there. As someone assisting new immigrants recently told me: “Newcomers are being asked to dig a hole without being given a shovel.” 

Last week, La Presse columnist Rima Elkouri denounced the CAQ government’s incongruity in insisting it prioritizes French while cancelling francization courses for immigrants in the lower Laurentians “without explanation or a Plan B” as demand has soared.  

Now, we find out the CAQ government is eliminating financial assistance offered to new immigrants enrolled for part-time French lessons. Granted, it was a measly $28 per diem, but for many newcomers who are spending time learning French while they could be working, it was positive reinforcement. For a government that repeatedly claims francization is an essential integration tool for newcomers, this move is highly hypocritical.  

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Especially in light of the punitive six-month timeline imposed on newcomers after which they must receive government services solely in French, the CAQ has made demands while failing to invest in the required resources, placing the onus solely on others. The elimination of financial assistance for participation in part-time studies not only penalizes immigrants and removes an incentive to acquire a language the government insists it wants to protect and promote, it also communicates to some newcomers they’re essentially on their own. 

It’s also questionable to cite budgetary restraints for these cuts. La Presse reported the CAQ government has used only a fraction of federal transfer payments for immigration on helping with francization and integration. Is French important or not? And if it is, why does the government often appear content with slogans over substance? 

Paying lip service to French with costly multimedia campaigns while slashing courses educators say are desperately needed, and cutting what little financial incentive was given to newcomers who attend part-time classes, is not “defending French.” It’s pretending to.  

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If we’re to believe the CAQ’s rhetoric, the fragility of the French language is the fault of immigrants, out-of-province students and Quebec’s English-speaking community, who somehow are able to have more influence than Quebec’s 75 per cent mother-tongue French speakers.

Defending French doesn’t mean wielding language as a weapon or vilifying Montrealers who throw in a “hi!” It means consistently and sufficiently — even generously — providing people with all the tools they could possibly need to learn a language that Quebec demands as a requirement to live and prosper here. You can’t honestly claim to prioritize French while failing to properly fund and incentivize its acquisition. 

Increased demand for French classes is welcome news. It should have signalled to the government that people want to learn and that additional investments are urgently needed. Instead, the CAQ cut classes and abolished certain financial incentives while instructing Quebecers to “demand” French. It’s a recipe for sowing social division and resentment on both sides.  

Toula Drimonis is a Montreal journalist and the author of We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants, and Belonging in Canada.

[email protected]

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