Premier Christine Fréchette says she wants Quebec’s language watchdog to take a new tone and learn from controversies surrounding the use of non-French words such as go, nosh and burgundy.
“Maybe we can improve the tone used by the OQLF,” Fréchette said in an interview with CJAD on Monday.
The Office québécois de la langue française recently ordered Arthurs Nosh Bar to remove the Yiddish word nosh from its signs.
It had previously told Montreal’s transit agency to drop English messages supporting the Montreal Canadiens because of the word go, and ordered the Burgundy Lion Pub to change its sign on the grounds that burgundy is an English word.
“I think that these should be analyzed before taking positions when it comes to the OQLF,” Fréchette said when asked about the OQLF’s moves.
She did not say whether she will formally ask the OQLF to change its procedures or tone.
Asked if she gets exasperated by headlines about OQLF controversies, Fréchette said: “Yeah, I think that we have to take lessons from past experiences, and these are examples.”
The OQLF eventually backtracked on two of the controversies.
It allowed city buses to display the English message Go Habs Go after French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge said the expression is part of Quebec’s lexicon. The Burgundy Lion was allowed to keep its sign, with the OQLF saying it should not have ordered the change.
In the interview, Fréchette repeated a promise she made two weeks ago to set a “different tone” with Quebec anglophones after years of acrimony between the Coalition Avenir Québec government and the community.
“Our government cares a lot about the English-speaking community and we want to have a dialogue,” she told CJAD. “Tone matters, and I want to have a positive tone when it comes to English-speaking Quebecers.”
She said the community is an asset to Quebec, singling out Concordia and McGill as “world-class universities” that “contribute a lot to society.”
The two institutions were a source of friction between anglophones and the CAQ after the government imposed tuition and funding changes that hurt their finances. At the time, McGill president Deep Saini described the moves as a “targeted attack” on English universities.
Under former premier François Legault, the community and the CAQ also clashed over language laws, the government’s efforts to abolish elected English school boards and a secularism law that bars government workers from wearing religious symbols at work.
Under Legault, the CAQ toughened Quebec language laws, allowed anonymous language complaints and more than doubled the OQLF’s budget.
The tension did not ease when Fréchette became premier in April.
Her government introduced a bill under which 27,000 students would have been moved from English-language adult education and vocational programs into the French system.
English school boards said the shift would devastate their finances. They said the CAQ government did not consult them before presenting the bill.
The proposed legislation did not make it into law, but Fréchette has vowed to revive the plan if she returns as premier after the Oct. 5 general election.
In the CJAD interview, Fréchette said the changes in adult ed and vocational training are needed to reverse a decline in French.
But she said if re-elected, her government will consult the anglophone community about the plan.
“We can modify the process in order to consult the English community. I think the process could have been improved.”
Fréchette said it’s not too late for a CAQ–anglophone rapprochement.
“I was hearing exactly the same thing when I got elected as premier,” she said. “People would say, ‘Oh, unfortunately, it’s too late for them because the CAQ will not be re-elected.’ And we can see that the winds are changing.”
Overall support for the CAQ appears to have grown since Fréchette took over, with a Synopsis poll last week suggesting the party is closing in on second place with 21 per cent support, an increase of three points.
“We can see that there’s again an openness from Quebecers, an interest in hearing about the CAQ, and I think that the same thing can happen with the English-speaking community.”
The icy relationship between English universities and the CAQ may be thawing.
McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s are to hold a press conference on Tuesday with Higher Education Minister Martine Biron to announce a deal to “strengthen French in Quebec.”
They have been working on a plan to boost French proficiency among anglophone students from the rest of Canada and abroad. Last year, a court struck down Quebec’s attempt to impose such requirements on English universities.
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A Montreal native, Andy Riga has been with The Gazette since 1991. He covers politics, language and other Quebec issues, and writes the On Quebec Politics newsletter. Montréalais d’origine, Andy Riga travaille au Montreal Gazette depuis 1991. Il couvre la politique, les enjeux linguistiques et d’autres sujets, et est responsable de l’infolettre On Quebec Politics.
ariga@postmedia.com