Robert Libman: Quebec Anglos still ‘don’t get any respect’

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Rodney Dangerfield’s catchphrase “They don’t respect me” was the centerpiece of his comedic career. However, his inspiration was not exactly a laughing matter. According to Dangerfield’s widow, his father abandoned the family and he he grew up “unloved and unwanted.”

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The Anglophones of Quebec are the political equivalent.

The Quebec Community Groups Network criticized the Quebec Liberal Party convention last weekend for an “epic failure to listen to Anglos in Quebec who are concerned about Bill 96.” This reprimand followed leader Dominique Anglade’s observation that Anglophones are still better off with their party than they are with the Avenir Québec Coalition, reflecting a somewhat condescending presumption that the community has no choice but to vote for the Liberals in the elections next year, given that Quebec Solidaire and the Parti Québécois are sovereignist parties and the CWC government is the author of bill 96.

Anglos in Quebec have complained with varying intensity that liberals took them for granted since the early 1970s, when the Robert Bourassa government adopted Bill 22, making French the official language of the province. In Quebec’s zero-sum gambling language dance, liberals would not dare to defend Anglo-Saxon concerns for fear of compromising the much more lucrative Francophone vote. For decades, the PQ was practically the only alternative, so despite feeling neglected at times, the Anglo-Saxons stayed with the liberals. It took a major betrayal in the late 1980s for the community to go from complaining to gathering the courage to break ranks.

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After the adoption of Bill 101 and nine years of the PQ rule, liberals promised Anglophones in the 1985 elections to restore bilingual commercial cartels in Quebec. However, after being elected, they were delayed, buying time by saying the law was still in court. When the Supreme Court finally struck down this part of Bill 101, the Liberals nonetheless used the clause to overturn the sentence, grossly breaching their promise to the community. Anger rose and the Equality Party (of which I was the leader) emerged as a strong expression of protest, winning four constituencies in the 1989 elections and finishing second in five others. That election result earned the community some respect, helping to contribute to the government’s decision a few years later to finally allow English on commercial signs again.

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The dynamics now remember something. Complaints are mounting, and the defining moment in the relationship this time around will be how liberals vote on Bill 96. For now, they are buying time with the community, conveniently repeating that the bill is being considered in committee article by article and saying that they plan to propose amendments to improve it. Can the amendments make Bill 96 acceptable? Liberals will likely attempt to clarify that the bill does not affect constitutional guarantees that ensure the justice system remains accessible in English, limit search and seizure provisions for businesses, and may try to remove the bill from being shortened. to the notion of “historical”. Anglos ”the definition of who is entitled to services in English.

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But even if the Language Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette concedes on these points, they are only some aspects of a law with 200 articles that consolidates a clear social hierarchy where non-Francophones are treated as second-class citizens.

Bill 96 will not pass before the spring session. Things are moving slowly in committee, giving the liberals more time before they have to face the music of the Anglophones. This time, a tangible political entity has yet to be formed to channel this protest if (or, more likely, when) the Liberals vote in favor. But a strategic response from the QCGN, the Language Policy Working Group and / or others will be essential, if we want any semblance of respect in the future.

Robert Libman is an architect and building planning consultant who has served as leader of the Equality Party and MNA, as mayor of Côte-St-Luc, and as a member of the Montreal executive committee. He was a conservative candidate in the 2015 federal elections. twitter.com/robertlibman