CTV News Montreal

Updated: Sun Nov. 22 2009 3:31:34 PM

ctvmontreal.ca

The Parti Quebecois is more united, less defensive and more confident after a party convention in Montreal this weekend.

PQ leader Pauline Marois claims her party is back as defender of Quebec's language and culture after delegates developed a consensus around several controversial issues.

Marois said that if Quebec's protection of French doesn't suit the Supreme Court of Canada, then the Canadian Constitution doesn't suit Quebec.

"Some people are angry now because they see there is an erosion in French," said Marois.

Non-subsidized private schools should fall into Bill 101's law restricting access to English-language schools for newcomers to the province, members at the 500-strong meeting at Palais des Congres agreed.

They also agreed Bill 101 needs to be updated and reinforced to send non-Anglophones to French Cegeps and the children of new immigrants to French daycare to aid in their integration.

They promised to guarantee rights to the English community.

"We want to work in French and we want to go to school in French in respect of the Anglo Quebecois minorities," said Marois.

Traditional Quebec values should be respected in the province while Quebec remains open to others, she said.

"We say we have a way to live together in Quebec and it is important to introduce these values, which are our values in the (Quebec charter of rights and freedoms)," she said.

This week, the PQ will propose changes to the charter of rights, claiming the Liberals are afraid to do so and are undermining the linguistic peace of Quebec.

The proposal will be centred on proclaiming Quebec's secular nature, equality between men and women and the dominance of the French language.

Please Add Comments

jroc
"respect of the Anglo Quebecois minorities"

...yeah right...

jeffrey kaufmann
It's interesting that Quebec nationalists classify anyone who went to English public school as an"Anglophone" yet everyone who goes to french public school is classified as an allophone unless one or both of their parents are francophone.

Ed
IF WE TOOK JUST HALF THE ENERGY AND RESOURCES WE SPEND ON LOTO QUEBEC AND THE LANGUAGE LAWS AND PUT IT TOWARDS HEALTH AND EDUCATION, WE WOULD BE THE HEALTHIEST AND SMARTEST PROVINCE IN CANADA. AS IT IS WE JUST KEEP GETTING POORER AND POORER MORE IN DEBT. WHEN THEY FINISH DRIVING THE SMART ONES (ENGLISH AND FRENCH) OUT IF THE PROVINCE WHO WILL PAY FOR ALL THEIR STUPIDITY THEN? $7 DOLLAR A DAY DAY CARE FOR FAMILIES MAKING OVER $100,000 A YEAR, IT SHOULD BE FOR SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES ONLY. ENGLISH AND FRENCH "QUEBECOIS" GET ALONG JUST FINE, IT IS THE GOVERNMENTS THAT CREATE THE PROBLEMS. THAT'S JUST MY OPINION.

John Grey
Pfff... The 80's have been over for nearly two decades and the Parti Québecois is united in spewing the same old rhetoric and tired ideas that didn't work back then and are less likely to work in more modern times such as those we all live in now.

If French is so important, why not promote it by having better schools and academic programs where kids speak and write better French? My work requires me to communicate in French all day and a large majority of Quebec francophones (I am one of them, despite the English name) speak a lowly form of Joual which is difficult to understand from the rest of la Francophonie's point of view. And let's not get into French writing. People can't conjugate, can't use proper grammar, even those who went to a French CEGEP and university. Is that what we want to promote, appallingly deficient and lacking French?

Time for better ideas and I am so glad the Parti Québecois is not in power, because there are no good ideas there.

AC
blablabla and off they talk stuffs about language again. Oh please we are in the 21st century for god sake. does people care about language that much? and sending all allophones and french to cegep is just lame. and yet your child get to school like LCC etc? i am an allophone myself and i am being taught in english cauz my parent were taught in english but being able to talk english, you can travel the world unless just having french stuck at paris, qc, and haiti

JS
I'm very grateful for the continued infantile foolishness of the PQ and their ilk. Before their rise, Montreal was the financial capital of Canada. Since their rise, capital has raced out of Quebec and Montreal. Toronto owes its place as Canada's centre of commerce and industry to the PQ. I for one, thank Marois and the PQ and hope that they keep up the good work, making Toronto richer with each of their wacky press releases.

Mike
As soon as Pauline Marois goes away of the PQ, they may succeed in another referendum, but by then, I'll vote against only because of her stupid and discriminative actions.

firstMickey
Marois is so boring. It is like serving up leftovers of a meal not edible in the first place, reheating and serving it again and again and saying "you must eat this, like it or not".

Norm_D
When a government can change a "Charter of Rights" on its own then that Charter is not worth the paper that it is printed on. A good charter is imposed (forcefully if necessary) on the government by its people, not the other way around and the government can not get out of it. Just look at the U.S. Constitution or the Magna Carta as good examples which have survived the test of time. Both Quebec and Canada require that we, the public, have these documents structured so that only we can change them not any government.

Alex Dsm
"Quebec charter of rights and freedoms" wow, now there is a catch 22, what about the Canadian Constitution as mentioned??? That is butting heads if anything. I hope that the Supreme Court of Canada can find a way to protect English speaking tax payers in Quebec as well. Goes both ways, so far all I see is favouritism on the part of the PQ and Pauline Marois. Why doesn’t someone bring this people down as government, like the Supreme Court of Canada, the PQ are exactly like the FLQ, TERRORISTS. They should not even exist!!! I believe in rights for everyone no matter who you are or what nationality you come from or what language you speak, it's called tolerance for everyone both English and French.

blake
It's the zeitgeist theory.
Keep the people stupid and you can control them better. Give them knowledge, and you have less control.

Quebec does not want to free it's people, they want to control them by keeping them back in the 1800's. This is the only power they have left and once the can control you, then they can do whatever they please.

What is even funnier are the uneducated separatists who blatantly proclaim that they want to remain stupid by speaking only one language.

But what is going to happen if they apply bill 101 to daycares. Those daycares will close and reopen privately knowing now the people will pay for english daycare service.

We are dealing with a bunch of cry babies that didn't win the election but act like they are in power...

heretic in montreal
They're trying the same thing in Slovakia, of all places. I understand that fines just for speaking another language are in order over there. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe promotes the knowledge of other languages within the education system and seems to have no problems with non native language use for multiple purposes, including the dreaded task of international commerce!

Heaven forbid that the PQ could figure that one out.

Peter from Quebec
Hey, Ed, it's not the government.
It's one political party, the Parti Quebcois.
All citizens just need to go and vote when an election takes place, make sure we will keep this illogical ideas out of government.

Andrew
Fear of change,this party only represents tunnel vision.If the french want to protect their so called language,they should work on their own t.v. and radio shows where english is used in the mix all the time.These are self serving old ideals of poor french language,when the day comes all english or english speaking Canadians living in Quebec should give them their country and watch them melt away.In my opion the world is a much smaller place than it was back in the sixties good luck to all the pquists who follow them down that road,tired of these people trying to ruin a great place to live.....long live Canada...can t we all be bilingual simple no?

Rollie
My prediction:

In 10 years we will be put in prison for speaking anything but French.

Time to go!

Canada is beautiful country, let`s get of here!

Very mad anglophone/francophone
It just does not make any sense...english is the universal language..only in quebec are we reprimanded for speaking it... and learning it is even seen as 'horrible'...We are living in the 21st century poeple...the more languages you know and speak..THE better!!!...homeless poeple in europe speak more than 2 languages...I am a proud canadian and a proud quebecoise..I speak english and french and I am proud of it...but when I see francophones spending so much time and money on conventions it makes me nuts....SO what if you cant order a bagel in french (which has never happened in montreal BTW)...not being able to order it in english though (which has happened) should be a disgrace to any developed 'nation'!!!!!

blake
Here's an ideal that may be crazy enought to work.

what about any parti other than the PQ, cush as the Libersl promote French? Make it attractive to want to learn it. Promote it as the new millenium English person, a person who can speak BOTH languages. A person who will succeed in the world because he speaks both languages and not be governed by borders.

They have some bilingual schools. Make all the English schools bilingual! I would love my kids to learn both languages perfectly.

by doing this what can the PQ do in the end? Let them deal with the drop out rate in schools and social deadbeats in the french world because they will only be left behind in the new world as the rest of us English peoole move ahead and dominate the province with more knowledge under our belts than they can dream of.

In this year now almost 2010, the new breed of english speaking people speak both languages.

Knowledge is power and power to the people.

Let those slacked jawed yokel pequistes stay back in the stone age.

Ross
They are not even in Power, and they already dictate what they will do. We got ourselves a little DICTATOR in Madame Marois!!

Gene
Seems the Marois and the PQ are conjuring up their 101 French language monster one more time. They see that their power base amongst the 'quebecois'(translated: the French majority)slipping because people have seen the truth about remaining unilingual French as being a dead-end. Their children are quietly learning more languages increasing their abilities to stay employed in the new 21st century.

Same old same old dangerous and costly PQ BS!