CTV News Montreal

Updated: Sun Nov. 29 2009 7:39:59 PM

ctvmontreal.ca

A new group supporting the French language launched in South Shore Longueuil on Sunday.

The Mouvement Monteregie Francais says its mission is to protect Quebec's mother tongue in the regions.

"We are a minority and we are facing a very powerful English culture," said PQ MNA Pierre Curzi, a supporter of the group.

Mouvement Monteregie Francais says the workforce in Montreal is predominantly Anglophone and that is unacceptable.

The group is also outraged by the Supreme Court of Canada's decision to strike down Bill 104, a law created to limit access to English public schools.

The ruling allows Allophone children to transfer to an English public school after studying in English at a private institution.

Former Quebec premier Bernard Landry says he believes the Supreme Court's decision in unfair.

"If you are rich, you can get out of the French system, which is absurd. Rich or poor, the law is the law," Landry told CTV Montreal's Catherine Sherriffs.

Landry said new immigrants should learn French first, but the ruling makes that impossible.

Comments are now closed for this story

Brian
Too many Mouvements and not enough forward movements in this province. With groups like these, no wonder Quebec is lagging behind in many aspects.

The Mouvement Monteregie Francais should focus its attention on its own region instead. In the Monteregie I believe the French language there is not in "danger".

It's not surprising that most members of these kind of groups just don't have anything better to do.

firstMickey
Bigots and racists are alive and well in Quebec. Any excuse to limit the learning of English will do. Poor fools looking backwards instead of forward. This is the modern Quebec. If you don't like it, go live in France and see how your lack of tolerance works there. It doesn't work anywhere in the modern world. Save your energy and time for more positive things.

anglolady
What is absurd is that Pierre Curzi thinks that francophones are a minority here on the South Shore! I a sorry but I really must laugh so as not to rip out my hair! I am an anglophone in Longueuil and let me be clear that I am well aware that I am the minority here NOT the other way around. I used to make an effort to speak french here, now however I will do the opposite!

Bob
Bernard Landry knows only too well what he says is true.
"If you are rich, you can get out of the French system, which is absurd. Rich or poor, the law is the law," Landry told CTV Montreal's Catherine Sherriffs.
He did just that.

Child of an Immigrant
whatttt????? pardon moi? wanna come around montreal avec moi? I find the anglophone language is dying, not french!! Just look at the STM system, you see any english? I sure as heck dont see. And uumm is it me or are there a heck a lot more english schools that are shutting down then the french schools?!!! And we dont "practise english culture" we just speak the language lol. And last I heard we are still a province of canada!! And I thought we were living in a democratic society, the immigrants should have a right to send the kids to where they want!! BTW my mom is an italian immigrant and my dad is a canadian..

Brian
This story makes my stomach turn... how can people be so self inflated? I don't understand why those French supremacists can't just get over the fact that they're fighting for a cause that was lost long ago.

I support either side, but I do know that everyone is wasting their time with this. Just speak whatever language you want to and forget about it. It's blatant and obvious discrimination supported by the government and it's absolutely ridiculous! It's groups like this that make dream of the day that I can get out of this province.

child of an immigrant
by the way, every time I say I am from the province of quebec, they automatic say ah the FRENCH province and assume I am french. And this is online folks!! so now I simply say montreal and I get less headaches lol. And yes I do still say canada, I just dont mention the province anymore lol.

Alex Dms
Another attempt at stupidity with this "Mouvement Monteregie Francais," this is how fights and wars start, keep pushing, your bound to lose more then what you gain. Without English businesses Quebec would be nothing. The only thing Quebec has that is of any value is Hydro Quebec, aside from that there is nothing of consequence is this province. BIG JUVENILE BABIES, BOO HOO. After a while it gets tiring to hear the same thing over and over and over and over and over again like a broken record!!!!

Joe
THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IS NOT A MINORITY IN QUEBEC!!!!!!!!!
WHAT ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT?!?!

Someone needs to take charge of this issue (i.e. Charest)once and for all before this debate becomes really absurd & everyone loses their minds from this insanity!

Cathy Muise, Kingston,ON (Quebecer for 50 yrs)
I know Quebec only likes to teach a tainted version of Quebec history in the schools but groups like the "Mouvement" should get their history facts straight.The Indian tribes were always the first ones here and the French were the immigrants. The only place these "Movement" groups should be is in the toilet.Don't they realize that North America is English speaking. Even overseas the people's second language is English but I guess they wouldn't know that as they can't travel anywhere being unilingual in their bid to annihilate the English language. Wake up and smell the coffee. OH, excuuuuuse me, café.

jroc
"Mouvement Monteregie Francais says the workforce in Montreal is predominantly Anglophone and that is unacceptable"

Well duh! Montreal is the business center of QC, and the worldwide business language is...ENLGISH! But no you and your separatist buddies keep pushing business out of MTL, you did a great job of it in the last couple of decades.

Peter
Get a life you guys were not livin in the 80's anymore.seems they were harassed in there younger years,and probably find it hard to speak two languages.You're a winner if you speak them both and a bonus for Quebec,Canada

george
so we're allowed to form groups that are openly racist as long as they target English people?

kyleb Dorion Quebec
OK ,listen up everyone who wants to protect the french language. #1 The responsibility to protect french in Quebec is the responsibility of french speaking Quebecers. Why, because no one else really cares! #2 The biggest flaw in Bill 101 is the assumption that by teaching non-francophones to speak french they will become francophones. All Bill 101 has accomplished is it has taught the remaining Anglophones and immigrants how to speak, write & read french. We are still Anglophones And Allophones but we now can live in a french society. The end result: Bilingual Quebecers get better jobs and have a better standard of living while unilingual Quebers have to struggle.

Pam
Funny, I don't hear much english these days on the streets of Montreal, but rather Arabic, Chinese, etc. So, will this new "mouvement" be targeting them next?

Furthermore, if they do get everyone to speak french, how will tourists be treated when they come here speaking english? Will they target them and throw eggs and tomatoes?

Michael
Having come to Quebec from another place, I see things differently. I live in the Monteregie and I hear English speaking people in the hardware store, at the dep, at the grocery store and most of the time they speak English to the staff. I always speak French out of respect for the society that welcomed me. I find English speakers far less open about speaking a second language than francophones who for the most part readily speak English.

Kevin Erskine-Henry
For all you On Islanders: When this group talks about stopping the spread of English in the regions..We must remember that The Very Bilingual and Cultural mix area of Brossard, St-Lambert, Greenfield Park, Candiac, even St-Hubert followed by Chateauguay and Yes even Hudson is part of the Montérégie and we are now going to be targeted … The Group will focus on Brossard which the most multi Cultural city off the Island of Montreal …
Ps As for two laws for the rich and Poor ..asK Bertrand Landry about all the Francophone parents who send their children to private school for better teaching of English.

Paul Michaud
The Mouvement Monteregie Francais who claim that the workforce in Montreal is predominantly Anglophone, reveal a glimpse how a sovereign Quebec would resemble.
It would be a society saddled by misinformation manipulated by bigots who desire to enflame the most insecure of dependents.

For the Mouvement Monteregie Francais, the words "predominantly Anglophone" do not mean
"first and foremost"; to them, it means "english exists."

Katrina
This is ridiculous. What happen to freedom of choice?
Laundry stated, “"If you are rich, you can get out of the French system, which is absurd. Rich or poor, the law is the law,"
This is incorrect, I have friends who were immigrants and their parents had to work hard to send their children to private English school because they were not allowed in the English public system.

We should have the right to choose which language we prefer to study in because no matter what you need to be bilingual. That goes for the French students too. Students who are enrolled in English schools still take French classes. Many of them are bilingual when they graduated from high school.
From what I’ve seen it’s not the case for many French students, many of them graduated without knowing how to form a sentence in English.
I’m not saying this is the case for all of them, but I’m seen many who cannot.

In addition, we follow all the language laws in Quebec already, what more do they want? Start to suppress people’s freedom of choice?
There is no way they can stop the English culture from entering Quebec. We live in a world where English is international language and culture. Accept it, if not then you are only making the people of Quebec step backward than forward.

Frank
I agree with all the comments. I'm the son of italian immigrants. The best thing my parents did for me was to send me to bilingual school during my youth. I now speak 4 languages and proud of it. Finding a job is not an issue when you're multi-lingual. We, as parents, intend to do the same for our son. We decided (not the gov't) to put him in French school so he would learn a second language. As French is a hard language to learn, we decided that it would be easier to learn at his age because they absorb like sponges. And in a year or two, he will go to italian school on saturday mornings.

I'm sure that if you check the statistics, there are more french speaking (uni-lingual) folks on welfare than bilingual folks. It just boggles the mind how closed minded these people are. Not to mention the gov't officials (bunch of hypocrites) who send their kids to the best English schools in the world. "Don't do as I do, just do as I say" should be the PQ's new slogan.

DP
If the francophones are minority - as per their own words - then why the rest of the population, presumably anglo- and allophones - has to obey that minority?