Jean-François Roberge is the second Minister of the French Language and the history of Quebec – a function created in 2022 only. His ancestors, who came from Normandy, crossed the Atlantic four centuries ago and never abandoned French. He himself taught our language as a teacher and even took diction lessons under the influence of a mother who was passionate about theater. L’Express met him during his recent visit to France and asked him what actions he was taking to defend the language of Molière in Quebec. Interview.
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L’Express: How is French doing in Quebec?
Jean-François Roberge: It is in decline. Whatever the indicator used – mother tongue, working language, language of communication, language used at home – the statistics are decreasing. Today, only half of Montrealers speak French. This is all the more worrying since, for a hundred years, the situation had remained stable.
What are the causes of this decline?
There are mainly two. First, the arrival of non-French-speaking immigration, which favors English, considering that this language will be more useful for finding work in the rest of Canada and the United States. The other factor concerns the development of digital technology. In 2004, 77% of Quebecers listened to French-speaking music. On Spotify, this figure has dropped to 8%!
Should we conclude that Quebecers prefer Anglo-Saxon music?
Not only. Because Quebec is in Canada and Canada is in North America, the algorithms consider that we belong to an Anglo-Saxon space and automatically program music in English.
The way these algorithms work threatens cultural diversity, so they need to be programmed differently. That said, we will not be able to fight this fight alone. Francophones are a minority in Canada, as are many Francophones around the world. The first action to take is therefore to unite.
What are the other measures in favor of the French language in Quebec?
The most important was the vote on the French language charter in 1977, which set the objective of making French the language of the State, administration, communication, commerce, etc. Nevertheless, we decided to reinforce it with “law 96” [NDLR : sur la langue officielle et commune du Québec, le français], which has just been voted on. This notably strengthens the place of French in higher education. From now on, the number of students in the English-speaking network, which was growing, cannot exceed 17.5%. This network will also have to offer courses in French and set up tests to measure the level of its students in French.
Law 96 also obliges the State to be exemplary and to communicate systematically in French, except for duly listed exceptions. We have also established the right to work in French, as well as the right to learn French, by offering free courses to those who wish. Finally, a Ministry of the French Language was created, which I head today following Simon Jolin-Barrette.
And yet, you feel that all this is not enough…
No. Law 96 is excellent, but it still needs to be completed. This is why we have put in place an action plan including different measures. For example, economic immigrants – who represent around two thirds of them – will now have to master the French language – an ability that we will monitor through tests.
We will also rebalance the funding of our university networks. While Quebec has 18 universities, including 3 in English, 70% of revenue from foreign students has until now gone to English-speaking universities. In short, we gave money to students who came from the rest of Canada to study English in Quebec before leaving again! This will stop. Other similar measures will follow in the coming months.
The Anglo-Saxon press accuses you of falling into withdrawal…
I refute this accusation. Quebec has always been a welcoming land and intends to remain so. Not only is English not prohibited, but it is taught to all children aged 6 to 16, so that they become bilingual. There is also an English-speaking school network in which English is the majority language used and where French is taught only as a second language, a network that we subsidize at the same level as the French-speaking network. You see: this is in no way xenophobia! We simply want French to remain our common language in order to allow the integration of all – and not assimilation. As one of our thinkers, Pierre Bourgault, said: “When we defend French in Quebec, we are defending all the languages of the world against the hegemony of just one.” When I’m in Paris, I like to feel like I’m in Paris. When I’m in Cuba, I like to feel like I’m in Cuba. When I’m in New York, I like to feel like I’m in New York. I hope that when we are in Quebec, we continue to feel like we are in Quebec.
When you come to France, what does the profusion of anglicisms in businesses, advertising and even the slogans used by public institutions inspire you?
We are 9 million Quebecers in an ocean of 300 million English speakers. French is vulnerable there and we must fight to defend it. The situation in France is different and I can understand that attitudes there are less proactive.
French is in fact a regional language in Canada. Could it have survived without the legislation it benefits from?
No. Without the laws adopted in recent decades, French would have become a folk language and its disappearance would be programmed.
France also has a large number of regional languages. Can they survive without equivalent protective legislation?
This is a subject that I don’t know enough about to comment on the question.
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The Senate adopted Monday October 30 by 221 votes against 82 a right-wing bill aimed at “protecting [le français] of the excesses of so-called inclusive writing”. The senators debated this controversial subject, while, a few hours before, Emmanuel Macron had called, during the inauguration of the Cité Internationale la Langue Française, in Villers-Cotterêts, to not “give in to the spirit of the times.” “In this language, the masculine is neuter,” said the Head of State in Villers-Cotterêts. We don’t need to add periods in the middle of words, or dashes or things to make it readable.”
Books in the French language are “too rare or too expensive” in many countries, said, in the same speech, Emmanuel Macron, announcing that he had entrusted the Franco-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud with a mission to “multiply the translations [et] make them accessible” to speakers of other languages.
The remarks are sometimes abusive and imbued with ideological presuppositions that we may not share, but this text by Ilyes Zouari accurately points out the contradictions of Emmanuel Macron. A head of state who, with Villers-Cotterêts, will have dedicated the only “grand monument” of his two five-year terms to the French language and who, at the same time, uses English titles for events taking place in France (such as One Ocean Summit, in Brest), multiplies the anglicisms and promotes English in international bodies…
This sentence spoken by Emmanuel Macron in Villers-Cotterêts leaves doubtful the historian Philippe Martel who, in an argued and nuanced text, recalls that the internal conflicts in France have never focused on language, but on religious, social or political questions. He also recalls that General de Gaulle and Marshal Pétain both spoke French, which did not prevent them from confronting each other in 1940…
No, Pierre Klein, president of the Alsatian Citizen Initiative, responds here in an argued manner. “What distinguishes a Swiss French speaker from a French French speaker? What makes one a Swiss and the other a French? It’s not the language, at least not than language,” he recalls. And to point out this contradiction: “We usually teach in faculties that there are two approaches to the definition of the nation, one objective, the other subjective. The first defines the nation by language, culture and history. The second makes it based on the feeling of belonging and the desire to be and act together.” According to him, the president “would therefore position himself rather on the first, the one which closely resembles the characteristics of ethnicity or uniqueness”.
“Let us spend 200 million euros to renovate a place and make it an ‘international city of the French language’, why not […]but why does the State not make the same budgetary efforts in favor of a linguistic heritage which continues to deteriorate due to a centuries-old discriminatory policy?” asks the Regions and Peoples in Solidarity movement about the so-called languages In 2021, the press release recalls, the executive opposed the Molac law, the first text passed under the Fifth Republic in favor of these languages.
A historical dictionary, an automatic translator, a toponymic database, a phonetizer transcribing Breton sentences into the international phonetic alphabet: these are some of the tools offered by the brand new digital portal for the Breton language presented on October 30 last.
The president of the Republic was called a “tartuffe” by academician Jean-Marie Rouart, notably for his use of “Franglais”. He responded to the writer during the speech he gave at the inauguration of the Cité internationale de la langue française, in Villers-Cotterêts.
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