Chapter 14 Review Questions

The end of la revanche des berceaux plus the fact that the vast majority of immigrants have chosen English as their adopted language.

Census data seems to provide the evidence. In certain provinces and in all but a handful of Canada’s major metropolitan areas outside of Quebec, some of the non-official language communities are considerably larger than the French-speaking minority. Examples include Vancouver’s Chinese community, and the Italian communities in Toronto and Hamilton.

The Act officially recognized the rights of the francophone Catholic majority in Quebec and legitimized the leadership role of the community’s clerical elite. The Act granted formal protection of the status of the Catholic religion and the civil law in New France.

French Canada comprised a distinct nation whose chief characteristics were the Catholic Church and the French language. French Canada had a special mission—to remain faithful to its roots and to resist the lure of materialistic, English, Protestant pressures. The character of the French-Canadian population was most secure in the province of Quebec, but French Canada was not restricted to that province.

The central characteristic of the new nationalism was a reliance on the Quebec state to achieve the economic, social, and political goals of Quebecers. The state would be used in an assertive way to shape Quebec society. Also, Quebec’s history was interpreted to be a story of domination by English Canada.

French was established as the sole official language of Quebec. Secondly, the Quebec government was authorized to increase the use of French as a working language of business in the province. Thirdly, access to English-language schools was restricted.

One is the public’s right to be served by the federal government in the official language of their choice; a second was the equitable representation of francophones and anglophones in the federal public service; and a third was the ability of public servants of both language groups to work in the language of their choice.

Language training for public servants; the designation of an increasing share of positions as bilingual; and the creation of the National Capital Region as the office blocks of the federal state spread across the Ottawa River into Gatineau, Quebec.

According to Brooks, the argument goes like this: French-Canadian society goes back to the seventeenth century when the first immigrants came from France. Most French Canadians are actually descended from those who settled New France. Current generations are heirs to three centuries of tradition and resistance to assimilation. This continuity can be seen in the distinctive French that is spoken in Quebec and in other aspects of Quebec culture. It is this unique history as one of Canada’s two founding peoples that justifies distinct society status for Quebec.

Quebec’s distinctive linguistic characteristic does not warrant constitutional recognition of the province as a distinct society; constitutional recognition of distinct society status may result in Quebec getting increased powers not available to the other provinces; a gut feeling that distinct society status for Quebec undermines the idea of Canada—the two-nations idea of Canada has little resonance with them.

Some issues described in the textbook include conscription to the Boer War and World War I, French-language education in Ontario and Manitoba, and language training for federal public service jobs.

In 1763, French speakers outnumbered English speakers by about 8 to 1; by the end of the 18^th century French and English speakers were approximately equal, the result of significant immigration from the United States and British Isles. By the 1871 census, French speakers comprised one-third of the Canadian population. Brooks notes that French speakers held their own until the end of the 1950s, the result of a high birth rate. Today, French speakers comprise about 21% of the Canadian population, of which 90% are located in Quebec.

Receptive bilinguals are those are who capable of responding to French communications, but do not initiate conversations in French, consume French-language media, or seek opportunities to live in their second acquired language. This is largely the result of French immersion education.

La Survivance seeks the survival of traditional French nationalism against the pressure of the dominant culture: Anglicizing, Protestant, materialistic, liberal democratic, and business-oriented.

Bilefsky describes the continuing divide between French and English speakers in Montreal. Though other diversity exists within Montreal, Bilefsky observes that there is still a “Berlin Wall of the mind” present in Montreal, whereby Francophones tend to live to the east of St. Laurent Boulevard while Anglophones tend to live to the west, and the two largely consume different media – news, television, music, etc.

Identify the pertinent sections within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and then consider how each works to protect language rights within and outside of Quebec. It may be interesting to consider other states with linguistic minorities to see whether and how these minorities are protected constitutionally.

You can begin by researching the statistics on the extent to which each official language is present. City government officials may know this. The Commissioner of Official Languages may also have information. In speaking to family and friends, you will want to bear in mind that official bilingualism remains a contentious issue and you may be confronted with provocative comments. When asking the last question—how important is official bilingualism to them?—you should keep in mind that official language protection is not only about personal rights, it is also about national unity. You will have to factor this into your responses to the essay question.

To answer this question, you can review the Secession Reference and the Clarity Act. Discuss Quebec’s response to the results of a secession referendum by identifying the context, (e.g., the closeness of the vote, the party in power in both Ottawa and Quebec City, the stance of Ottawa during the referendum, elite and mass opinion in the province, the stance of the international community, etc.). For the last question, speculate on the outcome of constitutional discussions involving Ottawa and the nine remaining provinces, possible changes to the Senate, to the electoral system, and to the nature of the federal system, and on the impact of secession on the finances of Ottawa and the provinces. You may also speculate on both the agenda and tone of the negotiations that would follow from a vote to secede.

The Quiet Revolution occurred in Quebec in the 1960s after the death of Maurice Duplessis and the new leadership of Jean Lesage. It saw a decreased role of the Catholic Church in education, social services, and infrastructure, and an increase of a ‘new’ nationalism. A number of legacies of the Quiet Revolution are discussed by Brooks, including the establishment of the Parti Québécois, the dominant federal-level political party in Quebec until its implosion in the 2011 federal election (although the party regained ground in 2019) and paved the way for Quebec independence movements in 1980 and 1995.

There are a number of ways in which the Canadian and Belgian models can be compared. You may look at a multitude of similarities and differences between these models. Both Canada and Belgium have two main language groups (German is also a third official language in Belgium, though it is not widely spoken), all of which are European languages. You could compare these models with other countries, like New Zealand, where the official languages are English (a European language), Te Reo Māori (the language of the Māori, an Indigenous language), and New Zealand Sign Language. You may also look at the key differences: Canada has personal/individual language rights whereby everyone has language rights regardless of where they are in the country; Belgium has a regional/geographic model that grants official language status based on where one lives. In Belgium, only its capital city, Brussels, is officially bilingual, and though Canada’s national capital region is also widely bilingual, the entire country is officially bilingual. Both countries have looked to one another for a linguistic model.