[NEWS] Five notes on French in Canada: Montréal, Ontario, Welland, Manitoba, New Brunswick

Apr. 21st, 2019 09:28 pm
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  • La Presse notes that the bilingual greeting "Bonjour-Hi" is becoming more common in Montréal.

  • This Ottawa Citizen opinion-writer was entirely right in noting that the Ontario government should not try to eliminate minority language rights and institutions for budgetary reasons.

  • This TVO article about the forces facing the École secondaire Confédération in Welland is a fascinating study of minority dynamics.

  • This brief article touches on efforts in the Franco-Manitoban community of Winnipeg to provide temporary shelter for new Francophone immigrants.

  • Francophones in New Brunswick continue to face pressure, with their numbers despite overall population growth and with Francophones being much more likely to be bilingual than Anglophones. CBC reports.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five Montréal links: language, HIV/AIDS in the village, heat, movies, Osheaga

Aug. 8th, 2018 05:24 pm
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  • This older report notes Statistics Canada data suggesting that, of all the major cities in Canada, Montréal is the most trilingual. The Toronto Star has it.

  • This paper/u> in Medicine Anthropology Theory by Gabriel Girard takes a look at how the HIV/AIDS epidemic is memorialized, and where, in Montréal's Village gay.

  • Ici Radio-Canada reports on how Montréal is hoping to use green spaces old and new to fight warming temperatures.

  • Movie-making in Montréal offers benefits but also drawbacks for local film and theatre. CTV News reports.

  • CultMTL shares some photos of the fashion worn by Osheaga attendees this weekend past. I think I may have seen some of them went I went exploring after the remnants of Expo 67 on Ile Sainte-Hélène.

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[LINK] "Bilingualism declines for 1st time in 40 years"

May. 28th, 2013 12:17 pm
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The CBC report on declining rates of bilingualism outside of French Canada--Québec and adjacent areas of Ontario and New Brunswick--isn't very surprising. This might be especially the case since population growth in Canada has been concentrated in western Canada, an area where French isn't common at all (or isn't more common than, say, Ukrainian or Chinese).

The Statistics Canada report referred to is available here.

The proportion of Canadians able to conduct a conversation in both English and French declined for the first time between the 2001 and 2011 censuses after 40 years of growth, Statistics Canada said today.

The English-French bilingualism rate peaked at 17.7 per cent in 2001, after rising steadily from 12.1 per cent in 1961. The 2011 census, however, revealed a slight dip to 17.5 per cent.

[. . .]

In the past decade, the country's overall population rose faster than the number of bilingual individuals, so that while the total number of bilingual Canadians increased to 5.8 million in 2011, their percentage of the total actually edged lower.

In areas of Canada with larger French-speaking populations, however, the proportion of bilingualism being reported is steady or growing.

In 2011, 42.6 per cent of Quebec residents reported being able to converse in both English and French, up from 40.8 per cent in 2001. And in New Brunswick, which has a significant French-speaking population, 33.2 per cent of residents similarly said they could use both official languages.

Bilingualism rates in Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia varied between 10 per cent and 12 per cent.

Rates were lowest in Western Canada and in Newfoundland and Labrador: 8.6 per cent in Manitoba and between five per cent and seven per cent in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador, the report said.
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[LINK] "Dieppe bilingual sign bylaw meets opposition"

Jan. 19th, 2010 11:20 am
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I've frequently visited Dieppe as a shopper, and I've always been surprised at the lack of bilingual signage. New Brunswick's official English-French bilingualism is substantially a sham, I think, and it isn't English that's disadvantaged. Government intervention, in the form of a law mandating bilingual signs, doesn't upset me at all, although the part allowing French-only signs but not English-only ones does take me aback.

Dieppe's proposal to require all commercial signs to be bilingual or in French only ran into some opposition on Monday night at a special meeting

More than 100 people turned out for the special council meeting to discuss the reforms.

Many in attendance endorsed the concept of a bylaw that called for bilingual signs, but others chafed at the proposal of having French-only signs.

Ian Morris told the coucillors that he feels French-only signs are discriminatory.

"It's more like you're sticking it to the English people, you know we can do this and we're going to pass a law here that's going to be French only," Morris said.

Situated next to Moncton, Dieppe is the fastest growing francophone city in the province with a population of roughly 18,000. The two cities have become a retail hub for the Maritimes and even with that recent growth, the majority of commercial signs in Dieppe are still in English only.

[. . .]

Daigle read from a letter from Bud Bird, a former Progressive Conservative MLA and MP, who called Dieppe's actions a set back.

"I'm surprised that it has not been strongly opposed by New Brunswickers everywhere," the letter said.

Several francophone residents from Dieppe also complained about the provision that would allow for French-only signs.

Michel Carrier, the province's official languages commissioner, also sent a letter saying the French-only signs or even English-only signs should be allowed for cultural or social institutions that cater only to those groups, such as daycares, churches, radio stations or newspapers.

Tony English, a Dieppe resident, told the council he agreed with keeping the provision for allowing signs to appear in only one language in specific circumstances.

"I absolutely support the bilingual part of this bylaw. I just hope it's modified perhaps not to remove the French-only [provision] but to make it more explanatory," English said.
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