Path: utzoo!telly!moore!ziebmef!ncrcan!lsuc!attcan!utgpu!watmath!ubc-cs!faculty.cs.ubc.ca!manis From: manis@faculty.cs.ubc.ca (Vincent Manis) Newsgroups: can.general Subject: Re: Canada: one or two cultures? Message-ID: <4558@ubc-cs.UUCP> Date: 26 Jul 89 19:57:51 GMT References: <615662921.9256@myrias.uucp> <568@UALTAVM.BITNET> <604@philmtl.philips.ca> <89Jul19.104948edt.18727@me.utoronto.ca> <609@philmtl.philips.ca> <1989Jul24.085326.28706@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <27944@watmath.waterloo.edu> <625@philmtl.philips.ca> Sender: news@cs.ubc.ca Reply-To: manis@faculty.cs.ubc.ca (Vincent Manis) Distribution: can Organization: The Invisible City of Kitezh Lines: 65 In article <625@philmtl.philips.ca> tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel Tremblay) writes: >> However, having said all this, Quebec culture produces an awful lot of >>obnoxious bastards at the moment, doesn't it :-? >> >>Ross W. Wetmore | rwwetmore@water.NetNorth > >Is this perception shared by most English(speaking)Canadians on the net? >I am curious about that. I wouldn't have used Ross' phrasing, but certainly in Western Canada, there isn't a lot of sympathy for the current Quebec position. Consider my own opinions: I have long since been a believer in peoples' rights for self-determination. Further, I have long championed changing the Anglophone domination of Quebec. I have supported bilingualism for many years (ever since the Bi-Bi Commission), thinking, mistakenly, that what the Quebecois wanted was a chance to participate fully in the affairs of Canada. As recently as a year ago, I posted to can.politics an article saying that I supported the principle of Quebec being a `distinct society', on the grounds that there are certainly many historical traditions (such as civil law) which are specific to Quebec. I had the mistaken idea that if those of us in the rest of Quebec extended the hand of goodwill, Quebec would reciprocate. The Bill 101 ruling, and the consequent National Assembly ruling, changed my beliefs. Apparently, it is not sufficient to require that French be given primacy. One must further debarraser les Anglos, by removing any trace of their presence from public view. All I could think of was the Nuernberg Laws in Nazi Germany, eliminating from public view the existence of German Jews. (I explicitly repudiate any comparison between the democratically elected government of Quebec and the fascist government of the Third Reich. The flavour is, however, the same). Not only the Anglos are affected, though: Cree, Mohawk, Inuit, and other aboriginal peoples have effectively been told to assimilate into the Francophone society of Quebec. The result is that I no longer feel at home in Quebec. This is a society which considers people such as myself (bilingual, but far more competent in English than French) to be foreigners, and which can persecute a small business for posting a sign saying `Ouvert tous les lundis/Open Mondays'. My vision of Canada is a bi-/multi-lingual one: we draw strength from our various cultures. The fact that Quebec seems to wish to be a monolithic society fills me with regret. The fact that francophone Quebecois media speak only of events in Quebec causes me to wonder whether francophones have any interest in the vision of Canada as a country built on many nations. The possibility that Quebecois consider they have more in common with Miami than with Toronto saddens me. ____________ Vincent Manis | manis@cs.ubc.ca ___ \ _____ The Invisible City of Kitezh | manis@cs.ubc.cdn ____ \ ____ Department of Computer Science | manis%cs.ubc@relay.cs.net ___ /\ ___ University of British Columbia | uunet!ubc-cs!manis __ / \ __ Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1W5 | (604) 228-2394 _ / __ \ _ "There is no law that vulgarity and literary excellence cannot ____________ coexist." -- A. Trevor Hodge