AngryFrenchGuy

Dieudonné and Québec: Canadian media misses golden Québec-bashing opportunity

with 54 comments

dieudonne-black-and-white

For the life of me I can’t figure out how the Anglo-Canadian media missed this one. There is everything they love in this story: Québec, antisemitism, racism, the French, Jean-Marie Le Pen and a very easy way to throw in Pauline Marois and the Separatists.

Somebody fell asleep at the switch.

Here’s what’s going on. Last week the Superior Court of Québec sentenced French stand-up comic Dieudonné to pay 75 000$ to French crooner Patrick Bruel for attacking the French signers reputation.  In a 2006 interview Dieudonné had called Bruel “a pure product of this ultrasionnist political system” who had “the superiority complex of some Israelis.”  He also called Bruel a liar and said the signer thought the bombing of children in Lebanon was “normal”.

This was far from Dieudonné’s first controversial declaration or even his first time his opinions had landed him in court.  In fact, from a man who has called Jews “a sect, a swindle” and a people that “sold the holocaust, sold suffering to build a country and make money”, you could even say that his comments about Patrick Bruel were quite tame.

So how did Québec get involved? It started when Patrick Bruel, who was a guest on the Radio-Canada TV show Tout le Monde en Parle, objected to the complacent attitude of the Québec media toward Dieudonné compared to France, where he is a pariah.  Dieudonné replied with his infamous attacks on another Québec TV show, Les Francs-Tireurs, with Richard Martineau.

In another interview, Dieudonné was asked  why the controversy that surrounds him did not seem to follow him across the Atlantic:  “There is a freedom of speech and tone, here, that is quite anchored in the culture of this country.  After getting rid of religion, I’m under the impression that there is a quite strong critical sense that developed.  I feel comfortable in the general state of mind and culture of Québec.”

In the same interview Dieudonné praised Pauline Marois, the Parti québécois’ leader, whom he claims he has met and found to be “very serene”.

Oh the headlines they could’ve cooked up with that one…

Well Ok, then.  The church ladies and hall monitors of McGill and the Globe and Mail must be busy telling some other nation how to run their country, so let’s take this opportunity to discuss as adults.  For once.

The question is: Has the Québec media been complacent with Dieudonné?  

The answer is yes.

It must be understood that Dieudonné is an extremely smart man, a complex artist and an equal opportunity offender.  At the beginning of his 2008 show J’ai fais le Con which I saw in Montreal, he talks about the Pygmies who steel the garbage behind his father’s house in Cameroon: “Pygmies are a nuisance, kind of like your Indians”.  

I don’t know how many people in the audience understood the joke was on them.  Dieudonné is actually a defender of the rights of Cameroon’s Pygmies and outspoken about the deforestation that condemns them to a life of beggars on the streets of Yaoundé.  When you know that, the parallel he makes between Pygmies and canadian natives on the streets of Montreal or Winnipeg takes on a whole other meaning. 

Dieudonné delights in the ambiguity and loves exposing our double standards.  Which is, after all, a comedian’s job.  He is also very good at forcing the media to pay attention to him.  Last year, he made far right Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen the godfather of his child and in December 2008 he invited holocaust denier Robert Faurisson on stage with him to give him a Free Speech award.

Which brings us to Dieudonné’s most controversial topic: is his claim that there is a « hierarchy of suffering » in society, notably expressed in the way that Jewish suffering and the Holocaust is considered a worse crime than the slave trade.

He did not come up with that himself.  This is a fairly common discourse, notably in some radical parts of the African-american community.

It is a heavy question.  Certainly one worthy of public discussion.  

Another question that should be discussed publicly is why people like Dieudonné who are preoccupied with this « hierarchy of suffering » are obsessed with Jews?  Why not the fact that the condition of African-Americans receives more attention than that of Mexican natives?  Or that the world takes to the street for Tibet and Palestine and could care less about the Kurds?  Or that the world knows a whole lot more about the « plight » of Anglo-Quebecers than they do about the struggle of Franco-Manitobans? 

Is this focus on Jews not a « hierarchy of the scapegoats »?

The fact that the Québec media merely labelled Dieudonné a “controversial” comedian when he is in fact, and of his own admission, a radical provocateur raises questions.  The fact that the Québec public is indifferent to his comments about Jews while it is offended by similar statements about black people by pop psychologists and TV comics exposes our own double standards.

That is why the Québec media and public failed.   Not because they gave him a soapbox – he knows how to get those on his own – but because they just smiled and nodded to Dieudonné’s provocations, falsely pretended not to understand, just so they wouldn’t be dragged into the debate.

And it’s the debate that’s important.

Written by angryfrenchguy

March 10, 2009 at 9:09 am

54 Responses

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  1. “A good majority of Canadians come from immigrant backgrounds and while their second language may not be French – they most often speak and/or understand the language of their ancestors.”

    Actually, within a generation or two the immigrant languages are usually gone. Except for Quebec, where immigrants have a much higher rate of ancestral language retention than anywhere else in North America.

    Your second or third generation Pakistani-Canadian or Polish-Canadian in Toronto or Calgary will almost always speak English only, whereas Montreal has tons of third, fourth and even fifth generation people of Greek, Italian, Portuguese, etc. origins who still speak the language of their forebears quite fluently, in addition to French and English.

    Montreal is home to the largest trilingual population in North America – by a longshot.

    Once again, I am not pulling this out of my butt. The numbers are out there (Stats Can, news articles), and the fact is common knowledge among well-informed people.

    Acajack

    March 22, 2009 at 8:20 pm

  2. > many monolingual Anglos believe they know all about the people in those
    > places, but they are in fact isolated from them because those people
    > can effectively hide their thoughts by using their home language.

    It’s simpler than this. It’s not that they’re trying to hide themselves by using their home language, it’s that much of their day happens in this home language, so if you only speak English (or another international language) you just won’t be exposed to it. You don’t really know a country if you don’t understand its language, since you only see its international façade.

    Marc

    March 23, 2009 at 1:02 am

  3. Marc,

    I fully agree. It’s almost impossible to speak a language fluently if you are not exposed to it on a regular basis. That’s why I’m always stunned over the Quebeck separatists ranting and raving about the ROC lack of fluency in French. They fail to mention that even though the population does NOT warrant fluency in French, Canada is encouraging the French language across the country – has declared itself officially bilingual – and promotes the use of the language as much as possible. The 600+ French schools in Ontario attest to that fact – notwithstanding French schools in every Province in the country!
    Quite unlike Quebec that is decimating English schools as quickly as they can. Over 90% of English schools have been wiped out. Even though there is an English speaking population of over 2 million!

    Didi

    March 23, 2009 at 12:05 pm

  4. “That’s why I’m always stunned over the Quebeck separatists ranting and raving about the ROC lack of fluency in French. They fail to mention that even though the population does NOT warrant fluency in French”

    So then how do you explain that francophones in nearly all-French Quebec City are more bilingual than anglophones in Ottawa, the country’s capital, which happens to be right next to a largish Quebec border city, in addition to having a local 15%-20% francophone minority right in Ottawa itself?

    http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-droit/actualites/ottawa-est-ontarien/200903/12/01-835636-quebec-plus-bilingue-quottawa-.php

    Acajack

    March 23, 2009 at 12:29 pm

  5. To Acajack,

    I’d say they are probably starting to see the light, that if you want to communicate with the ROC and the rest of the world – it’s a good idea to be bilingual. I would ‘suggest’ that Quebec City become a beacon of light to rest of unilingual French Quebec including multitudes on the South Shore of Montreal (10 minutes from downtown) who don’t speak a word of maudit anglais.

    As a matter of fact I too have always found it amazing how many Quebec City residents speak English and it is the one city in the Province I’ve visited where (on the whole) they were relatively kind to me – when they recognized my English accent. I’ve visited other places where the “whispers” and sometimes sneers of c’est une anglaise.. made me feel like a bloody martian – even though I was speaking in French!

    So what’s your point about Ottawa? After all given Montreal most probably has a majority English speaking population – and you aren’t complaining that its OFFICIALLY labeled French!

    Didi

    March 23, 2009 at 1:21 pm

  6. To littlerob:

    You wrote: “Check out StatCan. If I am not mistaken, about forty percent of Québec Francophones say they can conduct a conversation in English, while ten percent of Anglophones in the ROC say they can hold a conversation in French.”

    My reply: I think you forgot to mention that 80-90% of non Francophones in Quebec can conduct a conversation in French. And then again it depends on who is checking out the English I’d imagine. As you know the “standards for anglo’s speaking French are much much much higher than the accepted standards for speaking English are. Or are you not familiar with the number of nurses & dentists & other professionals etc.. (one dentist that made the headlines, who was forced to close his many year thriving practice and move to Ontario, even though he was totally fluent in French) who failed the Quebec written French test that even Francophones had difficulty with. I’ve run across many so – called conversational English francophone nurses & some doctors who could barely get a sentence out in English – consider themselves (with Gov’t approval) conversationally bilingual. I’ve always wondered and been very concerned for the anglo and non franco patients that were left in their incompetent hands for a diagnosis. Charles LeMoyne Hospital in Greenfield Park (where half the pop. is English used to be known as the ‘anglo graveyard’. For many years the rabid anti English staff – refused to speak English to the patients! Sadly I must question what those Stats really mean. Given I’ve heard “Je parles pas l’anglais … too many times to count and this is in the Greater Mtl., area… that I’d sure like to know where the 40% are. It would be a joy to meet them. It’d be a joy to meet even 10% who’d speak to me in English. So let me know where they are okay? Gee maybe they’d even want to be friends.

    You wrote: “I once saw where someone wrote that Québec is de jure monolingual but de facto bilingual, while the ROC (NB perhaps excepted) is de jure bilingual but de facto monolingual. I think this is a pretty good analysis. If the government of Québec is trying to prevent its Franco citizens from learning English, I suggest that it is failing to do so.”

    My reply: I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a non francophone who said that lol. And again why is the ROC always used as an example to justify Quebec’s ethnic cleansing of it’s non franco citizens? Hell, using that equation why not use England, Ireland
    etc… The Francophone community CHOSE NOT to go west when the Anglos did. So the population spoke its language. How can anyone use that as an anti French sentiment?? I won’t go into the French schools across the country – even though the numbers haven’t warranted it. The country is officially bilingual. Let’s stay on topic.. it’s Quebec we’re talking about and its “get rid of the English language policy”.

    Didi

    March 23, 2009 at 4:36 pm

  7. My point about Ottawa? I totally disproved your point that the reason most people in the ROC is that they don’t have any use for it and have no exposure to it, by comparing Quebec City to Ottawa. Surely, there is more use and more exposure in everyday life to French in Ottawa than to English in Quebec City, yet Quebec City has more bilingual people (if one excludes Ottawa’s francophones, who are all bilingual of course). That’s my point.

    I and several others here have been around the block and back on the language issue, so sorry but you can’t disguise your anti-French sentiment and anglo-supremacy in the usual “worldliness” and “English is the international language of business” BS with us without getting caught.

    Acajack

    March 23, 2009 at 9:12 pm

  8. “The 600+ French schools in Ontario attest to that fact”
    and
    “I won’t go into the French schools across the country”

    Didi, do you realize there are about 350 French schools in Ontario, which is equivalent to the 350 English schools in Quebec? Now, there are somewhat less Franco-Ontarians than Anglo-Quebecers, and before you jump all over this fact like a pit-bull, note that francophones in Ontario are more spread out across the province, whereas anglos in Quebec are more concentrated, which allows for more concentrated school populations, in the Montreal area especially.

    Didi, you posts are somewhat annoying, short on facts and long on ressentiment, but at least your presence here does have the positive effect of demonstrating the error of those here who claim that people like you do not exist and are purely a figment of our imagination. I’m not a separatist but I’d say separatists couldn’t make up people like you even if they tried.

    Acajack

    March 23, 2009 at 9:22 pm

  9. That an overwhelming majority of Québec’s anglos and allos can get by in French is a remarkable achievement. No argument there.

    The problem with the Canadian census, as Acajack, I think it was, pointed out, is that it is a self assessment. Maybe the census question should be: “Have you been able to conduct repeated conversations in (your acquired language) over a period of time?”

    There are scores of reasons why people will tell you,” j’parle pas anglais.” Your interlocutor may:

    1) Be embarassed about an accent.
    2) Find it fatiguing to function in a second language.
    3) Actually speak English quite well and effortlessly, but prefer to speak French.
    4) Actually be among the sixty percent of Francos who can’t speak English.

    Suggestion: If you address someone in English and your interlocutor says, “huh?”, try switching over to French, if possible.

    I agree that what happened to that dentist was bureaucratic “boulechite.” If he was able to serve his patients in French, and if there were no complaints of malpractice, he should have been permitted to continue his practice.

    Canada is officially bilingual, but somewhere along the line, the federal authorities went along with the idea—this was an attempt, no doubt, to persuade Québec to remain in the Federation—that it was within Québec’s power to be officially French-only. And so it is. And the atmosphere in Québec can sometimes be chilly for anglos. My own French is functional, but I occasionally detect a certain reserve among Francos when I talk to them, and I am sure it is because of my accent. But so far, everyone has continued to talk to me. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

    littlerob

    March 24, 2009 at 6:52 am

  10. What makes you think that Ottawa in Ontario – that accepts both languages by the way, should have more French than Quebec City have English? Are you saying Quebec City francophones who are bilingual should be given a medal or something? Like I said, if they have chosen to become bilingual I think that’s a wonderful thing – and I feel the same way about anyone in any city, especially a city like Ottawa that is majority English – embracing the French language and recognizing the ‘bilingual status’ of Canada. And if there is more use of French in Ottawa – then it proves that the city is open to the growing bilingualism. So what’s the problem? It can only grow as fast as it can. At least it is not Illegal and they don’t have any language laws stifling French like they do English in la belle province.

    And there you go with the anglo supremacy – typical separatist anti anglo comment! As for my anti – French sentiment – well no kidding – what else can you expect the result to be – when my language and culture is being ethnically cleansed out of Quebec. Are you suggesting I roll over and die or leave if I don’t like it? And what’s with your “getting caught” comment? Getting caught by you lurking in the background waiting for me to say something that ‘offends le francophonie’… so you can use my distaste and disgust over the anti anglo racism? Hey I’m not hiding… am right here saying it loud and clear.

    Didi

    March 24, 2009 at 12:15 pm

  11. “What makes you think that Ottawa in Ontario – that accepts both languages by the way, should have more French than Quebec City have English?”

    Because that was the thrust of your original explanation for the discrepancy between the bilingualism levels of anglophones and francophones: most anglos live in the ROC, and have no use for or exposure to French. So I gave you an example of anglos in the ROC (Ottawa residents) who have much more use for and exposure to the other language, than francophones in Quebec City do.

    Acajack

    March 24, 2009 at 12:34 pm

  12. Acajack,

    You are wrong. Ten years ago I did research on exactly how many French schools there are in Ontario compared to the number of English schools in Quebec. And at that time there were 600 French schools. So, unless they closed 250 of them, which I highly doubt – I would imagine my 600 number is even higher today! By the way my great niece is one of those students in a French school in Ontario. As was her mother – who started her education (paid privately) in French in Quebec! Long before the disgusting language laws came into effect!

    You see we encourage multilingualism in our family because it opens the mind to other cultures, languages etc… and enhances our network of friends as well. Every member of my family – from here to Vancouver is at a minimum BILINGUAL – with a good majority being TRILINGUAL and that’s without any language laws!

    As for your more concentrated anglo schools in Montreal? Your point is? I did say – that didn’t I and for 2,000,000 English speaking Quebecers there are maybe… 10-15 (haven’t done a count recently but will get on it because there are probably less…)
    English schools left!

    Well my posts are annoying to you – but rest assured they are NOT short on FACTS. Long on resentment? You betcha!!! And of course people like me exist, I’d say the majority of the anglo/allo community that has been frightened into NOT speaking out. But trust me – the vast majority (who’ve had their language and culture removed) – feel the same way. The ones who claim we don’t exist are usually the ones who wish we didn’t. And the fact that you’re not a separatist does not impress me in the least. That you defend the disgusting language laws says enough.

    Didi

    March 24, 2009 at 12:42 pm

  13. Sad isn’t it that in your home province you have to keep your fingers crossed hoping people will continue to talk to you.

    Didi

    March 24, 2009 at 12:44 pm

  14. “As for your more concentrated anglo schools in Montreal? Your point is? I did say – that didn’t I and for 2,000,000 English speaking Quebecers there are maybe… 10-15 (haven’t done a count recently but will get on it because there are probably less…)
    English schools left!”

    Hmm, 10 to 15 English schools left in all of Quebec. For 100,000 anglophone students (according to the Ministry of Education and the English Montreal School Board). That would mean that each anglo school in Quebec would have between… 6,700 and 10,000 students!

    Those are mighty big schools there Didi!

    And the Montreal Expos, of course, are going to win the World Series at the end of the upcoming baseball season. I plan on being at the stadium when it happens.

    Acajack

    March 24, 2009 at 2:48 pm

  15. He’s not from Quebec, he’s from Pennsylvania. If you’re from Quebec, and an anglo, and under 60 years of age, then you probably should speak at least passable and comprehensible French for everyday interactions. If you don’t, I guess no one can force you but then don’t be surprised if some people treat you like you don’t “belong”.

    I am a francophone who lived most of my life in Ontario. I speak perfect English as do all of my Franco-Ontarian friends, who BTW don’t go around calling Ontario all sorts of nasty names just because the cashiers at Farm Boy in east end Ottawa don’t or won’t serve them in French 100% of the time.

    Acajack

    March 24, 2009 at 3:11 pm

  16. I’m an American from a family that has contacts all over the Francophonie (which contacts have their origin in Québec), but just a visitor and and outside observer. See my post of 3/22. Keeping your fingers crossed is part of trying to function in an acquired language no matter where you are. Just ask my Mexican friend, or the millions of others like him, if you ever come down here. And I’m luckier than him, because in Québec, if, as sometimes happens, I stumble across a concept, people will sometimes say, “c’est quoi le mot en anglais?”

    littlerob

    March 24, 2009 at 3:33 pm

  17. Just a note on acquired languages and accents: I was fortunate in that my parents saw to it that I got a pretty good education in the French language. However, my French teachers, all of whom were Europeans, all neglected to teach me about all of the many little differences between North American French and European French. This sometimes causes difficulties for me in Québec. A parallel might be a French-speaker educated in entirely in Oxford English who goes to Chicago or Edmonton. Not only will that person fail to pick up some things, but s/he will sound “fruity” when s/he speaks.

    littlerob

    March 24, 2009 at 4:13 pm

  18. As for your more concentrated anglo schools in Montreal? Your point is? I did say – that didn’t I and for 2,000,000 English speaking Quebecers there are maybe… 10-15 (haven’t done a count recently but will get on it because there are probably less…)
    English schools left!”

    Hmm, 10 to 15 English schools left in all of Quebec. Acajack wrote: “For 100,000 anglophone students (according to the Ministry of Education and the English Montreal School Board). That would mean that each anglo school in Quebec would have between… 6,700 and 10,000 students!
    Those are mighty big schools there Didi!
    And the Montreal Expos, of course, are going to win the World Series at the end of the upcoming baseball season. I plan on being at the stadium when it happens.”

    That’s right Jack! Most are in immersion or in French schools now. English schools – 10 – 15 if we’re lucky! 3 more going to close soon however, so mabye it’ll be what 9 – 12? If you know of more please post them here! Would love to see them!!!!!! As I’m sure so would the rest of the English speaking community.

    I saw you removed the reply button on your post so had to reply this way.

    By the way the Expos – another lost team – guess people got tired of the unilingual French announcements and stopped coming to the games.

    Didi

    March 24, 2009 at 4:38 pm

  19. What 350 English schools in Quebec? What a total CROCK!

    That WAS perhaps the number BEFORE the ethnic cleansing began – but it sure as hell isn’t today and you bloody well know it. Or why not cut and paste the list of those fictional 350 English Schools.

    Again, Ontario had (at last count 10 years ago) 600 French Schools!!! And probably more today!!

    With 3 more English Schools being threatened with closure AGAIN… and I bet they’re immersion to boot.. because they don’t have enough students to fill the schools anymore… what 350 in one school they said on CJAD a couple of days ago..

    Here’s a Gazette article only one very small sample of the hoops a parent has to go through to keep their child in English School. By the way Mrs. Wozniak had to write a long hearfelt plea BEGGING people to help her on Facebook (and I will get that one for you all to read – it describes the heart wrenching agony parents are forced to endure in la belle province like non I’ve ever read. So much so the media could NOT ignore it. It made national headlines across the country. Imagine that national news that an English kid was ALLOWED to go to English school. Enough said!!

    Feb 02, 2009: MONTREAL – An 11-year-old Montreal boy faces the prospect of being booted out of his English elementary school – all because of “bureaucratic b.s.” and one missing signature, his mother contends.

    A Quebec government committee ruled that Kyle Wozniak, who turns 11 Tuesday, isn’t eligible to attend English school.

    He started his education in French but in September, switched to Willingdon School in the Montreal community of Notre Dame de Grace.

    The government committee explained its decision, citing a lack of proof that Kyle’s parents received the “major part” of primary education in English in Canada. It’s an eligibility requirement for English education under Quebec’s French Language Charter.

    Wozniak, who went to French school, insists Kyle’s biological father did all his schooling in English.

    But they’ve been estranged since Kyle was an infant and Wozniak says she hasn’t been able to reach him for an affidavit about the boy’s schooling.

    With help from his mother Brenda Romanuck in Alberta, the English Montreal School Board nailed down some proof – Kyle’s father attended Grades 3 and 4 in English in Saskatoon as well as English high school.

    But the search for records from two other elementary schools the father attended hit a dead end. The board learned there were no school records at a British Columbia school because of a fire in the 1970s. And a school in Stony Plain, Alta., destroys records once a former student reaches the age of 30.

    “How much more proof do you need?” an agitated Wozniak said Monday. “Do you need a urine or a stool sample to prove that the guy is English?”

    The government committee ruled that Kyle has to attend French school. The English Montreal School Board says it has been instructed by the Education Department to remove Kyle, a Grade 5 student, from their system.

    “We hope somebody at the Ministry of Education who handles these cases will do justice by this child,” Angela Mancini, the board’s chair, said in a statement.

    Reached Monday in St. Albert, Alta., Romanuck said her son did all his schooling in English. “Yes, absolutely,” she said. Romanuck said it seems no matter how much information they try to provide about her son’s schooling: “It’s just never enough.”

    A spokesperson at the Education Department said they do not comment on individual cases for confidentiality reasons.

    Wozniak said her son had difficulties in French school but is thriving in his English school. “I don’t care if they call the cops. They’re not going to pull my son out of that school,” she said.

    Didi

    March 24, 2009 at 4:57 pm

  20. Acajack—are you sure that Franco-Ontarians are that much more spread out than Anglo-Québécois? Someone pointed out on another thread that there are significant Anglo communities to be found in Gaspesie, the Estrie, etc., to which I insisted be added Natives who speak English like the Mohawks, Crees, etc.

    littlerob

    March 24, 2009 at 5:54 pm

  21. Yeah, there is a big difference. According to Ontario’s Office of Francophone Affairs, the breakdown is as follows:

    Eastern Ontario (in and around Ottawa) 41.3%
    Central Ontario (in and around Toronto)25.6%
    Northeastern Ontario (Timmins, Sudbury, North Bay): 25.2%.
    Southwestern Ontario (Windsor): 6.3%
    Northwestern Ontario (Thunder Bay): 1.6%

    In Quebec, if you compare at the Stats Canada language profiles for Greater Montreal and Quebec in general, you’ll find that about 80% of Quebec’s anglos live in metropolitan Montreal.

    Yes there are historic anglo communities in the Gaspé, the Eastern Townships, and several aboriginal groups also speak English, but the sheer numbers are miniscule. I actually think the second largest group of anglos in Quebec is in the Outaouais, where they number about 50,000, and make up around 15% of the regional population.

    But even this 50,000 pales in comparison to the 500-600,000-strong anglo community (out of a total anglo population for Quebec of 700-800,000) in Greater Montreal.

    Acajack

    March 24, 2009 at 9:02 pm

  22. “By the way the Expos – another lost team – guess people got tired of the unilingual French announcements and stopped coming to the games.”

    Yes of course, public address announcements at Canadiens and Alouettes and the defunct Expos games are/were all in French only, as anyone who has been to one can attest. Blablabla.

    Acajack

    March 24, 2009 at 9:05 pm

  23. Acajack—thanks for the figures. They still leave ~2/3 of the Franco-Ontarians in an arc near the Ontario-Québec line.

    Hypothetical: English-speaking seven year old gets separated from parents at Als game and winds up at stadium security post. Will the public address announcement notifying the parents of the child’s whereabouts be in French or English?

    littlerob

    March 25, 2009 at 5:09 am

  24. Interesting question. The PA announcement in a Montreal stadium in this case would be at the very least in English, likely only in that language, or perhaps bilingual. But it would never be in French only. I’ve been to the odd sporting event in Montreal where incidents such as this have taken place and the announcements were generally in English only.

    You reminded me of something that always makes me chuckle when I go shopping in Ottawa. When they call someone on the PA system in a mall in Ottawa, it’s always in English only, but it’s often done by someone with a big French accent (security guys in Ottawa are often francophones for some reason), which makes it quite comical when they are calling a francophone name: “You-werr atten-shonne puh-leeze, woode Jean-Pierre Carbonneau (this part pronounced perfectly the French way of course) riii-porrrte tou dee zeequeur-itay desk on ze mayenne leveulle? I raypeet, woode Jean-Pierre Carbonneau (pronounced perfectly the French way again) riii-porrrte tou dee zeequeur-itay desk on ze maine leveulle. Thank you.”

    Acajack

    April 14, 2009 at 12:05 pm


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