The planet Couillard

Photo Simon Clark
Philippe Couillard

Joseph Facal

Saturday, December 9, 2017 05:00

UPDATE
Saturday, December 9, 2017 05:00

Look at this article

“Ridiculous” : this is the term used by Philippe Couillard to qualify the debate around the ” Hello/Hi “, that he has put in the same basket as the Pastagate of the past.

This man shows an insensitivity on the issue of identity, which would have been unimaginable in former liberal leaders like Robert Bourassa and Claude Ryan.

The two cases have nothing to do.

The Pastagate is born to the isolated decision and a fool of an employee who was resentful of the use of a word – “pasta” – which is part of the universal lexicon of the kitchen, like “hamburger” or ” strudel “.

If the debate on the “Hello/Hi” has become such a problem, it is that the nine small letters are indicative of something more deep and meaningful than the lack of judgement of an individual.

Decline

The proliferation of “Hello/Hi” illustrates the decline of the predominance of French as the language of work in Montreal.

When the French gave way to a bilingual de facto, you are in the antechamber of the next step, which will be the preponderance of the English, as you know all too well the francophones in the rest of Canada.

Behind the ” Hello/Hi “, the real issues were well summarized by two traders met recently in The Journal.

Trader in Côte-des-Neiges, Richard, French-born, said : “immigrants are completely mixed when they arrive here. They are left to themselves. They are fleeing from war and misery. Learn French, they don’t care completely. “

“By working here, we’ll stay with our community. We don’t need to learn French. English, that’s enough, ‘ said another of indian origin.

As was noted sadly by one of my readers, ” between us, we speak the wolof quebec and one passes naturally to the language of business for the vrâ-z-business. The native language for the intimacy, the feelings, the emotions, and the public language (English) for the rest. “

This is indeed what we see in many ex-colonies in Africa : the language of the majority becomes a language that serves to express cultural difference, but that fades as soon as it is question of what really counts.

Contempt

Mr. Couillard, to him, seems to live in a mental world bipolar.

On one side, there’s the Quebec city of Saint-Félicien, where is his house, where French alone.

On the other, there’s this jet-set international, where it is defined as ” citizen of the world “, and the top of which we look with condescension those who must live in Montreal and see with sadness the decline of their national language.

Mr. Couillard projects the image of a man is haughty, who does a great favor to the natives that we are to condescend to devote his time to govern our tribe and to heal us of our unfortunate closed-mindedness.