The “Bonjour/Hi” is a “sign of respect”, says Kathleen Weil

Photo Simon Clark
Harshly criticized by the English-speaking community, the minister Kathleen Weil says now that the formula “Hello/Hi” is a sign of respect, even though it supported a motion that calls for its demise.

Charles Lecavalier

Wednesday, 6 December 2017 13:04

UPDATE
Wednesday, 6 December 2017 13:09

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Harshly criticized by the English-speaking community, the minister Kathleen Weil says now that the formula “Hello/Hi” is a sign of respect, even though it supported a motion that calls for its demise.

• READ ALSO: The national Assembly said bye bye to the “Hello/Hi”

“I understand the reaction of English. I would say “Hello/Hi”, because I am in Montreal often, I see it as a sign of respect,” explained the minister responsible for Relations with anglophones, on Wednesday.

“The person says, perhaps she would like to speak in English, but she answers “Hello/Hi” because she returns the respect is saying, maybe this person would like to continue in English or in French,” she explained.

Ms. Weil is trying to limit the damage in the English-speaking community since the adoption last Thursday of a motion which “calls on all the traders and all the employees who are in contact with local and international clientele and to welcome them warmly with the word”hello”.

The reaction has been particularly strong in Montreal, “because the people are bilingual, speak two languages”. “It is an open city, open to diversity, it is very multi-lingual Montreal is a city open to the world […] What they have rejected, and it is this notion that the “Hello/Hi” would be shocking”.

She also believes that voters who complained to his constituency office during the week-end have not understood. “Them, they have the misery to follow what is happening in the national Assembly. They thought we had legislated to ban the “hi”. It was extreme,” she started. She also believes that the anglophone media have been “very emotional” on this issue. “The message there was that positive, it is this is not what has been understood by the community”, she lamented.

She does not believe, however, that the minister of Culture, Marie Montpetit, has committed a faux pas by saying on TVA that the “Hello/Hi” was an “irritant”. It considers, however, that the mastery of several languages is necessary to fully understand the debate.

“I listen to the francophone media and a lot of French speakers say it. A given time, the francophones are going to respond one way, English speakers another. And those who are bilingual, trilingual, multilingual, we are able to see the two reactions,” she noted.