Robert Libman: Stay or leave Quebec? My thinking has changed

Article content

“Should I Stay or Should I Go?” aptly describes the debate that’s been playing out in Gazette opinion pieces and letters in recent days. The song lyrics from the appropriately named band The Clash asks the question that many young Quebec anglophones face when they start to think about their future.

The English-speaking community has faced this existential crisis for decades. Beginning in the 1970s — with the surge of Quebec nationalism, language legislation, the election of a separatist government and imminent referendum on sovereignty — hundreds of thousands picked up and left. The community and its institutions were severely weakened, but those who remained adapted, becoming more bilingual, with English schools progressively intensifying French programs.

Article content

There have been peaks and valleys since then, including the heightening of language tensions in the mid-to-late 1980s when Liberal Premier Robert Bourassa invoked the notwithstanding clause to overturn a Supreme Court judgment that struck down parts of language law Bill 101. There were constitutional reforms — Meech Lake and Charlottetown — that polarized the nation, culminating in the 1995 referendum that the No side won with a razor-thin majority, that contributed to considerable angst. But since then, except for the occasional “Pastagate”-type controversy, linguistic peace seemed to prevail — until the election of the Coalition Avenir Québec government in 2018.

In the 1980s, with so many of my schoolmates and relatives having left, part of me was tempted to do the same after finishing university. But I did not feel right about pulling up roots and giving up. Still, I was sufficiently upset with what was happening to get involved politically, and I unexpectedly got elected to the National Assembly on a minority-rights platform. (But that’s another story.)

Article content

While those who left, including two of my younger brothers, might have no regrets — and shudder at the thought of anyone having to endure our exhausting political distractions — I felt that bilingual anglophones, able to speak both the language of the majority in Quebec and the majority in North America, could derive a major advantage here. That’s how I felt then. Looking forward, however, in the context of what we’re going through now, I feel it would be wrong today to encourage young anglophones to stay.

The past few years have been extremely troubling, with the CAQ going beyond the notion of protecting French toward the disenfranchisement of the anglophone community, harshly demeaning its historic contribution to Quebec society. This government’s attack on valued institutions like world-class universities, its directives to francize and restructure English health-care institutions, and its tightening of the screws with onerous Bill 96 language regulations are but a few examples of excessive overreach.

With all the usual hurdles young people face, how can we in clear conscience encourage them to stay when their government makes them feel devalued, even if they are perfectly bilingual?

Article content

The last straw for me is the federal government’s complicity in treating anglophones as second-class citizens by including references to Bill 96 in the revamp of the Official Languages Act. Much irreparable damage has been inflicted over the past few years and is unlikely to be reversed, even if the provincial Liberals return to power.

Those who organize protests and new political parties merit our gratitude. By waiting it out and continuing to fight, maybe we will see the pendulum eventually swing back somewhat, aided by immigrants who expand diversity. (Cue nationalist alarmism.) But I don’t see this happening in the short term.

Of course, the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere, and there is much to be positive about Montreal and Quebec. Most anglophones and francophones get along, though unfortunately there still exists a troubling conspiracy of silence. Francophones haven’t sufficiently questioned the government’s actions of recent years, or acknowledged the value of their anglophone community compatriots.

Until that changes, it pains me to say that young anglophones will be more welcome, and likely to best thrive, elsewhere.

Robert Libman is an architect and planning consultant who has served as Equality Party leader and MNA, mayor of Côte-St-Luc and a member of the Montreal executive committee. X @robertlibman

Article content

Article content