Questions about Quebec

[Numure]

Why arn't you a nosy one

hehe, I already know a little bit about the FLQ, but I want to hear it in someones own words, not just read facts....

To answer your question, I will first of all offer a link.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-71-101-603/conflict_war/october_crisis/clip4

Biased, the french version on radio canada is much less biased.

Now what happenned. The FLQ(Front de Liberation du Québec) is a radical sepratist group that saw light in 1958. They started to plant bombs in mail boxes, and in english towns at the beginning of the 70's. The biggest bomb they planted, was in a stock exchange in downtown montreal. Killed 6 people if I remember correctly. Then they went silent for a few years, till october 1970.

They first kidnaped Pierre Laporte, Québecs labor miniter at the time. Then a few days later, they kidnaped Kames Cross, a british diplomat. They demanded that their manisfesto be read on CBC and SRC. So it was done. Then they also demanded the release of political prisoners, wich was refused by Ottawa. So they killed LaPorte. The rest of Canada over reacted, and marshall law was declared. Troops occupied Montreal, over 500 people we're put in prision for no reason. Quite a bad day for Québec.

After a few days, they came to as deal. They released Cross, and we're allowed safe heaven and most fled to Cuba. But we're re-captured later on.

 

[Numure]

Re: Quebec; Some questions

1.) Does French-Canadians in Quebec learn English at school?, is it mandatory? (I would have thought that it was, but after some encounters with French-Canadians who hardly can speak English, I have to wonder...)

Yes, its mandatory. Starting from 4th grade in elementry. Then all threw high school till secondary 5. I'm fluent, but it isnt the case for most Québécois. We don't need english to work, or live our lives. But most understand english people, they just have a hard time speaking it.

2.) Am I correct in understanding that as long as you have a sign in English, you have to have the sign in French as well, but the fonts have to be bigger on the French sign?, oh, and if you have a sign in French, you do not have to have the sign in English

As said before. French is priority. Any other language added, must be half the size. Note the all Provincial Goverment services do not offer service in english. At least they don't have too. Some do though.

3.) Is it true that there were troubles with McDonald's in quebec, due to that French has no apostrophe ' and by law, McDonald's have to be named McDonalds, and they refuse? has this matter been settled yet? Do you have any info about it?

McDonalds only.

4.) Are there around 7 million people in Quebec?, 6 million French speaking, and 1 million English speaking?

Last years census was close to 8 million. 82% francophone, 11% anglophone and 7% other languages (first language BTW).

5.) Are Quebec around three times as big as France?

Three times the size my friend

6.) What's different in Quebec from the rest of Canada? (except for the French of course )

We are very liberal, open minded (to anything except anglophones), peaceful...... List goes on. We are different on so many different scales.

7.) Any myths that you could prove/disprove?

Don't know any.

8.) Any facts or similar you feel people should know about Quebec?, perhaps some funny stories, or laws etc...

Though pleace call us Québécois, and not French-Canadians. We have no relations to France. And it confuses outsiders, as most belierve we are french immigrants to Canada.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi folks

I'm from Quebec provinc and I can answer to your question.

And yes, english classes are an obligation! English is barely know in region because they do not have the chance to pratise. I think they're english class since grade 2 now. (when I was young, it started at grade 4).

As for the 101 bill, I think it's one of the nicest law we have here. It permit to protect the cultural diversity and the french situation. On sign, it should be 1/3 english and 2/3 french.

And it's way far to be repressive. There's only
4 people designated to verify if the law is respected! There's alot of place, even in Montréal, that do not respect 101 bill.


It's aprox. 82% french speaking.

In montreal, you could see a bunch of people talking in each other in a different language and understand each other!


question 6: Well. It is simply a whole different nation. different value, different language. Take the difference with united Kingdom/Canada....it's barely the same.....but you migth add the language difference.

 

[Vincent_2002]

You ARE wrong Marc-André. It's not a different country here, I feel like I am in Canada. I have lived here my whole life but have visited Toronto, Halifax, Ottawa. All places are very different from eachother. They are all Canadian. I dont know who you guys think you are acting like your better than the rest of us allmighty Quebecois.

I am just as much a Quebecer as you are and Im very very much Canadian. Please dont say "oh you are a montrealer, you are all like that". Montréal is the heart of Québec. We have a say too.

Im sorry if I go off too far for you, but we are not a different nation.

 

[Numure]

Your seem to be an anglophone... And lack respect foir your own culture.. We are Québécois, and very much different then Canadians. Why I say your an anglophone, is because saying we are the same, is the anglophones view..

 

[All Canada]

whoops. just trying out the system here. 8O

 

[Vincent_2002]

Your seem to be an anglophone... And lack respect foir your own culture.. We are Québécois, and very much different then Canadians. Why I say your an anglophone, is because saying we are the same, is the anglophones view..

Numure, you miss my point, tabarnaque!

Canadians are not all the same. We are all different, each part of this country. Did you read my post? I have been to other places in Canada, they are all different!! Toronto is not Ottawa, Ottawa is not Moncton, Toronto is not Halifax.. and so forth. Do you get the idea?

No city in Canada shares the same culture.

You guys think we enjoy the only uniquely different culture in Canada which is not true. Every city has a unique culture, some are radically different. Some are similar.

Have you been to Switzerland, Numure? It's an amazing place because they can all appreciate each other. French, German, Italian, Romansh. Because they all appreciate each other, it is so unique in that each city and canton is unique and they live together in harmony. Geneve, Zurich, Berne. All different place and unique in their own ways.

Canada could be the same way, but some people don't want to live in harmony.

I admit I would not want to live anywhere else in Canada than Quebec, but I still want to be part of Canada because this country is great. We have two official languages and you would be surprised that you can be served in French in other provinces like especially Ontario or Nova Scotia.

I actually had a friend, totally seperatist who then recently moved to Montreal from Trois-Rivières. We became friends and went on a trip to Toronto about 1 year ago. She has a strong accent, you know. We goto a restaurant steak-house in downtown Toronto and the person who waited on us recognized her accent right away and went on to serve her in French. It was broken, but our waiter still served her in French. Ever since that day, she has had a different view on separation and isn't so radical now. She did once believe that nobody else in Canada spoke any French and Quebec were outcasts. How wrong was she? Very wrong.

 

[Vincent_2002]

Hi there All Canada.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not trying to attack you, but you seems to misunderstand the definition of a nation.

And I'll add more....Your relativism toward your interpretation of a culture is simply unlogical. If we follow your logic, we could end up with over 30 millions of culture, of nation in Canada.

Simply illogical.


-I dont know who you guys think you are acting like your better than the rest of us allmighty Quebecois.-

Now, I'm going to be a little bit less gentle. Where the f*ck did you read the Quebec nationalist mouvement think they are better. Saying we're diferent do NOT mean thinking we're better!

I'm going to ask you to see a little video on the Web. It's a video made with one speech of every Parti Québécois leader. (There's no better exemple of Quebec nationalist mouvement).

http://partiquebecois.org/nv/index.php?pq=70

Go take the video about the 35 anniversary of the Parti.


anyway...

I don't feel like explicating today.

 

[Vincent_2002]

I'm sorry I upset you Marc-André.

The better than you part I should not have said, but I do get that impression sometimes.

Why can't we live in the same country with so many different cultures? Have you visited other parts of Canada to test other cultures that have made their ways into our country?

I will watch the video today.

 

[Numure]

If any Nationalist sentimentstill exist in you Vincent, then this might spark your heart.

http://archives.radio-canada.ca/IDC...iables/politique_economie/gaulle_quebec_libre

Now, we arnt better. We are different. That is all we have asked for x number of years... yet it was never given to us. The fact is, there is only two major distinct Nations in Canada (excluding all the different Indian Tribes and the Acadiens), The Anglo-Saxons, and Québécois.

Canada could be a great country, if it would accept that small fact. That small reality..

As for myself, I also live in Montreal. L'Ile-des-soeurs to be exact. I've always been a Nationilist, and so has my family. But we arnt all sepratist, and I havnt always been one. What made me a sepratist, is a trip a took accross Canada 2 years ago. What I notices, is the profound hate Anglophones have for us. No matter what province that is. Only a minority has an open mind... I've been called names ranging from F*cking Frog, pea soup (I don't even know where that comes from, but it was put into a bad context) and so many others that I prefer forgeting. That turned me into a sepratist.

 

[Vincent_2002]

Infact, Canada was Anglo-Saxon and Quebecois many many years ago. It is not that same situation right now. Canada's whole landscape is covered with different minorities and especially so in large cities.

Right now, it is true that Canada's majority is Quebecois or Anglo-saxon. We are in the year 2004 and we can live together like we should be.

I hold Quebec very close to my heart and I would not want to see us treated unfairly, but that happens all the time. People always get mistreated across Canada and across the whole world. We have to live with it, separating will not change that. There will always be an unhappy minority or majority of people.

Quest-ce que vous pensez quand la même personne réfere à quelqu'un chinois comme "chink" ou "gook"? Il y a beaucoup des situations où quelqu'un est raciste, tout le monde! Ce n'est pas seulement à Toronto ou Vancouver ou une petit ville en Alberta. Il est partout!

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry for another post.

But I forgot to add it.

If we work together, we will achieve much more than we could on our own and especially if we are always arguing with each other.

 

[Anonymous]

Allons.

Je suis un ancien fédéraliste. À mon entrée à l'université, j'ai effectué plusieurs lectures, de différentes orientations, et, après une analyse la plus objective possible (ne pas oublier ma préférence envers le Canada uni...), la souveraineté s'est imposée (et je marque mes mots) comme la seule et unique alternative afin de maximiser notre développement économique et notre épanouissement sociale.

(hormis un fédéralisme très assymétrique....qui peut facilement être associé à la souveraineté-partenariat de Parizeau...)

Gérard Bauer: Il y a une seule chose pire que les chaînes et c'est de ne plus en sentir le poids.


Il y a une chose dont je partage ton opinion: la souveraineté m'apparait très difficile atteignable dans le contexte actuel.

Le peuple québécois est victime d'une acculturation politique qui s'est rapidement accéléré à la suite de l'immense déception de 1995. La stratégie adopté par le fédéral après la défaite y est pour beaucoup (on étouffe le Québec pour faire mourir le mouvement souverainiste). Jean Malaurie, géomorphologue français, caractériserait (au conditionnel...) l'évolution de la mentalité québécoise politique comme une clochardisation.

Le meilleur exemple de cette clochardisationest le peu de remous causé apr l'adoption de la loi la plus anti-constitutionelle du Canada, la loi Cadena dirait Michel Vastel (Droit d'Ottawa, auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur la politique), et j,ai nommé, la loi C-20.

Définitivement, la place du Québec est dans une entente semblable à l'union confédérale à l'européenne. Le principe est fort simple: Deux nations soeurs (on ne peut nier notre relative proximité....et différence avec la nation Canadian) qui mettent en commun certains pouvoirs et qui permetterait à la nation québécoise de pouvoir discuter d'égal à égal avec Ottawa.

On n'y perdrais rien. On a juste à gagner avec la souveraineté (autant sur les aspects économiques, socials, et politiques!) Et j'ajouterais que dans la mesure où les relations Canado-Québécoise sont saines, cette souveraineté du Québec profiterais au Canada qui serait libérer du débat constitutionelle.

L'unité Canadienne de Trudeau était un beau rêve. J'en conviens. Un rêve n'est, malheureusement, pas la réalité.

Pierre Bougault avait raison lorsqu'il mentionne que la souveraineté du québec, c'est voler de ses propres ailes.

 

[Anonymous]

Btw...this is me...

 

[Anonymous]

-I would not want to see us treated unfairly, but that happens all the time.-

great contradiction here buddy.....

 

[Numure]

Tellement bien dit. L'Université ma ouvert les yeux a moi aussi, mais a plustôt haussé m'a fievre nationalist... Même si le rêve se fait écrassé pas certain centralist, le rêve de contrôlé notre propre destiné dans se monde de fou, est présent dans le coeur de la majorité des québécois.

Tous se qui nous manque, c'est un deuxième Réné Levesque!

 

[Vincent_2002]

-I would not want to see us treated unfairly, but that happens all the time.-

great contradiction here buddy.....

There is no contradtion Marc-André. Everybody gets mistreated sometimes, and we get that. So does the rest of Canada.

We have to fight for a responsable federal (and provincial) government.

 

[Vincent_2002]

Mes yeux sont également ouverts. Mais la séparation du Canada n'est pas une réponse correcte, nous avons besoin du changement au l'ensemble du Canada.
Votre idée d'une union canadienne semblable à l'EU n'est pas raisonnable en Amérique du Nord, Il y a beacoup des problemes avec cette situation. Il vaut mieux que le Québec fasse partie du Canada, pas sans Canada.




All provinces need more say in Canada's future. I think everybody here agrees with this.

(I know this is English forums guys, but sometimes it is easier to express one's response in another language. Please excuse us).

 

[gnuman]

Yes, Quebec is different

Quebec is much different from the rest of Canada, look at our stores and you'll see why. Quebec has different laws and regulations which sometimes isn't in our benefits, like contests that are run Canada wide except Quebec.

As the Quebec govt sees it fit to verify the validity of the contests and what not it does not pay to "register" their contest with the party responsible for allowing a contest in Quebec. Don't forget once you include Quebec you have to have french as well.

FLQ is sort of an iffy subject on the one end it killed Quebec but on the other Toronto blossomed. No one ever saw the situation that way. Heck Toronto in the 1960s was practically a village there weren't those skyscrapers like there is now. I guess the smart people who fled Quebec for Ontario wished they bought land in TO for the value it is today. The FLQ was the first ever terrorist organization in Canada being watched by the CIA. The FLQ did not stop there (on the contrary to what the Quebecois like with Americans) but there was a plot by them back in the 60s to blow up the Statue of Liberty.

What about McDonald's? Who cares 99% of french people call it McDo.

Quebec is distinct by what we have, hey The Brick just came to Quebec! The good side with Quebec's protectionism stance is that it does allow the smaller guys a better chance of making it. We don't have Price Chopper in Quebec, nor do we have A&P another american chain.

Heck Loblaw's points are just recent in Quebec, through regulations things have to be verified and given the ok.

Another point to bring up the other language in schools. May I remind you that the only reason why the Parti Quebecois had power in Quebec for 25 years was that Robert Bourassa a Liberal made it mandatory for parents who never went to english schools in Quebec had to enroll their children in french schools. English being taught in a french school is a joke. I remember going to highschool (it was english and french for grade 7-8) and they were learning words like cat, dog etc and making sentences. It was a joke. Then again french class in an english school was just a bit better than that. Not that it helps that practically everyone speaks slang in either language. Voulez vous un 'tit mcdo?

You would think that with a Liberal govt that the OLF (Office de la Langue Francais) would be dismembered but they are not. Yes its horrible with what they are doing I would have no problem if signs were bi-lingual with the same sized writing. It just shows you that they are showing their "brains" by thinking that english people are inferior to the french.

Canada is not officially bilingual at all, Canada is english, Quebec is french you can't consider us as a bilingual country like you can consider the millions of hispanics living in the southern part of the states as a biliingual country because they speak spanish and broken english; like the french quebecers here they speak french and broken english.