Freed said there s a gap between what makes headlines and the interactions on the street between eve

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois briefs reporters at the close of the fall session on Friday December 7, 2012. In the leadup to Quebec's provincial election, worries about a Parti Quebecois victory had some English speakers promising airline reservation philippines they'd pack their bags if the independence-seeking party took power.
MONTREAL In the leadup to Quebec s provincial election, worries about a Parti Quebecois airline reservation philippines victory had some English speakers promising they d pack their bags if the independence-seeking party took power.
The PQ recently tabled a new language law and both its contents and the reaction to it were milder than what would have been expected during this fall s heated and emotional election campaign. airline reservation philippines And while language spats remain a common occurrence, the PQ s stance has softened somewhat since taking office with a minority.
It s not relaxing but there s no imminent massive danger, said Josh Freed, airline reservation philippines an author and humourist who writes a weekly column for the Montreal Gazette, summing up the current mood amongst anglophones.
Anxiety amongst the city s 206,000 English speakers grew in the leadup to the Parti Quebecois airline reservation philippines election victory on Sept. 4. The PQ revived old language debates during the campaign with a focus on identity issues and a promise to strengthen the landmark Bill 101 language law in businesses and post-secondary education.
Others argued the opposite point: they noted that over a longer period, of about 30 years, the trend showed a marked increase in the use of French in the workplace and they said there s no need for stronger measures.
A ticket-taker on Montreal s subway allegedly put a passenger in a head lock and hit her after she tried to address the worker in English. That transit authority launched an internal investigation. Earlier, another subway worker had posted a printed sign in a ticket booth that said, roughly translated: In Quebec, we do things in French.
The ongoing battle over commercial signage continues as well. Several major retailers including Walmart, Best Buy and Costco took the Quebec government to court last month over the provincial airline reservation philippines language watchdog s insistence airline reservation philippines they modify their commercial brand names to include some French.
In St-Lazare, a suburb of Montreal, council decided to make the community French-only after coming under pressure from the province s language watchdog. The announcement comes as a new language bill tabled last week says municipalities must have a majority-anglophone population to be designated bilingual. airline reservation philippines Only 37 per cent of St-Lazare speaks English as a first language.
That same bill was far milder than the one promised in the PQ election platform, which spoke of banning non-anglophones from attending English-language airline reservation philippines CEGEP. The bill still requires those CEGEP colleges to favour the admission of English-speaking students over francophones, to encourage attendance in the French-speaking system.
It s getting to a very sad level of intolerance, said Hugo Shebbeare, a spokesman for an English-language rights group called Office Quebecois de la Langue Anglaise, a play on the government agency that monitors French usage in the province.
The group, which regularly stages protests in Montreal, is concerned about cases of discrimination airline reservation philippines against Anglos and the erosion of rights for English speakers. Shebbeare said he senses a rising level of anglophobia.
Freed said there s a gap between what makes headlines and the interactions on the street between everyday Montrealers. He points to the success of comedian Sugar Sammy, whose half-English, half-French act sold out a month s worth of shows before the first performance.
In Montreal, roughly 13 per cent of the population are first-language English speakers, according to figures released last month by Statistics Canada. In all, about 18 per cent of the population speak English at home, including those with a mother tongue other than English.
More than 50 per cent of Montrealers can speak both French and English. Many unilingual anglophones who had been reluctant to learn French left Quebec after the PQ swept to power in 1976 and adopted Bill 101.
There are pockets in Montreal s west end where English airline reservation philippines remains predominant but statistics suggest anglophones have become more integrated. While Montreal s anglophone community may be undergoing a transformation, it remains distinct from elsewhere in Canada, Freed said.
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