language politics

If this province doesn’t grow up, I might leave

Latest in U Ottawa language tussle

At this weekend’s PQ brainstorming session—don’t call it a convention!—party members spent much of their time debating just how far they should extend Bill 101’s tentacles. As reported by Le Devoir‘s Antoine Robitaille, party president Jonathan Valois even made a strangely personal plea to Montreal’s wretched Anglos, whose doughy delicacies he just can’t resist:

Montreal’s leading mayoralty candidate is a hard-left separatist

There’s a delicious irony in the thought of Gilles Duceppe coming to the defense of Stéphane “Clarity Act” Dion in the middle of an election campaign. But the sovereignist leader did just that after CTV‘s cheap broadside against the Liberal leader on Thursday, one that Stephen Harper was only too happy to repeat:

Shouldn’t we all be able to speak ENGLISH. Let the world know with this bumper sticker!

I’m willing to give credit where credit is due: For better or worse, Howard Galganov has single-handedly debunked the notion distance makes the heart grow fonder. He’s been out of Quebec language politics for a while now, and I haven’t missed him one bit.

So politicians are supposed to mandate more French music be played during Habs games at the Bell Centre now? That’s what book publisher Michel Brulé was calling for earlier this week. And he had a petition-yes, a petition!-to boot. Apparently, it’s high time the government step in and forcibly remove the C+C Music Factory CD from the arena DJ’s cold dead hands collection and replace it with, um, some Mononc’ Serge perhaps? Or maybe some Claude Dubois would be more appropriate, especially after the “racist and insulting” CBC did away with Dubois’s performance at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Must-reads: Margaret Wente on two-tier justice; Christie Blatchford on the army reservists trial.