Friday, February 22, 2013

Language equality or English supremacy?


Since the election of the Parti Quebecois on September 4th 2012, Anglophones in Quebec seem to be whipping themselves into a frenzy. It may be because of the NDP sweep of Quebec in the 2011 federal elections and certain polls at the time showing that support for sovereignty in Quebec was dropping that Anglos felt that this whole “Québécois” thing was coming to an end. They must have felt that the time was right to start pushing back and getting Quebec back on the path to assimilation. Then comes this minority PQ government trying to impose their new language laws on everyone!?! It was muscle-flexing time. A bunch of Anglos came together on Facebook on a site called “Put Canadian Flag back In Quebec Assembly” (which is kind of ironic because that foreign flag was never actually removed). The owners of this site began seeing themselves as the center of a new Tahrir square movement and they began promising a huge demonstration against these modifications to the language laws on February 17th 2013 .

They were going on about it for months. They kept telling us that thousands had said “maybe”.  In the end, barely two hundred people showed up for this gathering. It was a huge failure but the organizers blamed the weather. It's nothing new, even the Nazis blamed the weather for their failures (Wow, it is easy to make gratuitous comparisons with Nazis). But what were that handful of people really doing out there? In their postmortem, they gave a few reasons like:
  • Bill 14 would give the PQ language minister Diane de Courcy judicial type powers of seizure and the ability to seize personal computers, files, documents and whatever they feel admissible.
I have no idea where they came up with this one. I couldn't find it anywhere. I'm sure it was "implied" somehow...
  • Bill 14 would close a loophole that allows francophone military families a right to send their children to English schools.
The official language of Quebec is French. Public education in Quebec is in French. There are a few exceptions for Anglos and Native people, but why should we make exceptions for grunts? I don't get it.
  • Bill 14 would force high school and CEGEP students to have a “mastery” of the french language in order to graduate. Please note high schools and CEGEPS already have french language immersion and requirements to graduate. What the PQ considers “mastery” is unknown at this moment.
Governments impose standardized tests all the time. Why should we be shocked about this one? Maybe there are a lot of Anglo graduates who still can't function in French. I certainly know a few.
  •  Bill 14 would strip municipalities and their citizens of bilingual status and publications.
Demographics change all the time. When Francophones asked for services in French in English Canada, they were often told that those services incurred costs and that they were only given "where numbers warrant". The fact that Quebec would apply the same standards makes it racist!

We were then given the following stirring words:

They WERE there to express how they love freedom, equality and liberty. They WERE there to tell them they want a Constitution that you may very well take for granted, to apply to them as Quebeckers and Canadians and not just the rest of Canada.

The next time you gauge your pride in your nation by donning a Team Canada jersey, the next time you sew on the flag to your backback before you travel, the next time you hold your head high and think, "I am proud to be a Canadian" you need to ask yourself the following questions: 

Ask yourself how would you feel if your rights were being taken away in the most offensive and apparent ways? And what if your fellow countrymen have remained silent and abandoned you for over 40 years?

These Quebecers and proud Canadians who, despite insurmountable odds, threats and acts of violence against them, and regardless of laws that already exist which classify them as second class citizens came out to stand in solidarity.

Francophones, anglophones, immigrants and people from all cultural backgrounds in finger numbing cold and despite every  justifiable reason to believe an entire country has forgotten them, today they stood arm-in-arm to say they still love their country. And regardless of the odds, they stood together to say, "We are proud to be Canadians!".

After today, I feel a very strong case could be made for them being the greatest Canadians in the nation. So the next time you take a moment to reflect on what Canada means to you, take a moment to think of them. The Quebec protestors that stood there in the cold for hours and remember that on Feb 17th 2013, they showed the rest of Canada that they DO care.

So please do not abandon them,  they have not abandoned you Canada.
I nearly lost my lunch reading that crap. As nauseating as it sounds, these are the terms in which they frame their "struggle". On their site, they have referred to themselves as freedom-fighters and Quebec's language laws are routinely described as the most vile oppression since Nazi Germany. Believe me, I'm only slightly exaggerating. The Facebook page purports to be fighting against language discrimination and is filled with stories about the OQLF's sillier antics,  people refusing to speak English in the metro and basically anything negative about Pauline Marois. Recently there were two videos that were highlighted on their page which sheds some light on what is being portrayed as "language discrimination" in Quebec.


The case of Onehundredjobs:



This video is made by someone who is known on Youtube as Onehundredjobs. Ms Jobs starts by tells us of her upbringing in Ontario, going to French immersion school and moving to Quebec, etc. Then she tells us of her dismay at seeing a reemergence of old battles she felt had been resolved in the 2000s. I have no idea what she believes was resolved during the reign of the Charest cabal. I guess to some, a corrupt government in Quebec City that doesn't give a shit about the future of Quebec equals problem solved. Ms Jobs then moves on to the changes to Quebec's language laws proposed by the PQ which she completely distorts. According to Ms Jobs, Anglophone kids will now be forced to go to French daycare. She characterizes this shocking law as FASCIST!

Meanwhile back in the real world, what the PQ are proposing is extending a watered down version of Bill 101 to publicly subsidized daycares. As usual, Anglophones are exempt. Francophones and immigrants have French subsidized daycares available to them. If that is not acceptable, private daycares are available in English or other languages. Fascism indeed!

Ms Jobs then moves on to denounce fictitious laws that demand that shop clerks address customers in French only. No such laws exist but nonetheless, the hysterical Ms Jobs boldly asserts that she will not be EXTERMINATED! Her act of defiance is to refuse to speak French. Of course, she won't be the first Anglophone in Quebec to refuse to speak French... Not by a long shot!

Ms Jobs responds to challenges to her assertions by deleting them and blocking anyone who disputes her version of reality.


The case of Mohamed H. Amin:





This video is made by Mohamed H. Amin. He is not insane, he is a limited edition. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean but Mr Amin seems to think it is quite clever. This is about his visit to the SAAQ. If what he says is true, someone at the SAAQ refused to speak to his wife and him in English. She told them that they are in Quebec and we speak French here. He reminded her that she is NOT in Quebec but in Canada and Canada has two official languages, English and French. It is his choice and since he pays her salary through his taxes, he can choose to speak to her in English if he wants. But she kept on speaking in French.

Then, she hit the "next" button. This humiliated Mohamed in front of his wife and child (the dramatic music stops when he says this... to make it more dramatic). Moe wanted to complain to the manager but his wife said it was useless because the government encourages this behavior.  Moe then feared that one day his daughter will be brainwashed by the government and tell him that he has to speak French because we are in Quebec! Discrimination has become a culture in Quebec according to Mr Amin.

Mr Amin clearly does not understand how the Canadian system works. The different tiers of government are a mystery to him. He simply can't get his head around how the federal government can have two official languages but a provincial government can have just one. Yet this is the case for 9 out of 10 provinces. The official language of Alberta is English and their version of the SAAQ is under no obligation to offer services in French. If Quebec and the SAAQ are guilty of language discrimination then so are all the other provinces with the exception of New Brunswick. But the accusation of discrimination only seems to apply to Quebec.

It was suggested to Moe that if he were truly concerned about discrimination, perhaps he should make a video about the plight of the Copts (Christians) of Egypt who face a rather violent form of discrimination. Mr Amin answered that there is no discrimination against the Copts in Egypt. He said it was all just Western lies designed to undermine the Muslim Brotherhood. He then added that the Copts were also guilty of violence against Muslims. So basically, it's all lies and, anyways, they do it, too.

Clearly logic and honesty are not among Mr Amin's virtues. And clearly his video has nothing to do with denouncing any discrimination in Quebec. It is about a personal vendetta Mr Amin has against an employee of the SAAQ. Moe has simply expanded this vendetta to include all Francophones in Quebec.

Quebec's language laws

Quebec's language laws are not about exterminating Anglophones in Quebec as some hysterical headless chickens would have you think. They are not about discrimination and they are not about racism. They are about ensuring that French is the common language in Quebec just like English is the common language everywhere else in Canada. More importantly, they are about integrating immigrants.

Canada has been a demographics battle ground for a long time. After the rebellion of 1837, it was decided that Francophones in Canada should be assimilated through massive immigration from the British isles. At that time Francophones were still the majority in Canada. By the 1850s they had become a minority. By 1900, Francophones made up roughly 30% of the population of Canada. Today, Francophones represent only 23% of the population. There is a certain trend here that is kind of hard to miss.

When the supply of British immigrants ran out, Canada began luring people from other parts of Europe offering incentives to populate Western Canada.  This is the same era that saw the banning of French schools throughout English Canada and a surplus of people in Quebec who saw no alternative but to immigrate to the USA. It's not just a trend but a deliberate pattern with a very obvious aim.

Immigration has been used as a weapon against the French-speaking population of Canada for a long time. The counter-attack came in the form of a prodigious birth rate but that is now gone. If the Francophones of North America are to survive they need to integrate immigrants. This is an up-hill battle when you are a minority in someone else's country. Immigrants naturally tend to join the dominant group. Before Bill 101, 90% of immigrants to Quebec ended up as Anglophones.

Quebec's language laws have had some success in integrating immigrants. Now roughly 50% become Francophones. It's still not enough but it is an improvement. However, the language laws are a double edged sword. They seem to have lulled a significant portion of Francophones into a false sense of security. The decline has become slower and more incremental. It becomes easier to pretend that maybe Quebec can exist in Canada. The reality is that Quebec's position in Canada is untenable. Only by becoming a majority in an independent Quebec will there be a real future for the French-speaking people of North America.

Anglophones like those behind the Flag site pretend that there is some kind of equality between English and French in Canada and so protection of one language and not the other is inequality and discrimination. In reality, French and English are not on equal footing in North America. Anglophones are in no way a minority on this continent. Francophones are the 2% minority. Let's get that straight. Calling for institutionalized bilingualism in the province of Quebec is calling for the slow extermination of a culture and I'm sure that these Flagheads know it. Even an idiot can see it:







18 comments:

  1. Nazis and Fascism not from French Quebecer
    But HARPER maybe ???

    ReplyDelete
  2. This clip from Trudeau is fascinating. The guys points that Québec can not be bilingual without lossing its French but he has done everything to destroy our culture and negated our rights to protect our language and access sovereignety democratically.

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  3. I thnk you need to update your dis- information as the fact is they are chjanging the with BIL 14 to have the RIGHT TO SEIZURE

    OLD *** 166. The Office may, for the purposes of this Charter, make inspections and inquiries.
    Section 166 * the Charter is replaced by the Following section:“
    166.
    The Office may designate any person, generally or specially, to make an inquiry or an inspection.”

    OLD*** 175. The Office may, for the purposes of this chapter, require a person to forward any relevant document or information within the time it fixes.

    175.3.
    During the course of an inspection, the person authorized to act as an inspector may seize anything which he or she believes on reasonable grounds may prove the commission of an offence under this Act or the regulations.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You can compare the yourself on-line

    New Bill 14 ammendments:
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/128228150/12-014a

    and
    Official Charter from QC Gove here
    http://www2.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type=2&file=/C_11/C11_A.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Regarding BILL 14 Here are the biggest problems that we are fighting against.

    Here is some info regarding BILL14
    Petition against Bill 14
    http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/projets-loi/projet-loi-14-40-1.html

    Following is a list of just five of the most shameful elements of Bill 14.

    1. The Bill eliminates the term of law "ethnic minorities" which is a human rights designation in the UN Covenant on Human Rights (1948), The UN Covenant on Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992), The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance Quebec City Declaration (Oct.2012, accepted by this very government, the Canadian Charter and the Quebec Charter, with the designation of "cultural communities" which has no legal standing. Quebec thus becomes the first western democratic jurisdiction to opt out of an international human rights convention regime.

    2. The Bill gives inspectors for the OQLF the power to seize anything in a place of business that they find objectionable; go to the director of criminal and penal prosecutions; swear out an affidavit; and get a court judgment for $2500 without any notice to the citizen. Quebec thus becomes the first western democratic jurisdiction to allow prosecutions without notice, a basic tenat of western law for a thousand years and considered by Montesquieu in "Les ésprits des lois" to be the basis of civilized legal regimes. Actually, Revenue Quebec officers had that power for a year and a half until I got that changed working with Jean St-Gelais, then DG of RevQue, now head of the fonction publique.

    3. The Parti Québecois has since its founding in 1970 made respect for ``démocratie locale`` a foundational organizing principle. Bill 14 will do away with bilingual status for the 89 municipalities - 70 of them more than 90% francophone - who have passed resolutions stating that they wish to retain their bilingual status. So much for local democracy.

    4. Sec. 33 of this Bill directs anglophone Cegeps not to consider any applications from francophone students until all anglophone applications have been accepted. That`s called segregation. Would we ever accept this if instead of anglophone we used the word "men" and instead of francophone we used the word "women." Standards based on language are as discriminatory as those based on color, gender, or religion.

    5.Soldiers who risk their lives for our safety will be forced to send their children to French schools even if they have been transferred here from other parts of the country and are themselves anglophones. Eliminating the Bill 101 exemption for soldiers is simply odieux.

    People should read the Bill. And understand that evil is possible here. The bill is not about language. It is a venal attempt by a government that has had to back away from almost all its promises to keep its `"pur et dur" in line through the politics of demonization, nullification and interposition.

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    Replies
    1. ma,

      I haven't had much time to look into your claims yet but I'll start responding to them anyways. First of all, my article is about the hysteria, disinformation and hypocrisy surrounding English Canadians' attitude towards Quebec's language laws. Legitimate criticize of these laws and the proposed changes to them are possible. I, personally, am not a big proponent of language laws. I see them as a poor substitute for what is really needed, which is independence.

      That said, lets start looking at you first criticism of Bill 14:

      1. The Bill eliminates the term of law "ethnic minorities" which is a human rights designation in the UN Covenant on Human Rights (1948), The UN Covenant on Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992), The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance Quebec City Declaration (Oct.2012, accepted by this very government, the Canadian Charter and the Quebec Charter, with the designation of "cultural communities" which has no legal standing. Quebec thus becomes the first western democratic jurisdiction to opt out of an international human rights convention regime.

      It is true that Bill 14 proposes to replace “the ethnic minorities” in the third paragraph by “cultural communities” therefore changing this:

      Whereas the National Assembly intends to pursue this objective in a spirit of fairness and open-mindedness, respectful of the institutions of the English-speaking community of Québec, and respectful of the ethnic minorities, whose valuable contribution to the development of Québec it readily acknowledges

      to this:

      Whereas the National Assembly intends to pursue this objective in a spirit of fairness and open-mindedness, respectful of the institutions of the English-speaking community of Québec, and respectful of the cultural communities, whose valuable contribution to the development of Québec it readily acknowledges

      The term ethnic minority is often used to describe a minority group who have an equal historical claim to a land as the dominant group. Some examples would include the Berbers in North Africa, the Maoris of New-Zealand, the Mayas in Mexico and Guatemala or the Pashtun of Pakistan. In Canada, the term would apply to the native people and to French Canadians. Expecting these ethnic minorities to assimilate to the dominant group is the equivalent of cultural genocide.

      In Quebec, there are groups that are recognized along these lines and are granted special rights. These groups are the traditional Anglophone community and the Native people. In the original text of the Charter of the French language the term "ethnic minority" is used to describe communities of recent immigrants to Quebec as a kind a recognition of their contribution.

      However, recent immigrants are not entitled to special rights and privileges. If I immigrate to Brazil, can I claim to be an ethnic minority that is entitled to special protection? Of course not. In fact, Brazilian society will expect me to learn their language and integrate their culture.

      The Anglophone community of Quebec was referred to in the original Charter as "the English-speaking community of Québec" and that terminology will not change with Bill 14. The terminology is changing for people who have no special rights, they have the same rights as everyone else. Yet you are claiming that "Quebec thus becomes the first western democratic jurisdiction to opt out of an international human rights convention regime"... How exactly is that?

      This reminds me of the absurd "slippery slope" arguments often employed by people like Glenn Beck where a rather insignificant event is blown up into the first step towards the Fourth Reich. I think, in this case, you have proved my point about the hysteria and distortions.

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    2. ma,

      You claimed:

      5.Soldiers who risk their lives for our safety will be forced to send their children to French schools even if they have been transferred here from other parts of the country and are themselves anglophones. Eliminating the Bill 101 exemption for soldiers is simply odieux.

      You are partially wrong. The 'Canada clause' of the Bill 101 exempts all the anglophones across Canada (including the soldiers).

      So, Bill 14 will basically only prevent the Francophone soldiers from sending their children to the English public schools in Quebec.

      This is not odieux, this is équitable.

      Delete
  6. Bill 14 has nothing to do with protecting French. It's just a xenophobic attack on the others aimed at whipping up les petits Québécois, making them believe there is a huge conspiracy against their precious superior race.

    You want to protect French? Open up to the others, spread you culture instead of isolating yourself in your small Franco-ghetto, teach it properly and, most important of all, CHANGE the crappy attitude towards the others. And, stop shifting the blame onto the others.

    Remember: the surviving of a language has a lot more to do with the attitude of its speakers than with the language itself! When you get the message in the right way, French will be spoken again. Until then, free fall for French!

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    Replies
    1. Marko, you know your nasty little, ignorant comment is just dripping with racism. I think we'll pass on taking advice on how to protect our language from the likes of you... Thanks anyways!

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. It's funny, because, when somebody points out Quebecois' faulty way of reasoning, he is accused of being 'ignorant', 'nasty', 'racist'...

    What about you statement '..that foreign flag was never actually removed'? Canada as a foreign state? Sorry, but your ignorance and nastiness cannot beat those of my statement.

    I stress: if you think statement like 'Canada as a foreign state' will spur people to speak French and to feel welcome, you are dead wrong. It boils down to the attitude, not the language.

    I can speak and write French fluently and I am not barring myself from speaking it, but attitudes like yours turn away lots of people from speaking French.

    BTW, it should be VERITAS (veritas, veritatis) ET IUSTITIA (iustitia, iustitiae) (or, using the Latin of the Catholic Church, JUSTITIA). Justicia is Spanish, not Latin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "It's just a xenophobic attack on the others aimed at whipping up les petits Québécois, making them believe there is a huge conspiracy against their precious superior race." is not pointing out the Quebecois' faulty way of reasoning. It is the racist babbling of a brainwashed mind.

      The Canadian flag is a foreign flag to me just as the Spanish flag is foreign to many Catalans or the Chinese flag is foreign to Tibetans. I don't see how it is a nasty comment for me to say so. Nor is it meant to encourage people to speak French!?! That's a bit of a non sequitur, don't you think?

      As for my nom de plume, IUSTITIA would not be understood my most and JUSTITIA had a little too much "TIT" in it, Justicia works just fine... Why? Do you have something against Spanish?

      Delete
  8. Well, I have just pointed out that JUSTICIA is not Latin and you jumped to the conclusion I must be bearing something negative against Spanish...

    Sorry, but with your belligerent, suspicious and negative attitude no rational exchange is possible.

    Thanks anyway for the answers.

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  9. "Quebec's language laws are not about exterminating Anglophones in Quebec as some hysterical headless chickens would have you think. They are not about discrimination and they are not about racism. They are about ensuring that French is the common language in Quebec just like English is the common language everywhere else in Canada. More importantly, they are about integrating immigrants."

    I think you know pretty well that this is a lie. The main aim of Bill 101 was to increase French by removing as much English as possible from the Quebec territorial landscape. Proponents of Bill 101 claim that anglophones still have the right to manage their own school system. This is a useless right if virtually no one is allowed to attend the institutions. By not allowing a single immigrant family to integrate into the English speaking minority, it is a sure way to eliminate the public English school system within a few generations. It doesn't take a rocket science to figure out the reason that a dozen or so English public schools are forced to close every few years. The supposedly terribly treated French speaking minority of Ontario has more French public schools than Quebec has English, despite the minority being half the size of Quebec's English population in terms of percentage. I think you begin to realize the real motive behind the language laws when the government stunts any effort by Engish school boards to boost enrolment in their institutions, even when it's within the bounds set by Bill 101 itself.

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    1. Anyone who has attended English schools anywhere in Canada has the privilege to send their children to Quebec's English school network. You seem to be implying that this group has a 0% birth rate.

      Census data shows that approximately 49% of allophone immigrants assimilated to English in 2001, down from 71% in 1971, but still considerably more than Quebec's anglophones' overall share of the province's population. Why is that? It's due to the sheer dominance and power of attraction of the majority language in North America: English.

      Bill 101 not only brought the number of immigrants that assimilate to English in Quebec down from 71% in 1971 to 49% in 2001 but it also created new breed, very rare elsewhere; the bilingual Anglo. You're welcome!

      A reasonable person would recognize that French is a minority language in North America, and as an English speaker, would accept that it is reasonable that in Quebec French will be the common language, not English. But it seems that reasonable Anglos in Quebec are in short supply.

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    2. Anglophones are a minority in Quebec in the sense that there are more francophones than anglophones in this province. But what is equally obvious is that anglophones in North America are the overwhelming majority. Anglo-Quebecers are part of this majority and they benefit from being part of the majority. English is simply ubiquitous.

      Even if we ignore all of the publicly funded institutions in Quebec that offer services in English, there is the abundance of English in films, TV, books, newspapers, radio, and on and on. There is also the fact that 42% of Quebecers are bilingual, so getting service in English is rarely a problem. Whenever a francophone does refuse to speak English, it becomes "Breaking News" on CJAD. A real linguistic minority doesn't have any of that.

      In fact, when a group of anglophones went before the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations in 1993 claiming that they were victims of violations of article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Committee observed that "provisions of article 27 refers to minorities in States", which English-speaking people in Canada are not. It stated that the "authors therefore have no claim under article 27 of the Covenant".

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    3. Even if we consider Anglo-Quebecers as real minority, they have an enviable situation compared to other minorities. Quebec anglophones have their own publicly funded schools system, which they control. This includes three English-only universities that get a third of all government financing for higher education. There are roughly 15 hospitals in Quebec where you are guaranteed service in English. Most government services are available in English on demand. All laws passed in Quebec are written in French and English. You have the right to use English in the National Assembly. In fact, anyone in Quebec has the right to demand that all of his court proceedings be in English. Therefore a judge in Quebec must be able to render verdicts and pass sentence in English.

      We just need to compare to see the stark differences. In the Greater Sudbury region of Ontario where francophones make up 28% of the population there is only one partially bilingual hospital where, in the words of Denis Constantineau, director of the Sudbury Community Health Center, you can be admitted to the hospital in French, but you will likely die in English because the more you progress in the system, fewer French services are offered.

      Or as we recently saw in the Caron case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Alberta had no constitutional obligation to translate its laws into French. So you, as a Quebec anglophone, have rights that francophones in most English Canada do not have.

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    4. If you're willing to go back in time a little for this "let's compare" exercise, we could also consider the following laws which were passed in English Canada:

      1871 - New Brunswick: The Common School Act imposes double taxation measures against French Catholic schools.

      1877 - Prince-Edward-Island: The Public School Act puts an end to the teaching of French in schools.

      1890 - Ontario: The Liberal government of Oliver Mowat adopted a law stating that English must be the language of education except when children cannot understand it.

      1890 - Manitoba: Official Language Act banning French, formerly an official language in the province. Premier Greenway diminishes the rights to French school, abolishes its use in the Parliament and in the Courts of the province.

      1891 - Ontario: The minister of education, George W. Ross, bans all French school books in Ontario.

      1905 - Alberta: The School Act of that year imposed English as the only language of instruction, while allowing some use of French in primary classes.

      1909 - Saskatchewan: The School Act makes English the only language of instruction but allowed limited use of French in primary classes. In 1929, a different Saskatchewan law abolished French in public education.

      1916 - Manitoba: The Thornton Act, by abolishing bilingual schools, completely ends the teaching of French in the province.

      1912 - Ontario: Circular of Instructions Regulation No. 17 and No. 18 forbids the teaching of French above the first two grades of elementary school.

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