Question: Who do you think is the big winner of the language debate right now?
Answer: the government of François Legault.
If you want to understand the popularity of the CAQ, take a look at recent linguistic debates.
One might think that Bill 96 is bogged down as it is criticized.
It displeases both the English-speaking community and the nationalists, who would have hoped for the extension of Bill 101 to the CEGEP.
The two linguistic poles are dissatisfied.
The CAQ, on the other hand, is balancing.
His success, what am I saying his imperial domination!, comes from there: his ambivalence, his way of positioning himself between the lines and of embodying a certain moderation appeal to Quebecers.
QLP
The PLQ decided to turn back after a brief nationalist march.
To save its last gains in Montreal, the PLQ sacrifices the rest of Quebec.
His presence at the anti-law 96 demonstration risks making him attach the stamp of “bilingual Quebec”.
Defending individual rights by participating in a demonstration is one thing.
Participating in a march organized by the Quebec Community Groups Network whose president, Marlene Jennings, sinks into a verbal delirium is another story.
His repertoire of defamatory statements is full. Think of the time she drew a link between Law 96 and Ukrainian rights violated by the Russian invasion.
All this rhetorical bloat poisons the debate. But above all, it crowns François Legault as a representative of the French-speaking majority.
Tragedy
The tragedy of this law is that it offers no real solution to the regression of French.
Through the fabrications of the English-speaking representatives, the political legitimacy that the PLQ offers them, as well as through its bureaucratic exaggerations, we are given the impression that Bill 96 goes a long way.
While it does not act on the essential. It is a law without remedy, a law without means, a rather bureaucratic law.
Politically, the CAQ is a winner. French, much less.
1
