this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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This just shows that you either don't live here or are a French-speaker and therefore don't see it (which is ironic given your initial comment). In Quebec City I've been refused service in French for even asking about service in English.
Where are you getting this info? Most of the sources I can find show that most Quebec students pay rates comparable to in-province students across Anglophone Canada. Quebec seems to be the only one actively legislating discriminatory policies here.
We both went to school in English, but it's still illegal for us because we're immigrants. Trust me, we've checked, and the fact that you automatically jumped to assuming that I'd even know where to find an "anti-French journal" speaks volumes about your perspective on this conversation.
Edit: I just realized you probably meant "newspaper" here. I get all of my info about stuff like this from the government website, and from calling government services to make sure I fully understand my (lack of) rights.
I'm not sure how something I have to deal with on a weekly basis is fear mongering. The problem with your source there is that to be seen at any of those facilities I first have to go through RAMQ, and literally every time I call RAMQ I have to declare, under penalty of perjury, that I'm legally entitled to use English in order to use it, and again, I'm not legally entitled to use it because I'm an immigrant, so I have to stumble through MY FUCKING HEALTHCARE in a language I don't speak fluently, when they literally have service available in the language but just refuse it to me for prejudicial reasons.
By this point it's clear that you have no interest in opening your eyes to the realities that many English speakers face in Quebec, possibly for the nationalistic reasons that led to these (increasingly severe) discriminatory policies in the first place, so I see little reason to continue this conversation.
For everyone else following this convo, just keep in mind that linguistic discrimination can happen to English speakers just like it can to other languages (though in aggregate English obviously still holds a place of privilege relative to most other languages). And if you're reading this and you're lucky enough to have voting rights in Quebec, please vote for candidates that support non-discriminatory language policies.
Cegep and university in Quebec is cheaper than the equivalents in other provinces.
Just go on different university websites and create a fake application as an out of province student and compare the rates.
Quebec's part of the university fees were so low that the rates were cheaper than in other provinces for out of province students. People flipped out because they were comparing the cost to studying in their own province vs coming to Quebec without looking at what it costs if the situation is reversed.
There's very few exceptions where parents that went to school in English wouldn't be able to send their kids to an English school, even for immigrants
https://educaloi.qc.ca/en/capsules/access-to-english-schools-in-quebec/
How long have you been living in Quebec? The way you talk you've been all over the place so I'm going to bet quite a while, right? So if you were in contact with the RAMQ before the new law you can have service in English without fear of a law that will never be applied. If you have been here more than six months but not long enough to be exempted you just go to through the English service and you tell them "Je ne parle pas très bien le français, désolé, je suis en train d'apprendre." and that will be it, if you've been here less than six months the law doesn't apply.
Not so hard right?
Now I want you to think about the opposite situation, if you were a French only speaker and you went to live in British-Colombia, what do you think French provincial services would look like? You know, there's a reason why they don't need to implement similar laws over there, it's because the services don't exist in the first place so you get service in English or you don't get service at all. Just remember, the conversation was about French Canadians vs Anglo Canadians, French Canadians exist outside Quebec and they're treated like fucking shit compared to Anglo Canadians living in Quebec and could only dream to have access to as much services.
I've been here two years, so my family is right in the middle of the "get fucked" zone in basically every possible way for the foreseeable future. (This also includes being repeatedly denied permanent residency that we would automatically be granted if we lived 50km west of where we do, i.e. in Ontario. According to the HR director at my company, after the passage of the law Immigration has started an unofficial policy of putting residency applications that otherwise have enough points to qualify but don't speak French directly into the "reject" pile.)
I appreciate you taking time to provide the links and advice though.
I'm definitely not saying that French-Canadians have it better in the rest of Canada and that has never been my argument -- I completely agree with your original comment that Anglo-Canadians are unintentionally racist toward French-Canadians, but my original comment is also 100% true, that French-Canadians are instead intentionally racist toward English speakers.
Quebec isn't all French Canadians, there are some living in the whole country and you're completely ignoring what's going on in the rest of the country if you think that Anglo Canadians aren't intentionally racist towards French Canadians and Anglo Canadians are treated better in Quebec than French Canadians are treated outside Quebec so I don't know how you can say we're intentionally racist while pretending that Anglos aren't except for trying to defend those you feel closest to.
You're the one that originally said that Anglo-Canadians didn't realize how racist they are toward French-Canadians, not me. All I'm doing here is agreeing with you, and adding that French-Canadians do realize how racist they are, because for them it's literally a matter of widely supported, highly publicized government policy in addition to being a deeply-ingrained cultural chip-on-the-shoulder.
You can either take our lived experience at face value and gain some perspective, or you can continue to bury your head in the sand. Either way I'm tired of yet another Quebecer gaslighting me about how good I have it here, so I think I'm done. Bonne nuit.
Look at New Brunswick that keeps electing a Premier that was part of an anti French group and refuses to speak French, look at Ontario with Ford that just cut French services as soon as he got in power.
If you think Quebec is bad it's because you never took the time to check what's going on elsewhere and to learn Canadian history.
If it's sucks so much to live in Quebec I don't know whabt pushes you to stay either, you said it yourself, you're 50km from another province where things are so much better so... Move?
Also, it's Quebecois.
Bonne nuit.