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9781412934633-Chap-29 1/12/09 4:20 PM Page 449

CONFLICT AND DIVERSITY: CANADA / QUÉBEC 449

they are a minority, the policies of successive political definition of the linguistic-national
governments of Québec have gone in the space. One presents an instrumental concep-
opposite direction. On the one hand, tion of languages, where they should be at
Québec’s nationalist movement, which was the undifferentiated service of individual cit-
at the root of the politicization of the linguis- izens. The other one presents a more commu-
tic issue at the beginning of the 1960s, became nitarian version, where the promotion of the
committed to increasing autonomy, which language contributes to the cultural project
means that it perceived duality (French and of building a francophone nation within
English Canada) less as a characteristic of North America (Taylor, 1992). They are two
the Canadian nation than as an arrangement regimes which oppose and mutually nullify
between two nations (Québec and Canada), each other. By their promotion of bilingual-
each having its own linguistic territory. ism, the linguistic policies of the federal
Furthermore, the linguistic interventions government directly contradict the efforts of
of successive governments of Québec have the Québec government to make its territory
been supported by the general acknowledge- the only political space in America where
ment that the government of Québec is the common public language is not
the only government with a majority of English. Paradoxically, the efforts of the
French-speakers in its territory, which means Canadian government, begun following the
that Québec has a particular duty to protect Royal Commission on Bilingualism and
and to promote both the language and Biculturalism to promote the French lan-
societal institutions necessary for it to flour- guage in order to ensure linguistic equality
ish. This acknowledgement is compatible among Canadians, ends up opposing the most
with the underlying recognition by the systematic effort to enhance the political
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and prestige of this language by the language
Biculturalism, that language and cultural policies of Québec.
community are intimately related and that, in Conversely, Québec’s language policies,
fact, in Canada, sociologically, one of the developed to a large extent on the basis of a
official languages, French, is a minority lan- sociological acknowledgement of French as a
guage. Thus, establishing legislation, even in minority language in North America, come
Québec, that aims to protect French and, con- into conflict with the rights of official language
32
sequently, to limit the presence of English is minorities. There have even been instances of
deemed to be justifiable. It is in this frame- the Québec government supporting the refusal
work that Québec’s principal language laws, of Anglophone provincial governments to
particularly Bill 101, the French Language broaden the educational rights of their
Charter, have stipulated the clear predomi- Francophone minorities, apparently on the
nance of French in Québec’s territory and grounds that it would be dangerous if these
have spelled out the means of implementation. expanded minority rights were extended to
Even though Québec’s linguistic policy has Québec’s Anglophone ‘minorities’. An exam-
been implemented with more flexibility in recent ple is Québec’s support for the government of
years, the intention of making French the only Alberta refusing to extend French education
public language in Québec is still active. 31 (see: Maheu vs. Alberta, [1990] 1 R.C.S. 342).
The conflict between the linguistic regimes
stems from the existence of two national
Two linguistic projects, two projects, the Canadian and the Québecois.
Each of these projects has a hegemonic claim
citizenship projects
that ends up making it difficult, if not impos-
There exist, then, in Canada and in Québec two sible, to recognize the asymmetry of the
linguistic regimes, each proposing a different linguistic situations. French, while being on