More on anglos and their relationship with Quebec
Le Devoir looks at anglos today, at why there’s no government position for someone to see to their needs, and chats with various notable anglos including Patrick Watson, Julius Grey and John Gomery.
And that leads to a question about this blog. Until the recent election I pretty much avoided language issue stories, except on the odd occasion. Until the election campaign, language issues haven’t been dominant for most of the 10+ years this blog’s been in existence, although they’ve never been quite dormant either.
When I started the blog I was very clear that it wasn’t going to be an angry anglo platform. One of the reasons I wanted to do it was to integrate news from media in both languages to give a more complex view of life here, and I still think it’s valuable to do that.
It’s simply a fact that when you talk about English in Quebec you’re mostly talking about Montreal. Not exclusively, but mostly. So stories about coping with English service in stores and English CEGEPs and so forth are mostly also talking about life in Montreal.
And now with a PQ government, albeit a minority, we’re definitely going to see more stories about language.
So this is the question: Do I continue as I’ve been doing, blogging about Montreal and occasionally casting an eye on language stories as relevant to life in this city? Or do I start a second side blog where stories on that theme get grouped, and where people can comment and scrap on that particular typically noisy topic?
Aymeric 12:24 on 2012/09/15 Permalink
I really like your blog, it’s convenient and I don’t think you should change it. If there are more entries about the language issue, so what? I use RSS, and I don’t have to look at the entries and the comments unless I want to.
Patrick 13:03 on 2012/09/15 Permalink
Samething that Aymeric said. You do an excellent job of gathering all the news for us. This blog shows the evolution of news about Montreal. If there’s more langage issue stories, then that’s what we will be reading.
glenn 13:22 on 2012/09/15 Permalink
Language seems like such a crucial part of what makes Montreal unique as a city and I think it would be a big loss not to cover it because it is a hot-potato issue. As I also use RSS, I don’t read most of the comments anyways so it doesn’t bother me if it occasionally becomes a platform for people to vent frustrations.
It seems to me that a lot of my Anglophone friends try to avoid discussing language topics from fear of being tarred with the “angy anglo” label, but I feel this is a disservice to something very important in this city and province. I think anglophones have very legitimate things to be concerned about, as do francophones. Not talking about something is seldom the solution.
Kate, you do a good job promoting civil discourse here and I don’t think you should worry too much. You also do a great job covering local news and it’s great that you draw attention to the various issues important to the city, language being one of many. Keep it up I say.
dwgs 14:09 on 2012/09/15 Permalink
I’ll basically echo what has already been said. Most of the discussions here (at least recently, wink wink nudge nudge) are at least civil and they often give me pause for thought. If we turn into a bunch of monkeys flinging linguistic poo then I guess you’ll know enough to change the editorial tack.
Hervé 15:49 on 2012/09/15 Permalink
Personellement j’aimerais mieux que les Québécois enterrent la question une fois pour toutes, mais en attendant, si c’est de ça que les médias parlent, je ne pense pas que ce blog se doive d’éviter le sujet.
Évidemment, au bout du compte, c’est votre blog, Kate, et vous en faites ce que vous voulez. Si vous préférez ne pas aller renifler là où ça pue, on ne peut pas vous en vouloir pour ça.
Mais en tous cas vous êtes à mille miles d’une “angry anglo platform”, je ne m’inquièterais pas pour ça.
Alexandre 17:22 on 2012/09/15 Permalink
I think there is no need for another blog. If we look at them closely, the eventual policies about language that are either suggested or talked about by members of the new government are mostly aimed at newcomers and at francophones (ie this weird idea that they will be able to prevent the French-speaking youth to go to cégep in English). The more worrying ideas, such as extending bill 101 to smaller businesses, have little chance of becoming a reality in a short future.
As it was mentionned before in these commentaries, if there is more news about language, I guess this blog will naturally cover it more. Readers should expect this, as your work reflects very well what is going on in Montréal.
Ian 21:38 on 2012/09/15 Permalink
Like everyone else has said. You’ve never struck me as an angryphone and there’s not too much of that in the commentary here (thought there is some) but yeah, it is part of what makes Montreal de chez nous. I know you’re not scared to moderate the more unruly amongst us and trust your judgement as to what stories to address.
Kate 08:50 on 2012/09/17 Permalink
Thanks all, merci tout le monde, for your thoughts on this.