Ottawa Sun - September 14, 1997
REBELS WITHOUT A CLAUSE
QUEBEC'S RESTRICTIVE SIGN LAWS ARE STACKED AGAINST THEM, BUT FOR THE PROVINCE'S ANGLOPHONE RENEGADES, THE BATTLE HAS JUST BEGUN
By STEPHANIE RUBEC -- Ottawa Sun
Barrie Murray fought the tongue troopers in court 15 years ago and won. Now he's set to fight them again.
They tried to force him to take down the English signs on his sports and automotive store, but he went to court and won the right to advertise in his native tongue.
Murray weaves a story about his dealings with the Commission de protection de la langue francaise that makes Quebec's language commissioners look like a militant police corp.
The so-called tongue troopers arrive unannounced in his quiet Pontiac town from Montreal, in a bid to stop him and other businesses from advertising their products with English signs.
"I think the larger (stores) all gave in right away," he said, adding smaller businesses are still holding on to their English signs.
Murray, and a group of other business owners in the Pontiac have set an encouraging precedent for others now being pursued by the language police.
"It's easy to take (the sign) down," said Murray. "But it would be losing our identity in doing it."
Murray hadn't seen the tongue troopers for a few years, but about one month ago, almost 20 years to the day after Quebec's National Assembly first passed Bill 101, he spotted a man taking pictures of his store sign advertising "Murray sports and casual wear."
When he went to inquire about the photos, the man hopped into a car and drove away.
"I hear they're bothering other people around town too," said Murray.
"They're just bugging me -- that's the way they work."
About 15 years ago Murray and a slew of other businessmen were taken to court for the lack of French in their storefront signs, even though Murray had erected a bilingual sign on the side of his building when Bill 101 was passed in 1977
The judge threw their case out of court on a technicality.
"As far as I'm concerned, this language (law) doesn't have any authority," said Murray.
Replacing English signs with French ones in Shawville doesn't make any sense, he says, since the majority of the town's residents are anglophones.
"They don't care about how much French you have, but they just don't want any English," said Murray.
Not only does Murray blame the Liberal government for introducing the language issue with Bill 22, but he thinks the federal government should shoulder most of the blame for not challenging the language laws.
"It should have never been put in," said Murray.
Politicians, businesses and Pontiac residents have now banded together to buck Bill 101 and its amendments. They're disobeying the legislation by keeping their signs and their workplace English.
The first message greeting visitors crossing from Pembroke to Allumette Island is an English-only grocery store sign.
Further down the winding road is a sign proclaiming Canadian unity, flanked by both a Canadian and Quebec flag.
Alumette Island mayor Denzil Spence raises his voice in anger when he talks of what the Quebec government has done to his community.
"It all started in the '60s with the quiet revolution," said Spence, who blames Robert Bourassa's Liberal government for its 1974 introduction of Bill 22 , which made French Quebec's official language and obliged immigrants to send their children to French schools.
Spence said the Parti Quebecois brought in the all-encompassing Bill 101, but the blame should be on the Liberals who got the ball rolling.
"(Our) identity and who we are, this was all taken away from us with Bill 101," said Spence. "That's why passions get high."
Introduced by Rene Levesque in 1977, Bill 101, the Charter of the French language, increases control of signage by limiting English outside buildings and forbidding it on billboards.
Also, if a child's parent didn't go to an English school in Quebec, that child was forced into the French education system, putting a crunch on the English school system.
"Most of the anglophones couldn't meet the right requirements," said Spence. "The alternative most people would select was to leave."
Spence went to St. Mary's teachers' college in Chapeau, but the deterioration of English schools, as students were forced into the French ones, shrunk job opportunities and forced Spence to cross the river and work in Pembroke.
The teachers' college closed in 1975. Some of the Catholic nuns who taught the students, like sister Pauline Maher, still live in a closed off portion of the building, which is now a community centre.
"This place was just booming with activity," said Maher, who helplessly watched as the number of students studying at the English high school in Chapeau, where she also taught, dropped from more than 200 to about 85. "There was a terrific exodus."
"Bill 101 is one of the most discriminatory pieces of legislation in this country," said Equality Party leader Keith Henderson, who fully supports Spence's bid to keep Canada united.
"It helped drive 400,000 anglophones away between the imposition of the law and today.
Greeting residents in this rural community of 1,500 in English, Spence said he blames the Quebec government's language laws for making it the poorest county in the province.
"People won't come and set up businesses in this community because they don't know what will happen," said Spence, pointing to a desolate main street which was flourishing with activity in the '60s.
"The Quebec government have really screwed up people's lives."
In an attempt to bring back prosperity to his county, Spence embarked on a partition crusade shortly after the 1995 referendum.
"I had a big fear that the separatists would win," said Spence, who has brought a resolution to over 127 towns and counties, in and outside Quebec, which have voted to support his motion that the Pontiac remain Canadian in the event of a separatist vote during the next referendum.
Pointing to farms on his left and right along 4th line Rd., Spence said most have products to sell, but are afraid to put English signs up by the roadside to announce them to the predominantly English community.
"The only place in the western world that a sign is illegal is in the province of Quebec," said Spence, pointing to a giant bilingual billboard placed on Garry Kelly's barn.
"We want them to challenge this and show how stupid the (law) is."
Garry Kelly, a beef farmer, agreed to put up the 17-metre billboard advertising a Montreal ergonomics consulting business in both of Canada's official language to buck Bill 101 which forbids English on billboards.
"They have made me a second-class citizen," said Kelly, adding he feels like the language law was introduced to force Anglophones to leave Quebec.
The unionized steamfitter said he felt the brunt of Bill 101 when he applied for jobs throughout the province, but saw the contracts being handed to his French colleagues.
"With a name like mine I'd be buried six feet under before getting a call," said the 25-year resident of Allumette Island, who gave up competing for contracts altogether.
Kelly said he doesn't want to lose his province to separatists, and he hopes the Office de la Langue Francaise will initiate a court challenge with the billboard's owner so the bill can be struck down in court.
"We have to stay and fight," said Kelly. "They're trying to assimilate us, and it's not working."
More than 20 years after its birth, Bill 101 remains a blessing for many of the province's francophones and all of its separatists. Gerard Laurin, president of Hull's Parti Quebecois Association, credits the legislation for giving French-speaking Quebecers back their culture and political power.
Laurin said Bill 101 was necessary to protect French language and culture, and continues to be necessary as the Montreal anglophone population continues to grow.
Bill 101 increased the development of French-language institutions and universities and increased confidence in the French language, said Laurin.
"Francophones needed to see signage reflecting the language they normally use," said Laurin, adding the predominantly English signs before the introduction of Bill 101 symbolized English domination over francophones. "Bill 101 was like the start of a new civilization."
Laurin said he understands why anglophones feel targeted, but they can either make an effort to become francophone Quebecers or remain English or bilingual Canadians.
"It's just not very easy to accept that you aren't a part of something," said Laurin, adding it's not acceptable that some businesses in Quebec still operate in English and display English signs.
"All anglophones haven't yet accepted that French is the normal language of communication. We accept that the language used elsewhere is English."
Laurin reasons that in Ontario, English is the predominant language and the francophone minority doesn't get any special treatment from the provincial government, whereas in Quebec there are three English universities and a number of hospitals.
In addition, Laurin said English television stations and radio stations continue to predominate Quebec airwaves.
"The day that Canada's English-speaking provinces do as much for their minorities, it will be a great advancement for humanity," said Laurin, adding the bill wasn't meant to kill the English language in Quebec, but to continue to promote it as a second language.
"Francophones aren't refusing to learn English, but they don't want to be imposed a language by a minority." said Laurin.
"Bill 101 will be necessary as long as the Federal government has jurisdiction over Quebec."
BITTER DEBATE
History of Quebec language laws:
* 1969: The Union nationale introduces Bill 63 to promote the French language, and allows parents to choose the language in which their children are educated
* 1974: The Liberals under Robert Bourassa introduce Bill 22, which makes French Quebec's official language and forces immigrants to send their children to French schools. It also controls the use of French on public signs
* 1977: Bill 101, introduced by PQ Premier Rene Levesque, brings in a raft of new restrictions dealing with language
* Dec. 1988: The Supreme Court finds the sign law violates freedom of expression, but Bourassa invokes the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Constitution to protect it. A new piece of legislation, Bill 178, prohibits outdoor bilingual signs but allows some bilingual signs indoors
* June 1993: The Liberal government adopts Bill 86, which allows bilingual outdoor and indoor signs as long as French is predominant
* Aug. 26, 1997: The 20-year anniversary of Bill 101