https://ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/p...t-conflit-linguistique-quebec-julie-noelThe Saint-Léonard crisis, or the beginning of the linguistic conflict in Quebec
On September 10, 1969, a demonstration turned into a riot in the Saint-Léonard district of Montreal. Francophones and Italian-Montrealers clash over the question of the language of instruction. The cause: a new directive requiring families to educate their children in French. Julie Noël, historian, explains to Jacques Beauchamp that this crisis raised the problems of free choice for cultural communities, but also that of the anglicization of minorities.
At this time, Quebec school boards were still denominational. Catholic school boards are mainly attended by French-speakers, and Protestant ones, mainly by English-speakers.
During the first major wave of immigration, at the end of the 19th century, the Protestant network was more welcoming towards Yiddish-speaking Jews. For Italians, the Catholic network is a more appropriate choice, and the Montreal Catholic School Board agrees to teach them in languages ??other than French. In some parishes, there are even trilingual schools.
French disadvantaged?
As early as the 1940s, concern was felt about the Anglicization of Quebecers with immigrant backgrounds when it was noted that 70% of them chose to send their children to English school.
The Committee of New Canadians was created to find solutions. Offer French classes in the evening or on weekends? Establish a network of trilingual schools? As the English-speaking network does not want to lose its clientele and religion is still considered the anchor point of the school boards, negotiations fail. In the meantime, the Italian community in Montreal grew to reach 100,000 people in 1970.
Unilingualism wins
In 1969, pressure from French-speaking residents of Saint-Léonard and the victory of supporters of unilingualism in school elections settled the debate: from the start of the school year, first-year students from the Commission des écoles catholiques de Montréal (CECM) will have to go to French school.
In the Italian-Montreal community, the decision does not pass.
“ [The Italians] see clearly that in Montreal, the language of the bosses is English. They also see clearly that those who work with them in the factories are French speakers. Francophones are still, in many ways, second-class citizens. [The Italians] want to be on the right side of the fence. Anglicizing their children is consistent with their choice of immigration. »
— A quote from Julie Noel
As altercations took place in Saint-Léonard in the wake of the decree, demonstrations were prohibited in the neighborhood. The rise of Quebec nationalism and the anger of Italian-Quebecers create palpable tension.
The bursting
On September 10, members of the Movement for School Integration, a group of parents in favor of monolingualism, defied the ban and took to the streets. Supporters of the Saint-Leonard English Catholic Association of Parents, a group that campaigns for free choice, followed to confront them. There are thousands of them in the street. Businesses are attacked, 500 police officers are dispatched to the scene, and violence breaks out.
Impossible reconciliation
The measures of successive governments only fuel tensions. In 1969, the National Union of Jean-Jacques Bertrand reinstated free choice with the Law to promote the French language in Quebec, but attracted the wrath of nationalists.
In 1975, Robert Bourassa's Liberal Party adopted the Official Language Act. It requires families seeking access to the English network to undergo an examination, and establishes a distinction between families of British origin and other new arrivals. For nationalists, this is too weak a coercive measure. For allophones, this is unfair targeting.
In the Italian community, clandestine schools are opened to offer English lessons, and thus prepare students for the new English exam required by law.
The PQ solution
According to Julie Noël, this prolonged crisis contributed to the victory of the Parti Québécois in 1976. René Lévesque had promised to intervene quickly, which was done with the adoption of the Charter of the French language in 1977. Unilingualism in the School becomes necessary again for the children of newcomers, forcing the Protestant network to open French-speaking classes, and the Catholic network to become multi-ethnic.
We had to wait for the relaxation of the Charter of the French Language, in 1986, to regularize the status of more than 1000 schoolchildren who were still illegally attending the English-speaking network.
