University of Nevada, Reno

A Study of the Impacts of Language Policies on National Identity in

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Arts in Geography and the Honors Program

by

Jesse Edward Tenenbaum

Dr. Jessie Clark, Thesis Advisor

May, 2017

UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA THE HONORS PROGRAM RENO

We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by

Jesse Edward Tenenbaum

entitled

A Study of the Impacts of Language Policies on National Identity in Quebec

be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

BACHELOR OF ARTS, GEOGRAPHY

______Jessie Clark, Ph.D., Thesis Advisor

______Tamara Valentine, Ph. D., Director, Honors Program

May, 2017

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Abstract

The province of Quebec has had a long history of tension with the rest of .

This tension stems from Quebec’s historic legacy linked to the language, culture, and religion of in contrast to the English ties of other Canadian provinces. Over the recent decades the provincial government of Quebec has implemented policies that promote and protect the use of the French language within Quebecois territory in order to prevent assimilation into broader Anglo-North American culture. This project examines the relationship between language policy and national identity in Quebec. Specifically, this project explores nationalist sentiment around and since the time of the 1995 Quebec referendum for independence and the role of language policy in influencing nationalistic sentiments among former and current Quebec residents. I ask: {is there a link between policy and identity, especially between the language policies of the province of

Quebec and the national identities of Quebec residents?} By analyzing scholarly sources, considering maps, demographic data, popular culture, and interviewing

Quebecois individuals, I argue that the language policies implemented by Quebec’s provincial government can and do impact the national identities of individuals.

Key Terms: Nation, State, National identity, Language policy, Quebec

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Jessie Clark for her support and wisdom throughout my work on this project. Her expertise, organizational skills, and patience make her an excellent mentor. Additionally, the classes I took in the Geography and French departments at the University of Nevada, Reno piqued my interest in the region and the topic I focus on, in this study. I thank the University of Nevada, Reno, Honors Program, for helping me learn how to conduct research, analyze and synthesize information, and think at a higher level. I would also like to acknowledge the participants who agreed to be interviewed and without whom much of my research would not have been possible to carry out.

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Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..i

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………...ii

Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………..iii

List of Tables..…………………………………………………………………………..iv

List of Figures……..…………………………………………………………………….v

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...1

Literature Review………………………………………………………………………..4

Quiet Revolution………………………………………………………………………...8

Language Policies………………………………………………………………………11

1995 Referendum……………………………………………………………………….12

Methods…………………………………………………………………………………15

Participants……………………………………………………………………………...17

Fear and Pride Surrounding the French Language and Culture…………………………19

Othering of Anglophone Residents……………………………………………………...26

Nuanced and Changing National Identities……………………………………………..28

Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………..30

References……………………………………………………………………………….33

Appendix A……………………………………………………………………………...37

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List of Tables

Table 1 – Major Language Bills of Quebec since 1969 (Behiels and Hudson, 2013)…10

Table 2 – List of Interviewees (pseudonyms), Age, Current City, City of Birth, First

Language, and National Identity.………………..……………...... ……15

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List of Figures

Fig. 1 – Locator map of Quebec showing its relation to the rest of Canada and the world…………………………………………………………………………………. 2

Fig. 2 – General map of Quebec with major cities…………...... 3

Fig. 3 – Picture of license plate featuring the distinctive phrase

“Je me souviens” (I remember) in French………………..………………………… 21

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Introduction

Because the French language is one of the key vehicles of expression of

Quebecois identity, the government of Quebec has a vested interest in encouraging the use of the language in order to help maintain this sense of identity within the province.

These actions have led to nationalistic sentiments, including support for the idea that

Quebec should be a sovereign state, independent and autonomous from the rest of

Canada. I examine the role that the province’s government plays in perpetuating

Quebecois identity and nationalistic sentiment via the medium of policies that dictate how residents should use language(s) within the boundaries of the province so that I can answer the question: {Is there a link between policy and national identity, especially between the language policies of the province of Quebec and the national identities of Quebec residents?} I discuss the scholarly works I drew on for my research and their relevance to the specific case of the Quebecois identity and nationalist movement. I then explain some of the most important historical events and facts concerning Quebec’s political, economic, and cultural development – notably the Quiet Revolution and key language legislation – before discussing the methodology I used to conduct interviews with individuals from Quebec, including expatriates who now live in the US and people who currently reside in Montreal. The most important factors to understand about

Quebecois identity is the fear that the French language and culture of Quebec will be lost in favor of the English language and Anglo-American popular culture; and the pride

French-speaking Quebecois people exhibit in having preserved their language and culture in spite of their small numbers and geographic isolation. Afterward, the concept of

“othering” is discussed, especially as it is linked to the tensions experienced by English 2

speaking residents of the province, emphasizing the fact that identity is rarely black and white, but nuanced for each individual. Finally, I conclude by recapping the most important concepts and discoveries I made through this study, and how these concepts and discoveries help answer my thesis question.

The locator map below of Quebec in Figure 1 shows Quebec’s relation to the rest of Canada and the western hemisphere. This map is important as it helps visualize the fact that Quebec’s francophone population is surrounded by English-speakers. Figure 2 is a general map of the province that includes the largest cities and towns: and

Montreal are the most important cities of the province and are where my interviewees are from.

Fig. 1 – Locator map of Quebec showing its relation to the rest of Canada and the world Image acquired from: http://maps.maphill.com/canada/quebec/location-maps/physical-map/highlighted- country/entire-country/physical-location-map-of-quebec-highlighted-country-entire-country.jpg 3

Fig. 2 – General map of Quebec with major cities Image acquired from: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/province/lgcolor/pqcolor.gif

According to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (a website of the

Canadian government), as of 2011, 19,137,513 Canadians (57.8%) speak English as their mother tongue; 7,172,558 (21.7%) speak French as their mother tongue; and 6,811,096

(20.6%) speak a language other than French or English as their mother tongue (there are 4

many indigenous languages in Canada, as well as languages spoken by foreign immigrants from all over the world); to make a combined total of 33,121,168 people living in Canada. In addition to being surrounded by Canadian English speakers, Quebec also borders the American states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.

According to the site of the United States Census Bureau, the population of the United

States was projected to pass the 325 million mark in May of 2017, putting the population at nearly ten times the population of Canada. Taking these statistics into consideration, the fact that Quebec’s approximately seven million French-speaking individuals are neighbored by over 300 million English-speakers, remains one of the most prominent reasons that Quebecois individuals express pride in their identity and the desire to preserve it.

Literature Review

Carson et al. (2013), Fallon and Rublik (2011), Gade (2013), and Gifra (2014), discuss language policies of the province, notably the policies implemented in schools that require all schooling to be conducted in French, and how such a phenomenon shapes the way children, and consequently adults too, self-identify. Based on their research, these scholars assert that children who are educated in a language more often feel an affinity for that language and are more inclined to identify with the group associated with that language. Carson et al. (2013), Freake et al. (2011), Gade (2003), Guiberneau (2006),

Piroth (2008), Barlow and Nadeau (2003), Wayland (1997) and Dion (1991) have examined the concept of identity quite extensively, especially the Quebecois identity, 5

which stems from the insecurity of being a minority linguistic community surrounded by a much larger and more powerful linguistic majority group. Pieces highlighting theories of politics and nationalism include the works of Anderson (2006), Billig (1995), Carson et al. (2013), Wayland (1997), Meadwell (1993), and Mountz (2009).

Understanding the concept of identity – both individual and collective – is crucial to understanding the nature of nationalism, particularly as it pertains to feelings of national identity in Quebec, Canada. Freake, Gentil, & Sheyholislami (2011) do an eloquent job describing personal identity, national identity, and how these intertwine with each other:

Following Ricœur (1990) and Taylor (1989), we conceptualize identity as a person’s or group’s understanding of self. Individual and group identities intersect, in that personal identity, in part, consists of the various group identities claimed by an individual, and group identities come into existence when a critical mass of people recognize themselves as sharing an essential aspect of their personal identity (Joseph, 2004: 5) (Freake et al., 2011: 24).

If identity is to be understood as “understanding of self”, what comprises that self?

Individual identity is often linked to one’s language, history, and culture. These links can be said to make up a national identity when referring to a shared language, history, and culture of a sizeable group of people (Carson et al. 2013).

One of the most influential scholars on the subject of nations, Benedict Anderson, theorizes the existence of nations as “imagined political communities”, that is to say, that nations do not occur naturally or organically, but rather form completely out of human- created perceptions of collectivity and “otherness” based on things such as language or religion. These characteristics are not inherent in genetics, for example, but are socially constructed. Anderson writes, “It [a nation] is imagined because the members of even the 6

smallest nations will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, 1983:

6). If there is an “us”, then there must be a “them” to contrast with. Freake et al. refer to

Anderson to explain the integral role of the French language in shaping Quebecois identity: “If the nation is imagined through language (Anderson, 1991), then for Quebec nationalists, Québécois identity is imagined and constructed discursively in French”

(Freake et al., 2011: 22).

Ideas about nations are socially constructed. The landscape is one way to socially construct a nation, policy is another, and the two can be intertwined such as in the case of license plates in Quebec. All license plates in the province declare: Je me souviens (I remember), a testament to the government’s active involvement in ensuring its citizens are daily reminded of the nation they are citizens (or supposed to be citizens) of.

The central thesis of Billig’s (1995) Banal Nationalism is that “there is a continual ‘flagging’, or reminding, of nationhood.” He suggests that nations do not occur naturally or organically, but are shaped and perpetuated continually by governing bodies and people.

Daily, they (nations) are reproduced as nations and their citizens as nationals. And these nations are reproduced within a wider world of nations. For such daily reproduction to occur, one might hypothesize that a whole complex of beliefs, assumptions, habits, representations and practices must also be reproduced. Moreover, this complex must be reproduced in a banally mundane way, for the world of nations is the everyday world, the familiar terrain of contemporary times (Billig, 1995: 6).

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Billig stresses however, that banal is not synonymous with benign, and the subtle reinforcement of a particular identity among a populace can also have the negative effect of disregarding or disrespecting people who do not meet the standards of identity for the region they live in or nation they live among, an important factor in the negative experiences had by many of Quebec’s English-speaking residents. Gade’s (2003) analysis of signage and Jones et al.’s (2015) analysis of the license plates show examples of legislation to ensure that the French language is visibly manifested throughout the

Quebecois landscape, subtly but certainly reminding Quebecers that they are residents of

Quebec, and not just Canada. Piroth (2008) notes the importance of constant construction of Quebecois identity:

At the societal level, the constant reinforcement of a Quebec- centered identity is undoubtedly crucial for sustaining an environment where sovereignty is viewed as a reasonable alternative. In Quebec, where two identities are in competition, the ever-present markers of Québécois, rather than Canadian, identity are an important asset for those who argue that Quebec should be sovereign, and the question of how a Quebec-centered identity has become ascendant within Quebec deserves study (1-2).

Quebec’s language policies developed out of a desire to preserve its heritage as a minority in the face of a constantly encroaching majority culture that threatened to overwhelm it, a concept touched upon in several of my sources but noticeably those of

Barlow and Nadeau (2003), Guiberneau (2006), Gade (2003), Dion (1991), and Gifra

(2014) .

The fundamental reality of this territorialized society is that of a cultural island determined to avoid absorption despite being surrounded on three continental sides by 300 million Anglophones and on the north by unpopulated tundra (Gade, 2003: 435).

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This quote by Gade highlights the mindset of many francophone Quebecois residents – that is, the mindset of being a very small minority in danger of losing their language and culture to a larger, wealthier, and more powerful community – and the act of legislation concerning use of the French and English languages in Quebec being justified as a way to resist the encroaching globalizing forces of the English language.

Quiet Revolution

The provincial government of Quebec has taken steps to promote and protect the use of the French language within its provincial boundaries, most notably beginning with the Revolution Tranquille (Quiet Revolution). The Quiet Revolution refers to the start of the province’s attempts to economically develop in order to work towards possible sovereignty during the 1960s (Meadwell 1993), before developing legislation regarding language use. As explained to me by interviewee Alice Laurent (the mother of a neighbor of my parents, who lives in Montreal), up until the 1950s “Quebec’s Anglophone minority controlled most of the province’s resources, held strong political influence, and business was primarily conducted in English, which contributed immensely to the resentment felt by the Francophone population.”

Alice, an Anglophone from New Brunswick, said she moved to Montreal as a young woman in 1959 and did not even need to know French. The fact that up until this time the French-speaking majority of Quebec’s population had to speak English in the workplace fostered a strong sense of resentment, which led to the election of the Parti

Liberal du Québec (Québec Liberal Party), a political party that prioritizes economic

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development for the province and the preservation and promotion of the province’s francophone identity, as seen in these two statements on the official Parti Liberal du

Québec website: “The Québec Liberal Party has always been committed to promoting both the economic and social development of Quebec” (plq.org).

Identifying with Quebec begins with identifying with its francophone majority. This suggests that we must assume the aspirations of the majority and its history, language, culture, institutions, way of life and uniqueness. The Liberal Party has acknowledged the francophone majority’s distinctive imprint on Quebec society with a commitment to assert and defend the French character of Quebec at all times — principally as a predominantly French party without prejudice, however, to the equal rights of all its members. (plq.org).

The election of the Québec Liberal Party to power in 1960 brought changes or plans to make change, which were implemented swiftly: “In two years, the Lesage administration managed to carry out or plan many reforms: amongst others, the establishment of a public hospital network (1961), the creation of ministries of cultural affairs and of federal-provincial relations (1961), and the foundation of the Société générale de financement (General Investment Corporation) in 1962” (Durocher, 2013).

Quebec’s new government pursued the nationalization of many private companies, the nationalization of all private hydroelectric companies in 1963 being widely regarded as one of the most successful ventures in recent Quebecois history:

As a result, Hydro-Québec (established in 1944) became one of the largest Crown Corporations in North America. Unlike in previous years, francophones were able to work entirely in French and to develop their technical, scientific, and managerial skills. Such francization also occurred in the fields of education, social welfare, and health services, as well as in all levels and departments of government bureaucracy (Durocher, 2013).

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The progress made for the French-speaking population of Quebec was extremely welcome after decades of inequality with the Anglophone minority. The ability to use

French in the workplace was freeing and empowering for the Quebecois. The economic and social success Quebec built up during the 1960s fostered a feeling of self-sufficiency and greater social security for Francophones, and put the Quebecois government in a good position to implement policies concerning the use of the French language, as well as

English, within Quebec’s boundaries. Note the most influential bills regarding language in Table 1 below, which lists the bills and gives a brief synopsis of what each one stipulates.

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Language Policies

Table 1 – Major Language Bills of Quebec since 1969 (Behiels and Hudson, 2013).

Looking at the official website of the government of Quebec (Gouvernement du Quebec in French), the Preamble of Bill 101, also known as the Charter of the French Language, which is available in French and English, states:

PREAMBLE WHEREAS the French language, the distinctive language of a people that is in the majority French-speaking, is the instrument by which that people has articulated its identity; Whereas the National Assembly of Québec recognizes that Quebecers wish to see the quality and influence of the French language assured, and is resolved therefore to make of French the language of Government and the Law, as well as the normal and everyday language of work, instruction, communication, 12

commerce and business; (Charter of the French Language, http://legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/ShowDoc/cs/C-11).

The Charter itself declares that the French language is the vehicle of expression of the

Quebecois identity, and that the French language should be the main language used in many realms of Quebecois residents’ daily lives, including business, education, and government.

Quebec’s legislation has been the source of a great deal of tension in Canadian society because of its coercive nature, coercive being described as forceful or unnecessarily harsh:

In general, a language policy protects or promotes a given language. Nonetheless, that protection or promotion can be active or not active (‘banal’, see Billig 1995), coercive or non-coercive. Coercive measures come into play when a government decides to promote one language over others by restricting individual liberties… and since coercion has to do with restricting individual liberties, it is obvious that coercive language policies are in need of a stronger justification than non-coercive ones. (Gifra, 2014: 204).

Supporters of Quebec’s language policies justify the coercive nature of the policies by emphasizing the risk the French language would be in without strong formal protection, coupled with the longstanding use of the language within the boundaries of the province, as being worth preserving.

1995 Referendum

By the early 1990s, there was much support for an independent Quebec because of “The fear of being weakened, or even disappearing, if it stays in the union; the 13

confidence that it can perform as well, or even better, on its own” (Dion, 1993: 14). This is a sentiment that was expressed to me by five of the eight Quebecois individuals I interviewed (see Methods section) – that they feared the disappearance of French language and culture. Two interviewees, the Dubois sisters, who were born and raised in

Quebec City in an exclusively francophone household, felt confident that the economic, social, and political stability of their province was sufficient for a sovereign state at the time. Indeed, polls conducted in the first half of 1990 showed that as much as seventy percent of Quebec residents supported sovereignty for the province (Dion 1991).

Such sentiments led to the occurrence of the Quebec Referendum in 1995, in which the residents of the province voted on the question of whether Quebec should become a sovereign state while maintaining an economic partnership with the rest of

Canada. The referendum failed, but just barely, losing by a margin of 1.16%. That is to say, 50.58% of those who voted in the referendum voted against it, against the province of Quebec becoming a sovereign state, separate from Canada (Gall, 2013).

An influential factor in provoking the referendum was the failure of the Meech

Lake Accord, which had been drafted in 1987 with the intentions of delegating more power to the provincial governments and reducing the power of the federal Canadian government. In this accord, Quebec wanted to be recognized as a “distinct society” within the Canadian union, which the other provinces were weary of and did not support because they felt such a recognition by the Canadian federal government would be a show of favoritism to one province over the others, leading to a feeling of rejection by many Quebec residents (Guiberneau 2006, Dion 1991 and Meadwell 1993). The 1995 referendum failed, but extremely narrowly: The referendum “… lost by only 54,288 votes 14

which allowed for a 1.16 per cent majority for the ‘no’ camp (Quebec Chief Electoral

Office, 1995)” (Guiberneau, 2006: 58). According to Guiberneau, the results had a massive impact on the rest of Canada despite the referendum’s failure. “The Referendum result prompted two main reactions in the rest of Canada…incomprehension as to the causes of a significant ‘yes’ vote, and anger over the threat to the survival of Canada”

(Guiberneau, 2006: 58). This sentiment was confirmed by David Asraf, one of my

Anglophone interviewees, who said “it was an incredibly tense time, really stressful for a lot of us. I mean, they almost split the country.”

While studies were published on the topics of Quebecois national identity and desire for political autonomy before and after the Quebec referendum in 1995 (note Dion

1991, Meadwell 1993, and Guiberneau 2006), more recent analyses of nationalistic sentiments are fewer, given the failure of the referendum and Quebec’s subsequent lack of another popular attempt to break away from the Canadian union. In 2005, however,

“When asked about whether they would be prepared to support Quebec’s sovereignty without partnership, 45 per cent of Quebeckers say ‘yes’, while 49 per cent stand in favour of the federalist model” (Guiberneau, 2006: 61). It is now 2017, and a great deal can change in twenty-two years, so in order to update my knowledge of how Quebecois individuals self-identify, and whether they feel that their national identity has been shaped by the language policies of Quebec’s government, I decided to conduct interviews with individuals from Quebec, which I describe in the following ‘Methods’ and

‘Participants’ sections.

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Methods

I interviewed eight people who were born and raised in the region. I chose to interview individuals rather than send out a survey, so I could capture more nuanced perspectives from people who have had personal experience with my research topic. I found that an hour or so talking with each participant gave me a great deal of insight that

I would not otherwise have accessed. This is especially true regarding the emotional ways in which people are affected by political topics such as national identity, which can be rather sensitive, and I did not feel that simply reading about people’s experiences, or trying to capture their thoughts in an impersonal survey would suffice in making sense of the complex nature of the social, cultural, and political situation in Quebec.

Selecting my interviewees in the manner that I did is known as snowball or chain sampling, “Selecting cases from referrals by participants”, (Bailey, 2007: 65), and proved to be an effective way to reach people, and helped the ones who did not know me before feel more comfortable talking to me because of our shared connections. I chose to use semi-structured interviews so that I could have greater flexibility in the way the interview was conducted, but still maintain a clear flow: “In a semistructured interview, the interviewer uses an interview guide with specific questions that are organized by topics but are not necessarily asked in a specified order. The flow of the interview, rather than the order in a guide, determines when and how a question is asked” (Bailey 2007; 100).

This is precisely how I conducted my interviews (see the list of interview questions I used in Appendix A). Also note that all the names of individuals used are pseudonyms so as to protect their personal information. Once I obtained permission to correspond with them via e-mail, I arranged interviews. Four of the eight people were interviewed in 16

person in Reno, Nevada, and the other four via Skype, as they were all in Montreal,

Quebec. Each interview lasted approximately an hour. During the interviews, I asked questions about their personal experiences or memories of language use in the province in their youth, and whether or not they are familiar with the language policies, and how said policies affected them personally or socially. Note Table 2 below, which is a list of my interviewees (the pseudonyms I assigned them); their age, place of residence, birthplace, their first language, and how they most strongly identify (i.e. Quebecois/e,

Canadian, both, or other).

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Participants

Table 2: List of Interviewees (pseudonyms), Age, Current City, City of Birth, First Language, and National Identity

One of the individuals I chose to interview, Margerite Dubois, is a French teacher at a Reno high school. She put me in touch with her sister, Sophie Dubois, who lives in

Montreal and agreed to be interviewed over Skype. They were both born and raised in

Quebec Ville (Quebec City) in an exclusively Francophone (French speaking) household.

Margerite (55) moved to the US when she was 21, and her sister (48) settled in Montreal.

Both speak English fluently, albeit with French accents.

My parents have neighbors who are from Montreal originally, David (51) and

Andrea (50) Asraf. I interviewed them at their home, while Andrea’s mother, Alice

Laurent (76), was visiting from Montreal. Alice is an Anglophone (English is her mother 18

tongue) born and raised in New Brunswick, but in close proximity to some of the French speaking towns of that province. She married a Francophone man in New Brunswick and they moved to Montreal together in 1959, where they raised their children, Andrea and

Marc, in an equally bi-lingual French/English home. Andrea gave me contact information for her brother, Marc Laurent (47), who lives in Montreal with his girlfriend, Julia Duval

(37), who was born and raised in a suburb of Montreal in an exclusively Francophone family, but learned English in high school and college, and speaks it quite well. They also talked with me over Skype.

David Asraf was born to Jewish immigrants, who came to Montreal in the 1950s, when English was still the dominant language of industry. His mother was an Ashkenazi

Jew from Russia and her first language was Yiddish, and his father a Sephardic Jew from

Morocco, whose first language was Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). They can be identified as

“Allophones”, which is to say that neither French nor English was their native language.

David’s father spoke fluent French because of the French colonial influence in Morocco, but being married to a woman who did not speak French, they mostly communicated with each other in English, and raised David and his siblings to speak English, which the senior Mr. and Mrs. Asraf recognized was becoming “the most powerful language globally” (David Asraf’s words).

Michael Kabarov was born in 1994 in Montreal, where he still lives. Similar to

David Asraf, Michael was born to Allophone immigrant parents. His father is from

Russia and speaks Russian as his first language and his mother is from Lebanon. Like

Morocco, Lebanon was heavily colonized by France, so his mother speaks fluent French, 19

“but as a second language”, Michael emphasized, her first language being Arabic. Also comparable to David, Michael’s parents mostly communicate in English at home and therefore English is Michael’s first and primary language of use.

The interviewees confirmed many of the topics that were discussed throughout the scholarly works I referenced. Throughout the interviews, I found that the way each individual self-identified strongly correlated to their primary languages, with the French- speaking people most strongly identifying as Quebecois, and English-speaking people most strongly identifying as Canadian, or simply not Quebecois, because of the fact that

French is not their first language. Additionally, the French-speaking, Quebecois- identifying individuals expressed fears of losing their language and culture as English becomes more dominant globally, and pride in their ability to retain the French language and customs in the province considering the overwhelming demographic trends and economic power of the English language.

Fear and Pride Surrounding the French Language and Culture

Much of Quebeckers’ claim to their identity is rooted in the fear of losing their culture and language to English, and pride in having preserved their language and culture for such a long amount of time while surrounded by significantly larger numbers of

English-speakers, not to mention some of the most politically and economically powerful

English speaking countries in the world. Interviewee Andrea Asraf held this view concerning Quebeckers’ desire to hold on to their identity: “we were isolated, abandoned by France, wanted to resist assimilation, disconnected from rest of Canada too, so we only had each other (the French speakers in Canada that is)” and Margerite Dubois 20

affirmed that “we’re tough, Quebecois, we’ve preserved our heritage against tough odds and we’re proud of that!”, a sentiment her sister shared. Of the five interviewees who voted in the 1995 Quebec referendum (Julia Duval and Michael Kabarov were too young at the time, and Margerite Dubois was already living in the US), Sophie Dubois was the only one who voted in favor of an independent Quebec. She recalled

I voted, in favor of independence, I thought we had enough resources to make it happen, but today I do not feel we could make it happen any more. I do not change my mind about the importance of being Quebecois, preserving French, but with a government who will keep that in mind, that will be ok. It depends on how we’re treated, if we can preserve our identity. You know, that was the first time I ever drank whiskey!

Indeed, Sophie Dubois expressed more strongly than the other interviewees the value she places on the policies that preserve the use of the French language within Quebec: “When you focus on something, it happens, if you do not protect it, it slides. I think if we do not do things to protect the language, it could be lost. It is important to put laws into effect.

The laws help make sure that our heritage is remembered and valued.” However, she does not necessarily feel that this needs to come at the expense of English: “I love speaking English, it is very important to know English, especially for economic reasons, but French is still very important to me.”

All eight interviewees agreed that a sovereign Quebec, severed from Canada, would not be feasible today. Even the most proud Quebecois, Sophie Dubois, said that

“we don’t have good leadership anymore, plus many people feel comfortable staying part 21

of Canada as long as our language and culture are acknowledged and respected.” Her sister Margerite agreed:

“By now it would not work (separation) because of demographics, there just are not enough people to support separation, but it is probably best, because of economic benefits (of being part of Canada), but Quebec has good resources and is well developed. There are benefits to being part of a larger country, smaller countries can go ‘belly-up’ more easily. Personally I would not want to see separation. I’m very proud of being Quebecoise, but also fine with being Canadian. We have a different language, and that’s okay.”

The Asrafs and Laurents all primarily cited economic reasons as the primary factor that an independent Quebec would not be feasible, a belief they all held when they voted in the referendum in 1995. Ultimately, another attempt at secession does not seem to be close on Quebec’s horizon, due to the combination of political and economic benefits the province enjoys from being part of Canada, and the recognition that Quebec can be distinct and maintain its culture and language without becoming its own country entirely.

However, language policies past and present continue to shape national identity of

Quebecois residents and expatriates.

Gifra (2014) cites the need to defend the rights of minorities in the face of an overwhelming majority that is different within the country, giving legitimacy to

“coercive” language policies: “Another argument for using coercion to defend a language is to say that the language community interested in speaking it has not had the opportunity to develop under equal conditions…” (212). This is consistent with the argument presented by Dion (1991): “Quebec’s fear is rooted in its linguistic heritage and is longstanding. As a French-speaking province in an overwhelmingly English-speaking 22

country on an even more overwhelmingly English-speaking continent, Quebec has a very real concern about losing its linguistic identity” (14). So one can say that the French language has been at a disadvantage when it comes to development on the North

American continent, at a disadvantage compared to English that is, so policies that protect and promote use of the French language can in effect level out the linguistic playing field.

Additionally, Barlow and Nadeau (2003) express a factor that is repeatedly brought up in the topic of Quebecois national identity – the demographic reality of a small number of French speakers surrounded by a sea of English speakers, which contributes to Quebeckers’ fear of losing their culture and language:

In a population of seven million now, six million can be considered native speakers of French. This is a very small French pool in a sea of three hundred million English speakers – no other linguistic group has a similar situation except, maybe, Baltic-language speakers with respect to Russian, or Hebrew speakers with respect to Arabic (170).

Although France provided an early model of language policies, notably with the creation of the Académie Française in 1635 (when Quebec still belonged to the French empire), which sets the standards and helps create uniformity for the French language (academie- francaise.fr), they were not always executed efficiently due to the often complex and tumultuous political and social situation in the country. In fact, in modern times, Quebec has set the standards for producing language policies to protect the French language, policies that France emulated several decades after its long-lost former colony:

The idea of protecting the language against Anglicisms actually started in Quebec…Starting in the 1960s, Quebec leaders became 23

conscious of the necessity of protecting the French language, and they implemented various policies…The Quebec government also created a set of language laws that carefully circumscribed the use of the English language on signs, enrollment in English schools, and in public communications. The French followed the trend ten or fifteen years later. (Barlow and Nadeau, 2003: 170).

There are still components of Quebec’s society that advocate for a more ethnic form of nationalism, rooted in European – especially French – heritage, known colloquially as de souche, meaning “old-stock” Quebecer (Piroth, 2008). Quebec has a particularly tricky situation in its intake of immigrants from all over the world. These immigrants are introducing all kinds of cultures, languages, and ideas to Canada, and are in a unique position in Quebec, as outlined in this quote:

When located in immigrant-receiving countries, these populations face the challenge of forging an identity defined simultaneously in opposition to two groups: the national majority, in relation to whom they form a minority, and immigrants, for whom they constitute the majority receiving society (Carson et al., 2013: 133).

In this case, the French-speaking Quebecois are the majority receiving society in question, absorbing new foreign immigrants from all over the world, but they still constitute a minority in comparison to the rest of (English-speaking) Canada.

Wayland (1997) addresses this conundrum that Canada was already facing in the

1990s. She notes the difficulty of creating and maintaining a common Canadian identity in the face of tensions between Quebec and Anglo-Canada coupled with a great deal of immigration and the possibility of “being culturally, economically, and possibly politically engulfed by the United States” (54). The influxes of new immigrants to

Quebec has been a crucial factor in encouraging Quebec’s government to promote a 24

“civic” idea of what it means to be Quebecois. That is to say, that being Quebecois does not need to come from one’s ethnicity, family lineage, or physical characteristics, but rather being Quebecois should entail embracing the customs and values of the province, notably the use of the French language on behalf of the immigrants and the ensured use of the French language by their children as well, regardless of ethnic, racial, or national heritage.

In discussing the stipulation in Bill 63 that forbids families from educating their children primarily in a language other than French, Julia Duval told me “I learned

English in school, but later, like in high school, and before that, if you want to educate your kids in English in Quebec, they can only go if their grandparents were Anglophone and went to English-speaking schools.”

When I interviewed Margerite Dubois, a high school French teacher who is originally from Quebec, she gave me permission to take a few pictures of her classroom, the walls of which are adorned with mementos of her home. One of the first things I noticed was the license plate hanging on one wall, which contains the phrase “Je me souviens” (I remember) – “a slogan first carved onto the Quebec parliament building in

1883 and intended to prompt Quebecois to think of their distinctive francophone heritage and struggle for autonomy” (Jones et al. 2015; 93). 25

Fig. 3 – Picture of license plate featuring the distinctive phrase “Je me souviens” (I remember) in

French

Something as seemingly simple as a license plate, and a rule regarding what must be present on said license plate, is a physical manifestation of Billig’s (1995) concept of

‘banal nationalism’, subtly reminding residents that they are different from the rest of

Canada because of a collective history, a history that is rooted in active preservation of the regions distinct identity. To sum up this section, some of the strongest drivers of

Quebecois national identity are: the demographic and geographic realities of a small number of French-speakers in a sea of English-speakers; and the pride that the French- speakers maintained the use of their language despite being isolated and small in numbers. Crucial to the continuation of the Quebecois national identity in modern times has been the implementation of language policies by Quebec’s government, which have been quite successful in maintaining the use of the French language within the province. 26

Othering of Anglophone Residents

Whenever there is a conflict between peoples, scholars of geography and political science often refer to the phenomenon of “Othering”, drawn from the work of Edward

Said, the act of making a different group of people out to be inherently different and often inferior. The act of “othering” is certainly visible in the ongoing rivalry between

Anglophone and Francophone facets of Canadian society. The stipulation in Quebec’s language policies that schools must be taught exclusively in French can have the effect of making children whose primary language is English at home feel insecure or looked down upon: “To create a school curricula exclusively in one language in a bilingual setting is to ‘other’ those who speak any language other than that chosen; it is to place them outside of normal to alienate them by virtue of the curriculum.” (Mountz, 2009: 28).

Two of the eight people I interviewed are self-identified Anglophones who were born and raised in Montreal, and both expressed feeling marginalized, unwelcomed, and looked down upon by Francophone neighbors and peers, especially when they were in primary and secondary school. David Asraf and Michael Kabarov (the individuals mentioned) are both children of allophone immigrants – people whose first language was neither French nor English – but their parents raised them to primarily speak English, rather than French, citing the importance of knowing English in an ever-globalizing world. They attributed much of the hostility they felt directly to Quebec’s policy that children of immigrants must be educated primarily in French (included in Bill 63). They felt that the French language was forced on them in an overwhelming manner, and that they were made to feel inferior for not having French as their mother tongue. David said 27

“In school, and even just out and about, I was made to feel “different”, strange. Honestly,

I often felt like a second-class citizen just because I didn’t speak French at home. The

French language was synonymous with oppression to me as a Canadian.” He did say “it is certainly valuable to know more than one language, but as a young kid having a subject forced down your throat in school, and so politicized, that was traumatizing.”

Michael Kabarov, an entire generation younger than David Asraf, expressed the same thoughts: “It’s one thing to have French in the culture, but another to impose it. It’s one thing to encourage English-speakers to learn French, and another to force it down their throats until they’re sick of it.” Despite his young 23 years of age, Michael has already started his own business, and told me that when he did, language police “yes there are actual language police that make sure businesses are adhering to language laws” checked in on him to make sure that his business name was translated word for word in

English and French.

One blog called “Springtime of Nations”, a self-described “irreverent, informative blog about separatism, autonomy, indigenous rights, interethnic conflict, balkanization, and micronationalism” echoes Asraf and Kabarov’s feelings about the extremity and paranoia of the enforcement of French. In this blog, the author Chris Roth makes fun of the lengths some Quebecois go to in order to ensure the use of French, such as banning the use of English on playgrounds in some school districts. He emphasizes that English- speakers have maintained a presence in the province just as long as French-speakers. As of 2006,

about 7.7% of Quebec’s population is native English speaking, and 10.4% speak mostly English at home. In Montreal, the figures are higher: there, 13.2% call English their first language. (These 28

figures are from Canada’s 2006 census.)… Thousands of English- speaking Montrealers live in neighborhoods and districts that have been Anglophone for as long as they can remember. There have been English-speakers in Montreal for essentially as long as there have been French-speakers, as is evidenced by institutions such as McGill University. (Roth 2011).

This quote highlights the fact that French and English immigration have both had long- standing presences in the region; as such, many of the Anglophones who live in Quebec resent being made to feel that they should abandon the use of their mother tongue (which ironically is what the Francophones are afraid will happen to them if they do not enforce the use of French).

Roth is of the belief that French is not threatened in Canada, and in fact is thriving, and that Quebec is therefore going over the top in its strict regulation of the language. What he does not consider however, is that perhaps Quebec’s success in producing fluent

French-speaking individuals is a result of the province’s strict language policies.

Nuanced and Changing National Identities

Despite the dichotomy between Anglophone and Francophone, or Canadian and

Quebecois that comprise much of the accepted narrative about this social/political conflict, the identities at play cannot be said to be black and white. After all, identity is rarely simple – it is an extremely complex phenomenon. It is true that the Dubois sisters, who were raised in a completely French-speaking household in a completely French- speaking city, identify first and foremost as Quebecoise. Likewise, it is true that Michael

Kabarov, who was raised by Allophone immigrant parents in Montreal who primarily 29

spoke to him in English, identifies completely as a Canadian. However, plenty of Quebec residents and expats have mixed senses of identity. Marc Laurent for example, claims that he feels equally Quebecois and Canadian, because he was raised by a Francophone father and an Anglophone mother in a bilingual setting: “I’m the proof of, say, Quebec in

Canada can work. I’m in between lives all the time. If I’m with Quebecers trash-talking

Anglos I’ll defend the Anglos, but around English-speakers, I’ll defend Quebecers, as an example.” With such a background and mindset, it can be said that Marc does not fit into the traditional camps that are normally depicted in the Quebec/Canada tensions.

However, it must be considered that every individual is likely to feel differently, as

Marc’s sister Andrea said “I feel mixed Canadian and Quebecois identity, but more

Quebecoise, because my education was primarily in French, I think in French more often.”

David greatly dislikes Quebecois nationalistic sentiments, and identifies only as an American now. He and his wife left Quebec in 1996, just after the referendum, which

David cites as an influential event in his desire to leave: “the peak of hostility I felt against me as an Anglophone in my own home.” His wife on the other hand, personally identifies as Quebecoise more than anything else, and defends the Quebec government’s policies. Her mother Alice meanwhile, falls in between her daughter and son-in-law. An

Anglophone born and raised in New Brunswick, she personally identifies as a Canadian first, but because she was married to a Francophone man most of her life and they raised their children (Andrea and her brother Marc) in a completely bilingual setting, she has a strong appreciation of the French language and understands the Quebecois mentality of 30

wanting to protect their identity, and the subsequent attempts on behalf of the Quebecois government to take legislative action to preserve said identity.

Conclusions

The French language is the primary vehicle of expression of Quebecois national identity, and the use of the French language within the territory of Quebec is actively shaped by the language policies of Quebec’s government. The goals of the language policies of the government of Quebec, taken directly from the Gouvernement du Quebec

(Government of Quebec’s) website state1:

Quebec’s language policy is the result of a long process, forty years in the making in order to protect and promote the French language within the territory of Quebec, so that it be the common language, serving as the medium of public communication among Quebecois residents of all languages and all origins.

The language policy relies on some key principles:

• The protection and promotion of the French language; • The respect of the institutions of the Quebecois Anglophone community; • The respect of the cultural communities of the indigenous peoples; • The promotion of French as the language of integration of immigrants into Quebecois society; • Openness to the learning of languages other than French.

The challenge of the language policy is to successfully maintain a balance between, on one hand, the clear affirmation of the French character of the Francophone-majority Quebecois society (79.6%

2 This particular page of the Government of Quebec’s website is actually not available in English, so this quote is my personal translation (I have taken four years of French classes at my university). 31

of the population) and, on the other hand, respect of the Anglophone communities (8.2% of the population), and Allophone communities (12.3% of the population) who live in the territory. (Politique Linguistique du Quebec, translated by Jesse Tenenbaum, from http://www.spl.gouv.qc.ca/languefrancaise/politiquelinguistique/#h aut-de-page).

Anderson (2006) says that a nation can be imagined through language, and the

Quebecois national identity is imagined and constructed through the French language.

Indeed, it cannot be denied that the French language is integral to Quebecois national identity: “In Quebec, identity is highly correlated to language group, with the Québecois identity felt overwhelmingly by the francophone community (Keating, 1997)” (Fallon &

Rublik 2011, pg. 92). Billig’s (1995) idea that national identity is shaped in mundane ways by the government, through policies and the physical landscape, is manifested in

Quebec in the form of the language policies that dictate how and where languages should be used, as seen in the province’s license plates for example.

I set out to answer the question: {Is there a link between policy and national identity, especially between the language policies of the province of Quebec and the national identities of Quebec residents?} To recap, some of the strongest drivers of

Quebecois national identity are: the demographic and geographic realities of seven million Francophones surrounded by over 300 million Anglophones; and the pride that the Francophones feel having maintained the use of their language despite being isolated and so small in numbers. Quebec’s government has been successful in its implementation of language policies that declare the French language to be the official language of the province; and that contain provisions to ensure that French remains the primary language 32

of use in the work place, government, and education. Education has played an especially powerful role in the shaping of young Quebec residents’ feelings of national identity.

Being educated primarily in French often leads to an association with Quebecois national identity, but sometimes the forceful and political nature of the teaching of French in schools results in feelings of alienation or “othering” for young people who do not speak

French at home with their families.

After evaluating numerous scholarly works; census and voting data and maps; reading blogs and popular literature; and compiling interviews with Quebecois individuals of different generations, first languages, and geographic origin; I claim that there is indeed a link between French language policy and Quebecois national identity.

By enforcing legislation that determines what language(s) residents can use and the ways in which they must be used, the language policies of the province of Quebec clearly have shaped and continue to shape the national identities of Quebec residents.

33

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Appendix A

Interview Questions

1.) How do residents of Quebec conceive of the relationship between language and identity? - 1. Where did you grow up, what was the linguistic situation in your home? - 2. How important is language to YOUR identity? Has that changed over time, especially with you being an expat? - 3. Does policy play a role – does mandatory teaching of the French (and/or English for that matter) language have a big impact on the way people feel about the language or themselves? - 4. Do you feel different when you speak the different languages? How do you feel different? - 5. Do you identify as Quebecois first, Canadian first, or consider yourself to be both in equal quantities?

2.) How have people’s perceptions of the relationship between language and national identity changed since the 1995 referendum? - 1. Have these perceptions changed? How? - 2. Do many people still want independence for Quebec? - 3. If fewer people want independence, what caused this decrease? - 4. Has policy regarding use of French and English within Quebec changed since 1995? - 5. Are you familiar with Bill 101, how do you feel about it? Is it necessary to enforce use of a certain language/s today?