Am I going to live in a province where I cannot vote? Thanks to a community organization the case of not being able to be represented further in this province is going in front of the Untied Nations. What a fine new public image that will create for the separatist party of Quebec, formally know as the "Parti Quebecois".
A recent statement from a minister in the provincial party created a stir among Anglophone residents especially those on the West Island where a majority live. It means that Quebec would return to the time of intolerance predating the Duplessis period but it also reminds me of the FLQ crisis, the minimization of English language signs and so much else that has dramatized the loss of language and consequentially ethnic rights in the province.
I thought I was living in a more tolerant province, which would uphold my rights. Years ago when a separatist leader visited a local synagogue wearing his "fleur-de lys" pin, he reassured the Jewish community that their culture and language rights would not be touched. But if there is not going to be representation in the government then those promises would disappear because anybody but a French speaker would be considered a second-class citizen. As it is I have become a second-class citizen in my own country having to constantly reassert my bilingualism in a country where the majority are English speaking.
One thing to do would be to continue to fractionalize Quebec and separate myself from intolerant French speakers. One west-islander quipped that he would separate his property from the rest of Quebec if it came to loss of vote for him in this province. Another solution is just as deserving, in that there should be no taxation in a province where there is no representation. So if the minister can so candidly say Anglos should have no political representation than why contribute monetarily to the separatist coffers?
