Maxime Bernier says he didn't expect to create the storm that ensued when he told an interviewer last Friday that Quebec doesn't need Bill 101 to preserve the predominance of the French language. He must be kidding. As might realistically have been expected, political opponents and pundits lined up over the weekend to rake him over the coals for such heresy.
Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois accused him of being out of touch; Cultural Affairs Minister Christine St-Pierre, responsible for administering the province's language laws, called him irresponsible; Quebec solidaire's Francoise David called his suggestion surreal. Even federalists piled on. New Democrat MP Thomas Mulcair accused Bernier of pandering to the Tory right wing for personal gain; Liberal Denis Coderre sneered that he was making Sarah Palin look like an intellectual.
Perhaps it would have been better had he voiced a more nuanced critique of the language law, with suggestions of where it might be eased rather than issuing a blanket dismissal of its utility. In doing so he made himself a fat target for the language hawks who dominate discussion on the language issue.
It is indeed unrealistic under present circumstances to propose that the language charter be done away with, and undeniable that it has served a commendable purpose in establishing rightful French predominance in the province and reassuring francophone Quebecers that measures to protect their language can be imposed without separation from Canada.
But then even delicately nuanced critiques of Bill 101 and eminently reasonable suggestions for easing its strictures, such as allowing native English speakers from other countries access to English public schools, are typically seized upon by the language hawks as deadly threats to the province's French fact. Fearmongering and vilification are their stock responses to any questioning of the language laws.
It is not unreasonable to suggest, as Bernier did, that Quebecers might by this time be sufficiently adult to assert themselves as a French-language society, if that is their wish, without draconian laws imposed by an overbearing nanny state. There are indications, unfortunately all too scarce, that Bernier isn't alone in his thinking. A poll conducted for The Gazette last year showed that two-thirds of Quebecers, including a clear majority of francophones (61 per cent), agreed that parents should have absolute freedom of choice in language of schooling for their children.
What is, sadly, unreasonable, and where Bernier might be kidding himself, is to expect that it's possible as yet to have an adult discussion on language in Quebec.