MONTREAL - To hear some people tell it, Bill 101 has failed to prevent Montreal from becoming an English-speaking hell for francophones.
One La Presse columnist, after complaining that there is exactly 10 per cent too much English in the film Funkytown, set in mid-1970s Montreal, claimed recently that English now is "stronger than ever" in the city.
And one could almost hear a shudder in Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois's voice when she said Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, who had said francophones don't need the language legislation, "should maybe come to Montreal more often."
That Montreal is being "anglicized" is the argument used by the PQ to justify its proposal to restrict admission to English CEGEPs.
"Greater Montreal is becoming anglicized" is the title of the first chapter of a recently published "study" by the PQ language critic, Pierre Curzi, in support of the proposal (bit.ly/huIWMK).
(This is the same "study" that argues that the existing restrictions don't work in 12 years of compulsory primary and secondary schooling.)
The introduction to the "study" refers to the "spectacular regression" of French in the Montreal region in only the five years between the last two censuses.
It's true that trying to get service in French in downtown Montreal businesses can be frustrating.
But the cold hard statistical evidence shows that Montreal is not becoming more English.
And what's the source for this evidence? It's none other than the PQ.
The accompanying table appears on page 16 of a previous Curzi "study" by the same name.
It shows that the "spectacular regression" of French as the language of use in the Montreal metropolitan region between the 2001 and 2006 censuses amounts to less than two percentage points.
Over 10 years, it's less than a single point.
And in 2006, people who most often used French at home still made up more than two-thirds of the population.
It's true that the proportion of that population with English as the language of use did increase between the two censuses -by exactly one-tenth of a point. But it was still below 20 per cent -and lower than it was 10 years ago.
Maybe Curzi should have stuck to the situation on Montreal Island.
Let's ignore that the island has been permanently connected to the overwhelmingly French-speaking mainland for more than 150 years, since the Victoria Bridge opened.
And let's ignore that the city hall of French-speaking Longueuil is closer to that of Montreal in distance and travel time than is the city hall of Dorval, where the predominantly English-speaking West Island begins.
And for the island alone, the table does show a steady, slight decline in French as the language of use.
But that's not because francophones and allophones - people with mother tongues other than French or English - are allowed to attend English-language CEGEPs.
Rather, as Curzi once candidly admitted, it's primarily because of francophone flight from the island to Laval and the mainland.
And even on Montreal Island, only a quarter of the population most often uses English at home, and they're outnumbered more than two to one by francophones.
So, Montreal is becoming more English? Hardly. And the PQ knows it.
Pierre Corbeil is not the only Liberal member of the National Assembly from the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region, as I wrote on Saturday. The other is Daniel Bernard. Sorry.
dmacpherson@montrealgazette.com