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English-speaking Quebeckers argue that the proposed law is aimed at strangling their school system and taking away rights they have enjoyed since Canada became a national confederation in 1867. Even Lévesque admits that his draconian bill needs some amending. For instance, since the measure makes no distinction between immigrants from abroad and those from other parts of Canada, an English-speaking parent who moved from, say, Toronto to Montreal, would have to send his children to French schools.
The issue has put Prime Minister Trudeau's Liberal government in a bind. Ottawa is deeply committed to preserving the French language, but through Trudeau's policy of government approval of the use of both languages. Lévesque's school policy could drive a wedge between Quebeckers and other Canadians that Trudeau cannot condone politically. Yet if federal opposition to the language bill is too strident, it could drive more French-speaking Quebeckers into Lévesque's separatist camp.
No Confrontation. So the government has decided to waffle. Defending Canadian bilingualism, Ottawa has explicitly supported the right of all Canadians "to have their children educated in the official language of their choice." But at the same time, a government spokesman has also said that such freedom of choice could be "deferred until present elements of insecurity for the French language and culture are removed or reduced." In short, Ottawa wants no confrontation on the issue.
Quebec's English-speaking minority is battling hard against the bill, which has been approved in principle by the Quebec legislature but still awaits formal passage. So far, Lévesque's government has received 264 public briefs on the language proposals—most of them opposed —in the course of hearings scheduled to end later this month. One association of Anglophone parents has accused the government of building "on the bones of the English-speaking community." The Quebec chamber of commerce warns that if the bill is passed in its present form, an exodus of corporations could cost the province, which already has an unemployment rate of 10%, an additional 23,000 jobs. While Lévesque may back down somewhat on the schooling issue, he remains staunchly in favor of the language law as a whole.
Whatever the final shape of the law, increasing numbers of English-speaking Quebeckers are uncertain about their future in a province run by the fractious Parti Québécois. Already, a kind of ethnic exodus has begun. In English-speaking areas of Montreal, so many houses are for sale that real estate men no longer bother to put up FOR SALE signs—A VENDRE that is—on the front lawns.