08 July 2010

Macpherson: What is (and is not) Quebec Bashing

Quebec-Born Filmmaker of Color Says Quebec Cinema Ignores Minorities, Faces Backlash | Epress News

When Marco Fortier wrote last month in his blog on the popular news site ruefrontenac. com that Quebecers are rude, it was followed by a mostly civil discussion in the blog’s comments section, writes Don Macpherson in Canada’s The Montreal Gazette.
Nobody dashed off a post angrily suggesting that Fortier move away if he didn’t like it here.
That’s because Fortier had kept it in the family. He had satisfied three unofficial conditions for exercising his freedom to express public criticism of Quebecers.
He had done so in French, and to a French-speaking audience. And most important, as a French-speaking Quebecer, he is a member of the family himself.