31 October 2012

Quebec’s image gets uglier with each new language-based attack | Full Comment | National Post

Quebec’s image gets uglier with each new language-based attack | Full Comment | National Post

Three times in two months since the election of a Parti Quebecois government, English-speaking Quebecers have been confronted with the fact they’re not welcome by a segment of the French-speaking population.
Three incidents is not a tidal wave, but none of the incidents was minor. In September, forty-eight-year-old Alex Montreuil had a sandwich thrown at him in a cafe at the Jewish General Hospital after speaking English to a woman behind the counter. As it happens, Montreuil has a severe allergy to tomatoes, and the tomato in the sandwich set off a dangerous reaction.
A few weeks later, a couple in Vaudreuil-Dorion, just outside Montreal, called paramedics when their two-year-old suffered a seizure. Mark Bergeron speaks French, but says he had trouble understanding the medical terminology used by the attendants and asked if they could have the conversation in English.

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