Sharon Qian GGR202 14 March 2013

Faultline between English and French

For many years, hostility has existed between the two largest ethnic denominations in Canada, the French and the English. To understand the cause of this continuing bitter saga, one must take a journey back in time. Throughout the Canadian history, the issue of separation of the nation between two big dominate groups have never been suppressed due the deprive of sovereignty. As the British successfully defeat the French and took control of the New France, there was still a continual threat of separation from the French, which naturally developed the fault line between English and French. There were many occasions where French and English Canadians clashed. Though the British adopted different acts and laws to grant the fairness between two cultures include founding factors such as religion, language and values, the crack between the two groups were still there. In recent crisis, the conflict of “sovereign’s independence” even sharpen after the newly elected Quebec Premier, Pauline Marios taking the office. On March 7,2013 the National Post published an article stating the Quebec Premier Pauline Maoris and Education Minister Marie Malabo has ordered an outside research body, the Cole national d’administration publique, to “define the problems” raised by intensive English instruction and examine its impact on students’ success in other subjects (“Quebec puts brakes on intensive English language program” 2013). This article argues how the newly elected premier Marois’s party put breaks on the English teaching system in Quebec, as well as tinkering of history in order to promote sovereignty independence.

The notion of Canada being bilingual is an approved concept in Canadian politics, which can trace back to the European colonization of Canada.