|
Lavigne was appointed to the Régie by the Liberals and later, following the passage of Bill 101, was reappointed by the PQ to the now re-named Office de la langue française. He’d now worked on language for three different governments. When I comment on that, Lavigne points out that Bill 101, Bill 22 and Bill 63 are not all that different. He reminds me that all political parties in the 1976 provincial election were unanimous on one point: the French language had to be protected.
According to Bill 101, by December 31, 1983, every firm in Quebec with fifty or more employees must hold a permanent francization certificate issued by the Office. The certificate will attest that a francization programme approved by the Office is being applied, the objectives of which are: knowledge of the official language by management; an increase at all levels of the number of people having a good knowledge of French; use of French as the language of work and internal communications; use of French in business documents, manuals, catalogues, and other advertising; and use of French terminology.
Firms employing 100 or more persons are required to form francization committees made up of at least six people, one third of whom are representatives of the employees. These committees are now in the process of completing their “linguistic analyses,” which involves filling out a seemingly endless series of detailed forms about all aspects of their firms’ operations having anything to do with language. The linguistic analyses are sent to the Office, where it is decided whether or not a francization programme is required.
Because of growing social pressure, many companies have had francization programmes of their own for years now. For them, Bill 101 merely formalizes and accelerates an already ongoing process. Take General Motors, for example. Language rights were a major issue in the Ste-Thérèse GM strike of 1970. One had to be fluent in English to be promoted, said the union. Most of the foremen were Anglophones and only half of them could speak French. Memoranda and other communications from management were in English, as were instructions from other plants. The union demanded that the working language at Ste-Thérèse be made French. Impossible, said management: the Ste-Thérèse plant was part of a large multinational operation which conducted its business in English. It would cost too much to translate official documents into French, especially technical documents.
The issue wasn’t resolved in 1970. But nine years later things have changed enormously. Jean Lapointe, assistant director of personnel at Ste-Thérèse, tells me that about ninety-five per cent of the plant’s 160 supervisors and ninety per cent of the plant’s general foremen are now French speaking. Only at the most senior levels have things moved more slowly. Six of the ten senior management positions at Ste-Thérèse are now held by French Canadians; in 1965 there was one francophone at that level. Terminology is slowly being francized with the help of the “terminology bank” at the Office. Wherever possible, documents at the plant are translated into French. Some documents, says Lapointe, are still a problem, but such matters are negotiable with the Office, with which, he says, GM has a “very good relationship.”
He points to an exemption granted the company by the Office when it was informed that there was a problem involved in meeting the requirement date for the bilingual labeling of certain models of car. “They have to be practical,” says Lapointe. Lavigne agrees. “There’s a lot of give and take in my business,” he says. GM, of course, has to be practical too. “So long as we can make money in Quebec,” Lapointe insists, “we have no problem conducting our business in French. ... we adapt ourselves to the language and laws of the people. It’s a matter of good business to do so.” In any case, the costs of francization, like all other costs of doing business, are simply passed on to the consumer. “The customer is always right,” is what Raymond Gosselin, the president of the Office, continually tells businessmen when discussing Bill 101. That’s what he told his salesmen when he was a regional manager of marketing at CNR.
Gosselin’s story is interesting. When he was hired in 1942 as a labourer in Quebec City to work for the railroad, the man who hired him was a unilingual anglophone. Gosselin quickly realized that if he wanted to get ahead at CNR he had to learn English. He transferred to Cochrane to do so but the language at work was in English. The terminology was all English. “Do you realize how stressful it can be working in another language?” he asks. The trouble, Lavigne says, “is that the Industrial Revolution happened late in Quebec, and in English.” When Gosselin was promoted to regional manager of industrial development in Montreal in 1962, all but one of the other senior executives were English Canadians. All meetings were conducted in English.
Bill 101, continued >
|
