Bonjour-Hi in the era of Bill 96

Courageous, Cowardly or Just More Confusion?

What We Choose To Remember Let’s start with courage. Full marks to citizens who raised their voices against this summer’s bizarre 31-page health ‘directive’ that made it sound like it was necessary to hire a ...
Guy Rex Rodgers (left) with Jazz Festival co-founder Alain Simard

Remembering the International City of Jazz

What We Choose To Remember What Montrealer has not enjoyed a summer’s day at the Montreal International Jazz Festival? Over the years, we came to take for granted the throngs of people of all ages and backgrou...
Raft of the Medusa

The Wreck of French, the Triumph of English

After a lifetime of studying languages in a global context, French-born linguist Lionel Meney concludes that the battle between French and English is over in his 250 page book This provocative title is borrowed...
The Lionel Groulx School of History

The Lionel Groulx School of History

What We Choose To Remember Lionel Groulx – priest, historian, public intellectual and nationalist – understood the power of history to shape a national identity and make youth proud of their nation. Other coun...

Tell Me Your Story

What We Choose To Remember Tell me your story and I’ll predict your future. If I know what you believe, I can predict what you will achieve. The main reason I chose to spend my adult life in Quebec was its i...
The Rails of Reality

The Rails of Reality

When the train runs off the rails of reality, you’re in for a wild and bumpy ride.  Quebec is increasingly a land where fears and fantasies chart the course. Back in the 70s, Quebec’s language and culture we...
Time to realign - Quebec

Time to realign

What We Choose to Remember Every nation has its foundational myths. For Quebec, Nouvelle France was conquered by English-speaking foreigners who have been a plague ever since. Most Anglos I know have encounter...

Fight, flight or foresight

What We Choose To Remember We are living in times of division, frustration, resentment and hostility. Friendships can be damaged by a misplaced word, destroyed by a misinterpreted comment. The automatic physio...
Quebecers

Real Quebecers may yet have the last word

What We Choose To Remember Last month I moderated a panel on the Impact of Bill 96 for the Quebec Writers’ Federation. The mood was glum. We do not have to look very far in the world to see deeply divided popu...
London Calling: Help, we’re being invaded!

London Calling: Help, we’re being invaded!

What We Choose To Remember I was surprised last month by a documentary film – A London Lost: The Death of an English City – which made the remarkable claim that London is no longer English because it has been ...