The census is good news, in French or English

The 2011 census figures made public Wednesday should have a calming effect on language tensions that have been mounting here in recent times.

The data on language use in Montreal and the rest of Quebec offer at best thin gruel for French-language hardliners seeking justificatory evidence for restrictive and coercive language laws. They also offer a measure of reassurance to Quebec’s anglophone community, which has seen a rise in its numbers to the highest level recorded by a national census in the past 40 years.

Province-wide, slightly more than four out of five Quebecers report French as the language spoken most often at home (81.2 per cent). That’s down a smidgen (0.4 percentage points) from the last census taken in 2006, but the total number of mainly French speakers is up by more than a quarter million (259,645). In addition, more than nine out of 10 Quebecers now report being able to converse to some extent in French (94.4 per cent). Hardly cause for fomenting language insecurity.

The number of people who mainly speak English at home, meanwhile, rose from 2006 to 2011 in both absolute numbers and as a percentage of the total Quebec population. The total number of household English speakers was up a striking six per cent, from 787,885 to 834,950. One has to go back to the 1971 census for a higher total (887,895) than that. As a share of the total Quebec population, however, the anglophone community rose only by a relatively niggling one-tenth of one percentage point from 2006 to 2011 (10.6 per cent to 10.7).

These figures, then, show anglophone numbers stabilizing at a relatively healthy level after decades of exodus, but not at a level that can be seen as threatening to the French fact. After all, from 1971 to 2011, the population of Quebec and of Canada as a whole grew by roughly a third.

True, the percentage of people speaking only French at home in metropolitan Montreal declined during the five-year census period from 59.8 per cent to 56.5 per cent — although in absolute numbers by a less striking 6,865 (from 2,147,705 to 2,140,840). On the other hand, the number of people speaking French along with another language other than English in the home was up by 89,785 (239,425 to 329,210).

By comparison, the number of people speaking English along with another language other than French in the home was up by only 34,145 (163,945 to 198,090).

These figures suggest that francophone Montreal is absorbing immigrants into its fold much more successfully than is often portrayed. This can only contribute to political stability in Quebec.

Another encouraging sign is that FrenchEnglish bilingualism is on the rise. The per- centage of Quebecers who report being able to converse in both languages was up two percentage points (from 40.6 per cent in 2006). Especially noteworthy is that the census found bilingualism flourishing particularly among young Quebecers, with 60.5 per cent in the 20to-24 age group reporting they were bilingual. A generation appears to be emerging that does not know two solitudes.

It is true that preservation of French as Quebec’s dominant language requires eternal vigilance and continual effort. But the census findings suggest that Bill 101 in its current form is working relatively well, and that toughened language laws, such as those now being proposed by the new Parti Québécois government, are not justified.

Better integration of newcomers into the job market and the public service would help facilitate integration more than stern new legislation. When it comes to promoting French, the carrot promises to deliver better results than the stick.