Millennials have no use for the ‘two solitudes’

Linguistic hang-ups are being left in the dust

With the likelihood that 2017 will be another wasted year south of the border, consumed by human rights debates once thought resolved, it’s unfortunate there are also forces closer to home that continue to perpetuate not only racism, but its marginally less offensive cousin, linguistic xenophobia. Canada is among a small group of model nations with a relatively successful, stable brand of multiculturalism. It’s time to build on that expertise, and doubling down on multilingualism is a natural starting point.

A new generation of millennial Canadian leaders, many of them bicultural or ethnically ambiguous, will all but destroy forces promoting monoculturalism. This makes many contemporary debates on language (in either of Canada’s official languages) especially futile.

It was surprising to hear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week answer in French a question an anglophone Quebecer had asked him in English, “since we are in Quebec,” just as it was surprising to hear his admission that he had avoided speaking French to a francophone outside Quebec in this officially bilingual nation. He apologized, but it appears as though even our Montreal-bred cosmopolitan PM momentarily succumbed to the undercurrent of linguistic xenophobia that is disproportionately prominent in politics and media, particularly in or involving Quebec. While the PM’s comments may have been an anomalous slip for a Liberal leader, certainly for a Trudeau, there is no shortage of examples of politicians, pundits and other leaders needlessly provoking various language controversies, from forbidding French in hockey locker-rooms to advocating for less post-secondary instruction in English, as was the case for those who questioned HEC’s offerings.

These petty, quotidian examples of linguistic xenophobia, media-friendly caricatures of a timeless duality, are simple and tiresome, and the debates they provoke are completely irrelevant to cosmopolitan, multilingual and multi-ethnic millennials. (And this is coming from someone who was the first to write about the Pastagate affair, overblown in retrospect, since there are unseen Pastagates every day in Quebec, a consequence of antiquated and counterproductive language policing.)

Contemporary leaders across the political spectrum, in either language and including Quebec sovereignists, would be wise to get over their hang-ups about unfamiliar languages before millennial competitors leave them in the dust.

The fact that members of the Canadian commentariat are even debating whether Conservative leadership candidates like Kevin O’Leary should run without being minimally proficient in both official languages is disappointing, not to mention embarrassing, if the debate reaches an international audience. While proficiency tests for candidates (as proposed by former premier Pauline Marois) would be too heavy-handed and inconsistent with freedom of expression, it’s up to parties to insist candidates be able to converse with the nation’s two largest linguistic groups, at the very least.

And for millennial leaders, bilingualism is not only a non-negotiable requirement, but, in many circles, considered unimpressive. It isn’t uncommon to see a young professional in Montreal speaking three, four or five languages; students at universities like HEC are flocking to English and Spanish programs. An entire generation of young Quebecers are speaking and consuming media in least two languages, while too many of their parents are content with the parochial fantasy of English and French locked in a battle to the death.

Millennial Quebecers who recognize English as the international language of business and an increasing number of other young Canadians flocking to French immersion programs simply have no use for the “two solitudes.” Not only is the silo approach to language learning inefficient (multilingualism helps develop the brain’s language centre), arming the next generation with only two languages lacks ambition.

In a global context where G20 nations abandoning manufacturing must rely heavily on their knowledge economies, Canada’s linguistic diversity should be treated as the asset that it is, and none of this should still be debatable.

Dan Delmar is a public relations consultant and managing partner with Provocateur Communications. twitter.com/DanDelmar