Office De La Langue: Montreal Island

Island Population Dept: But if Montreal francophones become the island's minority, who will be the majority? That question is not directly addressed, which leaves the misleading impression that "non-francophones" will assume that role. The problem is that "non-francophones" are not a language group. No Montrealers refer to themselves as non-francophones. Lumping anglophones and allophones into an imagined category often appears designed to encourage francophones to wrongly associate the "ethnics" with the English language. However, the first language of most Montreal Island nonfrancophones is not English. Identifying with more than 100 groups, allophones simply don't have a common language to impose on the island's francophone population, according to Montreal Gazette. While Quebec demographers insist that a reduction in the share of the island's francophones will inevitably result in fewer allophones acquiring French, they rarely apply that logic to argue that a reduced share of Montreal anglophones will diminish their capacity to get allophones to adopt the English language and a report recently issued by Quebec's Office de la langue fran aise warned that by 2031 the share of people speaking mostly French in their homes on the island of Montreal will fall below 50 per cent. Such dire forecasts tend to attract considerable media attention, along with a predictable reaction. Opposition critics insist that Montreal is being anglicized, that the government is insensitive to the dangers facing the French language, and that it is urgent to introduce new or tighter language laws to curb any further decline. The demographic projections for 2031 would see the share of the Montreal Island population that speaks mostly English at home fall to about 23 per cent; in 2006, it was 25 per cent. In other words, 75 per cent of the island's population will not speak English at home - though one never hears the term "non-anglophones." If the principal danger to the French language on the island is anglicization, one would assume that it is relevant to look at the actual percentage of English-speakers. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.