Island Of Montreal: Allophones

English At Home Dept: A lucid reading of the statistics in this report indicates that the French language itself is not actually in danger of disappearing in Quebec. This includes the island of Montreal, where the majority of citizens speak it in the public domain, regardless of their linguistic or cultural background. Although critics have expressed concern that these numbers are not high enough, that the project of francization is not happening fast enough, it is nevertheless happening. There is good reason to respond positively to these numbers; that francophones could become the minority in Montreal shouldn't necessarily matter, according to Montreal Gazette. Instead of celebrating the steady rise in the use of French among anglophones people who speak English at home and allophones people who speak languages other than English or French at home across Quebec since 2001, the statistics are persistently interpreted in a way that incites alarm over the possibility that francophones are endangered; not the French language, but the people. There is an important difference here, and I think it warrants a closer look and like Jack Jedwab "Despite dire warnings, the future of French on Montreal Island is not a gloomy one," Opinion, Oct. 28 , I have been trying to interpret reactions to a recent report issued by the Office qu b cois de la langue fran aise that suggested that francophones people who speak French at home may drop below 50 per cent of the population on the island of Montreal by 2031. Yet gauging by the intense public response to the OLF report, it appears to matter very much. For example, a La Presse poll in September found that 75 per cent of respondents feel we should be worried about the possibility of Montreal becoming a city with a minority francophone population. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.