Currently a university professor at UQAR-Campus de Lévis, I have had the privilege for 10 years of working as an adviser to four ministers in three different parties. I was deputy chief of staff for two of them.
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While the ink of our new ministers’ signature is still fresh, there are no doubt some recommendations I would like to make to each of them, but my first will go to Minister Jean-François Roberge: get closer to his counterpart, Minister Pascale Déry. Ideally, add that of Economics and Innovation as well as that of International Relations and The Francophonie.
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How come ? Because it is clear to me that the fate of the French is intimately linked to that of science. In the French-speaking world, we don’t always share the same idea of what the University is and we don’t have a common vision.
How come ? To talk about it I will use the words of the Premier of Québec, François Legault, after the elections of 3 October: “the first duty of a Premier [au Québec]is to ensure that the French language retains all its place, all its vigor ”!
However, the most important language crisis is not happening in Montreal. It takes place in science. I need not say more: all those who work in science are more and more submissive to the imperatives of the English language every day, essentially because our societies do not offer an equivalent or better scientific life for people who evolve in French-speaking science. Students, in the foreground, have to master English for a variety of reasons and this then continues in the workplace.
- Listen to Martin Maltais’ interview on Philippe-Vincent Foisy’s show broadcast live daily at 6:50 am on QUB Radio :
And to change that, Quebec must first do two things:
- stop supporting the recruitment of students who come to study in Quebec in English;
- occupy the greatest possible place in the Francophone world, in particular through the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie.
In this developing Francophone space, we must not only stop the decline of scientific literacy in French, but promote it. And this does not only concern the production of scientific articles in French or their translation, but also the access to a wide range of textbooks, books and online learning activities. This means encouraging lectures also in French, but above all offering young people who follow us a rich and prosperous scientific life when practiced in French.
Maintaining the French fact will depend on the attractiveness of French-speaking colleges and universities to the populations who attend or are likely to attend them, everywhere in our territories: the best teachers, managers and other staff, the best spaces, the best environments learning, best teaching practices, best technologies … Research work must be able to be done naturally in French, which also challenges the Minister of Economy and Innovation.
Our Prime Minister is right when he says that “the prime duty of a Prime Minister [au Québec], is to ensure that the French language retains all its place, all its vigor ”. But this cannot be done without science or without forging stronger relationships with other French speakers around the world.
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Martin Maltese, professor of funding and education policies at UQAR, Lévis campus
