From: heckman@kingcong.UWaterloo.ca (Gerald Heckman)
Subject: English: Language of vice ?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 20:38:36 GMT


Quand j'ai lu cet editorial, je n'ai pu m'empecher de penser a la
recente serie d'articles sur ce reseau (intitules "When do we stop being
outsiders..") qui traitaient de l'impression qu'ont plusieurs Quebecois
anglophones de ne pas etre acceptes comme Quebecois par leurs
concitoyens francophones. L'article de Don Macpherson ne traite pas
de constitution ou de societe distincte - il traite de notre culture
populaire. Plus precisement, il traite de deux nouveaux teleromans
qui selon lui, presentent les membres de la minorite anglophone du
Quebec sous une lumiere peu flatteuse. Si on nous presente continuellement 
des images negatives de nos amis "les autres" dans notre culture populaire,
est-il vraiment surprenant que certains Quebecois francophones aient de la
misere a accepter les anglophones comme Quebecois ?

Bonne Lecture ! - Gerald Heckman

When I read this editorial, I couldn't help thinking of the
recent stream of articles on this newsgroup (When will we stop
being outsiders...) dealing with the impression of many anglophone 
Quebecers that they are simply not accepted as Quebecois. Don
Macpherson's piece isn't about the constitution, distinct society,
etc... It's about popular culture. More specifically, Macpherson
talks about two prime time serials which according to him, systematically
depict members of Quebec's anglophone minority in an unfavorable light.
If we are consistently fed negative images of nos amis "les autres" in
our popular culture, is it any wonder that some francophone Quebecois 
have difficulty accepting anglophones as fellow Quebecers ?

Enjoy ! - Gerald Heckman

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Language of vice

"Why do the bad guys speak only English on Quebec TV ?"
 by Don Macpherson, The Montreal Gazette, March 28 1992


Know how to spot the villain in a Quebec prime-time television serial ?
Don't bother looking for a black hat. Listen for English. In two of the
most publicized teleromans of the second half of the current television 
season, Rejean Tremblay's "Scoop" and Lise Payette's "Montreal Ville
Ouverte", the worst of the bad guys are anglophones.

And to make sure the francophone audience knows they're anglophones, 
they deliver lines, some of which are anti-francophone insults, in English.

Apparently, merely speaking French with an English accent would be too
subtle. So one occasionally hears francophone actors playing anglophones
delivering English lines with French accents.

"Scoop", about a thinly disguised version of the newspaper La Presse,
where Tremblay works as a sports columnist, is such an action-packed
hit that even some anglophones have become regular watchers.

Those who may have noticed that while most of Tremblay's francophone
bad guys have redeeming qualities, most of his anglophone characters
don't; they're just bad.

The aide who provides a pollution-fighting cabinet minister with
underage prostitutes and pays them with cocaine, resulting in a scandal
that leads to the minister's suicide, is an anglophone.

So are the rednecks in Oshawa (coincidentally, real-life junior hockey
home of Eric Lindros, a frequent Tremblay target for his refusal to play
in Quebec City for linguistic and political reasons among others) who
direct anti-francophone insults at a touring Quebecoise pop singer.

And so is the professional hockey player named Jim Michael who instigates
the sexual harassment of a female reporter in the team's dressing room.

At least one of the other harassers is a francophone player. But it's the
anglophone Michael who arrogantly demands in English that the male reporter
hero of the series, who is interviewing him about the incident, asks his
questions in English.

And it's the anglophone Michael, again speaking English, who later tries
to provoke the same reporter into a fight in a bar.

What makes Tremblay's negative portrayal of anglophones really stand out
is its contrast with his representation of other minorities.

Not many other francophone television series have shown so many members of
minorities in non-comic, non-stereotyped, sympathetic roles.

One of the supporting characters, the harassed female reporter, is of
Italian descent. A minor character, a desk editor, is black. There are
non-white extras in the newsroom scenes.

And a major plot line concerned a Salvadoran refugee facing deportation.
It provided a pretext for the most sympathetic characters to explain the
importance of welcoming immigrants into francophone society and to confront
anti-immigrant attitudes.

Payette, former Parti Quebecois cabinet minister and narrator of the 1989
anti-immigration television documentary "Disparaitre", makes no distinction
between good and bad minorities in her latest teleroman, which is based on
actual events and characters in the wide-open Montreal of the 1940's and 
1950's.

Anglophone, Jewish or Italian, almost all her minority characters are bad.
And not only do Payette's non-francophone gangsters speak English
among themselves, occasionally making antifrancophone remarks, even some
of her francophone hoods speak English to each other, as though English 
were "la langue du vice".

It's true that there were English-speaking gangsters in Montreal in the 1940's
and 1950's. And one can hardly deny that there are English-speaking atheletes 
who harass or assault women, English-speaking, small-town rednecks and
English-speaking politicians who are unscrupulous.

It's not racist for a scriptwriter simply to depict an unsympathetic
character who just happens to be a member of a minority.

But what is the script writer telling the audience when members of
a particular minority are systematically shown in an unfavourable light ?

And how does this influence the less sophisticated members of the 
audience who have difficulty distinguishing between the real world
and that of prime-time television serials based on reality ?

When the bad guy speaks English, what message does the audience hear ?

		-Don Macpherson
		 The Montreal Gazette, March 28 1992

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Gerald P Heckman
Universite de Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.