ParChance said:
I can't believe that anyone would say that about the ethnic community. In almost each of the ethnic communities in Quebec the young are & have been migrating to other locales (rest of Canada) as their professions have drawn them there and it's for one reason and one reason alone more money and opportunity.
The Jewish community in Quebec City once existed where it exists no longer & as far as the one in Montreal, it once laid claim (40 years ago) to have a population of 120,000 and now 80,000. I'm sure that someone can and will find almost equal population stats for the Greek & Italian communities here in Quebec. I'm sorry but that not vibrancy.
ParChance,
I never denied that there are young people leaving this province for the reasons you mentioned, but many of them are unilingual anglophones or allophones. The ones that are able to find jobs are bilingual and skilled workers.
As for the Jewish community, I did not find much on the history of Jews in Quebec city but I did find this interesting link on the history of Jews in Montreal:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Quebec.html
If you notice, the author states the following:
"The rise of Quebec's separatist movement and French language regulations in the 1970s prompted
the predominantly English-speaking Jews to relocate to other English-speaking regions of Canada. When the Parti Quebecois won the provincial election in 1976, approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Jews, particularly young adults, left Quebec. The Jewish population feared an independent Quebec would economically and geographically uproot a large number of the 100,000 Jews in Montreal and would divide and weaken the national Jewish community. Due to this mass migration, the 1980s saw Toronto assuming Montreal's position as having the largest Jewish community.
After the Liberal Party regained power in 1985, and a nationwide economic recession lessened the appeal of the rest of Canada, the Jewish population of Quebec leveled out slightly, but Montreal never regained its former status as the center of Canadian Jewish activity.
Today, Montreal's Jewish population is approximately 90,000. It is the most Orthodox of North American Jewish communities, explained by Quebec's French Catholic heritage and its emphasis on religion in society. Until 1998, Quebec lacked a nondenominational public school system. Catholic schools only admitted Catholics, so Jewish students were forced to attend Protestant schools.
Today, around 55 percent of Jewish children attend the twenty-two Jewish day schools in the province. This is by far the highest percentage in North America. In addition, a network of Jewish public libraries was established to serve the Jewish communities, as Quebec did not have its own public library system until recently. The Montreal community boasts a B'nai Brith Youth Organization, the Canadian Zionist Federation, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Foundation for Yiddish Culture, singles groups, and a genealogical society. However, the prosperity of the community will depend on political developments over the next few years."
So, there was an exodus of predominantly English-speaking Jews to Toronto but the community is still alive and well here in Montreal. Also, many Moroccan Jews speak French effortlessly, which allows them to stay in the city and find work.
The same pattern materialized in other communities. I am convinced that Bill 101 is empowering future generations of young anglos and ethnics to compete and find jobs against "French Quebecois de souche." I see ethnics with impeccable language skills, often fluently trilingual not just bilingual, who are getting into law, medecine, engineering and who are doing very well. The ones that are bitching never bothered to read a French newspaper.
ParChance said:
BTW GG, Business leaders only care about 1 thing & it's not and never should be about diversification of a workforce or anything else for that matter, it is and should only be about generating profits for their shareholders. The rest is for glorified car salesmen better known as politicians who talk in circles, say nothing of any consequence other than to get elected in 4 to 5 years time.
I disagree. The strength of any organization is the people they hire. If you predominantly hire French Quebecers, you're losing the inherent advantages that come from a diversified work force. Your organization will become stale and parochial. This is already happening in many of Quebec's coveted organizations.
Unless the French power elite wake up and take the measures required to diversify their work force, this institutionalized parochialism will severely weaken Quebec's economy. The power to change things is in their hands but I am afraid they will fumble it up.
GG
