The Editor,
Re. "Let's stand up for les Quebecois" (Face to Face, The Tri-City News, Sept. 20).
Face to Face columnist Andy Radia, like far too many Canadians, doesn't seem to know what francophone means.
While French-speaking Quebecois whose families go back centuries are all francophones, they are only a small part of the francophone family that is spread all over the world.
There are also francophones in Quebec who either were born there to immigrant families originating from some of the many countries where French is spoken, or they immigrated themselves from one of these countries.
These francophones do not have the same culture as what we used to call the French-Canadians; their French is different and they may not be Catholic. Many of them will be directly affected by the Parti Quebecois government's values charter.
One of irony is that, according to Quebec historians, it is more than likely that the ancestors of many pure-laine Quebecois did not speak French until their move to Quebec from France. Until the late 19th century/early 20th century many people in France didn't speak, read or write French. At best, they might have known a score of basic words. They belonged to what the French government called "the linguistic minorities of France" and only became French when their birth region was annexed to France after one of many wars, or an arranged marriage between aristocratic heirs that avoided a war.
France, like Rome, wasn't built in a day.
Some of the regional accents one hears in Quebec, and some family names come from these non-French-speaking regions of France. Even today, the French spoken in many regions of France has kept the accent and many words of the historical native language.
J-L Brussac, Coquitlam
