Unreasonable and unaccommodating

This time the culprit is Guy Bertrand, who stirred up the relatively calm waters of the Quebec language debate last week by attacking Montreal Canadiens hockey star Saku Koivu for not speaking French very well.

How long do Quebecers have to put up with this stupidity? Taking a shot at a unilingual public official is one thing, but criticizing a well-respected athlete — a hero and role model to thousands of young Quebecers — is disgusting.

To make matters even worse, PQ leader Pauline Marois came out in favour of Bertrand's idiotic remarks — going so far as to agree with suggestions that Canadiens players should be proficient in French. The instant she said that, she lost all credibility. How can a highly placed politician — the leader of a prominent provincial party, no less — expect to get away with agreeing that professional athletes would have to be speak passable French before being signed to a Quebec team? Clearly, anyone who seriously espouses that moronic notion is unfit to hold public office.

In a perfect world, comments such as those uttered by Bertrand and Marois would spell an instant end to a career. But in topsy-turvy Quebec, where language and ethnicity are frequent sources of embarrassment to most of us, it seems that even the most hateful controversies are shrugged off and forgotten. You can be sure that Bertrand will go on spouting his ethnocentric vitriol and Marois will no doubt still be there, front and centre, when the next provincial election is called.

Professional sports have always provided an effective buffer on the local language friction. It is one area where French- and English-speaking Montrealers can sit together and cheer on their mutual heroes. Even the greatest of them all, Maurice Richard, got by on what could best be described as shaky English — but local fans respected their beloved Rocket, no matter what language they spoke.

The whole issue of reasonable accommodation continues to be big news in Quebec, but now it has deteriorated into a national embarrassment. And with people like Guy Bertrand and Pauline Marois there to maintain the level of absurdity, how long will it be before Quebec once again shoots down our soaring loonie?