Andréanne Langevin
With the return of chirping birds and good weather, Montrealers can finally say “Tis the season for apartment hunting!”. As many know, while the rest of Canada celebrates, in Montreal, the tradition is to move on July 1st. In the spring season, tenants planning on moving begin the great hustle and bustle of finding a new place and signing a lease.
A co-worker of mine (let’s call her Patricia) recently told me something that piqued my interest. Her friend from New Brunswick (let’s call her Clara) had recently messaged in English a potential landlord because she was interested in the apartment they advertised. She did not receive a reply to her rental application, so she called Patricia to the rescue. Pat proposed to help translate the message into French. She sent it again and, you guessed it, Clara received an answer within the next 48 hours.
When Patricia told me this story, I was shocked. This is discrimination in its purest form. Here is information taken from the Régie du Logement website: “Un propriétaire ou un locateur ne peut pas refuser de vous louer un logement pour des motifs liés à des caractéristiques personnelles, comme la race, la religion, la couleur, la langue ou l’orientation sexuelle.”Retrieved from: http://www4.gouv.qc.ca/fr/Portail/Citoyens/Evenements/vivre-en-logement/Pages/refus-location-discrimination.aspx
According to the city, approximately 36% of families in the Greater Montreal Area are immigrants and approximately 59% of those families are tenants (Profil des ménages et des logements, 2014). Clara was lucky to have a friend who could help her translate her rental application. However, I doubt this is the case for all those migrant families in search of a home.
I wonder if similar situations had happened to you or to someone you know. I find this absolutely unacceptable and unwelcoming…
Profil des ménages et de logements, (2014). Montréal en statistique. Retrieved from : http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/MTL_STATS_FR/MEDIA/DOCUMENTS/PROFIL%20DES%20M%C9NAGES%20ET%20DES%20LOGEMENTS%20-%20AGGLOM%C9RATION%20DE%20MONTR%C9AL.PDF
This story reminds me of my old neighbour (let’s call her Bernadette) who lived next to me for 20 years. She wasn’t the friendliest or the most helpful of neighbours, but we had a civil relationship, conducted completely in French. Occasionally I would throw an English word into the conversation, to see if she would pick up the bait, but never, not ever, did she speak one word of English to me.
Well lo and behold, Bernadette’s daughter got married to a fellow from Ontario and I overheard Bernadette speaking with her new son-in law (we shared a back balcony). You guessed it! She spoke perfect, I mean impeccable English with him. I so wanted to implore, why not me, Bernadette? But it was clear, as a fellow Quebecer, she expected me to do the french thing, but the son in-law was excused.
That’s shocking! But such a part of the reality some people experience here!!
I had a similar experience when trying to move last summer. If I applied in English (my only useful functional language here in Montreal), I received no responses from French listers. If I applied in French, I would get substantially more replies. I got fortunate with my current landlord, who is a Chinese immigrant who is raising his children as Chinese-French-English trilingual (I witnessed his sons’ piano lesson once and it was a hilarious experience).
Victoria
Andréanne,
what you are writing about in your post is definitely a thing. Land lords’ jobs are to judge peoples’ characters to determine if they are a right fit for the apartment, but sociolinguistics in Quebec complicates things much further. It is a scary reality to those coming from other parts of the world. Even after the signing of a lease there are language issues when it comes to fixing a leaky faucet, changing a lightbulb or painting a room. It’s all French, French, French! The workers that have come to modify my apartment have always only spoken French also, so if you need things done to your apartment, I suggest learning how to say: enlève tes bottes s’il te plait! (especially in the winter).
Shayne Crawford
I had the same experience as Clara. I wanted to buy something on Facebook. The seller has put a French ad, and without noticing this point I asked her a question about that item in English. I did not receive anything until the next day when I reviewed my question and I noticed that it was in English. I added a French version of that question below my English one and in one minute I received the response. The strange point was that when she found out that I am a potential buyer, she asked me in English: “you can come to see the item at anytime it is proper for you” !
While I can’t personally relate to the specific example you provided, I can speak to the availability of English services as it pertains to the provincial government . If ever I have to call in for something (like the RAMQ, or student loans and bursaries) I always choose to be served in French because choosing English usually means longer waiting times. That is if they even take my call. When calling about my loans and bursaries recently, I absentmindedly selected English, and was transferred to an automated message that asked me to call back at another time. I thought this was odd, because it was during normal business hours, so I tried again and this time chose French, and I was connected with someone. With the number of newly landed immigrants, I find it abhorrent to not offer better services that will help them transition into their new lives in Quebec.
Chris