Thanks to a grant from the Government of Quebec’s Young Volunteers program, and months of hard work, the young artist’s first album was officially launched on Sept. 30.

Responsible for the entire development process and deployment of her work, Girard now travels to theatres in Greater Montreal, to the delight of the Quebec public.

Journey

Girard made her debut in music by singing in a choir, then in musical comedy at Georges-Vanier high school in Duvernay. She continued to gain experience by attending Cégep Marie-Victorin, and McGill University in jazz singing.

In addition to pursuing her musical career, the young woman is a music teacher, and works in the restaurant industry.

For Some Reason

The album has 13 songs and is titled like of of them. When asked why that name, Girard said “the album reflects [her] life”.

“I think we do things for some reason,” Girard said. “We don’t know how things will be received, what will happen, but we have to get started.”

The song also represents well the particular style of the artist because of the significant contrasts between the sections.

Highly influenced by United Kingdom’s (UK) jazz, Girard is also inspired by several aspects of her life when composing her melodies.

Language

Although Girard’s mother tongue is French, most of the songs of her first album are in English. Some are also bilingual, while her favourite melody is in French.

In addition to the fact the international fanbase mainly speaks English, that language also allows her to go further into introspection.

“[Performing in English] allows me to put myself in a bubble,” confessed the singer. “Sometimes, I find French very close to me. When I sing in French, I feel more exposed.”

Engaged Music

The Laval native’s goal isn’t necessarily to create committed music, but, because of her experience, several pieces are nonetheless.

It’s the case of the song “Graceful Earth”, which sends a very clear message related to climate change. In that song, the artist thanks the Earth, and apologizes for everything humans are doing to it.

translated by Alec Brideau

L’article A Laval Artist launches her First Jazz Album est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

“It corresponds to what we’ve been saying for a few years, which is that Laval is becoming more and more anglicized, and that French is occupying an increasingly secondary role,” he said on the phone, when asked to react to the linguistic portrait of Laval emanating from the 2021 census data, published a few hours earlier by Statistics Canada.

Urgency to Act

Desautels also added that “we will need to take very strong actions if we really want to save French in Laval”.

He sees in the situation an urgency to do something.

“If we do nothing, we’ll simply disappear,” he said. “We can say that in probably five or 10 years, Laval will have become a bilingual city, and in 20 years, a unilingual English-speaking city. This is absolutely evident from current trends.”

First, he really hopes that Laval’s French language committee, that the City intends to set up, will get under way quickly.

“This committee needs to come to life in the coming months, because in two years, it will be too late”, Desautels said.

Take Drastic Measures

To stop anglicization, which is constantly gaining ground in Laval, Desautels asks the municipal administration to, in the future, “communicate with all citizens in French only”.

Unlike municipalities whose status is bilingual, Laval remains a French-speaking city and isn’t required by law to address its citizens in the language of Shakespeare, regardless of whether they communicate in English with Laval’s administration, argues the president of the SNQL.

“Everything, absolutely everything should be in French only,” he insisted, while mentioning digital, oral and written communications. “The more bilingual documents we offer, the more we encourage people who don’t speak French to continue not doing it.”

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L’article The French Language “Seriously Threatened” in Laval, Says the President of the SNQL est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

That situation can be seen in all regions of Quebec, except that of Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine, where French registered a gain of 1.1 per cent.

Compared to Montreal

After the Nord-du-Québec, Laval recorded the biggest drop of percentage points (-three per cent), ahead of  Montreal and the Outaouais, where French fell by 2.4 per cent.

At 68.9 per cent, Laval is ranked 15th in the ranking of regions, behind the Nord-du-Québec (31.1 per cent) and Montreal (58.4 per cent).

Slowing Down in Quebec

The demographic weight of people speaking French predominantly at home in Quebec has been decreasing since 2001, says the agency in charge of the population census in the country.

In 20 years, this weight has gone from 81.1 to 77.5 per cent. In the 2016 census, the proportion of Quebecers whose home language was French was 79 per cent. That said, in 2021, 85.5 per cent of Quebec’s population said they were speaking French at home at least regularly.

Between 2016 and 2021, the proportion of the population whose mother tongue was French dropped below 75 per cent, going from 77.1 to 74.8 per cent. During the same period, Quebecers having French as their first official language went from 83.7 to 82.2 per cent, while 93.7 per cent of Quebec residents said, in 2021, they could hold a conversation in French, down 0.8 per cent from five years earlier.

Finally, at the last census, the number of people for whom English is the first official language spoken It passed the milestone of one million people, representing 13 per cent of Quebec’s population.

translated by Alec Brideau

L’article Important Decline of the French Language in Laval est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.