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.

Samson Report

The Party’s proposals are inspired by the Samson Report, submitted in 2016 by Claire Samson, outgoing MP for Iberville. This report aimed to take stock of the policies aimed at promoting French.

It concluded, at the time, that “the decline in francization in Quebec is not attributable to immigrants’s lack of interest in French, nor to the lack of dedication of those involved in francization, but to the negligence of the Government of Quebec on this issue for some fifteen years. The drastic increase in immigration thresholds, combined with a reduction in resources devoted to francization has created deplorable effects.”

The Conservative Party is proposing a series of measures in order to improve the learning of French, and make francization a real national priority.

Protection and Sharing

The Conservative Party proposes to protect French in Quebec by implementing various measures.

First, it offers a personalized and turnkey francization course for adult immigrants, directing them towards adequate training, and reducing their current administrative obligations.

Second, it would like to set up a French Language Commissioner, who would receive complaints from the public and make recommendations.

A compulsory francization program for newcomers with insufficient command of the language would also be put in place. The program, which would last from 30 to 72 weeks, would include an initiation component to the realities of Quebec, its culture, its institutions and its values. It would also include a component focused on the professional field.

Other solutions are also offered by Éric Duhaime and his team.

“I hope immigrants we’re welcoming here will integrate our society and flourish among us,” Duhaime said in a press release. “They’re the first victims of the failures of francization in Quebec, when it should be considered a tremendous opportunity, a real passport for successful integration into Quebec society, as well as a source of pride for the one who manages to achieve mastery of our language. (A.B.)

L’article New Bill for Learning French 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.”

translated by Alec Brideau

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.

The park is located in the very centre of the city, on one of its most important boulevards, “the most beautiful”, said Romanian-born microbiologist Vania Atudorei.

A youth centre is located very close to the place, and right in front of the large hospital of the region.

Other Details

Laval Park is 2360 square meters. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of this twinning, the municipal authorities of Botosani have planted 15,000 flowers, and 1,100 shrubs are planted there.

“At all entrances and exits of the city, the municipality has installed road signs recalling this international twinning,” Atudorei said.

Atudorei’s also the president of the Romanian Association of Laval, and has been living on Île Jésus for more than 30 years.

Important Gesture

Let’s recall that in Quebec, the Romanian community numbers around 55,000 people.

“It’s a tribute to the ethnic diversity of Laval, the third largest city in Quebec [and tenth in Canada], in the current context where 30 per cent of its population comes from cultural communities,” Atudorei concluded.

Founded between a plain of Romanian Moldavia and the plateau of Suceava, Botosanie had a population of 106,847 inhabitants in 2011, as indicated on the Wikipedia page of Romania’s northeastern municipality.

translated by Alec Brideau

L’article A Laval Park in Romania est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.