"We are in Quebec, not Maine or Massachusetts."

Seventeen year old "G" and his cousins were walking down a street in the Montreal suburb of St. Leonard one evening last week. They were talking in English. They came upon a young adult male who took offence, saying "you are not allowed to speak English here." G was then punched in the face. Twice. It shouldn't surprise us when citizen vigilantes such as the one G met on the streets, take it upon themselves to enforce the "common language" credo using the law as justification. I don't want to continue living in a country that enables a law on any part of its territory that favours one ethnic group over all others.

Quebec's school segregation laws, which ensure the children of immigrants from English-speaking countries do not have the right to send their children to English schools, uses language identical in principle to that used under the now defunct apartheid system of South Africa. All it would take to eliminate this inequality is a proclamation by the legislation or government of Quebec.