French language takes center stage at Quebec forum

Quebec City: The first global forum on French kicks off in the Canadian province of Quebec on Monday aimed at strengthening the language in a world dominated by English.

The French Language World Forum, to be held in historic Quebec City, is expected to draw more than 1,000 artists, speakers, business people, youth and representatives from civil society.

Heads of state are not invited since the gathering hopes to avoid the formality of diplomatic summits.

Events and discussions will focus on four major themes: the economy, the cultural industry, the place of French in the digital world and the coexistence of languages.

This week, in an effort to structure debate at the forum, some 40 people from France, Canada, Lebanon, Algeria and Cameroon signed a petition demanding the end of an obsession with all things English.

“We see a new world emerging, and that’s an opportunity for the French language and the French-speaking world,” Louise Beaudoin, a member of Quebec’s National Assembly who signed the petition, told AFP in reference to the rise of Brazil, Russia, India and China in a “multipolar world”.

“We have to seize that opportunity,” she added.

Abdou Diouf, secretary general of the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF), a union of French-speaking nations, meanwhile blamed intellectuals and business people for not taking enough interest in promoting the language of Moliere around the world.

“In large part, academics and intellectuals don't care. It’s a new intellectual treason. And businessmen care even less. When you talk to them about it, you bore them. You get the impression that only globalisation interests them,” Diouf said in an interview on Saturday with Quebec’s daily Le Devoir.

“We must define the French language and its development according to what we want it to be first and foremost, in a context of linguistic diversity,” said Michel Audet, who will head the forum in Quebec.

There are some 220 million French speakers around the world, according to the OIF.

But “if all goes normally, at the beginning of 2050, there should be more than 700 million French speakers, 80 per cent of whom will be in Africa”, Diouf said.

Forum participants will discuss concrete steps on how to facilitate the flow of artists, university students and business people among francophone countries, as well as how to increase scientific publication in French and promote trade.

The issues are not likely to be resolved before the October summit of francophone governments in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The forum comes amid worries by some about creeping anglicisation in Montreal and after a spring marked by unprecedented student protests about tuition hikes that soured the government’s image in French language media.