Gettin’ all politcal on y’all

Yeah, okay, me no try to be street no more. It was just rubbing off from my Quebec government’s attempts to get down with the young kids yo by financing a hip-hoppity song and video to encourage the province’s English minority to feel all okey-dokey-smokey.

Here’s what the Quebec Minister in charge of the English community (yay! we have our own minister!!!) Jean-François Lisée had to say at the press conference announcing the song, “Notre Home.”

“You are Quebecers. Stop doubting. Stop asking permission to be Quebecers. Stop thinking that it’s in the eye of the other that defines you as a Quebecer or not. You are Quebecers. Get over it. And tell others to get over it.”

This is the guy who was the mastermind behind a survey that “prooved” that Quebec anglos speak too much English and, worse, aren’t doing their bit to embrace French. And this is from a government that would like to make it tougher for non-anglophones to attend English schools and colleges, remove long-held bilingual statuses of some communities, has forbidden a small town to publish its newsletter in English and generally would like to see the English community up and skeddadle. Not to mention the longstanding restrictions on the public use of English.

“Get over it?” That’s like someone punching you in the face and then telling you not to be such a baby.

But I’m a good nouveaux-Quebecer, so follow the link if you’d like to hear my attempts at a public service announcement to help my fellow anglos feel all squishy (originally aired on CBC Radio’s “Breakaway”).

Oh, and I rap in it! Word!

More reading on this topic from The Montreal Gazette’s Don MacPherson.