I'm glad one of us understood what he wrote. I found it a bit contorted.

The Quebec companies I deal with mostly have English as the default setting.

The only industry I know well in Canada is insurance. Insurance companies do avoid Canadian markets with legislation they consider onerous, for example, I know of a company that will decline business in NB after year end because new rules outlaw the use of credit rating as a criterion. Similarly few companies bother with NF because it has few people and lots of laws. Quebec however is a market every company wants because it has a lot of insurable risks, doing business in French isn't an issue because the companies already do business in French, German, Spanish, Russian, every language used in markets with lots of people.

Bigoted or not lily-livered?

The QC view seems to be "integrate or f**k off". The official standpoint elsewhere may be lamer.

FWIW, the nastiest examples of blatant racism I have come across in conversation over the last 16 years have been in BC, AB and ON.

You don't need to label in both languages in all provinces. If you don't intend to sell in QC or NB, you can stick to English.

It was clear. You will see what you wish to see though.

Labelling's un hareng rouge anyway. You don't have to label products in Spanish to sell them in America but companies do; I don't think it likely that, if the law was changed, there'd be a great rush to put products with unilingual labels on the shelves.

6(2) says something rather different.....

http://lois-laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/r...3.html#docCont

The conversations, as they were reported here, over the overt religious symbols appeared to be bigoted to me but I agree that, if one wanted to justify it, one could do so on the basis fo "integrate or f**k off".

On the racism issue, from what I have experienced from my travels in BC and AB, racism is just beneath the surface of a huge number of Canadians. I haven't seen massive amount of blatant racism but, then again, I am not a different race or a minority so I may be missing all the clues.

From what I hear from First Nation cousins it's almost a passive aggressive type most of the time.

I find the bile spewed against the province on this forum kind of interesting.

I wonder whether the people making sweeping and derogatory comments have traveled much in Quebec or have friends there? Or have just read some newspapers.

For most people coming from Europe, I'd argue that the political spectrum in Quebec is much more similar to what you'd see in other social democracies than the right-wing approach in the US and even some parts of Canada.

I personally find Quebec has a positive influence on Canada in a whole series of ways, from culture to a benign political effect. The TV shows are often better too.

That's quite an achievement given how high the bar has been set by the rest of the country.

I agree with all of that. Ignorance is an extremely common reason for knee-jerk condemnation.

Point taken. My senses have been dulled, I hadn't even considered that.

Whatever you think of Quebec or it's people, you'd be a complete idiot to not realize how messed up things would get in the rest of the country if they seceded.

Only the overly sensitive could describe observations made on this forum as "spewing bile".

Interesting that you are looking for an "argue"ment.

Also interesting that such a supposedly progressive and cultured place has taken until 2012 to elect a female premier.