Some French Language activists are throwing shade at Montreal Pride over a job offer advertised in English-only on a job site on Wednesday.
Montreal Pride organizes the city’s annual Pride week activities and parade, which generates millions of dollars in revenue for local businesses and is a big international tourist draw.
The group’s ad said it would give preference to candidates who identify as women, transgender, non-binary, and people of color...as well as anglophones. It’s that last one Quebec nationalists are upset about.
They say it’s “outright discrimination against anyone who is not English-speaking” and that the law forbids hiring decisions based on a person's language.
Pride Montreal has about thirty people on staff and apparently only two anglophones. The group does significant international marketing and social media activities to attract American, Mexican and European tourists.
In the village, reaction from LGBT Montrealers to the complaints has included a lot of head shaking and shade-throwing of their own.
“It’s just being realistic.It’s pragmatic and it might hurt some people, but anyone that thinks that it’s wrong is probably a fanatic,” said one longtime village resident.
While Jean-Paul Perreault of the group Imperative français cries that he “can not believe we live in Quebec in 2018,” his criticism is being met with a lot of eye-rolling.
“There’s always need people who’s talking English, French. If other people are speaking Spanish, whatever...it’s better for everyone,” said a Francophone store clerk through his thick Quebec French accent.”
“Ça me dérange pas. C’est pas un “big deal,” laughed one of his customers.