A provocative message greeted drivers entering Montreal one morning in early December. A handful of people took to the corner of avenue de Lorimier and rue Ontario with a large banner that read, "French is dead. Welcome to MTL." The display was an apparent warning about the state of French on Montreal Island, where, census data shows, the proportion of people for whom French is the first official language spoken fell to 58.4% between 2016 and 2021.
In a heated exchange at the National Assembly, the Liberal MNA for Laval-des-Rapides made an impassioned plea for Quebec Premier François Legault to retract his statement about French being under threat because of the number of people speaking it at home.
Following demonstrations last weekend in Montreal where thousands walked through the downtown core in protest of Quebec s French-language laws, students in the Kanien kehá:ka (Mohawk) community of Kahnawake are leading a walk of protest Saturday.