Bill 101: A gift we never expected

A Quebec nationalist, a separatist cabinet minister, and a psychiatrist with an attitude (he dyed his hair jet black, smoked his Buckinghams pinched between the thumb and the index finger of his upturned palm), Laurin prodded as many as 150,000 well off, educated, fully-employed English-speaking Montrealers to choose the 401 over 101- and to remove themselves, their jobs, their savings and their children from the province rather than face the prospect of having to learn to speak French. Forcing businesses to operate in French in Quebec has spawned a whole new language industry-translation and correction software, terminology banks, linguistic planning and management-in which Quebec has developed a leading expertise, one that globalization has made very valuable almost everywhere.