Controversial L'actualité cover story questioned on basis of poll sample

A public affairs magazine such as L'actualité should stir things up, shouldn't it? Well, it certainly has. There has been a major kerfuffle in the province of Quebec about a cover story in the latest issue which -- based on a CROP poll --says that anglophones, particularly in Montreal, are indifferent verging on hostile to the future of French language. The coverlines say “French Montreal? It’s over! say 77 per cent of young anglos,” and “Unilingual English bosses? Get used to it! say 74 per cent of young anglos.”

However, Globe and Mail columnist Lysiane Gagnon says  she is not so sure the foundation of the story (written by Jean-François Lisée, an adviser to most PQ leaders, including the current one, Pauline Marois) is that solid. As she points out, the sample of the poll was only 560 people, "unusually small" and that the "young anglos" subset represents 129 of those.

"Nowhere in L’actualité’s issue on “the future of French” is there a word about the main reason of the (relative) decline of French in Montreal: the fact that the French-speaking middle class is leaving the city in droves to settle in the nearby suburbs," she says.