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Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country is a book by Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler. Published in 1992, it parodied the evolution of language policy in Quebec, and spoofed the Canadian province of Quebec's language laws that restrict Read More..

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Description	Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country is a book by Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler. Published in 1992, it parodied the evolution of language policy in Quebec, and spoofed the Canadian province of Quebec's language laws that restrict the use of the English language. The book, a best-seller, grew out of a long article published in a September 1991 issue of The New Yorker.According to the book cover:With a sure satirical eye, Richler takes a look at what he calls "the western world's goofiest and most unnecessary political crisis. English-speaking Quebecers endure Draconian language laws prohibiting English or bilingual signs in Montreal because they are seen as an affront to the city's visage linguistique.Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!: Requiem for a Divided Country, Penguin Books Canada, 1992.Following the publication of Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Richler faced a great deal of criticism from Quebec nationalists in the French media and some in English-Canada.Smart, Pat. "Daring to Disagree with Mordecai" in Canadian Forum May 1992, p.8. Pierrette Venne, a Bloc Québécois MP called for the book to be banned.Johnson, William. "Oh, Mordecai. Oh, Quebec." The Globe and Mail July 7, 2001. Daniel Latouche compared the book to Mein Kampf."Le Grand Silence", Le Devoir, March 28, 1992. Jean-François Lisée said "The contempt that he has for Quebecers, and for the facts, that trickles from every page, hurt me, as a Quebecer, [...] as a journalist also, as an author, the intellectual dishonesty with which he plays with the facts, he makes comparisons that are absolutely unacceptable, it gave me an enormous headache to read this book, it stopped me from sleeping. [...] Evidently, here in Quebec, we know that he exaggerates, but someone has to say it to English Canadians". He did so in a televised debate on the then-fledgling CBC Newsworld network, facing Richler. "Controverse autour du livre Oh Canada Oh Québec!" video, Archives, Société Radio-Canada, March 31, 1992, retrieved September 22, 2006Nadia Khouri believes that there was a racist undertone in some of the reaction to Richler, emphasizing that he wasn't "one of us""Richler, Trudeau, Lasagne et les autres", October 22, 1991. Le Devoir or that he wasn't a "real Quebecer" Sarah Scott, Geoff Baker, "Richler Doesn't Know Quebec, Belanger Says; Writer 'Doesn't Belong', Chairman of Panel on Quebec's Future Insists", The Gazette, 20 September 1991. Additionally some passages were deliberately misquoted, such as the section about Quebec women being like "sows".Khouri, Nadia. Qui a peur de Mordecai Richler. Montréal: Éditions Balzac, 1995. Other French writers also thought there had been an overreaction, including Jean-Hugues Roy, Étienne Gignac, Serge-Henri Vicière, and Dorval Brunelle.
Description	Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country is a book by Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler. Published in 1992, it parodied the evolution of language policy in Quebec, and spoofed the Canadian province of Quebec's language laws that restrict the use of the English language. The book, a best-seller, grew out of a long article published in a September 1991 issue of The New Yorker.According to the book cover:With a sure satirical eye, Richler takes a look at what he calls "the western world's goofiest and most unnecessary political crisis. English-speaking Quebecers endure Draconian language laws prohibiting English or bilingual signs in Montreal because they are seen as an affront to the city's visage linguistique.Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!: Requiem for a Divided Country, Penguin Books Canada, 1992.Following the publication of Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Richler faced a great deal of criticism from Quebec nationalists in the French media and some in English-Canada.Smart, Pat. "Daring to Disagree with Mordecai" in Canadian Forum May 1992, p.8. Pierrette Venne, a Bloc Québécois MP called for the book to be banned.Johnson, William. "Oh, Mordecai. Oh, Quebec." The Globe and Mail July 7, 2001. Daniel Latouche compared the book to Mein Kampf."Le Grand Silence", Le Devoir, March 28, 1992. Jean-François Lisée said "The contempt that he has for Quebecers, and for the facts, that trickles from every page, hurt me, as a Quebecer, [...] as a journalist also, as an author, the intellectual dishonesty with which he plays with the facts, he makes comparisons that are absolutely unacceptable, it gave me an enormous headache to read this book, it stopped me from sleeping. [...] Evidently, here in Quebec, we know that he exaggerates, but someone has to say it to English Canadians". He did so in a televised debate on the then-fledgling CBC Newsworld network, facing Richler. "Controverse autour du livre Oh Canada Oh Québec!" video, Archives, Société Radio-Canada, March 31, 1992, retrieved September 22, 2006Nadia Khouri believes that there was a racist undertone in some of the reaction to Richler, emphasizing that he wasn't "one of us""Richler, Trudeau, Lasagne et les autres", October 22, 1991. Le Devoir or that he wasn't a "real Quebecer" Sarah Scott, Geoff Baker, "Richler Doesn't Know Quebec, Belanger Says; Writer 'Doesn't Belong', Chairman of Panel on Quebec's Future Insists", The Gazette, 20 September 1991. Additionally some passages were deliberately misquoted, such as the section about Quebec women being like "sows".Khouri, Nadia. Qui a peur de Mordecai Richler. Montréal: Éditions Balzac, 1995. Other French writers also thought there had been an overreaction, including Jean-Hugues Roy, Étienne Gignac, Serge-Henri Vicière, and Dorval Brunelle.

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Name	Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!
Name
Authors	Mordecai Richler
Authors
Translator
Translator
Genre	Non-fiction
Genre
Series
Series
Number in series
Number in series
Language	English
Language
Country	Canada
Country

PUBLISH

Story timeline
Story timeline
Pages	277 (first edition, paperback)
Pages
Media_type	Print (Paperback)
Media_type
Isbn	0-14-016817-6
Isbn
Oclc	26256070
Oclc
Publisher	Penguin Books Canada
Publisher