Galganov Returns to Fight Again

But Galganov lost the war and Bill 101 became law. As he had promised the great language crusader closed down his little store in Notre-Dame-de-Grace and left the province forever.

He fled to nearby Ontario. Two weeks ago Galganov resurfaced again, climbed back up on his steed, and galloped full speed into the sleepy village of Russell to battle against the forces of language evil.

But this time he’s not fighting for bilingualism.

He’s fighting against bilingualism.

That’s because Russell township council passed a bylaw last month that says from now on all new commercial store signs have to be in BOTH official languages. It’s the kind of exposure for bilingualism that would warm up a lot hearts of back in the West Island.

The township council says the bylaw will reflect the bilingual nature of the community that is about 60-40 French-English.

Russell village is more Anglo part, and Embrun Village the more Franco part. But overall, the township is about two-thirds bilingual and they get along wonderfully.

Take the mayor, s Ken Hill. Nobody would mistake him for Molière, but he married a French-speaking woman and now he speaks French well enough to run the township.

The sign bylaw however has angered some Anglophones in Russell who feel that creeping bilingualism is taking over. First the signs, and then what’s next?

Galganov denies that he’s fighting against bilingualism or that he’s for English-only signs. He’s says he’s fighting for freedom. In other words, fighting for the right of business not to have to put up a bilingual sign.

That’s what he fought for back in Montreal, he says, not for bilingualism. The hair-splitting is lost on the locals. They see him as anti-French.

Galganov doesn’t live in the community. He lives in Williamstown, about 40 kilometres away in the next riding.

But the roads are good.

It didn’t help when he printed up 5,200 pamphlets entitled Boycott French-owned Stores and had Canada Post distribute them all through Russell.

The problem is there is a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada that says it’s against the law to discriminate on the basis of language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, color, nationality, and a lot of other things.



Boycott French-owned Stores is right up there on the human rights no-no list along with Boycott Jewish-owned Stores, or Boycott Arab-owned Stores.

How Canada Post could have distributed such a pamphlet has to be explained by Ottawa.

The pamphlets attracted the attention of Galganov’s old nemesis, Gilles Rhéaume, former Société Saint-Jean Baptiste president who heads the Ligue contre la francophobie canadienne. Rhéaume came charging out to Russell, ready for bear.

Here we go – a good, old-fashioned, Quebec-style language dust-up.

First of all, Rhéaume went to the local Ontario Provincial Police detachment and filed a complaint for hate literature against Galganov. The cops assigned their best man, detective Jean Coutu. Yup, that’s his real name. Then Rhéaume began rallying his troops.

Galganov countered. He hired Ottawa lawyer Kenneth Binkley and filed a suit against the township bylaw in Ontario Superior Court. The township lined up noted Ottawa Franco-rights lawyer Ronald Caza.

Galganov launched a campaign to raise money for his fight, making it clear that he won’t be using it to fund his campaign as an independent candidate in the Cornwall area in the next federal election.

Local libertarians quickly rushed to Galganov’s side, as did Canadians for Language Fairness fresh from their loss in Ottawa to prevent bilingualism at City Hall.

Some locals refused to give money to Galganov to fight the township since the township is using tax money to fight Galganov. The lawyers are getting rich on us, they said.

At first, the Russell Chamber of Commerce was on Galganov’s side. But when his pamphlet ended up at police station, they refused to pay for it. Galganov accused the Chamber of betraying him and took out an ad in a local weekly to denounce the Chamber.

The owner of a hair salong had two bilingual signs stolen from her lawn overnight. A radiator shop owner put up a French-only sign to defy council. Starting to look more like Quebec.

These Ontario innocents ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Readers are invited to post comments to Mr. Cleroux