But today's Montreal is the result of heavy-handed, paternalistic social engineering driven by an external government over the past 40 years... And is a shell of its former self. One that is going to be further hollowed unless these laws are reversed.

Bill 96 is a direct violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so you're right it's not racist, just a denial of my guaranteed rights as a Canadian Citizen. Ignoring First Nations, of course, many of whom speak neither French nor English. If you do count them, then Bill 96 can also be considered racist

[1] https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/two-thirds-of-qu...

[2] https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-coroner-feels-joyce-echaq...

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/world/canada/canada-herou...

Born in Montreal, fully bilingual, lived here for majority of my life - came back 8 or so years ago to a peaceful situation that was broken apart because nationalist extremists freaked out when greeted with "Bonjour, Hi!".

Now I have a government openly saying other cultures don't matter:

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-thwarted-by-multicultural...

Or do you have another explanation for the population , capital, and cultural flight that occurred over the 80s 90s that we have never recovered from?

My National ideals, and those of the majority from Montreal, are multilingualism and multiculturalism. Runs against the ideals of the ROQ (Rest Of Quebec) and it's disheartening to see my city suffocate under rules written up by people and for people who are not actually from the city

[3] exclusively targets non-Christian symbols and came after a campaign of primarily non-city folk freaking out because immigrants are different - most infamously Herouxville where the town published a manifesto warning immigrants against "stoning and burning women. It included, too, an explanation of the importance of Christmas trees." [1]. The Catholic symbology remains in the officialdom - see the giant cross that sits atop Montreal, and the crosses that were never removed from the public schools, or many provincial offices. Not to mention it's OK to wear a crucifix.

[4] goes way beyond education. Montreal is a functionally bilingual city and those of us from here speak "franglais", a mix of the two and have no issue switching. This new law massively restricts access to: education, medicare, legal services, to name a few in the official language of your choice. It even gives powers to the language police to, for example, raid a law or medical office, get access to confidential documents to ensure you are only being served in French [2]. I live in a nation with 2 official languages in a city where the majority of people are bilingual and happy to serve in either language- and Quebec just effectively made one of those languages illegal. How is this is not discrimination?

Georgia-Atlanta is an analogy. The rural areas are 99% white, unilingual francophone - a group who genuinely believe bilingualism and multiculturalism is a problem - Montreal's two key, unique strengths and defining characteristics. If we had representation by population, these would be non-issues but because the rural areas are heavily weighted, the ruling CAQ has a supermajority after winning only 37% of the vote.[3]

[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/herouxville-quebec-r...

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-96-explained-1....

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Quebec_general_election

However the drumbeats of separatism are banging again [1], so might be relevant considering what happened to the Montreal economy the last times these idiots were allowed to lead by their inferiority complex.

Background: Native Montrealer, proud Canadian-Italian whose ancestors built the city, and have watched it decay over the past 40 years due to paternalistic and policies and a system of government that prioritizes the opinions of the "Les régions" over Montreal (it's like if voters in the Georgia countryside fully dictated how Atlanta operates)

What Quebec nationalism has resulted in:

-Literal language police (see: pastagate [2] - this stupidity had been doubled down on)

-Codification of racism and suppression that also increases the burden on businesses (see: Bill 21 and Bill 96) [3,4]

-Blatant disregard for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the "notwithstanding clause") [5]

-Montreal was the most diverse, vibrant city in Canada, truly a global capital - this movement handed that directly to Toronto

-Montreal was the financial and tech capital of Canada - this movement handed that directly to Toronto

[1] https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/video?clipId=1831353

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastagate

[3] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/what-bill-21-means-f...

[4] https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/language-law-bill-96-adopted-pro...

[5] https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/what-is-the-notwithstandi...

And yes we're profitable, demand is going up because of the push for electrification everywhere and we are hiring very aggressively. Roles have geographic designation, but can pretty much be from anywhere

https://www.opal-rt.com/careers-search-job-posting/

https://doomberg.substack.com/p/20000-volts-under-the-sea

"The Xlinks project is a pretty good concept, and yet…it needs access to materials already claimed by many others at prices increasing by the day, it needs to build an entire HVDC industry in Britain from the ground up, and it needs money, lots of it."

Really cool dude

-Under no circumstances do I want your update unless it's to circumvent a genuine security threat or addresses a genuine pain point that real users complain about on HN, Reddit or, if it exists, your user forums