@jvschrag @chu @atomicpoet @mayintoronto this is all pretty interesting in the Quebec context. I don't think there's enough vocab to make it a language in the linguistics sense. Also the Office Québécoise de la langue française sometimes makes up words that France just steals (the classic example being weekend vs fin de semaine). I think chiac (an Acadian French) is more different.
English Quebecers have an accent and a few words but not so many I think. (Dépanneur is one.) Being close to US accents means that many people understand it.