Diane Francis column: 'Bilingualism's Sorry Legacy'
Lynne Whitley
Bilingualism's sorry legacy
Diane Francis
Canada is not, and never will be, a bilingual country.
We have two official languages but French is only spoken by the majority of
residents in one tiny region -- southern Quebec and a portion of New
Brunswick.
And yet, the latest nonsense coming out of the Liberals in Ottawa concerns
an attempt by Stéphane Dion, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, to get
all provinces to become officially bilingual. This is not only an
irresponsible suggestion at a time when taxes are still uncompetitive in
Canada and health care needs more federal funding, but it's downright
irrational.
The facts are that federal bilingualism was agreed to some 30 years ago by
anglophone Canadians only to appease Quebec. And despite billions spent
promoting French, it simply has not taken root anywhere except Quebec, New
Brunswick and Ottawa.
In Quebec its usage has increased only because of that province's draconian
language laws that force francophone and immigrant children to attend French
language schools and also because of the exodus during the 1970s of 400,000
anglophones after the discriminatory laws were passed.
Today across Canada, more people speak Cantonese, Italian, Hindi, Portuguese
or Ukrainian than speak French.
So why would Mr. Dion suggest such a policy?
Why would he want provincial governments (read the taxpayers) already
struggling with the burden of health care, education and the immigration and
refugee boondoggle to needlessly fork out billions to train and translate a
language few speak? Why would he impose billions in the form of compliance
costs on to the shoulders of businesses across the country?
The irreversible facts are that history has rendered Canada an anglophone
country -- first as a British colony with British institutions and
traditions such as parliament and the monarchy, and latterly as the
principal economic partner and neighbour of the anglophone United States.
Besides that, special status for one linguistic group based on some ancient,
perceived injustice is simply not going to wash here. Canada has become a
pluralistic society where ethnic groups mix freely and peacefully and no
single group is singled out for official privileges. Quebec is the exception
and is not a pluralistic society.
Another reason why Mr. Dion's silly notion should be ignored by the
provinces is that "bilingualism" wherever practiced has not bilingualized
the population but merely translated into an unfair and costly affirmative
action program for francophones at the expense of anglophones as well as of
efficiencies in government.
For instance, anglo rights activists at Alliance Quebec have undertaken some
important studies into the overrepresentation of francophones in the federal
and Quebec governments. It is shocking.
By earmarking a job as bilingual in the federal system, for instance,
francophones are more likely to be hired because a greater proportion of
francophones are bilingual than anglophones speak French. That's because
they have an incentive to learn English -- the language is absolutely
necessary in order for them to succeed or go anywhere in Canada or the
United States. Anglophones, on the other hand, don't have to master French
in order to succeed anywhere in North America, except in the federal, Quebec
or New Brunswick civil services.
That's why Ottawa's bilingualism policy has been unfair from the start.
There should have been a quota for francophones based on population.
Without quotas, language testing and French proficiency standards have
proven to be ways to get jobs-for-the-boys-and-girls. Over the years,
diplomats, assistant deputy ministers, soldiers, low-level managers and even
broom pushers in the federal system have found their careers impeded or
ended at great cost to taxpayers.
In some federal departments in Ottawa at least 75% of the staff are
francophones -- with the management ranks up to 90%. At most, francophones
should account for no more than their proportional share of the population
or less than 20%.
All of this has damaged the country because it has contributed to the
inordinate preoccupation with, and favouritism toward Quebec affairs,
businesses and problems at the expense of the rest of the country, mostly
western Canada.
In practice, official bilingualism has done the opposite and led to
unilingualism. This is most evident in Quebec where the provincial
government openly and illegally discriminates against anglophones when it
comes to doling out government jobs or doing business in the private sector.
It has even occurred in officially "bilingual" New Brunswick, according to a
reader.
"In the province you would find that all top level positions, and
particularly key positions, are filled by French speakers. They then have
the right to determine who gets jobs, government contracts, advancement,
etc. This has just been extended to municipal governments," wrote a
francophone, asking to remain anonymous.
Mr. Dion's suggestion to squandering tax dollars to impose a language on
people reveals how out of sync the Liberal government is with the values
that Canadians hold dear -- and which we share with our anglophone
cousins -- of democracy, freedom and pluralism.
Touti
"Lynne Whitley" <lynnew...@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:AT_59.360036$WJf1....@news01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...
> Financial Post : August 08, 2002
>
> Bilingualism's sorry legacy
> Diane Francis
> We have two official languages but French is only spoken by the
majority of
> residents in one tiny region -- southern Quebec and a portion of New
> Brunswick.
Southern Quebec, that's it !
I think we can stop reading here ;)
Viviane
Yeah, besides the more northern parts of Quebec, she forgot about the
francophone communities in Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and the
North West Territories (anyway, those are the ones I know about).
Viviane
MissGinger
"Ralph Pippey" <pip...@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message
news:3D5901FC...@nbnet.nb.ca...
New Brunswick is a big
> portion.
>
> --
> Ralph Pippey
>
> http://www.majorettes.ca
>
>
Also the Acadians in PEI!
Log Linear
Simn
simn
"Log Linear" <Nom...@no.spam> a écrit dans le message de news:
3D59543...@no.spam...
CheGueVerra
>
> Bilingualism's sorry legacy
> Diane Francis
>
> Canada is not, and never will be, a bilingual country.
We, the french speaking population from Quebec know this, try getting some
services in french elsewhere than Quebec and you are frowned upon as if you
were a leaper.
> We have two official languages but French is only spoken by the majority
of
> residents in one tiny region -- southern Quebec and a portion of New
> Brunswick.
Wow we can see her research was really strong ... as this was remarked by
others as well
> nonsense coming out of the Liberals in Ottawa
pleonasme
> an attempt by Stéphane Dion, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, to get
> all provinces to become officially bilingual. This is not only an
> irresponsible suggestion at a time when taxes are still uncompetitive in
> Canada and health care needs more federal funding, but it's downright
> irrational.
I do agree that our tax paying money could be better served, but it is funny
that she doesn't talk about all the money, Ottawa has in the bank ....
[snip]
> In Quebec its usage has increased only because of that province's
draconian
> language laws that force francophone and immigrant children to attend
French
> language schools and also because of the exodus during the 1970s of
400,000
> anglophones after the discriminatory laws were passed.
I think it's perfectly alright to ask immigrants that want to come in
Quebec, to speak french, if they don't want to they can always go in ontario
...
> Today across Canada, more people speak Cantonese, Italian, Hindi,
Portuguese
> or Ukrainian than speak French.
> So why would Mr. Dion suggest such a policy?
>
> Why would he want provincial governments (read the taxpayers) already
> struggling with the burden of health care, education and the immigration
and
> refugee boondoggle to needlessly fork out billions to train and translate
a
> language few speak? Why would he impose billions in the form of compliance
> costs on to the shoulders of businesses across the country?
>
> The irreversible facts are that history has rendered Canada an anglophone
> country -- first as a British colony with British institutions and
> traditions such as parliament and the monarchy, and latterly as the
> principal economic partner and neighbour of the anglophone United States.
>
> Besides that, special status for one linguistic group based on some
ancient,
> perceived injustice is simply not going to wash here. Canada has become a
> pluralistic society where ethnic groups mix freely and peacefully and no
> single group is singled out for official privileges. Quebec is the
exception
> and is not a pluralistic society.
???? what ever
> Another reason why Mr. Dion's silly notion should be ignored by the
> provinces is that "bilingualism" wherever practiced has not bilingualized
> the population but merely translated into an unfair and costly affirmative
> action program for francophones at the expense of anglophones as well as
of
> efficiencies in government.
>
> For instance, anglo rights activists at Alliance Quebec have undertaken
some
> important studies into the overrepresentation of francophones in the
federal
> and Quebec governments. It is shocking.
Taking in accounts of a right winged political party views that believe they
are enslaved and mistreated isn't really a very good source
> By earmarking a job as bilingual in the federal system, for instance,
> francophones are more likely to be hired because a greater proportion of
> francophones are bilingual than anglophones speak French. That's because
> they have an incentive to learn English -- the language is absolutely
> necessary in order for them to succeed or go anywhere in Canada or the
> United States. Anglophones, on the other hand, don't have to master French
> in order to succeed anywhere in North America, except in the federal,
Quebec
> or New Brunswick civil services.
She should know, that the ladder of better paid federal employyes goes more
like this
English, with some french
English,
French, with english
French
> That's why Ottawa's bilingualism policy has been unfair from the start.
> There should have been a quota for francophones based on population.
Imagine what would happen if Quebec did that , we would be called racist
again
[snip]
> All of this has damaged the country because it has contributed to the
> inordinate preoccupation with, and favouritism toward Quebec affairs,
> businesses and problems at the expense of the rest of the country, mostly
> western Canada.
Quebec, is one of the major econimical players of canada with BC and
Ontario, so Iguess we have are say ... BTW only BC and Quebec are having
good financial time right now because they succeded in being diversified
economies during the internet bubble
> In practice, official bilingualism has done the opposite and led to
> unilingualism. This is most evident in Quebec where the provincial
> government openly and illegally discriminates against anglophones when it
> comes to doling out government jobs or doing business in the private
sector.
Yup, they never ever would offer Health to an Anglophoner like Levine ...
Wow And then they ask why we (well 49% at least) want to have their own
country, being the cause for most of the rest of canada's trouble is one and
the liberals didn't get much voting here anyways ... maybe it's because the
Anglos just like complaining ....
Je traduis pas, ca ne me tente pas ... mais pour moi, c'est juste une preuve
que quand on a rien a ecrire on peut toujours ecrire n'importe quoi ....
brasseues de merde celle la.
CheGueVerra
JoeCool
Felix Vlacic
- Less than 5% speak fluent French in Ontario (Stats Can).
- It is fine to "ask immigrants to speak French to live in Quebec, but if
they don't want to, they don't have to since English is the World's primary
language.
- The ladder of better paid federal employees (not including elected
officials) starts with CCC bilingual, then French with English and then
English with French, then just English and finally, just French (Treasury
Board)
- Quebec is no longer an economic player in Canada for exports. After the
last referendum, 42% of major corporations left for other regions in Canada.
"CheGueVerra" <chegu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:D0i69.2657$2T2.8...@news20.bellglobal.com...
Simn
"Felix Vlacic" <fvl...@sympatico.ca> a écrit dans le message de news:
I_j69.4032$DO6.9...@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Just some points:
> - Less than 5% speak fluent French in Ontario (Stats Can).
im curious to see stats 30 years ago.... and 60 years ago... maybe we gonna
see something strange like were the 75% of french ontario as gone in the
last 60 years? not in quebec for shure....
> - It is fine to "ask immigrants to speak French to live in Quebec, but if
> they don't want to, they don't have to since English is the World's
primary
> language.
i dont think so buddy... chinesse and hindou are way more talked... but
anglo-saxon nombrilism try to state that.
> - The ladder of better paid federal employees (not including elected
> officials) starts with CCC bilingual, then French with English and then
> English with French, then just English and finally, just French (Treasury
> Board)
yeah big deal.
> - Quebec is no longer an economic player in Canada for exports. After the
> last referendum, 42% of major corporations left for other regions in
Canada.
>
>
and federal goverment who is ,after all, our goverment too at least until
we leave, have done a lot to kept these corps in quebec.... thanks to them
and by chance they dont participate in flaming down quebec hype.
simn
Ray Goudie
http://www.linguasphere.org/language.html#most spoken
-Ray.
"Simn" <atomas...@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6Nv69.24138$Fa1.5...@wagner.videotron.net...
Felix Vlacic
"Simn" <atomas...@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6Nv69.24138$Fa1.5...@wagner.videotron.net...
>
Donnie Darko
From your own post: "To avoid ambiguity therefore, the unqualified use of
the linguistic term "Chinese" is best restricted to Putonghua, in contrast
to "Wider Chinese" as a cover-term for the net of closely related languages
in China."
Therefore Putonghua/Mandarin is Chinese and as such *is* the most spoken
language in the world.
*However* English is recognized as an international language along with
French, as well as being the standard for business worldwide.
"Ray Goudie" <rgo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:eaw69.24173$Fa1.5...@wagner.videotron.net...
Ray Goudie
Perhaps you are confused as to what I was disputing, which is that Mandarin
and English are not the top-two spoken languages. Someone mentioned Hindu as
being more spoken than English.
-Ray.
"Donnie Darko" <zing...@zzz.com> wrote in message
news:UWw69.12265$NBd1...@news01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...
> Try again Ray.....
Simn
you can make the number tell what you want.
they use first AND second spoken language to put english in first ( equal
with chinese). btw, hindu and chinise are, like i state, the most first
spoken language in the world.
this is a demagogic use of statistics. And surprisingly, these studies have
been made by anglo-saxon institution. I dont think info there are false, but
adapted.
simn
i can't see the forest, there's tree hiding it...
"Felix Vlacic" <fvl...@sympatico.ca> a écrit dans le message de news:
hrw69.4336$DO6.1...@news20.bellglobal.com...
Felix Vlacic
presence than French.
"Donnie Darko" <zing...@zzz.com> wrote in message
news:UWw69.12265$NBd1...@news01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...
Balagopal
> yeah,
>
> you can make the number tell what you want.
>
> they use first AND second spoken language to put english in first ( equal
> with chinese). btw, hindu and chinise are, like i state, the most first
> spoken language in the world.
"hindu and chinise are, like i state, the most first
> spoken language in the world" , most probably this is derived from
the fact that India and China combined has more than 1/3 of the population
in the world. About chinese, the claim sounds resonable, as the the
population is over 1 billion and all speak chinese. But as an Indian and
a hindu, I can tell you some interesting facts on our lingistic
patterns. We have more than 25 official languages, english being one of
them. The national language -Hindi is spoken by around 25-30% of the
population. Almost every state has their own language, mine being the
smallest one, has a population of more than 30 million, which is almost
as much as Canada and the state is not even half the size of nova
scotia. All official documents have to be prepared in 2 languages- one
regional and then in english.
I hope you will understand that if a country like mine can live
comfortably with 25 official languages and more than a 100 unofficial
ones, knowing more than one language is not that bad, even though most
of time I cant apply for some jobs which demand strict bilingualism.
JoeCool
Pour faire suite,
Comme je suggérrais l'autre jour a un autre suite de messages dans le meme
genre ,
(Bien des gens ne semble pas connaitre ben gros leur histoire du Canada ...,
)
Chere amis anglais, pourquoi ne pas faire PLUS de pression a tous les
deputés Anglais du Canada,
pour réduire le dette national, ben oui comme ca, ca nous inciterais bien
plus à nous séparer (le Québec) du Canada
comme ca pu de chicane,
TES BEBELLES DANS TA COURS !!!
PS Cé drole quant meme le monde a ben changer, dans mon coin, y avait une
gang de poloc
(des chums a mon père), du bon monde qui ont travaillé fort dans des mines,
pis qui ont quand meme appris
le francais !!!
Maintenant sacrilège !!! ou bendons pourquoi pas encore
TES BEBELLES DANS TA COURS !!!
Richard
news:3D59543...@no.spam...
> So what do people in central,northern,eastern and western quebec speak?
I've a feeling it was just meant to be a north-south division based on the
assumption that everyone in the north speaks <insert your favorite Inuit
language here>.
Richard
ANON AT HOME
(Especially Ottawa) So much so, try getting a job as a unilingual
English -- or French for that matter.
There are more Chinese speaking people in Vancouver than either English
speakers or French speakers, so when are we going to legislate Cantonese????
Are all you Francophones ready for that?
Pete
"CheGueVerra" <chegu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:D0i69.2657$2T2.8...@news20.bellglobal.com...
Donovan R.
Common, there is years since Canada is bilingual and French are
teaching in schools. Chinese aren't yet so we aren't ready of course.
This is a too extreme scenario for theses days.
On Wed, 21 Aug 2002 12:38:42 -0400, "ANON AT HOME" <p...@attcanada.net>
wrote:
Cerberus
"Lawrence of Arabia",
"So long as the Canadians fight tribe against tribe, so long will they
be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel."
Ironic, isn't it ? If you think you have problems with a miserable
little issue like bilingualism, maybe you should pull your head out of
your nationalist sand and look at the rest of the world if you're
looking for true injustices.
Cerberus
"Lynne Whitley" <lynnew...@rogers.com> wrote in message
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