1. Calling Francophones "naturally bilingual" is not offensive at all. It is simply a statement of fact. Anybody who lives in a predominantly English country will naturally pick up the English language. The evidence bears this out. I know many Francophones, and all of them can speak English fluently. I also know many Anglophones and very few of them can speak French fluently.

2. Calling people "lazy" and "stupid" is offensive. But we have come to expect that, so it no longer offends. But it is a sad commentary on how the debate on bilingualism has typically proceeded over the last 40 years. However, it is now time to start talking facts, not mud-slinging.

Sincerely,
Rob Brown

It is hard to argue with the observations of a former Quebec Premier, M. Naimard.

Sure it is, when that premier is a right-wing puppet of big finance and therefore not representative of the population. If he ran for premier today, he would lose big-time. Let’s not forget that when he became a premier, he was not elected by the people but by the party who selected him after Parizeau left with his celebrated “money and ethnic votes” comment that shocked so much because it was so true.
Sure, we like Bouchard very much. But he’s just like that old uncle that everyone likes but no one listens to because he gets senile and says things that don’t make sense. And what he says may make some sense on Baystraße*, but Bay Street never has Québec’s best interest at heart.
* Let’s not forget that Baystraße was cooing Mario Ducon, the little fascist who got whipped badly at the last elections.

I believe it is a fundamental right of any person to work in their own government.

Are you communist? You must be communist to demand such a right!

If they have the necessary skills, then they can be a manager. Speaking French on the job is not a necessary skill

The Government has the absolute and total duty towards the taxpayer (surely you don’t like it when the taxpayers are snubbed by the Government) to insure that every single one civil servant has the utmost competence possible. Bilingual personnel are much definitely more intelligent, because they see the need to know more than a single language, and that being cognizant with more languages will expose oneself with more cultures, and that exposure will give a new insight in how the work can be performed, which is extremely likely to result in greater optimization (another plus for the taxpayers’ dollar).
Therefore, it is perfectly normal to deem incompetent those people who are too stupid to learn another language and deny them employment in the civil service.

(except possibly in Quebec).

Oh, this is great. So, therefore, you say that french is not necessary in Québec.
Which figures, given the extremely poor rethoric you have been spewing forth on this thread.

It is sufficient to have one language of work in the government. Particularly since having a bilingual workplace results in discriminations against the majority of people, and gives an unfair advantage to Francophones who are naturally bilingual.

Why would french people be “naturally” bilingual? Do you realize that what you said is just as offensive as saying that the english are too stupid to learn french?
No? You don’t realize it? Well, it figures.

But, of course, this is the whole point, if we believe in the "conspiracy" which started with Trudeau who said "unilingual Canadians will be sentenced to a lifetime of job immobility".

Trudeau was a snotty asshole who wanted to make sure that stupid people would be tremenduously punished. It seems he succeeded beyond the wildest expectations…

It is pretty clear what his intentions were. As Ron points out, one day Muslims will likely be demanding to speak Arabic on the job. Then all managers will be required to speak 3 languages. Obviously a ridiculous situations.

Typical stupid right-wing red-herring argument. This will not happen because arabic will never be an official language (chinese will be way before arabic, but knowing the chinese, they will never ask for something like that).

Of course bilinguilism is a fraud...But there are many frauds commited by the government in Canada. Just look at health care where the government claims they are insuring your health with huges taxes that you pay...or at least some of us pay.....then, when you need health care they put you on a waiting list thus witholding treatment while your condition gets worse or in some cases you expire while on the list. They (the gov"t) have taken your money but not provided timely service thus committing fraud.. This is just one of many frauds the government inflicts upon the taxpayers of this nation.

See the following links for more details.

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/283286/la-souverainete-n-est-pas-realisable-dit-bouchard

http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/story.html?id=2578091

Earlier in this posting, I mentioned a series of intolerant incidents in Quebec, including some remarks made by PQ member Yves Michaud.

M. Naimard dismissed my observations, of course, and painted a rosy picture of how Michaud's remarks to his barber were taken out of context.

However, the articles describes how Bouchard's 2001 resignation was affected in part by Michaud's comments.

It is hard to argue with the observations of a former Quebec Premier, M. Naimard.

Don't give up on the separatist dream, though. You can do it!

Yours,

T. Kirke,
Canadian.

I believe it is a fundamental right of any person to work in their own government. If they have the necessary skills, then they can be a manager. Speaking French on the job is not a necessary skill (except possibly in Quebec). It is sufficient to have one language of work in the government. Particularly since having a bilingual workplace results in discriminations against the majority of people, and gives an unfair advantage to Francophones who are naturally bilingual. But, of course, this is the whole point, if we believe in the "conspiracy" which started with Trudeau who said "unilingual Canadians will be sentenced to a lifetime of job immobility". It is pretty clear what his intentions were.

As Ron points out, one day Muslims will likely be demanding to speak Arabic on the job. Then all managers will be required to speak 3 languages. Obviously a ridiculous situations.

Sincerely,
Rob Brown

once people's rights to work as managers in their own government have been lost, they are very difficult to regain

Is there a part of the Charter I missed that says people have the right to work as managers in the civil service?

I will continue to fight to preserve my culture and heritage. It is unfortunate that other people seek to eradicate my culture and heritage, such as the province of Quebec, but as they say "c'est la vie".

As for the seal meat. I don't think we need to kill seals whether for fur or meat. If we want to eat seals, then we should farm seals just like any other animal. We have already decimated the fish and whale populations of the oceans, and the buffalo population of the prairies. Can you imagine how many cows would be left if we simply resorted to hunting them in the forest, so we can have a Big Mac. The answer is that we need to make the effort to farm a particular species, before we have the luxury of eating it.

Sincerely,
Rob.

I am sure that many people believe that "Official Bilingualism" is intended specifically for the purpose of making French Canadians be a part of the whole. The initial intention was to provide government services to the public in both languages at the federal level.

But "rights" are always a slippery slope. For example, once people saw that the federal government was willing to provide services in both languages, a few bureaucrats decided to push further, demanding that they be allowed to work in French, even though this had nothing to do with serving the public. The bureaucracy decided that this was another good intention, and allowed them to work in French. The French workers then demanded that they be supervised in French. Again the bureaucracy agreed and designated management positions "bilingual imperative". The result was that only a small minority of bilingual people can apply for these management positions. So, we now have a policy where the majority of Canadians are frozen out of management positions in their own federal government for the sake of a small minority of workers being able to speak French on the job, even though they are not serving the public directly.

This is clearly a case of the "tail wagging the dog". Whether this has happened through some devious conspiracy or through bureaucratic bumbling is not really the point. The problem is that once people's rights to work as managers in their own government have been lost, they are very difficult to regain. We have to look at the consequences of any policy to decide if it is a "good" or "bad" policy. The initial intention has little to do with it.

The only reasonable way to evaluate a policy is to examine whether it is the best policy for the majority of people. A policy which discriminates against the majority of Canadians in terms of government hiring cannot possibly be a good policy. A policy which allows one person to sue the Manitoba government over a traffic ticket and force the entire province to spend billions conducting its affairs in both languages cannot possibly be a good policy, particularly while at the same time Quebec is allowed to enact discriminatory laws against its English-speaking population.

In the final analysis, we can only conclude that "Official Bilingualism" is a bad policy for the majority of Canadians. If Quebec can opt out of "bilingualism" then so can the other provinces. I suggest they do it quickly before people find out that they are frozen out of management positions in their own provincial and municipal governments as well. (It has already happened in the municipal government of the City of Ottawa, over which a law-suit will be launched shortly.)

Sincerely,
Rob Brown
Canadians Against Enforced Bilingualism (CAB)

The stats are all easily verifiable through the links provided or through government websites.

The truth will set us free!

What do you think of the survey that English and French Canadians will become a minority in this country and that immigrants will make most of the Canadian population in this country and what language do you want to speak in the future?.

I hope to be dead very soon so not have to see this happen to this country because I want that English and the French language be very strong and alive in this country.

Also what do you think of seal meat being served at the house oc commons cafeteria ?
I find this personally very discusting since I am against hunting seals for meat and furs.

You say: QUEBEC has not legislated ENGLISH out of existance. It has merely made FRENCH the official and common language. English still has legal status in Quebec because ALL LAWS must be passed in English and french.

Response: I would like to thank you for taking the time to become involved in this debate. We should always respect people who stand up for what they believe in. It is only through discourse of this kind that the problems of the world will eventually be resolved. Otherwsie, it will become the "George Bush" mentality for resolving problems. (Heaven forbid.)

However, I have to disagree with you on a couple of points.

1. It is clear to me that the English language is not welcome in Quebec. I have experienced this first hand, and so have my parents. We left Quebec because we were made to feel ridiculous, when we lived in Chicoutimi, which is a small city on the Saguenay River to the north of Quebec city.

2. When we left Quebec, then we encountered discrimination of a more subtle kind. When we arrived in Ottawa, I applied for a job with the federal government. The first thing they did was to subject me to a language test. I was extremely surprised to see that in my own country of Canada, that people would be subjected to cultural "tests" of this kind. I had always thought that this kind of thing belonged in China or the Soviet Union. But, now, I was seeing it in my own country.

From that moment on, I decided to fight against cultural bias of any kind. And I began to understand that when any culture is given preferential treatment by the government, then this status will become abused to the detriment of others. It is this fight, towards fairness and opportunity for everyone, that we, at CAB, are currently engaged in.

Sincerely,
Rob Brown
CAB

You say: "Manitoba was a french province, and it has unilaterally turned into an english one."

Response: This is simply because there are far more English people than French people in Manitoba. This is a matter of demographics, not government interference.

ROB,
It would seem you don`t know your Canadian history. Manitoba entered the confederation as a BILINGUAL province where French and English had legal and equal status. The Manitoba government legislated french OUT OF EXISTANCE illegally and it took years to rectify that attempted cultural genocide on franco Manitobans

QUEBEC has not legislated ENGLISH out of existance. It has merely made FRENCH the official and common language.
English still has legal status in Quebec because ALL LAWS must be passed in English and french.

Jacques

I live in a bilingual Canada that threats it's poor people who do not qualify for any benefits like dirt, and beleive me this country as allot to learn when it comes to treating it's own people in this democratic system. Beleive me I am one of them that as fallen between the cracks and there is nothing out there to help me so do me a big favor never become poor in this country you will soon find out how fast this country really cares about you.

The reason I am very pro Russian is because I have learned to respect a great nation that is was not for them we would be under Nazi rule today. The Russian faced 98% of the German military and fought against the Fins, Italians, the Japanese and other nations during the second world war. My father did patrols in Berlin along with the Russian army who was patrolling Berlin after the defeat of Germany and he always thought me to show respect to the Russian people and to this great country. I love Russian music, there food and the great history and the courage and the determination of this fantastic people.

I do understand you like Canada allot and I respect your opinion and that is you but we are all different as people and I learn by personal experiences that this country can be a real enemy to it's own people and that is a tragedy .

Would you mind if I email your stats to some friends?

Thanks,
Rob Brown

He was a lazy, incompetent, back-stabbing, brain-dead jerk who did not want to do any type of hard work. He was a screw-up in every which way.

However he was bilingual, and he is on track for a nice cushy job with the Feds.

You equate being bilingual for being competent, when in fact bilingualism trumps competency.

They are two separate concepts. We don't need incompetent people in our government.

Getting rid of the need for bilingualism will widen the pool of applicants. We can get the cream of the Canadian crop in government service and reward the best and the brightest.

I don't accept the fact that Canada is a bilingual country. The percentage of Francophones and bilingual Canadians is too low to support this concept.

Also, regarding your cheering for the Russian hockey team.

Nyet, Nyet, Soviet! Rah, Rah, Canada! Henderson has scored for Canada! (1972 Summit Series).

Too bad about the Olympics! The Russian performance was so bad that their Sports ministers have been told to resign or be fired. Bye Bye!

Regarding your cheering for the Americans.

3-2 overtime victory in overtime for the gold. Nice work Sid the Kid! Nice pass Iginla.

Canadian gals blanked the American gals, and then enjoyed some cigars and some Molson Canadians on the ice.

Regarding your cheering against the Maple Leafs. The last time the Leafs won the Cup was in 1967 in overtime against Montreal in Montreal during Expo 67 and Canada's Centennial celebrations. Sweet!

We'll do it again in 2067, and it will be worth the wait to kick some Montreal butt. Quebec will probably have separated by then and the victory will be twice as nice.

(If Quebec separates, what will the Montreal Canadiens be known as?)

The Maple Leaf Forever!

Regards, and good luck with the packing.

T. Kirke,
Canadian.