CANADIEN

The issue is not what language(s) someone needs to learn to sell products overseas. It is what language(s) the Government of our country should serve Canadians in.

A friend if mine grew up in an unilingual English-speaking envrionment, had forgotten most of the French he had learned in high school, then decided to take French immersion after a trip to Northern Europe... While there, he kept being asked "Your Canadian, how come you don't speak English AND French?"

Whether people are patted or scanned does not make a difference from a security point of view, as far as I am concerned. So some prefer to be patted, go ahead. That being said, to equate being scanned with being seen naked is a bid much.

The stupidity, to choose your own term, is not in not learning a lnaguage. It is in screaming bloody murder because another language has equal status... Or in linking learning of another language with intelligence.

It is exactly BECAUSE it is Canada welcoming the world that people are claiming that it should do so in out two official languages. As for the yapping, a lot is coming from the type of people who are saying "it's BC's and Vancouver Games" while constantly whining about French on cereal boxes.

And here's the pot (you) calling the kettle black Monitoring includes making sure things are done. Now that I stopped laughing. Reminder... I have been saying all along that English and French were equal in status at the federal level in ALL the country (including Quebec). That the Feds choose (and rightly so) to ignore Quebec language legislation is proof of that.

Looks like we didn't see the show in the same manner. The violin-dance part of the show was opened with a reference to one of French-Canadian most famous legend, "La Chasse-Galerie", a story about lumberjacks who make a deal with Satan o that he will bring them in a flying canoe to their loved ones during the Holidays. There were no Voyageurs? Their were no Loyalists, no Chinese railworkers.

Calling other human beings varmin and talking about their extermination is more than a choice of words. It is a choice of philosophy. One that should be unacceptable to a Catholic.

Those who complain are Canadians, not French. And they are right to do so if they believe that the organizers of the opening ceremony did not include enough French (I dsiagree with them, BTW, but it's another story). This is canada, with Canada welcoming the world, and French is a Canadian language, the same as English and First Nations languages. German, with all due respect due to it, is not.

And he was right to do so. No surprise... You are clueless to the fact that the function of the Commissioner is to monitor how FEDERAL language legislation is implemented. Which Fraser and all past Commissioners have done in ALL the country. BTW, nice contradiction from you... The federal government has nothing to say about what happens as at an international event taking place in Canada (remember, you said that the Feds should respect BC policies), but he should investigate strickly provincial policies when they are in Quebec.

The French-speaking coverage of the opening ceremony on TV was better than anything Radio-Canada has done at past Olympics. Half the irrelevant and innacurate comments.

Actually, the French people live in France. French-speaking people in Canada live in each and every province and territory. Better learn to use your cereal box with your eyes closed then. As a Canadian I have noticed that very few speeches are the same in English and French. As for waste... your whining is a waste of good tissues that could be put to better use.

But then, unlike French-speaking Canadians outside quebec or English-speaking Canadians in Quebec, the "others" usually don't have problems getting federal government services in the Canadian language of their choice in the manner set up by law.

Except that most of time they happen to be right.

I must be one of those who dreamed about him being the greatest Canadian athlete ever, or how he rallied our Olympic Team against the big bad Yankees in 2002.

Yet, there is no doubt that it is Canada, not jsut Vancouver or BC, that is welcoming the world.

And there would be cries about Quebec-this-and-Quebec-that from Coast to coast. Your idea would be great if the Games were awarded to a Canadian City once every ten year or so, or if it was strictly a Canadian. It is not.

Diversity is one of the main characteristics of this country, and we should have no hesitation in showing it.

Clueless again... The point of the cultural component of the opening ceremonies was to showcase Canada... NotVnacouver, not BC, CANADA, as a whole. BTW, I was mostly statisfied with the place of the French language in the ceremony. I wouldn't be surprised if you turned red everytime you heard some French on Friday night.

Harsh treatment for criminals, especially vandals, is always a popular idea. But shaving heads, electronic chips, extermination? Not happening anytime soon.

I am glad to see that for the most part we all agree that it takes some idiots tp istake vadalism with legitimate protest, and that they have little to do with those they claim to "speak for". How do we deal with them then? Watercannons seems to be a good answer to me. And treating them like the vandals and criminals they are.

Good point. I find it interesting that the Luge Federation claims there is nothing wrong with the track, while moving the departure line and adding security features there were "not needed" before. On the day of the fatal crash, the world champinon, from italy,crashed too, but was n't injured. The number one woman skeletonner (sp?), a Canadian is so scared of the track she had at least once refused to run it from the top.

I have no love lost for "professional protesters", who only see the poor as a cause, or more exactly an excuse for what is nothing more than vadalism. That being said, the police handled things properly. Kudos to them.

I tend to agree with you, to a point. A good occasion was missed to show the world that First nation cultures are more than dancing and drums... I have mentioned Bufy Ste. Marie and Susan Aglukark, but there many yound talented First Nations artists in ths country that all Canadians (starting with myself, I will admit) should know better. Sir Bandelot has a point, though. Many of us do not want to know First Nations beyond the clichés, or dismissed them as not worthy to be Canadians. And while the organizers of the opening ceremony were more than happy to show the side of First Nations cultures that makes for good television, this does nothing to break the cyclle of poverty and despair.

Mark the day... You make sense.