Ignatieff calls bilingualism the essence of Canada

[KingIggy]

What the far left fails to understand is that NO ONE ever makes such decisions. The English, for the most part, don't give a damn about French. If there are French signs or bilingual menus, so what? If someone decided not to provide services in French somewhere it wasn't a political statement, just one of those "uncanadian" people Ignatief was referring to who wasn't bilingual. Shame on those dirty non canadians daring to open up their own businesses! Don't they know only bilingual people should be allowed to do that!?

At least in Russel now, only bilingual people are.

What radical, insane Neo-Conservative Harperites don't comprehend are the legitimate, practical concerns of cultural/linguistic erosion, dilution and ultimately, extinction.

Anglophones have to actually PUT themselves IN the Francophones shoes in order to empathize (something ultra-authoritarian rightwingers can't do).

Edited May 29, 2009 by KingIggy

[Argus]

The passing fad is bigoted ignorance such as yours.

Sorry, Frenchman, but the statistics are very clear. You guys are fading away, not just in Canada, but in France as well. One day the national language of France will be Arabic.

[Argus]

The idea that restaurants in Ottawa do not see fit to provide menus in the first language of one -sixth of its population or so just because there is no demand is fine in principle, and far from me to see that it is never a consideration. But it doesn't take that many encounters with bad or rude service for even having a conversation in French with another client to understand that there are restaurants where it's just plain bigotry.

Name one.

I do know, as do most Anglos, that if you cross the river you can routinely expect to be deliberately snubbed and insulted by everyone from sales clerks at department stores to waitresses, and if you're unlucky enough to have a Quebec cop spot your Ontario plates there's a good chance you'll get a ticket for something.

There isn't one tenth the amount of anti-French sentiment among Anglos as there is anti-English sentiment among Francophones.

And almost all that anti-French sentiment is based on politics while the anti English sentiment is pure bigotry and ethnic nationalism.

[Argus]

If that's how you call treating French-speaking Canadians outside Quebec as full Canadians, so be it.

What it means is pouring money into French speaking areas outside Quebec, while ignoring English speaking areas inside Quebec.

What it means is deliberately importing French speaking immigrants so long as they agree to live in these small French speaking areas - to help sustain them - while completely ignoring the dwindling numbers of English speakers in Quebec.

[Argus]

Only a blind rightwinger dismisses the practical need for social programs such as language and skill training.

Flusssshhh!

Another gem heading down to the river.

[Argus]

All Neo-Cons and rightwingers exhibit a fair amount of xenophobia when discussing foreign language, art and culture.

FLUSH!

[Argus]

Well, I am alrgiht. Things are good for the most part in Canada even when they're bad. You like to complain about other people, but I find it's better to live with less hate.

I complain about problems. You are too ignorant and your world is too small to ever seen any.

[Smallc]

I complain about problems. You are too ignorant and your world is too small to ever seen any.

I know there are problems. I see little value in complaining endlessly about things that aren't going to change. You accept things and move on.

[Borg]

And almost all that anti-French sentiment is based on politics while the anti English sentiment is pure bigotry and ethnic nationalism.

Well said

You are going to be called an ignorant liar for this, but well said.

Another "truth hurts" statement.

Borg

[Jerry J. Fortin]

I don't agree. The truth is subjective.

[Smallc]

I don't agree. The truth is subjective.

Most definitely.

[Oleg Bach]

Those liberals - you gotta love em - to death..first it's bi-sexual being the essense of Canada - now it's bi-linguralism - bi this - Buy that ...getting tired of this vacilaltion of the double mind that leads to a double cross ....doing two things at once - is not the eccense of anything - it called adulteration - Soon Ignatieff will be saying that multi-culturualism is also the essense of Canada - well we know that - that idea snuffed out any eccense and left us with a caldron of boiling bat wings...

[Leafless]

If he really meant this, then he's essentially implying that only about 17% of Canadians have the essence of being Canadian. Highly offensive.

Especially when the 17% are mostly all Quebecers.

[Leafless]

I must ask 'CANADIEN' why he is stooping so low as to alter an initial statement and quote that altered statement as being mine.

Post#1 in this thread read:

The Montfort hospital is also a French language teaching hospital especially for the benefit of Quebec doctors and was previously the subject of a long drawn out battle (speared by French language activist) to keep this hospital from closing.

Post #56 'CANADIEN' altered it to read:

The Montfort hospital is also a French language teaching hospital especially for the benefit of French-speakiing Ontario medical students and was previously the subject of a long drawn out battle (speared by French language activist) to keep this hospital from closing.

This quote was posted alone (as mine).

But the facts are that the Montford hospital is affiliated with Ottawa University in Ottawa, Ontario, where there are many French speaking medical students from Quebec that are enrolled in that university.

And the Montfort makes this claim relating to it's French-speaking students:

Montfort has a unique service mission towards Ontario’s Francophone community. Its teaching mission in medicine and health sciences also makes it a unique teaching milieu for minority francophones from across Canada.

http://www2.bmo.com/news/article/0,1083,co...ode-216,00.html

Other bilingual hospitals in Ottawa employ the services of many Quebec doctors and nurses as does the Montfort.

The intervention of the federal government in Ottawa, Ontario along with Ontario's 'French Languages Service Act' and politically corrupt bilingual policies has played Ontario tax payers for suckers.

This act initially introduced by Ontario David Peterson in 1986/89 at that time cost an estimated $500 million to $1- billion dollars plus a year, and provided at that time about 85 services.

In 2009 there are now 215 French Language services , French language schools, provided at who knows at what the total cost is.

http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/engl...gs_930398_e.htm

[CANADIEN]

Your lack of vision has been noted often enough.

Considering how blind you are, I find that rather funny

[CANADIEN]

Your world is a very small, very smug one, far from any troubles of any sort. It's why every post reeks of self-satisfied "I'm all right, jack" sentiment.

Talking to the mirror again?

The one who is living in a small world, set to fit a small narrow mind, is you.

[CANADIEN]

No, not really. I do not nor have I ever known anyone who attaches any particular nationalistic or cultural pride in English as a language. It's a function of communication, and I would be just as happy if I - and everyone else - spoke Swahili or German.

Argus. meet Leafless.

I think French is an extremely inefficient, ineffective, overly complex language which almost no one outside academia can properly speak and write. Certainly very few Quebecers of my acquaintance can.

:lol: That could be an apt description of English too, but that would be equally irrelevant.

[CANADIEN]

That's what blindly Americanized Albertans think.

Actually, I agree with him - at an individual level.

[CANADIEN]

What the far left fails to understand is that NO ONE ever makes such decisions.

Except business owners and employees who give you a dirty look the moment you dare speaking a lnaguage other than English (or French, yes, stupidity is not monolingual) in their sacred abode. But you are also welvome to think that those who in the old day would put signs like "No dogs or Chinese allowed" were only making a business statement.

The English, for the most part, don't give a damn about French. If there are French signs or bilingual menus, so what?

What people in England believe is not relevant here. And I know a majority of English-speakers in Canada SUPPORT official bilingualism. Then, there are of course those who whine the moment they see French on their cereal box.

[CANADIEN]

Are you suggesting that Ignatieff, Mister intellectual, has such a shockingly poor grasp of the English language that he thinks saying "You won the war" is equivilent to saying the "battle continues" because if so I have to wonder if he just bought his degrees - and his high school diploma.

Obviously, that's not what I am suggesting.

What I am suggesting is that his meaning is that of a "war" for continued existence, not against "the Anglo".

[CANADIEN]

Sorry, Frenchman, but the statistics are very clear. You guys are fading away, not just in Canada, but in France as well. One day the national language of France will be Arabic.

:lol:

[Smallc]

Then, there are of course those who whine the moment they see French on their cereal box.

I always thought that the French labeled cereal tasted better .

[CANADIEN]

Name one.

Of course, I keep the name of the last Ottawa crappy restaurant I was unlucky enough to step into ten years ago.

I do know, as do most Anglos, that if you cross the river you can routinely expect to be deliberately snubbed and insulted by everyone from sales clerks at department stores to waitresses, and if you're unlucky enough to have a Quebec cop spot your Ontario plates there's a good chance you'll get a ticket for something.

Let's change Anglo for Franco, Quebec cop for Ontario cop or Alberta cop, and Ontario license plates for a French accent or Quebec license plates, and you will describe a reality that is as much ture, or more exactly as much anecdotal and overblown as what you just wrote.

BTW, I know more than a few English-speaking Canadians who have told me how much they had loved to travel to Quebec, how well treated they were, etc., etc.

There isn't one tenth the amount of anti-French sentiment among Anglos as there is anti-English sentiment among Francophones.

And almost all that anti-French sentiment is based on politics while the anti English sentiment is pure bigotry and ethnic nationalism.

:lol: You believe that, I have some fine Florida swampland to sell you.

[CANADIEN]

Especially when the 17% are mostly all Quebecers.

Especially when the 17% are all Canadians. As are the remaining 83% of course.

[Smallc]

Except for the French ones...they're just...French.