A question of bilingual qualifications

[Leafless]

Ottawa is looking for a new police chief.

Questions concerning whether or not this new police chief should be bilingual have been discussed among city officials for many months, with the net result that NO, in fact it does not matter if the new police chief is bilingual.

That is until to-day, when media noticed the police chiefs job vacancy advertisement in the Ottawa Citizen, Wed. Nov.15/2006, page C-10. Included in the job description was the requirement stating "You are fluent in both English and French to a level that satisfies the Police Services Board."

The French population in Ottawa is low and this bilingual requirement will have will have a detrimental effect on the quality of job applicants. Mostly those who normally would be qualified for this position would come from English provinces in Canada and cannot speak French.

This is another blatant example how the influence of the federal government and their 'official bilingual policy' in the federal public service and 'official languages which really means NOTHING in Quebec 'but the rest of Canada' is supposed to embrace 'French' as if it was the official language of all Canadian provinces which it is NOT.

Ottawa radio stations have been trying unsuccessfully to track down the person or persons responsible for this advertisement but to no avail.

It will be interesting to know how a majority English city like Ottawa can allow a French minority to manipulate an important position like this, which in turn could be highly detrimental to Ottawa's English population if an under qualified candidate is chosen based on his or her ability to speak French.

[Charles Anthony]

I wonder how they would treat a candidate who was deaf and communicated with universal sign language.

[Leafless]

I wonder how they would treat a candidate who was deaf and communicated with universal sign language.

I really don't know how being handicapped to this extent as anything to do with this topic.

What we are talking about is a cultural issue.

This cultural issue reflects a smaller cultural group trying to manipulate the standards a cultural majority is supposed to enjoy by forcing disguised discriminatory 'federal official standards' to accommodate their minority position language which is outside of discriminatory federal control.

[fellowtraveller]

I wonder how they would treat a candidate who was deaf and communicated with universal sign language.

I really don't know how being handicapped to this extent as anything to do with this topic.

What we are talking about is a cultural issue.

This cultural issue reflects a smaller cultural group trying to manipulate the standards a cultural majority is supposed to enjoy by forcing disguised discriminatory 'federal official standards' to accommodate their minority position language which is outside of discriminatory federal control.

What did you expect?

It's Ottawa after all.

[Leafless]

It's Ottawa after all.

Do you know Ottawa at all?

Queen Victoria choose Ottawa as the Capital of Canada since it was a safe distance from Montreal and Toronto, who both at the time wanted to be the Capital of Canada.

But she forgot about Hull, Quebec which was only a small town up until the mid sixties when the Montreal crowd began to move in to capitalize on the federal presence in Ottawa across the river from Hull, Quebec.

Ottawa in the 60's-80's was like any other English Canadian city except for the fact Quebec began moving in on Ottawa demanding it be made bilingual since it was the Capital of Canada.

This is the same as someone who works at a lower level position simply to get his or her foot in the door to work to a higher level position.

And this is what Quebec has done to Ottawa along with the Liberals and that was make the federal government a sub-servant or lackey to the French Quebec government. The amazing part is the English authorities in Ottawa did little to prevent or stop this French intervention.

Queen Victoria never realized such an occurrence would take place and if she recognized this fact she probably would have designated Kingston as the Capital of Canada and in turn Kingston would have received little attention from Quebec since it was a lot further from the Quebec/Ontario border.

[crazymf]

Throw the crooks in jail until they learn English and can communicate.

Quebec ticks me off. I travelled through there a couple of years ago on my bike. The people were very nice and switched to English immediately to help me. We ran into an elderly man in Quebec City who couldn't speak English at all, but with enough grunting and fingering the map, we got our directions ok. A motel owner struggled through enough English to take our money. Very nice people. However....through the rest of Canada on HWY 1, all signs were doubled in English and French, even marquis construction signs were duplicated all across the country, that is, until we hit Quebec. The self centered government has French only signs across the province, on the Transcanada highway, the one all the English speaking tourists use. Town names and kilometers are the same in any language of course, but instructions on detours and all construction signs sent me for several loops.

What arrogance.

[ft.niagara]

Eventually, it will be English speaking Canada who will want separation from French speaking Canada, not the other way around.

[Charles Anthony]

What arrogance.

So.... let me get this straight: everybody you met in Quebec was nice and helpful but they should cater to you???

The first time that I ever got stopped for speeding was in Ontario. The robocop approached the car with his hand hovering by his holster. He asked me how fast I was going and I said 80. He corrected me and said 82.

The second time that I ever got stopped for speeding was on my way to Quebec City. The cop asked me if I knew why he is stopping me. In my distinctly English accent I said: "A cause de ma vitesse." He asked if I knew what the limit was on this road and I said it was 50. He dropped my ticket speed down by 30 kms and sent me on my merry way.

If you look for trouble, you can find it.

Queen Victoria never realized such an occurrence would take place and if she recognized this fact she probably would have designated Kingston as the Capital of Canada and in turn Kingston would have received little attention from Quebec since it was a lot further from the Quebec/Ontario border.

Kingston was the capital of Canada.

[crazymf]

So.... let me get this straight: everybody you met in Quebec was nice and helpful but they should cater to you???

Nope. I mean the people were very nice, but the government couldn't be bothered to put some English signs on the highway for us tourists.

[Argus]

This is actually more an example of the incompetence and arrogance of local government in Canada. big city governments are so far removed from the people that they're a law unto themselves.

Two points.

One of the deputy chiefs will almost certainly get the job. But the city still hired an executive search firm at a cost of $100k to find a new police chief. What idiocy.

Ottawa's bureacracy is known to be extraordinarily arrogant to everyone, including city council. For example, despite numerous complaints, they'd often come out with detailed descriptions of motions no more than a few hours before council was supposed to vote - not giving them time to sort through all the jargon and fine print. The senior bureacrats at Ottawa all earn in the neighborhood of $150k-$250k, and yet the city still spends tens of millions on "consultants" every year. This is not something unique to Ottawa, though. You'll find the same gloriously generous pay cheques for employees of all levels of city hall from Victoria to Winnipeg to Quebec City.

Another point. The ads in French only demanded the candidates be "competent" in both languages. The ads placed in English demanded applicants be "fluent" in both languages. There is a big difference between the two.

[Leafless]

Kingston was the capital of Canada.

Kingston was the first capital of Canada as was:

1841-1843 Kingston

1844-1849 Montreal

1849-1865 Quebec City and Toronto

1866 Ottawa

But the permanent home for Canada's capital was Ottawa due to excessive quarreling among contending provinces.

[Leafless]

Kingston was the capital of Canada.

Kingston was the first capital of Canada as was:

1841-1843 Kingston

1844-1849 Montreal

1849-1865 Quebec City and Toronto

1866 Ottawa

But the permanent home for Canada's capital was Ottawa due to excessive quarreling among contending provinces.

LOL, if all provinces utilizeed the aggresive, disruptive, power seeking squeeze play on Ottawa like Quebec has, we wouldn't have a country.

This is why it would not be unreasonable to implement a national referendum to establish factually, that rebel rousing Quebec should no longer be part of Canada as it has created dysfunctional federal politics, based on its idea of being a superior culture.