With what is happening in N.B. it just goes to show that the french language is simply a very OBTUSE waste of money, and a Cancer in Canada. Plus the west should STOP wasting equalization payments on back east especially N.B. A pox on all of them, and we'll never drive to N.S. again as it's too close to N.B. or Quebec, and we will not knowingly spend any money in, or on them. I would not buy gas or lodging off them so sorry Aunt's and Uncles. Most of us are in the west anyway, so climb out of that french cancerous garbage can and "Go west". The cry has gone up. Buy as little as possible from Ontario and NOTHING made or packaged from China or Quebec and N.B.
Cheers from hopefully soon to be Cascadia
Jurgen Vollrath - 12 years ago
What amazes me the most is how come it took so long for this divisive policy to stir public debate. The 16 to 17% of bilingual Canadians control 67% of our federal bureaucracy leaving the other 83% of unilingual Canadians personna non grata in working for their own government. The blatant discrimination against the majority English speakers is a blight on our way of life and is most certainly not a true Canadian value.
We have elevated the status of French born Canadians to a level where the rest cannot possibly compete. It is language apartheid at the least and most certainly an affirmative action program that benefits only one group in our society.
Their elevated status is now reflected in the younger generations of Quebecers feeling empowered over the youth in the most of Canada.
When Jeanne Sauve was governor general she said " the only thing that English Canada has to offer is their stupid mediocrity." When Pierre Trudeau was PM in 1973 after he passed the OLA he was quoted as saying that " unilingual anglophones will be sentenced to a lifetime of job immobility", and laughed about it.
Separation of Quebec has never been the issue. The dominance over Canada is the issue.
Pierre Trudeau said he would unite Canada. Everyone believed him but he never told us that it would be under the fleur-de-lis.
The world already thinks we're a French speaking country. Call any consulate and you will get a French first response.
Have you checked you money lately. If you notice the French cinq is on the left and five is on the right. According to our laws, the majority language should always be on the left hand side. All our bills are now illegally printed.
If bilingualism was truly the goal then why do we not have student transfers happening all across this country so that all children have a chance to be completely bilingual?
The proof is the proof which shows us that it's all about power and take over.
All you have to do is look at New Brunswick and feel the desperation of the unilingual English speakers that are now basically told to sit at the back of the bus. No jobs for you.
This policy is killing the social fabric of this country as it pits people against each other while at the same time extolling virtues of unity.
This is on you, Stephen Harper, who once wrote that 'bilingualism is the god that failed..it has produced no unity and has cost taxpayers untold millions" (actually Mr. Harper that would be untold billions if not more).
Put your money where your mouth is Mr. Prime Minister and get rid of this act.
Randy - 12 years ago
I completely agree. In fact these are very conservative figures indeed. When you consider costs on all three levels, federal, provincial and municipal since 1969, it could easily exceed 1 trillion dollars. It really is time to re-consider bilingualism. Tax revenues would be far better spent on health care, infrastructure, education, services for seniors and the homeless etc.
Gary Pawson - 12 years ago
Bilingualism should not only be abolished,it should never have been implemented. An OBTUSE waste of money! Who cares what they speak in quebec, but the rest of the country having to deal with this is just plain STUPID. The money would be far better spent on hospitals or taking care of the old people in country, the homeless & underfed, people who actually fought for the country like the Native Nations in our north who live in conditions one would expect to find in a third world country, & not used to pander to quebec which actually has a fasicts style Gestapo like Language Police, the unilingual prov. of quebec, just in some crazy attempt to buy votes in that prov. The main airport in Paris, & actually the city of Paris France have STOP on their stop signs, yet we here in western Canada pay for arret on stop signs. This policy has pretty much destroyed the RCMP and our military. Can you imagine promoting some joker in a police force or military not because he is good at what he does, but because he can speak some other language spoken by less than 2% of the population in western Canada! Besides, when they forced this madness (garbage) upon us, was there not a clause which stated WHERE NUMBERS WARRANT! What do you think the reaction would be if we in the west adopted the quebec way of doing things & had a language police in the rest of Canada treating french the same way quebec treats the use of English! Well in case anybody did not notice, there are some 70 languages used in the lower mainland of B.C., & french ranks around 60th. It is about as useful here in the west as Mongolian, but yet we still have to waste money on it, & watch less than qualified people be promoted just because they come from quebec & speak this dying language. I say dying language as even ex-french colonies like Vietnam have dropped it's use & now teach, & use English. Is there nothing we could find to spend the Billions of $ on instead of a language that is useless outside quebec, & the welfare prov. of N.B. Just because of some joker like trudeau, we have been forced to sqaunder all this money, instead of putting the BILLIONS to useful projects like helping people! As I watched thousands of Can. citizens forced out of que., many were born in just because they do not speak french, I have watch bad feelings grow when it comes to quebec. "Travel to N.S., well drive through the states to avoid quebec". I have had people say they buy nothing which is either made or packaged in quebec. Not even gas. One of the reasons lineups at the border are so long. To buy milk and other dairy products. They are cheaper & do not come from quebec. Ya this policy really goes a long way to unite the country. It's an outrarous waste of money being spent outside of quebec promoting french, when we in the west, especially here in B.C. would be so much richer & better off learning Spanish,Japanese,Korean,Hindi,Mandarin,Cantonese,Punjabi etc.,etc. 1600 miles (2575 Kms) south of B.C. we begin to run into over 200 million people who speak Spanish. 2600 kms east Van. will not even get me past the eastern city limits of Winn. Man. Nowhere near quebec. Ya, it makes a lot of scense to learn french instead of Spanish....It's simply crazy, and does nothing to unite the country. On the contrary, it just holds us back. All due to a bunch of yahoos (pardon me, Rt. Hon. ladies & gentlemen, (A title they had to give themselves like their platinum pensions) working in that Monument to Murphy's Law in Ottawa, who still try to BUY votes in quebec which has less than 24% of the population of the country! Remember...WHERE NUMBERS WARRANT, & numbers do not warrant it's use outside quebec, you know, that unilingual prov. who cares less about English or English speaking Cdns as long as they get $$ out of the rest of Canada. WAKE UP CANADA! It's just one more excuse to suck money out of us, & should be scrapped NOW. WHERE NUMBERS WARRANT! Remember WHERE NUMBERS WARRANT & thats not out west!
Mark Milke, you must be the only person who has recognized that the private sector compliance cost is "likely impossible to quantify". Suffice it to say that it is HUGE!!! Jim Allan, a retired CA in Toronto, has tried to estimate this cost and it would be good if you will contact him to discuss how he did it. His email address is: jsallan@sympatico.ca.
The Fraser Institute managed to draw the public's attention to this terrible waste of our national resource which can be used in so many ways that will benefit ALL Canadians, not just a few bilingual ones. The original idea that it would create a more united Canada has proven itself to be a total failure. Separatism is still a factor in Quebec and now that the Western provinces have observed how the threat of separatism has led to more attention being given to Quebec, they are doing the same thing. Why not? What's good for the goose is good for the gander!!! Of course the difference is that when the West threatens to leave, it is not an empty threat - they can afford to leave. Quebec has been a "have-not" province for so long now that everybody knows that they cannot leave!!! It is purely the generosity of the only "have" province that has allowed Quebec to continue to behave as if they are so important that Canada cannot do without them. More Canadians are coming to the conclusion that we are better off without Quebec. If any public opinion poll were to be conducted on this question, we'll be surprised at how unpopular Quebec is!!!
Kevin - 12 years ago
Abolish it. Enough is enough.
David Lanceman - 12 years ago
Perhaps the most absurd of all the absurd items of official bilingualism is the stipulation that any person be given the right to operate in whichever of the two official languages he or she wishes, for if everyone took advantage of this clause, then those who were most comfortable in french would speak french and those who were most comfortable in english would speak english hence the result would be no different than it would be without official bilingualism
It's B S Get rid of it
With what is happening in N.B. it just goes to show that the french language is simply a very OBTUSE waste of money, and a Cancer in Canada. Plus the west should STOP wasting equalization payments on back east especially N.B. A pox on all of them, and we'll never drive to N.S. again as it's too close to N.B. or Quebec, and we will not knowingly spend any money in, or on them. I would not buy gas or lodging off them so sorry Aunt's and Uncles. Most of us are in the west anyway, so climb out of that french cancerous garbage can and "Go west". The cry has gone up. Buy as little as possible from Ontario and NOTHING made or packaged from China or Quebec and N.B.
Cheers from hopefully soon to be Cascadia
What amazes me the most is how come it took so long for this divisive policy to stir public debate. The 16 to 17% of bilingual Canadians control 67% of our federal bureaucracy leaving the other 83% of unilingual Canadians personna non grata in working for their own government. The blatant discrimination against the majority English speakers is a blight on our way of life and is most certainly not a true Canadian value.
We have elevated the status of French born Canadians to a level where the rest cannot possibly compete. It is language apartheid at the least and most certainly an affirmative action program that benefits only one group in our society.
Their elevated status is now reflected in the younger generations of Quebecers feeling empowered over the youth in the most of Canada.
When Jeanne Sauve was governor general she said " the only thing that English Canada has to offer is their stupid mediocrity." When Pierre Trudeau was PM in 1973 after he passed the OLA he was quoted as saying that " unilingual anglophones will be sentenced to a lifetime of job immobility", and laughed about it.
Separation of Quebec has never been the issue. The dominance over Canada is the issue.
Pierre Trudeau said he would unite Canada. Everyone believed him but he never told us that it would be under the fleur-de-lis.
The world already thinks we're a French speaking country. Call any consulate and you will get a French first response.
Have you checked you money lately. If you notice the French cinq is on the left and five is on the right. According to our laws, the majority language should always be on the left hand side. All our bills are now illegally printed.
If bilingualism was truly the goal then why do we not have student transfers happening all across this country so that all children have a chance to be completely bilingual?
The proof is the proof which shows us that it's all about power and take over.
All you have to do is look at New Brunswick and feel the desperation of the unilingual English speakers that are now basically told to sit at the back of the bus. No jobs for you.
This policy is killing the social fabric of this country as it pits people against each other while at the same time extolling virtues of unity.
This is on you, Stephen Harper, who once wrote that 'bilingualism is the god that failed..it has produced no unity and has cost taxpayers untold millions" (actually Mr. Harper that would be untold billions if not more).
Put your money where your mouth is Mr. Prime Minister and get rid of this act.
I completely agree. In fact these are very conservative figures indeed. When you consider costs on all three levels, federal, provincial and municipal since 1969, it could easily exceed 1 trillion dollars. It really is time to re-consider bilingualism. Tax revenues would be far better spent on health care, infrastructure, education, services for seniors and the homeless etc.
Bilingualism should not only be abolished,it should never have been implemented. An OBTUSE waste of money! Who cares what they speak in quebec, but the rest of the country having to deal with this is just plain STUPID. The money would be far better spent on hospitals or taking care of the old people in country, the homeless & underfed, people who actually fought for the country like the Native Nations in our north who live in conditions one would expect to find in a third world country, & not used to pander to quebec which actually has a fasicts style Gestapo like Language Police, the unilingual prov. of quebec, just in some crazy attempt to buy votes in that prov. The main airport in Paris, & actually the city of Paris France have STOP on their stop signs, yet we here in western Canada pay for arret on stop signs. This policy has pretty much destroyed the RCMP and our military. Can you imagine promoting some joker in a police force or military not because he is good at what he does, but because he can speak some other language spoken by less than 2% of the population in western Canada! Besides, when they forced this madness (garbage) upon us, was there not a clause which stated WHERE NUMBERS WARRANT! What do you think the reaction would be if we in the west adopted the quebec way of doing things & had a language police in the rest of Canada treating french the same way quebec treats the use of English! Well in case anybody did not notice, there are some 70 languages used in the lower mainland of B.C., & french ranks around 60th. It is about as useful here in the west as Mongolian, but yet we still have to waste money on it, & watch less than qualified people be promoted just because they come from quebec & speak this dying language. I say dying language as even ex-french colonies like Vietnam have dropped it's use & now teach, & use English. Is there nothing we could find to spend the Billions of $ on instead of a language that is useless outside quebec, & the welfare prov. of N.B. Just because of some joker like trudeau, we have been forced to sqaunder all this money, instead of putting the BILLIONS to useful projects like helping people! As I watched thousands of Can. citizens forced out of que., many were born in just because they do not speak french, I have watch bad feelings grow when it comes to quebec. "Travel to N.S., well drive through the states to avoid quebec". I have had people say they buy nothing which is either made or packaged in quebec. Not even gas. One of the reasons lineups at the border are so long. To buy milk and other dairy products. They are cheaper & do not come from quebec. Ya this policy really goes a long way to unite the country. It's an outrarous waste of money being spent outside of quebec promoting french, when we in the west, especially here in B.C. would be so much richer & better off learning Spanish,Japanese,Korean,Hindi,Mandarin,Cantonese,Punjabi etc.,etc. 1600 miles (2575 Kms) south of B.C. we begin to run into over 200 million people who speak Spanish. 2600 kms east Van. will not even get me past the eastern city limits of Winn. Man. Nowhere near quebec. Ya, it makes a lot of scense to learn french instead of Spanish....It's simply crazy, and does nothing to unite the country. On the contrary, it just holds us back. All due to a bunch of yahoos (pardon me, Rt. Hon. ladies & gentlemen, (A title they had to give themselves like their platinum pensions) working in that Monument to Murphy's Law in Ottawa, who still try to BUY votes in quebec which has less than 24% of the population of the country! Remember...WHERE NUMBERS WARRANT, & numbers do not warrant it's use outside quebec, you know, that unilingual prov. who cares less about English or English speaking Cdns as long as they get $$ out of the rest of Canada. WAKE UP CANADA! It's just one more excuse to suck money out of us, & should be scrapped NOW. WHERE NUMBERS WARRANT! Remember WHERE NUMBERS WARRANT & thats not out west!
Mark Milke, you must be the only person who has recognized that the private sector compliance cost is "likely impossible to quantify". Suffice it to say that it is HUGE!!! Jim Allan, a retired CA in Toronto, has tried to estimate this cost and it would be good if you will contact him to discuss how he did it. His email address is: jsallan@sympatico.ca.
The Fraser Institute managed to draw the public's attention to this terrible waste of our national resource which can be used in so many ways that will benefit ALL Canadians, not just a few bilingual ones. The original idea that it would create a more united Canada has proven itself to be a total failure. Separatism is still a factor in Quebec and now that the Western provinces have observed how the threat of separatism has led to more attention being given to Quebec, they are doing the same thing. Why not? What's good for the goose is good for the gander!!! Of course the difference is that when the West threatens to leave, it is not an empty threat - they can afford to leave. Quebec has been a "have-not" province for so long now that everybody knows that they cannot leave!!! It is purely the generosity of the only "have" province that has allowed Quebec to continue to behave as if they are so important that Canada cannot do without them. More Canadians are coming to the conclusion that we are better off without Quebec. If any public opinion poll were to be conducted on this question, we'll be surprised at how unpopular Quebec is!!!
Abolish it. Enough is enough.
Perhaps the most absurd of all the absurd items of official bilingualism is the stipulation that any person be given the right to operate in whichever of the two official languages he or she wishes, for if everyone took advantage of this clause, then those who were most comfortable in french would speak french and those who were most comfortable in english would speak english hence the result would be no different than it would be without official bilingualism