First Indigenous Woman As Canadas Governor General Faces Removal Over Language

[LOVEDRUG 11,350]

2 hours ago, Maxine Puth said:

Surely there should be an exception for First Nationers though like this woman. Ideally knowing an actual native language and English would be sufficient regardless of knowing French. 

well, whilst that would be great for many to have that representation, it's just a fact that those in government, regardless of ethnicity, have certain constitutional responsibilities. i'd absolutely agree if we were talking about; for example, education, a situation in which it would make a lot more sense for first nation children to learn a native language in school than french. but we're talking about the governor-general; effectively the de facto head of state. a state with very significant populations of french and english speakers.

her being asked to speak french is not a case of favouring french over native languages, but a case of logic. it wouldn't make any statistical sense for a native language to be a substitute for french as people who speak those languages are a far more narrow group than those who speak french, making the reason for including the constitutional responsibility to speak any language other than english basically obsolete.

it's incredibly rare for a country to have two languages as dominant and widely spoken as french and english are in canada, making it incredibly rare that a multilingual country can practically enforce something like this without requiring people to speak like ten languages. it makes perfect sense, considering the fact that canada only has one single major minority language, to ask that all people in certain roles speak that language.

[GoldenPonyboy 2,434]

1 hour ago, dit said:

Didn't the French lose the war to the Brits? Why so many concessions. You are a minority language in Canada with lots of rights and protections. This seems SO over the top and nit picky. 

it is a way more complex issue than it seems at the surface. 

[Bronco 28,269]

46 minutes ago, GoldenPonyboy said:

The gov can make further reperations whitout infringing french peoples constitutional rights.

Colonisers get no rights babe. You're literally here liking comments by people complaining about no one making the effort to learn French but refusing to back the community who actually own the land stolen. 

The whole notion that settlers who stole land, raped, pillaged & 100s of other crimes have "rights" to exist is insane. You aren't a persecuted minority, y'all are descendants of criminals. The fact you have more rights on land you stole than the actual victims of the crime is morally repugnant. 

[Bronco 28,269]

38 minutes ago, Melancholia said:

t wouldn't make any statistical sense for a native language to be a substitute

ITS LITERALLY THE NATIVE LANGUAGE OF THE LAND. Y'all can't be seriously saying that a population victim of intentional systematic destruction through murder, starvation & assimilation matter less than the people who committed the genocide because they outnumber them. 

[Economy 53,171]

4 hours ago, thierryrreiht said:

Canada is a bilingual country, so everything tied to the government must be bilingual. 
 

That’s the problem. 
It’s not normal that the % of bilingualism is only high in the south of Quebec and far-east of Ontario (Ottawa). English speakers in Canada make almost no effort.
 

Why should WE have to speak English while everywhere else they just know “bonjour” and “oui oui”

 

I should have made this post in French so you’d have to google translate it

Other countries have bilingual languages and dont require it in products. 

 

I also know in Quebec u can put english in smaller print than English even tho we are not allowed to do that with French

[Economy 53,171]

1 hour ago, GoldenPonyboy said:

This appointment does nothing for indiginous people when most communities are still asking for clean drinking water. Instead of making a symbolic appointment the gov should work on those issues instead. The gov can make further reperations whitout infringing french peoples constitutional rights. Two different issues that dont need to be pitted against eachother. 

 

The government is making more investment in recomciliation and helping their communities than any past government tho.

 

Its not like u cant have important milestones as well like this until the other issues are solved

 

I also have an issue with the original people of a land not being allowed to be represented in government because the 2 colonizer languages that came after are recognized as official and a native language isnt

 

This should warrant a reasonable exeption imo

[Bronco 28,269]

Also for anyone trying to defend this brazen racist stunt. 

The legal challenge was put forth by 2 groups. One of which is heavily focused on pushing racist policies in Quebec. 
That group has: 
Support bill 21 that explicitly targets muslim women from wearing religious symbols. 
Attacked asylum seekers in Quebec. 
Sued a University for advertising a role as being open to "women, people with disabilities, racial minorities & indigenous people" claiming that it was racist to white men. 

So when people point out the clear racism & colonialism on display in this case - maybe think about who your siding with. 

[old sanuk 388]

Canadian born, I gave up caring about Canada or voting in Canada when the Notwithstanding Clause was approved in The Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. My life is unaffected except that I am not truly free; my compromise is not caring about Canadian news and politics. 

In 1977 I left my birthplace, Montreal, as a refugee in the 2nd wave of non-violent ethnic cleansing of the English.  Perfectly bilingual, newly graduated engineer I did  approximately 22 interviews in French before the last interviewer told me I was to fill his interview quota, and he would never hire anyone with an English surname; so I knew what was happening. Next day, I was in Ontario where my 1st interview yielded my first great engineering job. I’ll never set foot in Quebec again.

Now, I’m a citizen of the world, a man without a home, in Toronto for elder care responsibilities, but looking forward to future life in Thailand, land that I love.                       Love Gaga, but hate Canada.

[LOVEDRUG 11,350]

1 hour ago, Bronco said:

ITS LITERALLY THE NATIVE LANGUAGE OF THE LAND. Y'all can't be seriously saying that a population victim of intentional systematic destruction through murder, starvation & assimilation matter less than the people who committed the genocide because they outnumber them. 

again, i'm not talking in terms of history. it doesn't make sense to place a legal requirement for someone to speak a native language because those languages are not statistically as prevalent as french. languages are about communication and from the most basic, logical angle, a leader speaking french would have greater reach and be able to communicate with more people by speaking french.

on a local level, i think different approaches are more reasonable. it would make a lot of sense for a politician in nunavut or nunatsiavut to speak a native language as those regions contain large numbers of speakers of those languages. meanwhile a politician from prince edward island would likely not find french to be particularly useful. surely, on a national level, it isn't difficult to see why fluency in a language that 20% of the population speaks would be a constitutional requirement.

it's the exact same reason why i'd say it'd make more sense for a french leader to be required to speak german than occitan or breton, despite those languages being native to the country, because it's more useful and practical from a statistical perspective.

[clementine 291]

I hate this thread because y’all are fighting over it and I love this website but why can’t the human race ever appreciate other humans for the beauty of diversity and the beauty of the languages that we created.. I feel so sad reading everything on here as I am an incredibly passionate language learner and I have always been frustrated with language barriers and wish that English speakers especially those in the conservative area where I like would make more effort to learn Spanish (I know this is a long way from Canada but I’m just trying to say how I feel sorry)

 

i don’t know if any of this applies but I feel that Canada has different languages and should accommodate everyone who speaks one language or another and I don’t see what the problem is.. French speakers shouldn’t have to speak English and vice versa.. we have the internet and translation tools for a reason but also the government should make a better effort to accommodate native speakers for example learning languages in school could be beneficial and rewarding in Canada just like learning Spanish in the United States would be incredibly helpful for people in the workforce here… every day at work I have a need to speak a language other than English wether I am prepared to or not.. my point is English speaking people shouldnt be so lazy and you shouldn’t assume you have privilege just because you speak English ok bye

[weed 79,382]

How'd she even get the position if there's something (that's not new, not a secret) that could disqualify her...

[Economy 53,171]

1 hour ago, weed said:

How'd she even get the position if there's something (that's not new, not a secret) that could disqualify her...

I dont know the details. Its possible she speaks some french but its not as fluent as it should be and maybe shes kinda borderline

 

But im not sure

[GoldenPonyboy 2,434]

10 hours ago, Economy said:

The government is making more investment in recomciliation and helping their communities than any past government tho.

 

Its not like u cant have important milestones as well like this until the other issues are solved

 

I also have an issue with the original people of a land not being allowed to be represented in government because the 2 colonizer languages that came after are recognized as official and a native language isnt

 

This should warrant a reasonable exeption imo

As far as i am concerned, this situation mirrors the lieutenant gov in NB being a lesbian woman but unable to soeak french. The french community here were not asking to remove her. We were asking for an acknowledgment that whoever will be appointed after will repect french charter right. 

[Pennywise 36,080]

15 hours ago, thierryrreiht said:

I should have made this post in French so you’d have to google translate it

So cunty, I love it 

[Economy 53,171]

18 hours ago, thierryrreiht said:

Canada is a bilingual country, so everything tied to the government must be bilingual. 
 

That’s the problem. 
It’s not normal that the % of bilingualism is only high in the south of Quebec and far-east of Ontario (Ottawa). English speakers in Canada make almost no effort.
 

Why should WE have to speak English while everywhere else they just know “bonjour” and “oui oui”

 

I should have made this post in French so you’d have to google translate it

I think ur right about government actually. Now that i think about it more

 

I still dont agree with other bilingual requirements for private sector tho such as product labels for example. There are many languages spoken in english speaking Provinces and i seriously doubt french is even close to the 2nd most spoken in most areas

 

I think its more purely about the symbolism and nothing else cuz Quebec wants us to be exposed to french to promote the language even tho we simply just dont really use it