oh my gosh, they have done it again!

[d3drocks]

canada is a bilingual country, but one provence seems to think we are not. Recently, I found out that a friend of the family's son is now being forced to go to school in french, because his mother can speak a little bit of french (barely enough to get by). the charter of rights and freedoms states clearly that "everyone has the right to an education in the language of their choosing" (english or french) but quebec is infringing on that right of someone really close to me. Its really enraging.
the boy in question has a severe learning dissability with literacy issues. it took him a while to even be able to read. he can speak english, and struggles emensly with french. he jsut cant do it. Yet the provence Demands that he go to school in french, while his grades fall to hell.
After doing research, I found a bunch of stuff about the place that disturbs me. In the REST of canada, businesses can operate in any language they want, but must offor english or french (depending on the statistics of the people in the area) to everyone. One of the biggest bank chains, the "bank of montreal" has moved its headquarters to toronto, because quebec put in a law that says "all businesses must operate in french". i find it utterly annoying.
other laws include:
-all street signs must be french only
-all businesses must have french signs
-all busenesses with english signs must have larger french text
-all businesses are not required to have english speaking stores in quebec.
-all workers in quebec are required to live in quebec (does not apply to government jobs)
its stupid, and its one of those times, where I have to ask myself...
is that really what canada wants?
I can appreciate that they want to keep their french heritige, but really. this is just infringing on people's rights, and is not the way to do it.
I hope i dont offend anyone, but it's comparible to nazi germany.
its driving me nuts, because a family friend, and her son are suffering from it. I doubt they can afford to move out of the provence as well.

thats my rant for the day.

[pooterpatty]

I hear ya. It won't be long before schools here in the States start making Spanish a required course to graduate high school.

I think this sums up the sentiment perfectly:

[d3drocks]

I hear ya. It won't be long before schools here in the States start making Spanish a required course to graduate high school.

I think this sums up the sentiment perfectly:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg300/pooterpatty/johnwayne-1.jpg

well, thats not it.
I think that it should be a choice.
In canada, english schools get 45 minutes of french a day (pure language), and french schools the other way around.
but still,
you should have the choice to take the majority of your classes in one of the 2 languages.

[ShredRex]

If I could I would cut Quebec loose from the rest of Canada.......but then the poor Maritimes would be screwed!!!!!

No seriously the whole bi-lingual things erks me to no end......we have to cater to them, and in PQ they do everything to borderline ban English.

Oh well, what can ya do. I guess stay here in Ontario and be glad I live in the best damn province in Canada.

[EvanBerard]

Good thing I live in Montreal
I really don't have a problem with the bilingual thing, but that's maybe because I'm used to it.

Au revoir

[ShredRex]

Salut!

You can swim back........lol You are a fellow Riffworks junkie so no worries.......Not all french speaking people are bad.........just the ones that want to separate from the rest of this great country.

I was wondering how long it would take to offend a french Canadian with that quip......by my calculations it was 4 minutes and 23 seconds.

Seriously though I am not against anyone that is french, and I have grown used to the bilingualism as well. But I will never be a supporter of it. This is why politics and music should never mix........Je devine c'est la vie

[Wedgebill]

Talk bollocks like me and nobody will know where you're coming from


Discuter des testicules, comme moi, et personne ne sait où vous venez de

[d3drocks]

I was wondering how long it would take to offend a french Canadian with that quip......by my calculations it was 4 minutes and 23 seconds.

Dunno, but when I responded to "wanna go to hull?" with "I dont wanna leave canada" the french guy with me and my buddies threw a punch at me (and missed ironically enough)

[Rotund]

God Bless John Wayne

[Muddhole]

It all comes down to money. People that speak a language other than english have money to spend too, so business, schools, and other government agencies will "cater" to them to get thier hands in their pockets. Lock them out and they'll take their business else where. It is what it is and not you nor I can do anything about it.

It doesn't bother me personally.

[ShredRex]

Talk bollocks like me and nobody will know where you're coming from


Discuter des testicules, comme moi, et personne ne sait où vous venez de

Look at you with your fancy translator webpage stuff......lol

[d3drocks]

Talk bollocks like me and nobody will know where you're coming from


Discuter des testicules, comme moi, et personne ne sait où vous venez de

Look at you with your fancy translator webpage stuff......lol

it didnt even do it correctly lol.

[Wedgebill]

I wouldn't know, I don't talk French, only Bollocks. When I asked Google for a French translation of Bollocks it said Bollocks

[JouniL]

It all comes down to money. People that speak a language other than english have money to spend too, so business, schools, and other government agencies will "cater" to them to get thier hands in their pockets. Lock them out and they'll take their business else where. It is what it is and not you nor I can do anything about it.

It doesn't bother me personally.

I totally agrre. To take an extreme example, we will now that the day peace have arrived to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be the day Palestinian-Israeli familys go to the same McDnalds eating McKosher and McHallal respectively. Peace by capitalism is a poor and strange concept but the only viable option the last centuries.

[redbaron]

A global phenomenon that too often leaves individuals stranded. In Europe, you won't get anywhere if you're monolingual; even entry-level jobs in Germany require a certain grasp of English these days. Sadly, many thousands of German Turks struggle even with German.

That's why, in true capitalist fashion, some German companies are offering products and services tailored to these "assimilation-challenged" Turks, such as a mobile virtual network operator advertising in Turkish only. Now you may argue that this is an act of "peace by capitalism", but I think it's still worth asking if you're sending the right message by thus supporting people to stay in their own secluded niches.

I'm really undecided about this. In general, I think there's no way around learning languages and adapting to a globalized world. But in particular cases, like d3drocks' friend here, that leaves many people sidelined. And there are millions of these particular cases...