Bi-lingualism a constant irritant

January 20, 2010

by Kim McConnell,
Canadians for Language Fairness

There are so many things happening that upset Canadians and it is almost as if we haven’t got enough time in the day to tackle them all. 

We, as a language organization, have taken on the task of informing Canadians about the plight of English-speakers in Canada to the injustice and discrimination perpetrated on us by the Official Languages Act and so we hope that we can provide the leadership to concerned Canadians to right this wrong. 

In the process of fighting for fairness to the English-speaking majority, we will be accused of all sorts of things – we’ve been called all sorts of names but we know that deep-down most Canadians (even many French-speaking ones) know that this policy has gone too far. 

While it started out as a fight for the rights of French-speakers to have government services in their language where numbers warrant, it has been escalated by French-speaking zealots like Lucienne Robillard and Language Commissioners such as Graham Fraser, into a policy that clearly discriminates against the English-speaking majority. The result is a Federal Public Service that is now composed of more than their share of French-speakers in the senior ranks. 

Over 64% of our public service jobs in the National Capital Region have been declared bilingual imperative and most of them are occupied by French-speakers. 

Despite the billions of dollars spent on forcing English-speakers to learn French and to send their children to French-immersion, the rate of self-assessed bilingual citizens declines.  According to Jack Jedwab of the Association of Canadian Studies, the percentage of truly bilingual Canadians stands at around 12%.  This is down from the 17.7% who claimed to be bi-lingual in the 2001 census.

In the meantime, provinces that are mainly English-speaking, refuse to declare themselves as such even while they watch while Quebec pass more anti-English laws like Bills 22, 101, 178 and declare openly that they are unilingual French and English-speakers can assimilate or leave!!!  More than half a million have.

What is it about English-speaking Canadians that make us so reluctant to speak up or to make this a political issue?  I’m sure many of you will have your own explanations but I forward the following:

1. Canadians are basically a very kind people who are willing to give the shirts off their own backs to keep someone else warm.  This is proven by the generosity with which we approach every human disaster that happens anywhere in the world.  We welcome refugees from all over the world, give them food and shelter and take them into our homes. 
   
   We responded so generously when Pearson and Trudeau said that the French-speakers should be given equal rights to English-speakers and we watched quietly while Canada started the process of making a minority equal to the majority. 
   
   Even after Trudeau warned us that "There is no way two ethnic groups in one country can be made equal before the law....and to say it is possible is to sow the seeds of destruction". (Pierre Trudeau, 1966)
   
2. We, like most people in the developed Western world, are very naïve. We don’t understand that many parts of the world contain people who are hostile to our way of life and would not fit in without drastic changes made to the way we live. 
   
   Many of us don’t understand that countries where the standard of life is low creates a different kind of people and inviting them to our shores just creates more problems for us (as if we don’t have enough already). 
   
   We have been brain-washed by the Socialists into adopting a guilt complex about the 3^rd world, as if we are responsible for all the things that are happening all over the world where people have to live in poverty and misery and we are duty-bound to rescue them. 
   
   Canadians have never gone out to “conquer” the world but we must suffer the consequences because most of our citizens are from past-colonial countries like the U.K, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
   
3. A big problem is the media and whoever owns it. They simply refuse to publish or speak the truth on the language issue and the related problems. If they were honest they would publish forums like ours, and welcome honest debate. Instead they paint anyone who does not follow the accepted politically correct line as cranks and bigots.  It is a very effective way to silence any opposition. Why they would want the French and Quebec running Canada is beyond me.
   
4. Many Canadians who are not affected by the language debacle are only vaguely aware of how importing large numbers of French-speakers into Canada will affect them.  As a language group, we are more aware than most that if we increase our French-speaking immigrants into the country and distribute them all across Canada, the chances of them forming lobby groups for more French-language services will be escalated.  Will this be exploited by the French-speaking lobby groups to demand more services and jobs to be made bilingual – you bet!!!
   
5. We know that the government services (Federal, provincial & municipal) in Ontario and New Brunswick are already over-populated by French-speakers;  B.C. has been the target of more French-language services for years and the Franco-Columbians have used the 2010 Winter Olympics to bring in more French-speakers from Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick to man the many positions that have been made bilingual to serve the French-speakers from Quebec. 
   
   Of course, the private sector is being coerced into hiring bilingual staff as well. Provincial governments in English-speaking Canada look forward eagerly to the money sent by the Federal government in support of all these French-language services so why would they say NO?

So, for those readers who would like to help us with our letter-writing campaign, read on.  We believe that writing to ALL politicians is a waste of time so let’s be smart and target our letters. 

Stockwell Day is the newly appointed Minister for the Treasury Board that is responsible for handing out money to the various government bodies to promote bilingualism.  Target him to make him aware of your discontent with the amount of money being spent promoting bilingualism in the Federal government. 

Target Jason Kenney to discourage him from bringing in huge numbers of Haitians into Canada; send copies of all letters to the PM’s office.  Provincial Premiers and your own MPs should be targeted as they are your direct contact & your vote is needed to return them to power.  Make this an election issue because unless English-speakers wake up soon, the vociferous and well-funded French-language lobby groups will win the day!!!

To locate your own MP:  http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC

Points to be used for letters to Stockwell Day:

1. Forced bilingualism throughout Canada while Quebec remains a French-only province. Quebec's language laws, Bill 22, 101, 178 restrict the use of English everywhere in the province of Quebec.
   
2. The exorbitant cost of bilingualism to taxpayers outside of Quebec---up to 16 trillion dollars since 1969.
   
3. Bilingualism discriminates against all English-speaking Canadians. 
   
4. The Official Languages Act has created a privileged class of Francophones who share the exclusive benefits through employment opportunities that favour French-speakers.
   
5. Bilingualism permits the creation of French-only government funded health/social and community services. Francophones can demand French/bilingual services even where numbers do not warrant, for example, The lady in Cornwall who was refused service at a French health clinic because she did not speak French. 
   
6. Stop this policy of social engineering---the re-distribution of small numbers of Francophones to communities throughout Canada in order to claim a French presence thus furthering the demand for bilingual services. We can no longer afford this type of governance in Canada.

Contact Stockwell DAY

In Ottawa:
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Phone: 613.995.1702
Fax: 613.995.1154
Email: DayS@parl.gc.ca

In the Riding:
Suite 202, 301 Main Street
Penticton, BC V2A 5B7
Phone: 250.770.4480
Toll-Free:1-800-665-8711
Fax: 250.770.4484
Email: days1@parl.gc.ca

Hard copies of your letter are needed to have maximum effect. If you wish us to hand-deliver your letter to Stockwell Day, send your letter to our P.O. box and we will do so.  If our representatives can hand-deliver thousands of such letters to him, we might get some attention.  In politics, number counts and if you want to help make this an issue that our government cannot ignore, please make an effort.

Remember we need to publicly hold those responsible for language policies accountable. We need to embarrass them publicly and the only way to do this is to make it a political issue.     --Kim

Pakenham: Canada Post balking on Postmistress position

This video from Cogeco News; Leo Freemark reporting

Although Jeanne Barr has offered several times to take the bi-lingual course and learn French, Canada Post has yet to respond. 

One is led to speculate that CPO officials are loath to let anyone but a Francophone be appointed to do Ms. Barr’s job. She told Cogeco News that the corporation has sent out some candidates that she was asked to train but they had absolutely no experience in the postal service.

They could, of course, speak French.

http://www.tvcogeco.com/renfrew/gallerie/tvcogeco-news/1765-tvcnews-january/12533-pakenham-postoffice

Federal Government French Hiring Practices

By Beth Trudeau,

Now that the public's eyes have been fully opened to Canada Post's policy of promoting and hiring French speaking postmasters under the guise of "bilingualism", even in towns where "numbers do not warrant", the ensuing outrage had caused Canada Post to rehire Mrs. Barr at lower wages as a part time delivery person, then she was given back her job, until such a time that Canada Post can find another job of equal pay and hours for her to switch to.

There is more to this "ethnic cleansing" going on at Canada Post than has been made public knowledge by the press at the time of this letter. 

On December 19, 2009, the day after Mrs. Barr in Pakenham was temporarily re-instated, the Christmas luncheon for the Canadians for Language Fairness was held

Along with Howard Galganov and Jean Serge Brisson, who are both fighting for our freedom of expression, the other speaker was a Mr. Barr.

No, he was not the husband of the postmistress in Pakenham. He is the husband of a woman who gets up bright and early and goes to the Russell post office to SORT MAIL, part time, before the birds are chirping. A couple of months ago, she was notified that she MUST become bilingual and she has not been called into work since. This is in the town of Russell, you know, the ENGLISH-speaking town in Russell Township.

Being that the names of those involved in both Russell and Pakenham are the same makes one wonder if Canada Post is on a mission at the present time - reviewing English names on their payroll and going after them one by one. They are obviously on the "Bs".

These blatant acts of anti-English-speaker sentiment by Canada Post mirror those of another Crown Corporation, VIA Rail. Very little was reported, as is par in the press, about a legal challenge this summer by VIA Rail employees in Winnipeg, Alberta and British Columbia, attempting to maintain their jobs on the run from Winnipeg to British Columbia, because they did not speak French. Even though there is always AT LEAST one person on every train that speaks French, they lost their lawsuit. Now one cannot even be unilingual English to work on a train, EVEN out west.

Does anyone care how these English-speaking employees fare emotionally?  The stress of knowing your job can be taken away at any time because you are English-speaking.  Knowing that you have never, in three years, had a complaint, but are not good enough to keep it, because of being unilingual English.  Knowing that even with wasting taxpayers' money and doing French language training, in a town where there are no French, how does one retain it?  Only four out of every 100 Ontario residents are French speaking and the proportion is even lower out west.

Are our English-speaking children suffering the same feelings of inferiority and shame if they're not able to handle the French language?  Is that why the bar for provincial testing has been lowered so much?  Is that why our children are not prepared for college or university in basic courses such as math and sciences?  Is French Immersion benefiting or hindering our youth, both educationally and emotionally? 

MP Gordon O'Connor thinks this is acceptable, shifting qualified employees to another job because of being English.  Our organization, Canadians for Language Fairness, say it is absolutely NOT acceptable.  

If one cannot even sort mail without being "bilingual", what job could there be higher up the chain? What jobs does the government social engineers have in mind, exactly, for English-speaking Canadians if we cannot even sort mail?

It is time for those who believe in language fairness and who are against the BILLIONS of OUR tax dollars being wasted in French language training process, to contact Canada Post, Via Rail, MPs, MPPs, and all types of media. 

This discrimination WILL continue unless we say enough is enough and it is time to stop this social engineering.  It happened in Quebec in the 1970's, remember? Quebec said NO to bilingualism and so must we. 

Anyone concerned with Quebec separating should look at what will happen if the western provinces get fed up with this social engineering, and say THEY will separate.  They already have a provincial Wild Rose Party that is leading the Conservatives in Alberta. 

With Richmond British Columbia being requested to put up bilingual signs in their town for the Olympic tourists and given OUR tax dollars to do it, in an attempt to give the illusion that Canada is more French than it really is, along with the hundreds of students from La Cite Collegial that are heading out to work at the Olympics because they are "bilingual", we should be much more concerned with the only "have" province throwing in the towel because of the language issue. 

Then where will we "Eastern Bums and Scums" be?

Beth Trudeau

Official Spokesperson for the Canadians for Language Fairness

Embrun, Ontario