June 4, 2010
by Kim McConnell
Karen Selick, of the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF), appeared recently (May 28) on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin.
The CCF’s mission is simple: "To protect the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through education, communication and litigation."
The CCF takes an interest in many challenges in our legal system and this show with Steve Paikin gives you an idea of how lucky we are that there is an organization in Canada that is in a position to speak up about our most urgent problem currently – the bilingualization of our Supreme Court.
Take time to listen to this show and understand how important it is that the Conservative Senators get the help of the independent Senators to effectively block this bill. Claudette Tardiff is working very hard to get this bill passed which will doubtless ensure that our Supreme Court will be made up mainly of Francophone judges.
The policy of Official Bilingualism has been an unmitigated failure and most Canadians know this – after over 40 years, our general population is still not bilingual and those who are functionally bilingual are mostly French-speakers first. Can we expect that the legal profession will be any different from the general population?
Granted they are made of the elite of society and are above average in intelligence but linguistic prowess is not necessarily directly related to intellect – it is more a question of opportunity and living in an environment where the other language is spoken.
How else can you explain why most English-speaking Canadians outside Quebec are not as likely to be fluently bilingual as English-speakers in Quebec where French is heard on a daily basis?
How else can you explain that the French-speakers are over-represented in the public service, in the Armed Forces and just about everywhere that the policy of Official Bilingualism is the prime criteria for promotion? There is absolutely no doubt that this will happen in the Supreme Court too if Bill C-232 gets through the Senate.
The Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc are solidly behind this bill and the Conservatives are working diligently to stop this bill so it is incumbent upon us to do whatever we can to lobby the Conservative and independent Senators to block it. Send a message to Karen Selick with your views to:
kselick@canadianconstitutionfoundation.ca
Karen is also looking for statistics on the success or failure of the French Immersion program anywhere in Canada because this will help with her arguments that, despite the widespread effort of the Federal government to expand French Immersion, the success of this policy is not impressive.
http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=7&bpn=779794&ts=2010-05-28%2020:00:00.0
Best,
Kim
CLF received many messages from our support base urging that all Canadians should do something to lobby the Senate to block this bill – here is one written by a retired lawyer:
If it passes the Senate, it will become the law of Canada and given the ever growing power of the Supreme Court of Canada, such a development would be the most dangerous threat to the Freedom of Canadians in memory.
Bottom-line - it must not be allowed to pass the Senate!
Directly below, you will find a list of reasons why Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada should not be required to be bilingual.
Further below, you will find several ways in which to make your views known to the two (2) people we must all get to before the Senate votes on Bill C232 - the Prime Minister and the Conservative Leader of the Senate.
When making your views known, using some or all of the reasons listed below, try to incorporate them in your own words since that will have the most impact in getting our collective message across.
Okay, here are the Main Reasons why Forced Bilingualism of Supreme Court Justices is a very, very bad idea:
- With only 17% of the population claiming to be bilingual (the actual number is likely far less), to require all candidates for Justices to be bilingual would mean that you are not ensuring that the brightest and the best lawyers even get considered for these most important positions. (i.e. at least 83% are not bilingual).
- Moreover, since most claiming to be bilingual reside in Quebec and to a much lesser extent Eastern Ontario, it would mean that the vast majority of bilingual candidates would reside in Central Canada. The East and the West would effectively be shut out of the Court.
- Related to the above, with Central Canada's greater influence on the Court, its decisions will become even more out of touch with main stream society (i.e. even more politically correct and left leaning).
- To add insult to injury, it is now mandatory that 1/3 of the nine justices hail from the Province of Quebec, so with a bilingual requirement applying to all Justices, Quebec's contingent can be expected to increase dramatically on the Court. This despite the fact that with a third of the Justices now having to come from Quebec and given that Quebec contains less than a fourth of Canada's population, they are substantially over-represented already.
- With the introduction of the Charter of Rights in 1981, the Supreme Court went from interpreting the laws to making laws. This can be seen from its too often politically correct and left leaning decisions. In many respects it has usurped the power of Parliament. Should the Court become fully bilingual, this can only be expected to get worse, - again because the area of selection is reduced does not represent the interests of the majority. In effect, the Court and not Parliament will rule completely Supreme.
Okay, who to Contact:
1. The Prime Minister of Canada:
Mr. Stephen Harper
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, K1A 0A2
Email address: pm@pm.gc.ca
Fax: (613) 941-6900
2. Mrs. Marjory LeBreton (she is English)
The Senate of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A4
Telephone - (613) 943-0756
Email lebrem@sen.parl.gc.ca
Best, Kim
