It’s a myth. Forget everything you’ve heard about bilingualism in Canada. Forty years (yes, FORTY. 40.) after the introduction of the Official Languages Act and we are… well, for a large part, hopelessly unbilingual.

Okay, I guess that’s not true. A tonne of people speak all sorts of languages here. Unfortunately, not a lot of French. And, for many of the people who shop at my work, not even English.

In case you are questioning my memory, yes, I know I’ve written about this before. But that was nearly 2 years ago. And now someone agrees with me! And that someone is Graham Fraser, the Commissioner of Official Languages. His main point in his report was that Canada has not taken advantage of its bilingualism. Which is true. His main concern is the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Canada is this supposed bilingual country and… well, Vancouver has more people speaking various Asian languages (which is fine! Nothing against multiculturalism here!) than English and French. Least of all French.

Fraser said “The 2010 Games are the perfect opportunity for Canada to show the world its success and pride as a bilingual country.” But, um, I hate to break it to you, Mr Fraser, but we’re not all going to be popping up bilingual by then! We probably should have started a few years ago.

Another concern is that while French education is supposedly “encouraged” for all levels of schooling, it is rarely available past high school. Which is true. Thinking about it off the top of my head… there is no place that I can think of off the top of my head where I could study what I will be studying en francais. It’s sort of disgraceful.

But, now, there is an official report. So, your move, government of Canada. Step up and enforce one of the things that Canada needs. Not like this Bill 44 B.S. which is making it a human rights violation to teach anything about human sexuality (including homosexuality) and religion in a classroom (thus, allowing ignorance to prevail!).

Wednesday May 27th 2009 — 16 Comments
✯ Posted under { Society }