[BRIEF NOTE] On the asymmetrical sham that is Canadian bilingualism
Conservative federal cabinet minister Vic Toers is outraged that parliamentarians suspect him incapable of implementing official bilingualism in the Treasury Board on account of the fact that he doesn't speak French.
Tory cabinet minister Vic Toews accused Liberals of insulting all unilingual anglophones Tuesday after two MPs questioned his ability to implement official languages policy without being able to speak French.
The flap erupted as the Treasury Board president was being questioned at a Commons committee about his responsibility for language policy in the federal public service.
“Do you speak French?” inquired Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez. “Don't you think someone who has responsibility such as yours should be bilingual?”
Mr. Toews - who speaks English and Spanish as well as his first language, German - was incensed.
“I should feel free to be able to speak the official language of my choice and for you to even ask that question is an insult,” he raged.
But Jean-Claude D'Amours, another Liberal MP, pursued the matter.
“It seems to me that when we talk about official languages and bilingualism in Canada, you should be a bilingual person to better be able to serve the people,” Mr. D'Amours said. “For you that's an insult. I think it's an insult to me that you should be so bold as to make such a comment.”
Mr. Toews then accused the Liberals of suggesting unilingual Canadians are second-class citizens.
“For some reason, I'm less of a Canadian, I'm less entitled to hold public office because I only speak one of the official languages,” he fumed.
One thing that has never ceased to amused me is the fact that, although English Canadians commonly complain that Québec is discriminating against the English language and Anglophones, in actual fact Québec Francophones are far more likely to speak English than their English Canadian counterparts are to speak French: "Nearly 95% of Quebecers can speak French, but only 40.6% know how to speak English. In the rest of the country, 97.6% of the population is capable of speaking English, but only 7.5% know how to speak French. Because knowledge of English in Quebec is over five times higher, in percentage terms, than knowledge of French in the rest of the country, personal bilingualism is largely limited to Quebec itself, and to a strip of territory sometimes referred to as the “bilingual belt”, that stretches east from Quebec into northern New Brunswick and west into parts of Ottawa and northeastern Ontario. Thus, a majority of bilingual Canadians are themselves Quebeckers, and a high percentage of the bilingual population in the rest of Canada resides in close proximity to the Quebec border." This is the case even in the national capital of Ottawa, home to many Francophones and including as a sister city the QUébécois city of Gatineau on the other side of the Ottawa River. Many Americans I've talked to have been frankly surprised that more English Canadians they encounter can't speak French.
The ongoing assimilation of Francophone communities outside Québec, like the large Franco-Ontarian community, is something that I've blogged about before, and is a phenomenon that can be traced in part to the lack of French language fluency--indeed, sometimes to outright hostility towards the French language. It's worth noting that Québec's Anglophone community, despite some issues, is continuing to grow sharply even in the context of Québec's language laws. Any dream of a more symmetrical, balanced English-French bilingualism may as well be an alternate history.
Tory cabinet minister Vic Toews accused Liberals of insulting all unilingual anglophones Tuesday after two MPs questioned his ability to implement official languages policy without being able to speak French.
The flap erupted as the Treasury Board president was being questioned at a Commons committee about his responsibility for language policy in the federal public service.
“Do you speak French?” inquired Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez. “Don't you think someone who has responsibility such as yours should be bilingual?”
Mr. Toews - who speaks English and Spanish as well as his first language, German - was incensed.
“I should feel free to be able to speak the official language of my choice and for you to even ask that question is an insult,” he raged.
But Jean-Claude D'Amours, another Liberal MP, pursued the matter.
“It seems to me that when we talk about official languages and bilingualism in Canada, you should be a bilingual person to better be able to serve the people,” Mr. D'Amours said. “For you that's an insult. I think it's an insult to me that you should be so bold as to make such a comment.”
Mr. Toews then accused the Liberals of suggesting unilingual Canadians are second-class citizens.
“For some reason, I'm less of a Canadian, I'm less entitled to hold public office because I only speak one of the official languages,” he fumed.
One thing that has never ceased to amused me is the fact that, although English Canadians commonly complain that Québec is discriminating against the English language and Anglophones, in actual fact Québec Francophones are far more likely to speak English than their English Canadian counterparts are to speak French: "Nearly 95% of Quebecers can speak French, but only 40.6% know how to speak English. In the rest of the country, 97.6% of the population is capable of speaking English, but only 7.5% know how to speak French. Because knowledge of English in Quebec is over five times higher, in percentage terms, than knowledge of French in the rest of the country, personal bilingualism is largely limited to Quebec itself, and to a strip of territory sometimes referred to as the “bilingual belt”, that stretches east from Quebec into northern New Brunswick and west into parts of Ottawa and northeastern Ontario. Thus, a majority of bilingual Canadians are themselves Quebeckers, and a high percentage of the bilingual population in the rest of Canada resides in close proximity to the Quebec border." This is the case even in the national capital of Ottawa, home to many Francophones and including as a sister city the QUébécois city of Gatineau on the other side of the Ottawa River. Many Americans I've talked to have been frankly surprised that more English Canadians they encounter can't speak French.
The ongoing assimilation of Francophone communities outside Québec, like the large Franco-Ontarian community, is something that I've blogged about before, and is a phenomenon that can be traced in part to the lack of French language fluency--indeed, sometimes to outright hostility towards the French language. It's worth noting that Québec's Anglophone community, despite some issues, is continuing to grow sharply even in the context of Québec's language laws. Any dream of a more symmetrical, balanced English-French bilingualism may as well be an alternate history.