Ford’s intolerance
Re: ‘Outrage’ in Ontario. Kelly McParland, Nov. 23
Doug Ford recently revealed his own personal bigotry and intolerance towards the French-speaking people in Ontario. When he decided to cancel the plans for a francophone university in Ontario and eliminate the Office of the French Language Services Commissioner, he openly showed his disdain for the French speaking people of Ontario and denied their constitutional rights without any remorse.
It reminds me of the “Orangemen” who waged a war against the most basic rights of the French Catholic people in Ontario, a long time ago. The hatred, intolerance and bigotry of those Orangemen survived in the English culture through the years.
This intolerance was still very strong when Mike Harris trampled the project of the one and only French hospital (Montfort) in Ontario in 1997. The English people of Quebec often complaint that they are treated the worst in Canada. They obviously don’t realize that they have 10 hospitals in Montreal only! They also have 3 English universities in Montreal! (In Ontario, there is no French university and only one French hospital).
Not only Doug Ford showed intolerance, but also a blatant ignorance when he claimed that “there are about 600,000 Chinese Ontarians and 600,000 Italian Ontarians, but that the province couldn’t please everybody.” So, Doug Ford prefers to please the Chinese and the Italians rather than the francophones! He doesn’t understand that the French language is one of the two official languages of Canada, so the language of the 600,000 francophones of Ontario should prevail over all the foreign languages.
Pauline Cyr Belleville, Ont.