A bilingualism brouhaha in 2017?
Re PM’s unilingual performance angers Quebec anglophones, Jan. 20 Chantal Hébert’s Jan. 21 article had a telling passage: “(Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau has been off his game on a variety of fronts . . . His mind-boggling refusal this week to answer a question in English because he was in Quebec was just the latest example.” These sentences point to a government position that is barely defendable today and will be less defendable in future.
Quebec is unique. Not just in Canada but in North America. I have never understood the reluctance to celebrate this truth. Instead politicians (including Pierre Trudeau) have made this gift to Canada a political game. Cloaked it in sacredness.
Truth is, Canada is not bilingual. And Quebec is French. We have spent millions and lost even more in talent in every field, kowtowing to political correctness, loath to appear gauche or even, horrors, anti-French by disagreeing with the bilingual premise.
Pundits agree it will eventually be phased out by the simple fact of its fallacy. Meantime, we continue to enforce the ridiculous requirement of bilingualism where it is not required, depriving institutions of the most qualified across this country. Time to grow up and celebrate what we are, not what we wish we were. Rochelle (Carrière) Hatton, Sudbury, Ont. Canada is officially bilingual. As such, Canadians have a right to communicate with their government (and its civil servants) in either of the two official languages: English or French. As the head of the government, and as Canada’s top civil servant, the Prime Minister should understand this. But Justin Trudeau continues to display how tone-deaf he is to ordinary Canadians.
It is disrespectful to tell someone who asks him a question in English that he will reply in French because they are in Quebec. The fact that the premier of Quebec understands this and the Prime Minister does not is mind-boggling.
The government is required to be bilingual to accommodate its citizens — citizens are not required to be bilingual to accommodate their government. Kevin Clink, Brampton