Montreal Canadiens' hire of non-French-speaking Randy Cunneyworth irks Quebec official - ESPN

[Alice Faber]

On 12/19/11 6:15 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> I thought this might be a language issue when the hiring was first
> announced, but I did not want to mention it if it was just a curiosity.
> Well, it looks like we are past mere curiosity.
>
> http://goo.gl/NmR7E
>> The Quebec government isn't pleased about the hiring of a Montreal
>> Canadiens coach who can't speak French.
>> The province's culture minister says she expects the Habs to correct
>> the situation.
>> Christine St-Pierre isn't quite calling for the firing of new coach
>> Randy Cunneyworth, who was just hired over the weekend.
>> But she says the Habs have given the impression his hiring is
>> temporary, and she takes them at their word. The former NHL forward's
>> title is interim coach.
>> The hiring has created a frenzy of media reaction, including calls for
>> a boycott of products associated with the Canadiens.
>> But judging from the reaction on social-networking sites, the response
>> of regular Montreal fans may be slightly less critical.
>
> Cunneyworth is Canadian, born in Toronto. Montreal last had a
> non-French-speaking coach in 1971.
>

As a sidelight to this, all of the sports talk and blog discussion of
this refers to Cunneyworth as unilingual rather than monolingual.


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