Canada: Common sense on the other official language not "anti-French"

[Harold Schiffman]

Common sense on the other official language not "anti-French"

Mark Milke
Calgary Herald


Wednesday, August 06, 2008


Back a few millennia ago in the age of Plato and Socrates, teachers
uninterested in a search for truth but in scoring mere rhetorical
points were known as sophists; a favourite tactic was to engage in
specious rather than sound reasoning, this in an attempt to win public
debates. A modern example occurred last week when my good friend and
fellow columnist, Naomi Lakritz accused me of a "churlish attack on
the French language." This came after my recent column where I noted
Albertans who claim French as their mother tongue are microscopic as a
percentage of this province's population and that French as a mother
tongue declined overall in Canada to 22 per cent in the latest census
from 29 per cent back in 1951.

In response, Naomi mounted the French barricades long ago breached by
the English on the Plains of Abraham. So Naomi claimed I "declared
that French as Canada's other official language is yesterday's
notion." She asserted that "grateful Calgary ladies who feted the
Quebec soldiers (who defended Calgary civilians in the 19th century)
would be turning in their graves."

There's just one problem. The positions attributed to me are fiction.
Nowhere in my recent column did I declare French as "yesterday's
notion." Nor did I recommend an end to official bilingualism or
suggest French history and service in Canada was negligible or should
be unappreciated.

Nuts, if Naomi will invent positions for me, why stop there? In the
spirit of the times, this debate could be even more fun if she
launched a human rights complaint against me. (I have no objections;
it would be a boon to my writing career.)

For the record, what I noted is that from census data, French, as a
mother tongue is in decline and that will have ramifications both
politically and policy-wise. What I recommended is that the
demographic realities of the province in question be taken into
account in the provision of government services.

Should that lead to abolition of French as a second official language?
Actually, no --though if 400 years from now Urdu is the dominant
language in Canada, perhaps a change to the official languages act
might be considered.

In the meantime, if governments wish to spend money on language, it
should be to make sure immigrants can speak one of the two official
languages according to the dominant language of the province in which
they reside: French in Quebec and English in Alberta. Beyond that,
they shouldn't go overboard.

The reaction on this matter, and not only from Naomi, stems more from
a political disposition than from a reasoned analysis, a problem
common in modern liberalism as is the predictable pattern which then
ensues: become offended, grab the rhetorical rifle, and damn the
torpedoes, cost, and analysis.

Those who think Alberta should print speeding tickets in French
because it is one of two official languages (except for practical
matters in Quebec where parents cannot educate their children in
English if they move there) should be consistent: recommend that every
government document in the country be printed in both official
languages, even if, as in some suburbs of Vancouver or Toronto,
pluralities of the population are neither English nor French.

After all, just because only 25,000 people speak French at home in
metropolitan Toronto, while almost 1.4 million people speak a
non-official language (and 3.5 million speak English), is no reason
not to spend whatever amount of money is necessary to make sure every
ticket, mail-out, brochure, and public advertisement is in both
official languages.

And don't stop there. Make sure every provincial law, every bylaw and
every sign in every province and city is in English and French. In
addition, don't forget to provide translations in both official
languages in every city, town and village. Demand, too, that English
is translated and provided in every Quebec hamlet for every
conceivable piece of printed material. After all, it is not as if
money isn't endlessly available for such priorities. As for hospitals,
the military, environmental cleanups, and an expansion of the
Trans-Canada Highway -- all that can wait, perhaps forever.

Or one could take a sensible approach given that official bilingualism
does not and has never required such ill-advised efforts, not in
Alberta, not in Quebec, not in Prince Edward Island, not anywhere.

The kerfuffle over the supposed denigration of French in Alberta
because tickets are not printed in French and the positions attributed
to me by Naomi have this in common: both are invented controversies.

Mark Milke is the senior fellow for the Frontier Centre in Alberta.

He also writes a Sunday column on the Herald's editorial page


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