Path: utzoo!mnetor!motto!ecijmm!eci386!clewis
From: clewis@eci386.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Canada: Minority rights
Message-ID: <1989Aug2.201110.21381@eci386.uucp>
Date: 2 Aug 89 20:11:10 GMT
References: <632@philmtl.philips.ca>
Reply-To: clewis@eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Distribution: can
Organization: R. H. Lathwell Associates: Elegant Communications, Inc.
Lines: 101

In article <632@philmtl.philips.ca> tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel J. Tremblay) writes:

Michel oversimplifies the situation to a series of absolute statements.
Which are sometimes perfectly true in a general sense, but not necessarily
absolute (or guaranteed).

>Many individuals on the net are claiming that rights are denied
>to minorities in Que'bec. This is false.

You're making a blanket statement that is obviously not entirely true.
For example, Bill 178 prohibits (or at least severely curtails) the use 
of English (or any other language) on business signs.  There is no similar
law, for example, in Ontario.  Bill 101 includes other examples.  

Thus, *some* rights which are available in other provinces are denied to 
minorities in Quebec.

Therefore, your statement, as stated, is false.

>According to D'Iberville-Fortier, Federal Official Languages Commisionner, 
>Keit Speicer, former Federal Official Language Commisionner, and of 
>Brian Mulroney, Que'bec is the province where the minorities are best 
>treated. 

All three of these people are "political animals", they have specific 
vested interests in ensuring that the applecart (vis-a-vis opinion in 
Quebec, or the justification of their own jobs) is not overthrown.  
I'm not sure that I'd take at face value anything those three have said.

[Though, in some areas I may even be convinced to agree with them.]

>Anglophones in Que'bec (less that 5%) had, have and will keep
>full control over their schools and Universities. Can we say the same
>about Francophones in other provinces?. 

I've been hearing of instances where the anglophone school boards in
Quebec are being refused permission to teach french in their schools.
(I didn't believe this either, but the person who told me was a
school trustee for the anglophone school system in Quebec...)

There appears to be less provincial operational control of french 
schools in Ontario than in the Quebec system w.r.t. english schools. 

>One note about immigrants in Que'bec is reqired here. 
>Immigrants in Que'bec  FREELY
>chose to join the English speaking or the French speaking community.
>Their choice is usually influenced by their cultural background.
>They have access  French/English courses. 

Nonsense.  Bill 101 specifically prohibits entry into the english school
system for children not born of "anglophone" parents (it may even be as
restrictive as "anglophone parents who attended Quebec english schools").  
For an Italian immigrant (for example), there is no choice - their children 
*must* attend francophone schools.  

Therefore, immigrants are not freely allowed to join the community of 
their choice.

In a sense, Canada is two countries w.r.t. immigration: you can either
emmigrate to Quebec and your children *must* attend the French school 
system (except in rare circumstances), or you can emmigrate elsewhere
and you can usually choose which school your children attend (the
"where numbers warrant" rule applies in Ontario for the creation of
French schools)

>Medical and social services are provided in both languages. 

Both are available in Ontario as well, along with other languages.
[depending upon availability of multi-lingual employees, as is also
commonly the actual case in Quebec]

>Jobs are available for French and/or english speaking individuals. 

Jobs *are* "available" even for unilingual French speaking individuals in 
every province in Canada.  Not many, obviously, but the situation in
Quebec is not all that much different - only in Quebec are there 
legal requirements that a business must conduct its internal operations in 
French if it's over a certain size.  In other provinces it may be difficult
to conduct internal operations in a language other than English, but it
certainly isn't illegal, and *does* happen even in moderately large
corporations.

>It is in fact only in Que'bec and in 
>New-Brunswick that the immigrants can chose their linguistic community.

The Quebec legal restrictions on who can attend english schools make this
obviously untrue.

>Anywhere else in Canada, English is the de-facto imposed standard.

True.  As French is in Quebec.

>Anywhere in Canada, minorities should be respected, not only in Que'bec.

We seem to have a minor difference of opinion whether "not only in Que'bec"
is, by implication, at least partially misleading.
-- 
Chris Lewis, R.H. Lathwell & Associates: Elegant Communications Inc.
UUCP: {uunet!mnetor, utcsri!utzoo}!lsuc!eci386!clewis
Phone: (416)-595-5425