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From: clewis@ecicrl.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: can.francais,can.politics
Subject: Re: Notwithstanding clause -- truly a sad day for Canada
Message-ID: <181@ecicrl.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jan 89 02:29:13 GMT
References: <560@cavell.UUCP> <165@ecicrl.UUCP> <1736@maccs.McMaster.CA> <169@ecicrl.UUCP> <89Jan2.144016est.38114@neat.ai.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: clewis@ecicrl.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Distribution: can
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc. (CRL Division)
Lines: 35

In article <89Jan2.144016est.38114@neat.ai.toronto.edu> derome@ai.toronto.edu (Philippe Derome) writes:
>In article <169@ecicrl.UUCP> clewis@ecicrl.UUCP (Chris Lewis) writes:
>>
>>If Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Chinese, Japanese etc. can keep their cultures
>>alive without such laws, why can't the Quebecois?  Are they afraid that
>>without being forced nobody would think the Quebecois culture was worth 
>>keeping?  They only sell themselves short...

>It depends what you mean by alive. By many standards the french culture
>in the USA (13 000 000 citizens) is dying. 

They obviously didn't think that their culture was worth preserving enough
to fight hard enough to preserve it, did they?  We're also presuming a lot
to suggest that they *did* want to preserve it.  Even in the USA it is possible
to preserve ethnic culture - witness the fact that many Hispanic, Black, 
Native-Indian and southern-white subcultures are still quite strong.

> How alive are the Japanese
>Polish cultures in Canada. 

I don't know any Japanese-Poles do you?  Seriously, they are still very
much alive though not nearly as visible as the Ukrainians or Jews.

>Give me a break. In reality, there are only
>two truly strong cultures in this country.

Right.  Doesn't the fact that one of these "truly strong cultures" thinks
it has to circumvent part of the constitution to survive (whereas most of
the cultures that aren't "truly strong" don't) sound like a bit of a 
contradiction?
-- 
Chris Lewis, Markham, Ontario, Canada
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