Cross Canada CheckUp

18 posts / 0 new

Sun, 2020-02-02 17:07

NorthReport

Today's topic: Should the PM be Bilingual?

And the results from the intolerant, jealous and stupid right-wing Canadians are in:

"Canadians who speak French are primarily from Quebec, therefore Quebecers are the chosen ones and favoured" and Canada is a very unfair country because of it.

What absolute dribble.

Look at the demand for French immersion in English Canada, and they even today they can't keep up with the demand - what's wrong our dumbass school administrators anyways? They remind me of the PSBGM a long time ago, when they didn't teach French to English students in Quebec. I give the PSBGM a giant 'F' for French language instruction.

Why not look at many countries where not 2, but 3 or 4 or more languages are learned?

Why can't Canadians expand their horizons, and learn 3 or 4 languages including an indigenous language and perhaps an Asian language as well?

Maybe a good beginning would be at the beginning of every single meeting taking place in Canada, private and public, make it the law, that introductory remarks are made in several different languages.

Sun, 2020-02-02 18:54

JKR

What percentage of Canadians outside of Quebec are bilingual?

Sun, 2020-02-02 19:38

Misfit

Canada is a bilingual country. We have two national languages. Our national leader should. E able to speak on both. Period.

In Saskatchewan, Plains Cree is not the only language for Firet a nations people but it is the dominant one. I agree with North Report. Our third language which should be mandatory should be Cree.

Sun, 2020-02-02 19:52

kropotkin1951

The largest language group of citizens besides English and French is Mandarin. I think the idea of opening public events in Cree on the unceded territories of other nations is a disgusting disrespect for the rightful owners not reconciliation.

Many languages are spoken in B.C.

Most people in B.C. speak English at home. After English, the most common languages spoken at home are Cantonese and Mandarin, Punjabi, German, Tagalog, French, Korean, Spanish, and Farsi.

In 2011, 26 percent of people in B.C. spoke a language other than English or French as their first language.

Indigenous languages also are spoken in B.C. However, only a small number of people are fluent in Indigenous languages. First Nations communities and the provincial government are taking action to protect and revitalize Indigenous languages.

Sun, 2020-02-02 22:16

Sean in Ottawa

I assume nobody is blaming the CBC for asking the question -- since it has been discussed here.

Certainly the responses from Canadians could be dissapointing.

As far as other languages beyond English and French -- no I do not think any should be mandatory. I do think that any people should speak at least two languages to lead a party. I see the merits in the second language not being English or French -- although the party should name a spokesperson in the other language that works with the leader. The reason I would skip the English French requirement is to permit representation of people who speak other languages removing roadblocks to Indigenous and immigrant third language speakers. So I can see one official language plus either the other official language or some other language spoken in Canada -- plus a representative for the other official language if that second language is other than English and French. I see no point in allowing unilingual candidates -- most public servant jobs require bilingualism why should't the job of PM?

I also have a wider concern about politicians when they are elected. There are certain factual realities they should know. I think when you get elected to public office there should be a brief course you should take. It should cover immigration realities and contributions including mistreatment of Chinese and Japanese immigrants, Indigenous history and reconciliation and the status of land occupied with out treaties as well as the present differences in services such as health, basic constitutional law, history of language in Canada including efforts by Provinces to stamp out French and how French had been treated in Quebec, gender realities and history in Caanda, and more (others here could contribute what I have neglected to add). This ocurse could be a three day seminar intended to get the broad strokes of essential information about Canada into politicians before they make decisions. I think this is more effective and less of a barrier than requiring additional languages. think of it like a cram for a citizenship test. The basics that a leader of Canada should know about the country. I do not intend this to be a politically divisive set of information but raw facts people should know.

I don't think that repeating some platitude without understanding what is behind it should suffice.

In addition to the above. I think that there ought to be a series of information sessions on key issues that politicians are obliged to attend. Think of it as professional development for politicians.

I am fed up with hearing clueless politicians spout nonsense on topics that they should have been required to understand the basics of.

Mon, 2020-02-03 11:12

NorthReport

City of Vancouver has the following on their website but maybe they should add not only for newcomers, eh!

First Peoples: A Guide for Newcomers

https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/First-Peoples-A-Guide-for-Newcomers.pdf

Mon, 2020-02-03 13:27

(Reply to #6) #7

Misfit

kropotkin1951 wrote:

The largest language group of citizens besides English and French is Mandarin. I think the idea of opening public events in Cree on the unceded territories of other nations is a disgusting disrespect for the rightful owners not reconciliation.

Many languages are spoken in B.C.

Most people in B.C. speak English at home. After English, the most common languages spoken at home are Cantonese and Mandarin, Punjabi, German, Tagalog, French, Korean, Spanish, and Farsi.

In 2011, 26 percent of people in B.C. spoke a language other than English or French as their first language.

Indigenous languages also are spoken in B.C. However, only a small number of people are fluent in Indigenous languages. First Nations communities and the provincial government are taking action to protect and revitalize Indigenous languages.

I wasn't speaking nationally. Where I live, Cree is the language which should be learned. Around Regina, Sioux should be considered. Up around Prince Albert, Swampy Cree. Around Swift Current it could be Blackfoot. Around Yorkton, perhaps Saulteaux.

Where I live, the third language should be Plains Cree. I was not speaking nationally that Plains Cree should be taught in Nova Scotia and other regions of Canada where Plains Cree is irrelevant. That would be silly.

Mon, 2020-02-03 20:02

Misfit

I'll make myself even more clear. It is up to the First Nations communities to establish who learns what language and where and it is up to us to acknowledge and accept.

Mon, 2020-02-03 20:16

(Reply to #8) #9

Sean in Ottawa

Misfit wrote:

I'll make myself even more clear. It is up to the First Nations communities to establish who learns what language and where and it is up to us to acknowledge and accept.

Totally reasonable.

I think the history though should be mandatory as well.

Tue, 2020-02-04 17:18

#10

kropotkin1951

Here is an interesting new federal program.

Eligible projects

To be eligible for funding from the Indigenous Languages Component, your project must include community-driven activities such as:

Capacity building

developing and implementing language plans

organizing and delivering conferences

supporting leadership development towards languages

Language preservation and revitalization

developing and delivering community language training programs (e.g. language and culture instruction and camps, language nests, online training, master-apprentice programs, etc.)

developing resources to increase Indigenous language use and proficiency (e.g. books, videos, workbooks, lexicons, language kits, games, etc.)

developing systems for facilitating communications in Indigenous languages (e.g. database, etc.)

developing digital tools to share information, materials and resources among Indigenous languages groups (e.g. website, application, etc.)

recording, documenting and preserving Indigenous languages (e.g. radio and television content, archiving, etc.)

producing and broadcasting radio and television programming

developing and teaching of regular accredited program

Community engagement

promoting engagement

Cultural development

delivering life skills and wellness programs that incorporate learning of an Indigenous language

delivering festivals and gatherings including pow wows that incorporate Indigenous language promotion or learning

View the list of projects funded by the Aboriginal Languages Initiative component (input "Aboriginal Languages Initiative" in the search query).

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/funding/aboriginal-p...

Tue, 2020-02-04 18:48

#11

brookmere

Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.

Note that the Charter makes no distinction between the qualifications for voting and for holding public offfice. This is as it should be. Potential office holders should be drawn from the whole electorate, not some elite. Most of us are familiar with requiring "literacy tests" for office or for voting.

Tue, 2020-02-04 21:46

#12

laine lowe laine lowe's picture

English and French education has been available through the public school systems (or should have been) all across the country as a result of the Bi and Bi Commission (Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism). That was the 60s and was reflective of the tensions of the times. But it still does not negate that someone who wants to be involved in federal government or politics as a career should have at least attempted to become bilingual.

As for Indigenous languages, we historically ripped out the capacity for First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities to maintain and share their language. Finally, there are many effort being made to restore Indigenous languages. But at this point, I think it would smack of priviledge for a white person to flaunt fluency in Cree or Ojibway or Michif or Inukitut, etc.

Wed, 2020-02-05 07:51

#13

Misfit

I cannot speak for others but my understanding was that the leaders with First Nations language experience would be First Nations people running for national party leadership. And yes, white people showing off a knowledge with a Firet Nations language would come across as elitist akin to Justin Trudeau proclaiming himself a feminist only much much more garish and extreme in its lack of appropriateness..

Wed, 2020-02-05 15:04

#14

Sean in Ottawa

Agin I think a knowledge of the history and issues and a committment to do something would be better than another not very useful gesture. But since I am not indigenous, this is just a personal opinion that carries no value.

Wed, 2020-02-05 15:30

#15

kropotkin1951

At best it means that settler politicians would have to learn a couple of standard greetings. In BC politicians from all the mainstream parties learn a few things in the other dominant second languages; like Mandarin, Cantonese and Tagalog. Municpal and provincial aspiring politicians are more likely to chose those as second languages since it means they can speak to their neighbours. The First Nations around the Salish Sea are all working very hard to revive languages that have few speakers but are not dead. For large numbers of people, without living in the culture and speaking a language daily, it is almost impossible to become fluent.

Thu, 2020-02-06 12:00

#16

Unionist

Just curious - does anyone know what percentage of Canadians do not have a working knowledge of either English or French? Don't ask me to define "working knowledge". I'm thinking something like, the ability to understand and express the most basic kinds of communication. And I'm not including reading/writing literacy.

Thu, 2020-02-06 14:23

(Reply to #16) #17

kropotkin1951

Unionist wrote:

Just curious - does anyone know what percentage of Canadians do not have a working knowledge of either English or French? Don't ask me to define "working knowledge". I'm thinking something like, the ability to understand and express the most basic kinds of communication. And I'm not including reading/writing literacy.

This is the closest I could find. Given these numbers my guess is it would be under 3%, when you count both French and English speakers in Quebec. As a general rule you can't immigrate to Canada without being able to converse in one of the official languages no matter how many other languages you might happen to be fluent in.

The ability to conduct a conversation in English is up

In 2016, 30 million Canadians reported being able to hold a conversation in English, an increase of 1.6 million people from 2011. In terms of proportion, it rose from 85.6% in 2011 to 86.2% in 2016.

In Quebec, 49.1% of the population reported being able to conduct a conversation in English in 2016, up 1.9 percentage points over 2011. This proportion represented 4 million people in 2016.

Outside Quebec, the proportion of Canadians who reported being able to hold a conversation in English remained relatively stable between 2011 (97.5%) and 2016 (97.4%). However, this corresponded to an increase of 1.35 million English speakers, for a total of 26 million in 2016.

Source: Statistics Canada, Census of Population, 2011 and 2016.

https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/20160...

Thu, 2020-02-06 15:49

#18

Sean in Ottawa

Family reunification does not involve a language test so parents and grandparents immigrants do not have to speak English. I have known some and sponsored two so I know.

The overall percentage of these is low.

That said I suspect that a very large number of people have a level of language that is below that required to hold down a job, integrate socially or pursue education. I do not know how you go about establishing this. There are language training schools paid by the government that provide very, very basic language training and stop well before a reasonable level of proficiency is aquired. After that it is private training. I advocate for the extended levels supported by the government. I am very familiar with a number of people who speak English well enough to get by socially but not enough to work well and without support to learn more. Many of these people are highly skilled and additional training would open very good avenues. Some pay for it themselves and some seek employment with businesses owned by those who speak the language.

As well,bilingualism E-F is an issue as well for many employment opportunities and the govenrment does not support classes to achieve the levels required. I think this is a mistake. If someone wants to aquire a language they should have access.

I would say that language is an obstacle for a large number of people in many ways. I do not think that everyone has the same level of ability ot need so this should not mandatory in adults but it should be available.