Quebec angry over lack of French at Games

cdn_bc_ca

Electoral Member
May 5, 2005
389
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Vancouver
Quebec angry over lack of French at Games - Â*2010 Vancouver Olympics article - Sports - MSN CA

MONTREAL - A Quebecer's moment of Olympic glory is being tempered by a bitter feeling in his home province that the language he speaks has been treated like an also-ran at the Games.
Celebration over Alexandre Bilodeau's Olympic freestyle skiing victory risked being overshadowed by a torrent of criticism over a perceived lack of French at the Olympics.
The issue is receiving major media coverage in Quebec just as the country celebrates its first gold medal on Canadian soil, delivered Sunday by a French-speaking Quebecer.
There's a two-page spread in Monday's La Presse newspaper with headlines like: French as Rare as Snow in Vancouver; and Only 15 Per Cent of 25,000 Volunteers Speak French; and there was one mocking column in the paper partly written in English, titled Proud to be 'Canadian' — with the word Canadian written in English.
A stream of negative viewer comments was being aired on TV talk shows.
Several commenters argued that French — which is not only one of Canada's official languages, but actually one of the Olympics' official languages — was heard more often at the Beijing Games in 2008 than at Vancouver's opening ceremonies.
Federal Heritage Minister James Moore and Quebec Premier Jean Charest have both noted their frustration over the lack of French spoken at the opening ceremonies.
On Quebec's TV talk shows, questions were being raised about whether official bilingualism in Canada was actually a facade.
Denis Coderre, the federal Liberal critic for official languages, said francophone concerns were being ignored in English Canada.
Coderre, who habitually sprinkles his own political speeches with a few phrases of Haitian Creole or Italian, poked fun at the Vancouver organizing committee CEO's failure to do the same.
He said John Furlong could have bothered, over the last several years, to learn a few phrases of French — other than tossing out a token, mispronounced, "Bienvenue" during his address at the opening ceremonies.
"I don't accept being a second-class citizen," Coderre told a talk show on LCN network.
"The reality is not to find something negative about the games, it's to say look, respect me."
Another former cabinet minister said she watched the opening ceremonies with a group of federalist friends — all people who believe in Canada — and that they were aghast at what they saw.
"We were really disappointed on the one hand, and hurt on the other," said Liza Frulla, who was once minister responsible for sports.
Quebec nationalist groups quickly pounced the issue to argue their case that Canada doesn't work.
They said that federal policies on bilingualism had obviously failed to protect the French language. One ardent sovereigntist said that he expected Games organizers to at least try keeping up the charade that Canada is a bilingual country.
"It seems like the atmosphere of indifference, if not intolerance, of French has reached the point where there wasn't even an effort to save the appearance of bilingualism," Mario Beaulieu, president of the Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montreal, said of the opening ceremonies.
"It's deplorable, but we're not surprised."
Canada's official languages commissioner, Graham Fraser, issued a report last fall that warned Olympic organizers they weren't doing enough to make the Games bilingual.
The Conservative government gave the Olympic organizing committee an additional $7.7 million in September to pay for French translation services and more French signs.
here's a quote from the article:
"I don't accept being a second-class citizen" Coderre told a talk show on LCN network.

As far as I'm concerned, at the venues I've been to so far, French has always been spoken along with the English when announcements are broadcast.

WHAT IS THE DEAL?
 

Francis2004

Subjective Poster
Nov 18, 2008
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Again.. a stupid reason to whine..

This is no better coming from Quebec then it was from English Canada..

TV reporting is not affected by this and there is no reason why people should make it sound like they are not getting the proper information in their language. BULL...

How far will people go to make Canada look bad in the eyes of the world while they watch everything we do and say ?

To make matters worse is the involvement of politicians.. Federal Heritage Minister James Moore and Quebec Premier Jean Charest have both noted their frustration over the lack of French spoken at the opening ceremonies as well as Denis Coderre, the federal Liberal critic for official languages.

So remember who is your best advocate for Canada at the next election.. Coderre should never have been put or left in the Liberal Shadow Cabinet and I hope he gets the boot next election and Moore should be remembered for his lack of respect for Canada and receives equal treatment..

We have no control on Jean Charest outside Quebec.. Perhaps El Barto can kick him in the nuts for us.. :lol:
 

El Barto

les fesses a l'aire
Feb 11, 2007
5,959
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Quebec
Again.. a stupid reason to whine..

This is no better coming from Quebec then it was from English Canada..

TV reporting is not affected by this and there is no reason why people should make it sound like they are not getting the proper information in their language. BULL...

How far will people go to make Canada look bad in the eyes of the world while they watch everything we do and say ?

To make matters worse is the involvement of politicians.. Federal Heritage Minister James Moore and Quebec Premier Jean Charest have both noted their frustration over the lack of French spoken at the opening ceremonies as well as Denis Coderre, the federal Liberal critic for official languages.

So remember who is your best advocate for Canada at the next election.. Coderre should never have been put or left in the Liberal Shadow Cabinet and I hope he gets the boot next election and Moore should be remembered for his lack of respect for Canada and receives equal treatment..

We have no control on Jean Charest outside Quebec.. Perhaps El Barto can kick him in the nuts for us.. :lol:
I actually bumped into him twice a couple of years ago. Body guard thing umm nah , not going to happen . At least he's not a sepratist.
 

justfred

Electoral Member
Dec 26, 2004
225
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Drumheller
Quote above. Denis Coderre, the federal Liberal critic for official languages, said francophone concerns were being ignored in English Canada.

I cite that English concerns are being ignored in Quebec. Ribit.
 

L Gilbert

Winterized
Nov 30, 2006
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Non issue. Wifey still thinks they should have used an aboriginal language. They pretending to use a lot of other native stuff, like those Inuit markers/pointers, Chinese-built "native" Canadian souvenirs, etc.
The thing's a farce from day 1, so why should the languages used at the games be any different?
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
17,878
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Ottawa, ON
Quebec angry over lack of French at Games - Â*2010 Vancouver Olympics article - Sports - MSN CA

here's a quote from the article:
"I don't accept being a second-class citizen" Coderre told a talk show on LCN network.

As far as I'm concerned, at the venues I've been to so far, French has always been spoken along with the English when announcements are broadcast.

WHAT IS THE DEAL?

Let's put things in perspective here ()and Ihave plenty of right to criticise French-speakers seeing that I'm a native French-speaker myself). According to statistics, about 1% of the world's population knows French (bearing in mind that this statistic includes everyone, including infants, the deaf, etc.). Yet, a French-speaker can attend any Olympic event in the world at any time and be served in French!

Now to be kind, let's suppose that infants, the deaf, etc. comprised 50% of the world's population, and we counted them out of the statistic. That would allow us to double the percentage of French-speakers in the world to a whopping 2%! So essentially, about 2% of the world's adult population that knows at least one spoken language knows French, and yet the International Olympic Committee chooses to give preferential service to this 2% over all others, at every Olympic event in the world, and yet Canada's French-speakers are complaining about this?! If you're a Persian Speaker or an Arabic speaker, good luck getting any service in your language at any Olympic event other than in a city where your language is predominant. French-speakers needn't worry about that. They were served even in Beijing. Even Russians got no service in their language even though their own country borders China. Nor did Japan or Korea get any service in their languages either. But French-speakers from across Eurasia did! And French-speakers are now complaining that giving French preferential treatment is not good enough, that it mustn't just be given preferential treatment, but royal treatment too? Hey, I thought most French-speakers were ardent republicans.

Now before any English-speaker here gets too excited, I did my research on English speakers in the world too. As it turns out, about 5% of the world's population speaks English, again including infants, the deaf, etc. So again, to be kind, let's double that to 10% of the world's population. English being the IOC's second official language means that English is also presented next to French in all Olympic events worldwide. So just as French was presented in Biejing for instance in the absence of Russian, Japanese, Korean, etc., so English was likewise presented in their absence too. So while 88% of the world's adult speaking population would have been able to understand nothing of the Olympic events in Beijing unless he should watch them dubbed or subtitled on TV, The 12% (and likely less seeing that there is some overlap with English-French bilinguals being counted twice)of the world's adult speaking population that knows French or English would have been given a special privilege that excluded the other 88% or more of the world's population. Yet, instead of being thankful for their primary privileged position, French-speakers complain that they're not privileged enough, and English-speakers complain because they're only number 2, ignoring the fact that the rest of the world is excluded completely. Talk about national self-absorption. Sickening, really.
 

Bar Sinister

Executive Branch Member
Jan 17, 2010
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It is the usual political whining, with the Heritage minister trying to score a few points with Quebec. I am guessing that the average Quebecois could care less about the use of English or French at the opening ceremonies provided the actual games are broadcast in French.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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And as mentioned earlier, this is an IOC issue and not a Canadian one anyway. It has to do with the IOC's language policy applicable in all events around the world.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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It is the usual political whining, with the Heritage minister trying to score a few points with Quebec. I am guessing that the average Quebecois could care less about the use of English or French at the opening ceremonies provided the actual games are broadcast in French.

Maybe English-speakers could start a petition asking the IOC to remove French from their list of official languages, and French-speakers could do the same about English. Then we could all pray that all their wishes be fulfilled:lol:
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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Quebecors will always whine, but that doesn't change the fact that they are a minority...

Seeing that the Olympics are an international event, and no more than about 10% of the world's population speaks English, I guess on the world scale, both Anglophones and Francophones together form a minority. And if we include Canadians only, then an even smaller one.
 

El Barto

les fesses a l'aire
Feb 11, 2007
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It is the usual political whining, with the Heritage minister trying to score a few points with Quebec. I am guessing that the average Quebecois could care less about the use of English or French at the opening ceremonies provided the actual games are broadcast in French.
Yeah you right . its just substance for politicians and the media .
 

cdn_bc_ca

Electoral Member
May 5, 2005
389
1
18
Vancouver
Political is right.... but I think it is a form of political brainwashing. I've kept an open ear yesterday when watching the pairs figure skating and all announcements were announced in French first, English second. There is no doubt that the french politicians have a hidden agenda. This is not good for the country as many quebecors will just take what was said as fact.