Canada as a Bilingual Country
At the outset, let me be entirely clear that I support our Canadian identity as a bilingual country. I support the provision of federal public services in both English and French, as our official languages, in all parts of the country. I support the Official Languages Act, and the equal status that English and French hold in our judicial system, and the way that we give incentives to unilingual federal public service workers to learn the second official language.
I support bilingualism as a bit of an institutional conservative, I suppose. I recognise the unique role that French Canada played in the development of the modern Canada. I also acknowledge that there was an implicit agreement in the coming-about of Confederation, wherein it was understood that the French language would be protected by way of our systems of government.
For this reason, I suppose measures in Québec that are designed to promote the use of French. These measures would be established, presumably, to promote and preserve the use of the French language in the province, and in respect and promotion of the province's distinctive culture. This being said, there is a major difference between measures to promote one official language over the other, while still respecting both languages, and the current reality — which is measures that discriminate against, and unreasonably restrict and prohibit, the use of English as an official language.
Restrictions on the Use of English
It is my view that measures in Québec to restrict the use of English ought to be considered unconstitutional or, in the alternative, certainly contrary to the spirit of the constitution (not to mention the federal framework established for official languages, which provinces ought to use as a model). The idea that any province would contemplate laws to restrict one of Canada's two official languages that might require the notwithstanding clause in order to be enforced, should be of grave concern to people throughout the country.
If the province is going to offer incentives to promote the use of French (whether these are economic incentives, etc.), then that is okay with me. The right to use English in the transaction of business, however, should not be attacked or restricted. Business should have the freedom and the discretion to operate in both languages, and to choose whether or not to thereby receive any incentives or whatever other benefits might be offered by Québec to operate in French exclusively or predominantly.
You actually support the ideas presented in the Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism? I'd actually read it, and it's filled with quasi-logic about Canadians of French and British descent belonging to the "two founding races", and then explain the category of "other ethnic groups", and then go on to explain that the indigenous peoples don't even belong to the "other ethnic groups". This is the whole racist logic on which official bilingualism is based. Remember after all that the Official Languages Act was enacted in the 1960s during the 60's scoop, essentially the hight of the residential school system just when it was starting to wind down.
All of this quasi-logic you'll find in Book one. And that's just getting started. Then Book 2 has some nice comment about integrating the indigenous peoples.
So if you support official bilingualism, do you support it based on the report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism or something else?
Just curious.