Supreme Court rules against Quebec's language law

[jammies]

Originally Posted by kipperfan

The french are lucky we ALLOW them to speak French, end of story.

Yah, they should've killed all the men and sent the women off to slavery! Bring the kids up as proper little Anglos! That would've taught them for being French!

Wake up and stop acting like a bigot. Opposing the small evil of the Quebec language laws by proposing the bigger evil of forcing people to forswear their culture and language isn't just wrong, it's stupid.

[NBC]

Originally Posted by The Special One

Canada doesn't have a constitution. We have something quite different called the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. You need to go back to grade ten Social Studies.

Holy chr*$t! What do you call the Constitution Act, 1867, 1982? Remember Trudeau doing his little repatriating pirouette behind Elizabeth II? No?

Then please read this.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/const/1.html

I am shocked that you are telling people to bone up on their history and you sir, have it all wrong. And FYI Quebec has yet to formally approve or accept the Charter, which is the entire reason for the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords.

Wow! Talk about bringing a (butter) knife to a gun fight.

[Resolute 14]

I see Special One is living up to his nickname again...

Anyway, it's good to see some families have the courage to challenge the xenophobia and bigotry that runs rampant in Quebec power circles. Good on both the SCoC and the lower courts that struck down this nonsense. Hopefully, one day, someone with the finances, ability and motivation takes on the entire language law itself.

[puffnstuff]

Well I hear Jim Ballsilie has a lot of money (was gonna buy something big with it...but turned out he didn't- or couldn't), he seems a pretty capable guy...now we just need something to motivate him...
Maybe get him a NHL team in Quebec City...if he takes down the language laws for us first...

Should I be using green text for this...or not?

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by kipperfan

The french are lucky we ALLOW them to speak French, end of story. When you lose a war you don't earn the right to dictate your living conditions and laws in the land said war was lost, just doesnt work that way.

The arrogance is astonishing. You remind me of Coulter on Canada: "They're lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent".

[NBC]

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

The arrogance is astonishing. You remind me of Coulter on Canada: "They're lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent".

I don't really think that this is that arrogant, maybe a little misguided. There are a multitude of empirical cases where a defeated region/state/people have been denied these very things - the Spanish conquest of Central and South America is but one example. Many people have suffered real subjugation and persecution at the hands of conquering/occupying force, which arguably the residents of New France did not. They were allowed to retain their language, religion, customs as well as adopting a different code of law. The overwhelming majority of subjugated peoples are far less fortunate. The Dutch and Spanish bought and sold slaves and the French themselves were particularly brutal in Algeria.

I'll admit that there are many reasons why non-francophone Canadians are not remotely sympathetic to these issues, but the realization that historically, residents of modern-day Quebec, were not subject to the restrictive and sometimes brutal imperial rule of other occupying/conquering states - DESPITE what armchair Quebec 'historians' might say.

[Kjesse]

The Plains of Abraham are still there.

Lets make it the best 2 of 3.

[T@T]

Canada should anix the strip of land that carrys the trans canada hwy, they can have a rest and good luck.

[dre]

Originally Posted by Delgar

The Plains of Abraham are still there.

Lets make it the best 2 of 3.

Well sure lets do it, first we need our French soldiers back from
the Middle East.

[NBC]

Originally Posted by dre

Well sure lets do it, first we need our French soldiers back from
the Middle East.

Middle East? You do realize that CF aren't involved in combat operations in Iraq, don't you? I see that you mention the Middle East and I'm really hoping you aren't referring to Iraq. That would just be bad, unsurprising, but bad. r do you adhere to the recent Bush Administration's definition of the Greater Middle East? That would be more acceptable, but somehow I don't think that's the case.

[RougeUnderoos]

One thing I find interesting about some of the comments (that were as predictable as the sun coming up) is how similar some us sound to those militant language protection sovereignists in Quebec.

We have all this "how dare they, English is the best, we won, they should do what we say in our country". They have "how dare they, French is the best, we need to protect it, they should do what we say in our province".

You sound exactly like them. So if it's stupid for some Frenchy to be so goddamn adamant about their language, it's just as stupid as some Albertan to be so goddamn adamant about ours.

As for "we won". We didn't win anything. That was 250 years ago. I'm pretty sure none of us were involved.

Conquered people, we shoulda forced 'em bla bla bla. Conquering people and forcing them to speak a different language and accept a different religion -- yeah, that works every time. I'm sure all the other countries are laughing at us and the whole 200 years of peace thing.

[dre]

Originally Posted by NBC

Middle East? You do realize that CF aren't involved in combat operations in Iraq, don't you? I see that you mention the Middle East and I'm really hoping you aren't referring to Iraq. That would just be bad, unsurprising, but bad. r do you adhere to the recent Bush Administration's definition of the Greater Middle East? That would be more acceptable, but somehow I don't think that's the case.

Wow...Can we say that you might be a little narcissistic? I can't believe you wrote a paragraph for that. I might have improperly used the term Middle East, but I was thinking of it in a political sense. A great deal of arrogance in your paragraph NBC. You sound like some jacked up engineer that has no friends. Obviously you have a good education. I appreciate you calling me on it, and thank you for it personaly, but your tone is bit conceited.

[Kjesse]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

One thing I find interesting about some of the comments (that were as predictable as the sun coming up) is how similar some us sound to those militant language protection sovereignists in Quebec.

We have all this "how dare they, English is the best, we won, they should do what we say in our country". They have "how dare they, French is the best, we need to protect it, they should do what we say in our province".

You sound exactly like them. So if it's stupid for some Frenchy to be so goddamn adamant about their language, it's just as stupid as some Albertan to be so goddamn adamant about ours.

As for "we won". We didn't win anything. That was 250 years ago. I'm pretty sure none of us were involved.

Conquered people, we shoulda forced 'em bla bla bla. Conquering people and forcing them to speak a different language and accept a different religion -- yeah, that works every time. I'm sure all the other countries are laughing at us and the whole 200 years of peace thing.

I was completely joking. My comment is stolen from a political cartoon published during the Meech Lake Accord debate. I thought it was funny, because it is absurd.

Judging from dre's response, he didn't think it was funny

[dre]

Originally Posted by Delgar

I was completely joking. My comment is stolen from a political cartoon published during the Meech Lake Accord debate. I thought it was funny, because it is absurd.

Judging from dre's response, he didn't think it was funny

Best 2/3. That was actually pretty funny. I assumed it was not a joke,
sorry.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

One thing I find interesting about some of the comments (that were as predictable as the sun coming up) is how similar some us sound to those militant language protection sovereignists in Quebec.

We have all this "how dare they, English is the best which is why its part of CANADA, we won, they should do what we say in our country". They have "how dare they, French is the best which is why its part of CANADA, we need to protect it, they should do what we say in our COUNTRY".

You sound exactly like them. So if it's stupid for some Frenchy to be so goddamn adamant about their language, it's just as stupid as some Albertan to be so goddamn adamant about ours.

As for "we won". We didn't win anything. That was 250 years ago. I'm pretty sure none of us were involved.

Conquered people, we shoulda forced 'em bla bla bla. Conquering people and forcing them to speak a different language and accept a different religion -- yeah, that works every time. I'm sure all the other countries are laughing at us and the whole 200 years of peace thing.

If they cant agree to that. To hell with them.

They have been handled with kid gloves and aquiesced to for long enough and to a degree that has caused division within the country for far to long.

There is no "we won" BS that you are claiming, but there is a whole lot of "we are all equal and your bloody language is not a reason to claim exception" stuff to it.

Call me a bigot if you like and you feel better about it.

My entire point is, if we want equality and tolerance in Canada for everyone else, maybe it should be practiced at home first?

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by transplant99

My entire point is, if we want equality and tolerance in Canada for everyone else, maybe it should be practiced at home first?

At home? Try the nation's capital.

I'm constantly frustrated having to deal with buffoons that have nothing else going for them except they happen to be bilingual when there are far more intelligent/competent individuals that are selected against by a computer based on their language out there that could be working for the benefit of the country as a whole. Call it positive discrimination ... that's what I'm calling it.

On another note and I posted this story before where my wife and a colleague (both from France) resigned from a selection committee where (in her opinion) the by far strongest applicant for the position was dismissed because even though he was fluent bilingually it just so happened that he spoke French with a funny accent. He was from Cameroon.

The job was re-advertised and description further narrowed to further suit the internal candidate. The level of protectionism and old boy's clubs when it comes to some jobs here is just stupid.

[Ford Prefect]

So Quebecers are upset about the Supreme Court upholding bilingualism. What are they going to do? Separate?

[Resolute 14]

We can only hope.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by transplant99

If they cant agree to that. To hell with them.

They have been handled with kid gloves and aquiesced to for long enough and to a degree that has caused division within the country for far to long.

There is no "we won" BS that you are claiming, but there is a whole lot of "we are all equal and your bloody language is not a reason to claim exception" stuff to it.

Call me a bigot if you like and you feel better about it.

My entire point is, if we want equality and tolerance in Canada for everyone else, maybe it should be practiced at home first?

At first I figured you just missed my point, but upon second reading I realize you actually proved it.

[NBC]

Originally Posted by dre

Wow...Can we say that you might be a little narcissistic? I can't believe you wrote a paragraph for that. I might have improperly used the term Middle East, but I was thinking of it in a political sense. A great deal of arrogance in your paragraph NBC. You sound like some jacked up engineer that has no friends. Obviously you have a good education. I appreciate you calling me on it, and thank you for it personaly, but your tone is bit conceited.

Fair enough, sometimes these days you just don't know who knows what. I've been involved in far too many discussions on the CF's role in overseas operations, where my fellow discussant is referring to Iraq and Afghanistan in the same breath. Nothing irritates me more than that, maybe with the possible exception of Quebec's 'role' within Canada. So apologies if it came off too strongly worded.

You would be surprised what I can write about!