Another reason Quebecers are insane:
Jun. 23rd, 2004 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkinghttp://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=bde03c1f-f171-4850-a7c4-211097a5cb86
You won't be able to read the whole story unless you subscribe, and I wouldn't recommend that just for this, but there's an abstract on the page you link to.
The whole story:
Cohen Parasiuk is seven years old.
Cohen Parasiuk doesn't speak French. Neither of his parents speaks French. He lives in Wakefield, which is to say a suburb of Ottawa just across the Quebec border, where everybody speaks English even if they also speak French
Cohen Parasiuk has been denied the right to attend school in English. He is, by court order, required to go to a public school where nobody will speak to him in English, none of the lessons will be in English, and he will be failed for not being able to do the work that is presented to him in a language he's only ever encountered in passing. He's already failed *kindergarten* for not being able to speak French.
For the (alleged) reasoning:
In Quebec, you can attend English public schools if either one of your parents was educated in English. Cohen's mother doesn't speak French, and was educated in English - in Australia. The judge says that doesn't count. Cohen's father is from Winnipeg, and was educated in English there, but spent a few grade-school years in a French Immersion class.
Now, I know what French Immersion classes are like in this end of the country, and we actually have some people here who really do speak French. Winterpeg, Manisnowba, redneck capital of the world? Sheesh, the classes were useless here because the teachers constantly had to switch to English to get concepts across, and none of the students bothered to use the language outside of the required speaking to the teachers. I can only imagine what it was like there.
Regardless, Cohen's father does not speak French. He took a few years of grade-shool French TWO DECADES AGO, and hasn't used it since. However, the judge has ruled that under Quebec law, he's now legally a Francophone, and so doesn't qualify as an English-speaking parent *either*.
The father is appealing, and looking at his options for moving out of Quebec. This is, of course, exactly what the law is intended to do. It's unconstitutional, but Canada's constitution has a critical, glaring, blatantly obvious and too-often abused hole: The "notwithstanding" clause, that lets governments pass laws that are unconstitutional as long as they admit the law is unconstitutional and re-pass it every five years. Quebec's language laws are all put in with this clause. They're discriminatory, unfair, and *illegal* according to the highest law of the land, but they're enforceable anyway because the Quebec government admits that they're unfair, discriminatory, and illegal.
And, of course, since the majority in Quebec aren't affected by the laws, the government keeps getting re-elected and keeps renewing them.
You won't be able to read the whole story unless you subscribe, and I wouldn't recommend that just for this, but there's an abstract on the page you link to.
The whole story:
Cohen Parasiuk is seven years old.
Cohen Parasiuk doesn't speak French. Neither of his parents speaks French. He lives in Wakefield, which is to say a suburb of Ottawa just across the Quebec border, where everybody speaks English even if they also speak French
Cohen Parasiuk has been denied the right to attend school in English. He is, by court order, required to go to a public school where nobody will speak to him in English, none of the lessons will be in English, and he will be failed for not being able to do the work that is presented to him in a language he's only ever encountered in passing. He's already failed *kindergarten* for not being able to speak French.
For the (alleged) reasoning:
In Quebec, you can attend English public schools if either one of your parents was educated in English. Cohen's mother doesn't speak French, and was educated in English - in Australia. The judge says that doesn't count. Cohen's father is from Winnipeg, and was educated in English there, but spent a few grade-school years in a French Immersion class.
Now, I know what French Immersion classes are like in this end of the country, and we actually have some people here who really do speak French. Winterpeg, Manisnowba, redneck capital of the world? Sheesh, the classes were useless here because the teachers constantly had to switch to English to get concepts across, and none of the students bothered to use the language outside of the required speaking to the teachers. I can only imagine what it was like there.
Regardless, Cohen's father does not speak French. He took a few years of grade-shool French TWO DECADES AGO, and hasn't used it since. However, the judge has ruled that under Quebec law, he's now legally a Francophone, and so doesn't qualify as an English-speaking parent *either*.
The father is appealing, and looking at his options for moving out of Quebec. This is, of course, exactly what the law is intended to do. It's unconstitutional, but Canada's constitution has a critical, glaring, blatantly obvious and too-often abused hole: The "notwithstanding" clause, that lets governments pass laws that are unconstitutional as long as they admit the law is unconstitutional and re-pass it every five years. Quebec's language laws are all put in with this clause. They're discriminatory, unfair, and *illegal* according to the highest law of the land, but they're enforceable anyway because the Quebec government admits that they're unfair, discriminatory, and illegal.
And, of course, since the majority in Quebec aren't affected by the laws, the government keeps getting re-elected and keeps renewing them.