Dear Craig Oliver

Dear Craig Oliver,

In a Web column the other day, you wrote the following:

However, let's accept Mr. Dion at his word -- that the problem was a difficulty he has with comprehension as a result of some hearing issue. It is a painful thing to say but is he then fit for the highest office in the land if he cannot follow a detailed conversation in English in which great decisions may have to be made?

I'm not sure if anyone has answered your question yet Craig, but the answer is yes, he absolutely is fit for the highest office in the land, even if his English as a second language skills are less than perfect, and even if he has “some hearing issue” as you so sensitively put it.

Just what, Mr. Oliver, are you suggesting could occur if someone with less than perfect English skills, or an aversion to really really bad grammar, becomes Prime Minister? Are you worried that he might mistake “The Russians are invited” for “The Russians are invaded” and he’ll accidentally nuke Moscow or something? Because if that’s the case, you’ll be relieved to know Canada doesn’t posses nuclear weapons. Even if we did have nukes though, here’s how that one would play out:

Aide: Prime Minister Dion, the Russians are invited to Canada.
PM: The Russians are invading Canada? Zut alors! Mon dieux! Are you serious?
Aide: Invading? No, no sir. They’re invited. You know, for a state dinner.
PM: Oh, ok, phew. That’s great. Make sure you get that Alberta vodka I like.

See, no biggie.

Or are you worried that he’ll be presiding over a cabinet meeting and we’ll accidentally sell Vancouver Island to the Americans or invade Iraq because of some unfortunate language issue? Really Craig, exactly how could less than perfect English impact “great decisions” he would have to make as Prime Minister? I assure you, while I too have some grammar issues now and again, my English is pretty dammed good and I have no idea what the heck you’re talking about.

What I’m getting from your column is that unless you have pitch-perfect English (Oxford accent optional, I trust?) you can’t hope to aspire to the highest office in our land (next to the GG). This would, by default, seem to disqualify anyone for whom English is not their first language. Sorry Quebec, and every multi-cultural community across the land. I suppose we just got lucky with Jean Chretien, Pierre Trudeau, Louis St. Laurent. I’ll give you Wilfrid Laurier, total disaster that guy. How we managed to get the Naval Bill through given his trouble with subordinate clauses, I have no idea.

Maybe you’re right though, Mr. Oliver. Perhaps Canadians are unwilling to accept a man that is honest, sincere, humble and smart as the leader of their country if he has trouble with different tenses in his second language. I hope not though, because I don’t like the sound of that kind of Canada.

Perhaps we’ve had different life experiences. I live in Scarborough, a place where minorities are actually the majority. And I actually I think you’re selling Canada short, because your Canada doesn’t seem to be the Canada that I know. The Canada I know is a nation that takes pride in its multicultural dynamic, that welcomes immigrants from around the world, many of them from non-English speaking countries, and that welcomes everyone to make a contribution to public life. Is it really fair to tell a Canadian whose first language is Greek, or Spanish, or Chinese or Hindi, that sure, you can enter public life, but we’ll only let you rise so far?

Perhaps that wasn’t the message you were trying to get across with your column, Mr. Oliver. If that’s the case, I’d be perfectly willing to let you try to write it again. I promise not to hold the first one against you.

Sincerely,

Jeff

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Accountability? No comment

Following-up on the previous post and Conservative MP Guy Lauzon’s departure as chair of the HoC Official Languages committee over his attempt to stop the committee from looking into the government’s cancellation of the Court Challenges Program.

CBC’s Julie VanDusen buttonholed Lauzon on his way into the committee meeting, and it was quite the amusing exchange. Here’s a taste, where VanDusen tries to get Lauzon to explain his actions:

Julie: Why don’t you explain it now? Don’t you want to be accountable?
Guy: No comment.
Julie: Don’t you want to explain it to the people?
Guy: I’ll explain it to the committee.

Yet another example of accountability, Conservative style. No comment? That’s something.

One of the committee vice-chairs, NDP MP Yves Godin, had a good line in his press conference after the committee meeting that ousted Lauzon. Godin said Lauzon justified his comments by saying the committee hearings were becoming too political. Said Godin:

“If they’re going to shut things down for being too political they should cancel question period!”

Careful Yves, you’re going to start giving Harper some ideas! Of course, the Cons have used the “too political” line of BS in the past as well.

I thought one of the Liberal committee members, I think it might have been Raymonde Falco, had a good point too:

"It was very clear this was coming from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is the PMO.”

You mean that same Harper that is supposedly all about accountability and official languages? Say it ain’t so! Steve, supporting official languages means more than speaking a little French now and again.

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Lost in translation

Official Languages commissioner Graham Fraser released his first official report today, and judging by the short wire story the logic seems a tad baffling. Basically, Fraser said Steve Harper is peachy keen on the whole official languages thing but the government he runs with an iron fist? Not so much.

Fraser says cuts by the Conservative government to a range of nine different programs have undermined progress in promoting linguistic duality and developing minority language communities.

He's particularly hard on the Tory decision to axe the Court Challenges Program, which pulled the funding rug from under 40 language cases currently before the courts.

Fraser says his office has actually identified some 70 language issues that still require constitutional clarification.

The prime minister, who begins most of his speeches in French, was praised by Fraser for setting a personal example of how to employ both official languages.

Now, I’m biased, but I’d tend to think Harper’s speaking a little French in his speeches would be outweighed by, say, the torpedoing of 40 language cases by his killing the Court Challenges Program, for example.

Because, you know who is the boss of that government? Yes, it’s Steve Harper. It’s contradictory to say Harper is awesome but his government sucks when Harper runs the government with an iron fist. And speaking of Harper’s government, I was amused to see the next story after this one on the CP Ticker:

Yes, the next story after the one where Fraser “…praises Harper but dumps on government” we see the government is at it again on the official languages front:

A political spat has shut down the House of Commons official languages committee.

The trouble began Tuesday when opposition members teamed up to vote out the Conservative chairman. The ouster of Guy Lauzon prompted the government to say he will not be replaced, and committees cannot sit without a chairman.

Government whip Jay Hill says the rules say the chair has to be a government member and he's not going to allow the opposition to dictate who that will be.

The battle comes on the same day the new official languages commissioner - Graeme Fraser - released his first report.

New Democrat MP Yvon Godin says the Tories talk a good line when it comes to language issues but their actions speak louder than their words.

He says the government has chosen not to support official languages by withdrawing from the committee.

(Get background on the Lauzon case here, he tried to shut-down hearings about the Court Challenges Program cancellation) Could there be a more timely example, on the very day of Fraser’s report, of the disdain the Harper government has for official languages?

And you can’t tell me Harper isn’t pulling the strings here. Nothing is done by this government without his say-so, the responsibility is his. But then again, despite Fraser’s baffling personal praise for Steve, it’s really unsurprising, given Steve’s past remarks on the topic:

"If you've read any of the official propagandas, you've come over the border and entered a bilingual country. In this particular city, Montreal, you may well get that impression. But this city is extremely atypical of this country... So it's basically an English-speaking country, just as English-speaking as, I would guess, the northern part of the United States."
- Conservative leader Stephen Harper, then vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, in a June 1997 Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing American think tank.

"It is simply difficult – extremely difficult – for someone to become bilingual in a country that is not. And make no mistake. Canada is not a bilingual country. In fact it less bilingual today than it has ever been... So there you have it. As a religion, bilingualism is the god that failed. It has led to no fairness, produced no unity and cost Canadian taxpayers untold millions."
- Stephen Harper on bilingualism, Calgary Sun, May 6th 2001.

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