Canada to firmly re-assess its status as a British colony

[The Brain]

This is a horrible, horrible thread.

Are you kidding?  I love this thread.  Best thread evah.

Sigh.

[garbon]

This is a horrible, horrible thread.

Are you kidding?  I love this thread.  Best thread evah.

Sigh.

Le Sigh.

[crazy canuck]

This is a horrible, horrible thread.

Are you kidding?  I love this thread.  Best thread evah.

Sigh.

Le Sigh.

La Sigh?

[Razgovory]

I have zero interest in splitting my country up into linguistic and ethnic enclaves and while that will happen anyway to some extent (especially in the short term but that is a transition point and not a destination) I certainly would be dead set against funding it and I would regard ANY requirement to do so as tyranny if it were against the will of the people.  Why should a people be forced to artificially create Balkanization in their own country?  And if they were required to do so well...it is a pretty short step to blaming the minorities themselves for the requirement.  Hello justifications for ethnic cleansing.

Texas is going to split up?

[Valmy]

Texas is going to split up?

Into 'linguistic and cultural enclaves'?  Yeah it does and is and has to some extent.

[Zoupa]

This is a horrible, horrible thread.

Are you kidding?  I love this thread.  Best thread evah.

Sigh.

Le Sigh.

La Sigh?

Le. 

Un soupir, et non une soupir.

[Razgovory]

Texas is going to split up?

Into 'linguistic and cultural enclaves'?  Yeah it does and is and has to some extent.

Any of them going to vote Democrat?

[Valmy]

Any of them going to vote Democrat?

Probly not

[crazy canuck]

Le. 

Un soupir, et non une soupir.

This is exactly why I need to keep my wife and/or sons close by whenever French is required.

[viper37]

In Quebec, French speakers not a minority, they're the majoriy, and the laws we're talking about aren't doing anything to protect a minority.  What those laws do, mostly, is rub the minority group's nose in the fact that they are a minority.  I wouldn't call those laws oppressive, really, but the majority in Quebec is being petty, vindictive, and hypocritical, so don't expect to get much respect from many quarters.

French speakers are a minority in the country, and in the continent.
And yes, the laws protect a minority, going from decline to stabilization.
If someone wants to do business in Quebec, it's in French.  Otherwise, they shouldn't bother.  We survived without Dell, until they learnt.  We survived without Sun Life, until they learnt, and came back, apprecietive of the French distinctiveness.  Laura Secord now belongs to a Quebec based company, after moving out of the province due to the language laws.  Many of these companies who left after the PQ election and the language laws in the 70s came back crawling.

You say it's bad, I say: I don't care.  People don't like French?  they go to one of the 9 provinces where the english language is dominant.

As I said, it's about respect, and those who can't be bothered to offer it by themselves.  Otherwise, these kind of laws would have no purpose.

[viper37]

You can't enforce respect.  Trying to force respect just breeds resentment.

Yes you can.  You can expel un unrespectful guest from your house.  You can punch in the face that kid mocking you in the school yard.

At a government level, you can have laws forbidding discrimination, or hate speech.  None of these brings resentment from normal people.  Bigots&racists are, of course frustrated.  But do we care about these people?  Not really.

[crazy canuck]

At a government level, you can have laws forbidding discrimination, or hate speech.  None of these brings resentment from normal people.  Bigots&racists are, of course frustrated.  But do we care about these people?  Not really.

Depends how far it goes.  Imo the interpretation of human rights legislation has reached some conclusions that the public at large consider silly which not only breeds resentment toward the law but undermines its credibility.

[dps]

Clearly, states have the obligation to pay public funds for minority language instruction, no? Which is what you guys are denying.

Clearly, they do not.  From the link Minsky posted:

Further to this, the Court opined that the right to education implied the right to be educated in the national language, and did not include the provision that the parent's linguistic preferences be respected.

[Razgovory]

In Quebec, French speakers not a minority, they're the majoriy, and the laws we're talking about aren't doing anything to protect a minority.  What those laws do, mostly, is rub the minority group's nose in the fact that they are a minority.  I wouldn't call those laws oppressive, really, but the majority in Quebec is being petty, vindictive, and hypocritical, so don't expect to get much respect from many quarters.

French speakers are a minority in the country, and in the continent.
And yes, the laws protect a minority, going from decline to stabilization.
If someone wants to do business in Quebec, it's in French.  Otherwise, they shouldn't bother.  We survived without Dell, until they learnt.  We survived without Sun Life, until they learnt, and came back, apprecietive of the French distinctiveness.  Laura Secord now belongs to a Quebec based company, after moving out of the province due to the language laws.  Many of these companies who left after the PQ election and the language laws in the 70s came back crawling.

You say it's bad, I say: I don't care.  People don't like French?  they go to one of the 9 provinces where the english language is dominant.

As I said, it's about respect, and those who can't be bothered to offer it by themselves.  Otherwise, these kind of laws would have no purpose.

Wow...

[The Brain]

In Quebec, French speakers not a minority, they're the majoriy, and the laws we're talking about aren't doing anything to protect a minority.  What those laws do, mostly, is rub the minority group's nose in the fact that they are a minority.  I wouldn't call those laws oppressive, really, but the majority in Quebec is being petty, vindictive, and hypocritical, so don't expect to get much respect from many quarters.

French speakers are a minority in the country, and in the continent.
And yes, the laws protect a minority, going from decline to stabilization.
If someone wants to do business in Quebec, it's in French.  Otherwise, they shouldn't bother.  We survived without Dell, until they learnt.  We survived without Sun Life, until they learnt, and came back, apprecietive of the French distinctiveness.  Laura Secord now belongs to a Quebec based company, after moving out of the province due to the language laws.  Many of these companies who left after the PQ election and the language laws in the 70s came back crawling.

You say it's bad, I say: I don't care.  People don't like French?  they go to one of the 9 provinces where the english language is dominant.

As I said, it's about respect, and those who can't be bothered to offer it by themselves.  Otherwise, these kind of laws would have no purpose.

Don't worry, I won't do any business in Quebec.