Language Police to Force Children to Speak French During Recess

[Valmy]

I am unaware of anything like a "school pledge" which requires enforcement through legislation.

Huh?  You honestly have never heard of a school board with a policy of having kids say a pledge?  I was required to do it in school.

[viper37]

Unless you are stating that "prominent Montreal civil rights lawyer" Julius Grey and "Cabinet Minister" Christine St-Pierre (both, I understand, from the Province of Quebec) are both really Timmay ... 

Julius Grey is your equivalent for Quebec.  He sees oppression of minorities everywhere and makes a crusade to defend them, for the right price.
I believe he was a member of Alliance Quebec, back in the days, or took their silly cases in front of all possible courts.

Christine St-Pierre simply said she supported the decision.  I don't see indignation here.

[Valmy]

Yes normally you have one or two people watching a whole school yard - hardly able to be at a distance to listen in to ensure that the french only rule is being followed.  Imagine how much it would cost to have enough monitors out to enforce this rule. 

Creating a rule which is unenforceable brings such a system into disrepute.

Do you actually know the extent and procedures in which they are going to try to impliment this policy or are you just making shit up and then getting outraged about what you imagine?

[garbon]

I don't think anyone is objecting to the theory of it working. I think they are objecting to the intrusiveness of forcing children to speak a specific language even when they are essentially relaxing during recess.

Obviously the people who actually have an interest in the policy, the school board and the parents, do not object they support the policy...indeed they created it.  It seems odd to sit around worried what some local school board someplace does.  At least they are not banning evolution or something.

Yes because we can never discuss events that have no impact on us.

[viper37]

However, the notion that this story is a creation of the English Canadian media is, you know, patently false.

It is a creation of the English Canadian media.  It's what we called a non story. Yet, indignation there is, from the english speaking community of this forum + Martinus, but that was to be expected.  I'm only surprised Raz hasn't posted yet.

EDIT: indeed, the nutjob posted in the thread.  I think he should be deported to Poland and forced to live with Marty, these two would get along well together.

[Valmy]

Yes because we can never discuss events that have no impact on us.

Of course you can.  I can also discuss my opinions on the discussion is that ok with you?

[Malthus]

Unless you are stating that "prominent Montreal civil rights lawyer" Julius Grey and "Cabinet Minister" Christine St-Pierre (both, I understand, from the Province of Quebec) are both really Timmay ... 

Julius Grey is your equivalent for Quebec.  He sees oppression of minorities everywhere and makes a crusade to defend them, for the right price.
I believe he was a member of Alliance Quebec, back in the days, or took their silly cases in front of all possible courts.

Christine St-Pierre simply said she supported the decision.  I don't see indignation here.

The point is that (a) they are both from Quebec, (b) characterizing a recess policy as a 'threat to civil rights' clearly qualifies as indignation, and (c) normally, one does not consult a Cabinet Minister over a recess policy! The fact that the school saw the necessity of doing so indicates that 'frothing' is going on.

It is obviously being made 'a big deal of' in Quebec itself, it is not a story that is the product of the English Canadian media, and characterizing it as such is simply ... wrong.

[garbon]

Yes because we can never discuss events that have no impact on us.

Of course you can.  I can also discuss my opinions on the discussion is that ok with you?

Apparently not. You've already told me that we shouldn't be having the discussion in the first place.

[Jacob]

Apparently not. You've already told me that we shouldn't be having the discussion in the first place.

Sounds like you're blowing Valmy's comments out of proportion.

[Malthus]

However, the notion that this story is a creation of the English Canadian media is, you know, patently false.

It is a creation of the English Canadian media.  It's what we called a non story. Yet, indignation there is, from the english speaking community of this forum + Martinus, but that was to be expected.  I'm only surprised Raz hasn't posted yet.

EDIT: indeed, the nutjob posted in the thread.  I think he should be deported to Poland and forced to live with Marty, these two would get along well together.

So, am I to understand that Oex was mistaken or lying when he said that La Presse "first broke the story"? 

Why haven't the elements I mentioned (which one can easily find in La Presse, which first broke out the story) been included in th Post's article?

Or perhaps La Presse is really an English Canadian newspaper? I always thought it was a Montreal-based French-language paper, but I can be educated otherwise.

[garbon]

Apparently not. You've already told me that we shouldn't be having the discussion in the first place.

Sounds like you're blowing Valmy's comments out of proportion.

Not anymore than the suggestion that those objecting to this policy are "sit[ting] around worried what some local school board someplace does."

[The Minsky Moment]

normally, one does not consult a Cabinet Minister over a recess policy!

Normally one doesn't, but it might reach that level if a "prominent" plaintiff's attorney starts threatening constitutional challenges.  Or if a national newspaper calls for comment.

The article doesn't make clear exactly what prompted the minister's involvement.

[Valmy]

Not anymore than the suggestion that those objecting to this policy are "sit[ting] around worried what some local school board someplace does."

Is that an outrageous suggestion?  I mean the school boards only have so much power to really be coercive.

[garbon]

Not anymore than the suggestion that those objecting to this policy are "sit[ting] around worried what some local school board someplace does."

Is that an outrageous suggestion?  I mean the school boards only have so much power to really be coercive.

I don't think any of us are actively worrying. I think it is okay to find such a policy repugnant as well as those who seek to excuse said policy. Nothing in that involves much energy, time or effort.

[Malthus]

normally, one does not consult a Cabinet Minister over a recess policy!

Normally one doesn't, but it might reach that level if a "prominent" plaintiff's attorney starts threatening constitutional challenges.  Or if a national newspaper calls for comment.

The article doesn't make clear exactly what prompted the minister's involvement.

Certainly. My point is simply that the locus of this controversy is in Quebec, not outside of it, as both Cabinet Minister and "prominent" plaintiff's attorney making threatening noises are, both of them, from Quebec, and the story was first 'broken' by a major Montreal newpaper (which, moreover, is a French-language newspaper.

What I'm combatting is the bizzare, counter-factual paranoid fantasy that the story is purely a 'creation of the English Canadian media'. It is not. It may or may nor be a tempest in a teapot, but the English Canadian news services are merely picking up a story reported on in Quebec.