Dear Readers:
I don’t know why we put up with Quebec, especially since they are going even further in their attempts to stamp out English.
(If there was a way to keep people from even ”thinking” in English I am sure they would do that as well!)
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Graeme Hamilton |
MONTREAL — As hearings began Tuesday into Quebec’s proposed tightening of its language law, the main union representing provincial civil servants had some horror stories to share about life on the frontlines.
The details were so shocking that employees’ names and workplaces were withheld to protect them from possible repercussions, the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec (SFPQ) wrote in a brief tabled at the National Assembly.
There was the perfectly bilingual clerk at Revenue Quebec who frequently meets people who are more at ease discussing their tax questions in English. The clerk prefers to go along rather than turn “a tax problem into a language debate” and possibly spark a complaint.
There was a technician dealing in benefits who was asked to submit an English version of a form to a Quebec-based company because its payroll department was in Winnipeg, and staff there did not understand French.
Then there was the clerk at the rental board who frequently deals with people unable to understand decisions in their files because they are written in French. He takes it upon himself to translate important passages into English on the spot.
If these sound like examples of civil servants serving the taxpayers who pay their salaries, the SFPQ wants you to think again.
“What emerges from these few testimonials is the obligation for frontline staff to provide services in English under pressure from citizens,” the union wrote. “While they should feel supported by their immediate superiors [in insisting on working in French], employees fear the warnings and penalties that could follow.”
As the union sees it, a “shameful bilingualism” is invading the civil
service, and union president Lucie Martineau said the Parti Québécois
government’s Bill 14, which updates the language charter known as Bill
101, does not go nearly far enough to correct things.
That there are voices within Quebec seeking to curtail bilingualism is not surprising. French-language defence groups constantly complain about the presence of English, as highlighted in 2008 when they mounted a successful campaign against government phone lines that invited callers to “press nine” for English service. Later Tuesday the head of a government advisory body on language expressed concern that fewer people in Montreal are working exclusively in French than was the case 20 years ago.
What is remarkable is that the union representing civil service workers has enthusiastically joined a campaign aimed explicitly at reducing service to citizens.
“We must repair the gaping holes left by Bill 101 that allowed rampant bilingualism to infiltrate the public administration,” the union wrote.
“The SFPQ asks that Bill 14 clearly state that the public administration provide services exclusively in French [except in the case of school boards, health institutions and municipalities serving majority English populations.]”
Provincial government communications with immigrants should be only in French from the moment they step off the plane, the union recommended. It also questioned why First Nations members should be allowed to deal with the government in English, when the only right they are guaranteed is to maintain their aboriginal culture and language.
The union further recommends the removal of a clause from the
language law that allows the government to require knowledge of English
when hiring if the position demands it. The only positions for which
English should be mandatory are those that involve communication outside
of Quebec, the union argued.
Ms. Martineau’s view of the civil service as a linguistic battleground contrasted with a presentation that followed from mayors of two Montreal suburbs fearful Bill 14 would strip their towns of official bilingual status. That would deprive them of the right to communicate automatically in English with citizens, post bilingual signs and draft bilingual bylaws.
Anthony Housefather, Mayor of Côte Saint-Luc, told the committee that Quebec enjoys a linguistic peace that it is best left unstirred.
“I can tell you that if someone tried to come to Côte Saint-Luc to touch our bilingual status and say we are going to lose our bilingual status, you are going to have chaos, you are going to have opposition that you cannot even imagine with people in the streets and you are going to lose the linguistic peace,” he said.
National Post
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/12/language-wars-quebec-unions-share-horror-stories-of-civil-servants-who-used-bilingualism-to-help-citizens/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NP_Top_Stories+%28National+Post+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
(If there was a way to keep people from even ”thinking” in English I am sure they would do that as well!)
————————————–
Graeme Hamilton |MONTREAL — As hearings began Tuesday into Quebec’s proposed tightening of its language law, the main union representing provincial civil servants had some horror stories to share about life on the frontlines.
The details were so shocking that employees’ names and workplaces were withheld to protect them from possible repercussions, the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec (SFPQ) wrote in a brief tabled at the National Assembly.
There was the perfectly bilingual clerk at Revenue Quebec who frequently meets people who are more at ease discussing their tax questions in English. The clerk prefers to go along rather than turn “a tax problem into a language debate” and possibly spark a complaint.
There was a technician dealing in benefits who was asked to submit an English version of a form to a Quebec-based company because its payroll department was in Winnipeg, and staff there did not understand French.
Then there was the clerk at the rental board who frequently deals with people unable to understand decisions in their files because they are written in French. He takes it upon himself to translate important passages into English on the spot.
If these sound like examples of civil servants serving the taxpayers who pay their salaries, the SFPQ wants you to think again.
“What emerges from these few testimonials is the obligation for frontline staff to provide services in English under pressure from citizens,” the union wrote. “While they should feel supported by their immediate superiors [in insisting on working in French], employees fear the warnings and penalties that could follow.”
Related
That there are voices within Quebec seeking to curtail bilingualism is not surprising. French-language defence groups constantly complain about the presence of English, as highlighted in 2008 when they mounted a successful campaign against government phone lines that invited callers to “press nine” for English service. Later Tuesday the head of a government advisory body on language expressed concern that fewer people in Montreal are working exclusively in French than was the case 20 years ago.
What is remarkable is that the union representing civil service workers has enthusiastically joined a campaign aimed explicitly at reducing service to citizens.
“We must repair the gaping holes left by Bill 101 that allowed rampant bilingualism to infiltrate the public administration,” the union wrote.
“The SFPQ asks that Bill 14 clearly state that the public administration provide services exclusively in French [except in the case of school boards, health institutions and municipalities serving majority English populations.]”
Provincial government communications with immigrants should be only in French from the moment they step off the plane, the union recommended. It also questioned why First Nations members should be allowed to deal with the government in English, when the only right they are guaranteed is to maintain their aboriginal culture and language.
Jacques Boissinot / CP Anthony Housefather, Mayor of Côte
Saint-Luc, on the other hand, told the committee that Quebec enjoys a
linguistic peace that it is best left unstirred.
Ms. Martineau’s view of the civil service as a linguistic battleground contrasted with a presentation that followed from mayors of two Montreal suburbs fearful Bill 14 would strip their towns of official bilingual status. That would deprive them of the right to communicate automatically in English with citizens, post bilingual signs and draft bilingual bylaws.
Anthony Housefather, Mayor of Côte Saint-Luc, told the committee that Quebec enjoys a linguistic peace that it is best left unstirred.
“I can tell you that if someone tried to come to Côte Saint-Luc to touch our bilingual status and say we are going to lose our bilingual status, you are going to have chaos, you are going to have opposition that you cannot even imagine with people in the streets and you are going to lose the linguistic peace,” he said.
National Post
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/12/language-wars-quebec-unions-share-horror-stories-of-civil-servants-who-used-bilingualism-to-help-citizens/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NP_Top_Stories+%28National+Post+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
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