Does Bilingualism Pay?

If you're any sort of a Canadian, you probably know by now that Quebec's Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first gold medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

You won't find a more fitting candidate for what Canadians across the country perceive as the epitome of a perfect athletic role model.
I'm sure you saw the medal ceremony and caught one of the numerous and obligatory interviews that he gave in both English and French.  It was hard not to feel wonderful for this attractive, humble, patriotic young man who's loyalty to his brother, struck by cerebral palsy, is inspiring.

As I watched the 22-year-old Rosemere native comfortably breeze through his interview in English, it occurred to me that marketing executives across the country must be salivating at the thought of having him represent whatever national interest they represent.

What an incredible package! Even his French accent was extremely pleasing to the Anglophone ear.

No doubt Canada would have been equally proud of his efforts had he had to speak through an interpertor, but he didn't.

Millions of dollars of endorsements lie before him. He will be as much in demand in Red Deer as he will be in Quebec City.

Lucrative speaking engagements, personal appearances, commercials and product endorsements await this young man. There's no doubt that speaking English well, will make a more attractive and valuable marketing product.

To Louise Harel, the Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste and all those language nationalists who have been telling Quebeckers that while it's nice to speak a foreign language, it is not necessary, Alexandre is living proof that it is just not true.

For these nationalists it must have been agonizing to see him wearing the Canadian red maple leaf jacket with a gold medal hanging from his neck. His message didn't waver between English and French interviews. "I'm  proud to be a member of this Canadian team!"

What's a Canadian Gold Medal athlete worth in endorsement?

French speaking    = $$
English speaking   = $$$$$$
Bilingual                = $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Does bilingualism pay? Ask Alex in a couple of years, though it's obvious he already knows. His mastery of English proves it.

Vancouver's 'Negro-King' Olympics

'If one was to rely on the Vancouver Olympics Organizing Committee (VANOC) flawed depiction of Canada, you'd probably be left with the impression that Canada is half populated with merry bands of Indians, all dressed up in caveman attire, who enjoy banging drums and whooping it up, along with the other half of our nation, consisting of White, English speakers of Irish, Scottish and English heritage.

Both the opening ceremonies and the Olympic sites are dominated by native culture. In fact everything about the Olympics, including the famous Inukshuk symbol to the medals themselves are native inspired.

It's as if the organizing committee shopped for a theme, much as an eager mom would do, preparing for her daughter's sweet sixteen party.

If I were to ask you how many Indians actually live in British Columbia or in Canada, you could be forgiven in believing that number to be in the 20-30% range, considering their prominence at the Vancouver games. The truth is that the native population is only about 3% in Canada!

In British Columbia, natives make up just about 4% of the general population. Both the Chinese and Indo-Canadian communities make up a much larger proportion of BC's population, so why the the sudden embrace of native culture to the exclusion of others?

When I saw four native chiefs being accorded head-of-state status, by being seated on the reviewing stand alongside our Prime Minister, Governor General and other dignitaries, at the opening ceremonies, I began to smell a rat.

What was going on? What made them worthy of all this honour and attention?

A little research determined that those four chiefs lead bands that total less than five thousand Indians between them. The smallest of them, having less members than a good sized curling club.

And then it hit me, the French phrase- "ROI-NÈGRES",  coined in 1958 by André Laurendeau, in a series of newspaper editorials blasting the then corrupt Quebec Premiere, Maurice Duplessis.

"Duplessis behaved like one of these Negro-kings that one found scattered throughout the British Empire. The British, he argued, always pragmatic, did not necessarily destroy and replace the existing political power in the colonies. In fact, they frequently accommodated themselves with local customs and rulers, as long as these petty rulers recognised the superior authority of the imperial power and protected its economic interests." Claude Bélanger, Marianopolis College

All these Indian bands, small as they are, have reservations that abut or lie under Olympic facilities, both in Vancouver and Whistler.

It seems that in preparing their bid, organizers had to figure out a way to neutralize any potential snag concerning 'native rights', so they came up with  a cockamamie plan to 'partner' with the Indians and 'co-host' the games.

They picked the four bands who represented the biggest threat (due to proximity) and co-opted them with cash and prizes. The hitherto pipsqueak 'Roi-Nègres' (Chiefs) were neutralized with promises of fame and fortune. (As we saw in the opening ceremonies.)

The four Native groups, the  Lil'wat (1,348) , Musqueam (1,100), Squamish (2,239) and Tsleil-Waututh. (423 members) formed a consortium which they named the Four Host First Nations Society.

"On November 24, 2004, the chiefs and councils of the Lil'wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations entered into an historic Protocol Agreement in which they agreed to coordinate their collective efforts to host and support the 2010 Winter Games. As a result, the Four Host First Nations Society was formed."

"VANOC set a goal of unprecedented Aboriginal participation in the planning and hosting of the 2010 Winter Games, and is working with the Four Host First Nations and other partners to achieve this."

"The Nations recognized the significance of their involvement early on in the bid process and are proud to have played an integral role in formulating and mounting the successful campaign to bring the 2010 Winter Games to Vancouver and Whistler."

Not only did the four bands agree to 'co-host' the games, they became active promoters and attempted to lobby other native groups not to disrupt the games.

"The head of the Four Host First Nations, Tewanee Joseph, has been criss-crossing the country since 2003 selling the Olympics to first nations communities..... 

...."But despite his efforts, aboriginal groups are divided. No where is that more noticeable than here at home with the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, representing 80 of the 203 bands in the province, refusing to participate in the games." LINK

The natives are nothing more than cheap decoration for the cynical and calculating organizing committee that artfully killed two birds with one stone. In one bold move they achieved social peace, and created a popular Disneyland-type theme for their games. After all, Natives are the darlings of the current eco/enviro-movement craze. Perhaps VANOC should have name their facilities 'Adeventureland,' after all, it is just one giant fantasy.

If you think that it is only Quebeckers and Francophones who feel left out of the opening ceremonies, complaints have been heard from  British Columbia's Chinese and Indo-Canadian communities, who were completely shut out, an even larger insult, considering that they will be the ones paying for the games.

The Vancouver organizing committee may have brought social peace to their games, but at a humiliating price to Canadians.

While Natives are valued members of the Canadian experience, it was dead wrong and contemptuous to falsely portray the Canadian mosaic and leave so many Canadians unrepresented for the sake of expediency.

Did Canadian Cheating Lead To Luger's Death?

It's being repeated around the world, but not here. The Canadian media have too much invested in the Vancouver's Olympic Games to rain on the parade, notwithstanding that the weather is doing it anyways.

Around the world voices are being raised about the conduct of VANOC and the Canadian luge federation concerning the track and what is seen as an attempt by Canadian sliders to cheat their way to the podium.
If they are right, it cost young Nodar Kumaritashvili his life.

The track was built  to be very fast and very technical. It passed, just barely international standards.

It was also finished a full two years before the Olympics, so the world's lugers should have been familiar with it. But they weren't.

The story goes that Canada restricted wide access to the track in favour of Canadian sliders who were given carte blanche.

"Also in the run-up to the Games, the Canadians caused a minor scene when they seemingly reneged on a handshake deal with the USA Luge that would have allowed the American sliders the same access at the Whistler track that the Canadians had in 2002 at the Park City, Utah, track." Los Angeles Times

Worse still, the complicated and fast track proved to be even faster than what was planned. When designed on the computer, speeds were predicted to be no more 140 KPH, an acceptable but fast speed and one the athletes were accustomed to.

But when the track was built, the computer model somehow underpredicted the speeds that would be achieved by a whopping 15 kilometeres per hour, something the sliders were not prepared for, at least not without a lot of practice.
Canadian team members had the advantage of over 300 runs each on the track, while the foreign  sliders were allowed no more than 40 runs.

Read Ed Berliner's excellent post  in the Huffington Post, where he explains the whole debacle;

"No mistake. This was planned. We can only assume, in legal parlance, this was done to insure Canadian medals and give them an unfair advantage over the world"

 Canada is getting pummelled around the world.

MARTIN SAMUEL -THE DAILY MAIL  UK

"Canada wanted to Own The Podium at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. This morning they can put their maple leaf stamp on something more instantly tangible: the nondescript little box carrying the lifeless body of Nodar Kumaritashvili back to his home in Bakuriani, Georgia."

While claiming that the accident was strictly a case of a sliding error, the organisers have slowed down the track by moving the start line further down the track.

Ironically, this threw the Canadian slider's advantage right out the window, because the changed dynamics were new to everyone.

If you're a real Canadian, you can't be unhappy about that

Quebec English Only Web Sites-A Tempest in a Teapot.

It seems that the story about the Hudson watchmaker and his English only web site has created quite a stir amongst French language nationalists who have set off a full blown witch hunt aimed at outing companies that don't offer French web sites while operating in Quebec.

The truth is that despite all the braying, there's little to complain about.

Before I go on, I must go on record as saying that the practice of any large company operating retail establishments in Quebec and who don't offer a comparable web-site in French is just plain wrong and unfair (and stupid.)

That being said, small home-based business's that sell products overseas can be safely ignored.The truth be told, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) has already sounded a conciliatory note in the affair of our friend, Darryl Lesser and at any rate,  I'm sure that with the OQLF's limited resources, there are bigger fish to fry.

It seems that the OQLF can't win no matter what. French language militants are absolutely furious that the OQLF tries to apply the language rules as humanely as possible. If you're an Anglo militant, you'd probably disagree, but it is a truth, and one that I must defend.

The Mouvement Montréal français(MMF,) in awarding lemon and laurel prizes to those who have, in their opinion, contributed or detracted from the protection of the French language in Quebec, discerned a Prix D'Autruche (ostrich) to France Boucher, president of the OQLF, for having deliberately concealed the state of the situation of the French language in Quebec( according to them.) 

According to these radicals the OQLF is not nearly aggressive enough in pursuing English 'offenders.' of Bill 101.


And so militant French language busy bees are doing the OQLF's work by scouring the Internet for English only websites. Unfortunately for them, other than home-based businesses, as in the case of our intrepid watchmaker, they are few and far between.

An article in La Presse  sounds a false alarm that the situation is wildly out of control. It cites the 350 complaints a year number that are directed to the OQLF, directly related to  English-only web-sites.

The article in question cited just two or three examples of offending companies and this, after what was surely a great deal of research. A reasonable person would conclude that the 'problem' is anything but widespread.

Most of the complaints sent to the watchdog agency are duplicates and the actual number of contraveners is actually quite minuscule.

Typically the OQLF is forced to take legal action in less than ten percent of the cases it opens. So this 'colossal' problem of English only websites shrinks to just a handful of cases in a province with tens of thousands of commercial web-sites.

Digging a little deeper into the problem, we find that most of the bigger companies who contravene the rule, are relatively new to the province and have a tiny presence in comparison to their other North American operations. Some are ignorant of the law and take remedial action as soon as they are contacted.

The newspaper article targets retailer URBAN OUTFITTERS as an example of a company not in compliance. The article states that the company operates a web site, urbanoutfitters.com, without a comparable French version and that in reaction to a warning letter from the OQLF, decided to block access to the English site for Quebec customers.

The web site directs Quebec customers away from the online boutique to a page that invites viewers to visit it's two Quebec retail stores. The effect of this, is to  deprive Quebec clients the option of shopping online.
If you live outside Quebec, you won't get the message shown in the picture, to the right.

Of course for those intent on shopping online, the block is not much of a barrier, as one can always surf anonymously and hide one's location by using an anonymous surfing portal such as HideMyAss .

Ironically, if Urban Outfitters didn't operate it's two locations in Quebec, they wouldn't fall under the jurisdiction of the Quebec government and shoppers from La Belle Province would be able to shop online to their hearts content, all in English!

In Urban Outfitters defence, the company doesn't even have a Canadian website and services their Canadian clients through a "North American" gateway, which is of course in English and run out of the USA.
Does it pay them to operate a French only site for Quebec Francophones? Probably not, or they would likely provide one, after all, they are a business.

The whole problem of English only websites has been greatly exaggerated and it's really just a tempest in a teapot, brewed by French language militants eager for the next big confrontation.

There are precious few large companies which don't offer a French web site. We shouldn't let the small fry get caught up in the crossfire.

When companies do contravene the rule, almost all are quick to take action. Sometimes as in the case of Urban Outfitters, the remedy is extremely humiliating to the Quebec government and to the OQLF. On the other hand Urban Outfitters will have to live with the fallout.

I'm afeared there's a boycott a'brewin.

Nikki Yanofsky Sings O Canada Amid Controversy.

Nikki Yanofsky's rendition of O Canada in Vancouver's opening ceromonies had stirred controversy from coast to coast.
Some take the jazzy version as an insult, while others applaud the effort.
It seems that the organizing committee is being heavy-handed and declared the performance  copyrighted (I hope that they don't claim O Canada as theirs as well.)

The video of the performance received 15,000 hits on YouTube in less than 24 hours and hundreds of comments both negative and positive before being pulled due a complaint about copyright.

I believe Canadians have a right to see the video of the performance and add to the debate in regards to it's suitability.
It is our national anthem and we have a right to critique it, invoking the doctrine of FAIR USE.

What's you opinion of the performance?

Don't be shy, sound off! Send in your comment!!!!

By the way, Ms. Yanofsky also sings the theme to CTV's Olympic theme for the 2010 games.
There doesn't seem to be any controversy over that one.,,.See it here!!!