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LA CHARTE DE LA LANGUE FRANÇAISE

LA CHARTE DE LA LANGUE FRANçAISE
« Une loi oppressive et néo-fasciste et ses SS…»

Nous reproduisons trois éditoriaux de l’hebdomadaire anglophone du Pontiac,
The Shawville Equity, tous publiés dans le même mois, cherchant à
culpabiliser les francophones qui veulent faire respecter leurs droits dans
cette région de L’Outaouais, région reconnue pour son non-respect de la
langue française et des francophones. Les lecteurs trop sensibles sont priés
de ne pas lire ce qui suit !

EDITORIAL
Paul McGee
01-08-03

NOT AGAIN
Aw, here we go again.

Nothing can spoil a nice summer than another episode of that most
undemocratic of actions: a visit by the language police.

The target this time was the Canadian Tire store in Shawville which was
warned it had to change its exterior signage and cash receipts to give the
French language prominence by Aug. 12 or else it faced fines.

Each visit by the language police leaves behind a trail leading to the front
doors of the cowards who go about squealing to the Office de la Langue
Française about perceived injustices. Cowards because the OLF invites the
squealers to report alleged infractions of the Language Charter to them. All
it takes, in this, free and democratic society, is for one person with too
much time on their hands to file a report to the OLF, and before you know
it, the language police are on their way to investigate.

And, the report is anonymous, so the squealers can go to work (if “work”
is
part of his/ her agenda), and continue to associate with the majority of
Anglophones in the Pontiac MRC while hiding a dark, dirty, low down secret.
After all, from grade school on, who oo we consider to be the lowest of the
low but the squealers who try to hide their own blemishes by ratting on
everyone else?

It is easy to agree that the French language in Quebec deserves to be
nurtured and promoted. However, coercion is not the best motivator. It is
high time the Parti Quebecois government recognized the folly that is the
OFL And rid this free and democratic society of the language police.
As well, it is high time the fanatics who still live in the dark ages and
believe the French language is in danger because a cash receipt or a sign
doesn’t follow the letter of the law woke up to the reality of 2001: the
French language and culture in Quebec, and around the world (Jeux de
francophonie, par exemple), is in no danger of disappearing.

Just think, if the cowardly squealers put down their pens, the language
police would have very little to do, and would be considered obsolete. Then
our tax dollars wouldn’t have to go towards financing the neo-fascists but
could ve spent on more useful ventures such as education (teach the English
how to speak French) or health care. Anything but spending more money on the
language police that do nothing more than cause problems for businesses
trying to succeed while embarrassing us in front of the global society.
Surely, this is not too much to ask for in a free and democratic society
cemented by so many who lost their lives in bloody wars.
**********************
EDITORIAL

Paul McGee
01-08-17

CAN’T YOU READ THAT SIGN?

As good corporate citizen, the Canadian Tire store in Shawville removed the
service entrance sign from the west side of the building to comply with the
Office de la langue française dictum that French must be the dominant
language.

Removing the sign was not voluntary, but a response to threats by the OLF
that the store would be fined if the sign someone with too much time on
their hands deemed “offensive” because the English and French letters, get
this, were THE SAME SIZE, was not changed. Imagine that. What an affront to
people’s sensibilities. (Of course, as an anglo with poor eyesight, I’m not
supposed to be offended when I have to squint to read product markers at the
grocery store.)

The perpetrators of such an abominable crime against humanity should be
tried before a world court. At least that’s the message being sent by some
fanatics who place all of life beneath their fanatical obsession with the
language.

This writer, since the last piece addressing the folly that is the OFL, the
language police, and the paranoia breeding the irrational thoughts of a very
small minority of Quebecers, has been called a “racist” and an “imbecile,”
and who knows what else behind close doors. Not because I said anything
negative about the French language, or French Canadians, or the province in
general, but because I had the nerve to express my opinion about the waste
of time and money the jackboot-wearing, bureaucratic dinosaur called the
Office de la langue française is.

Imagine, I had the nerve to suggest that the taxpayers’ money
would be better spent on education and health than on a bureaucratic beast
peeking and spying on the citizens of a free country. Have we forgotten
already the Second World War and the fight against tyranny?

But, alas, something tells me the troublemakers will always be with us,
Lurking around every corner, pouncing on every perceived injustice to give
their hollow cause legitimacy. Puppets of the state, they are.

Well, some of us don’t like being puppets, period, but embrace the notion
of
a free and individual will within the framework of society. We don’t want to
be subservient peasants bowing at the altar of bureaucratic bullies.
Remember, democratic governments are elected by the people, to do the will
of the people.

Previous governments have legislated the oppressive language laws. Too bad
this current PQ government couldn’t legislate common sense, or at least
exercise it.
********************
EDITORIAL

Paul McGee
01-08-25

MINORITY TYRANNY

It was hoped this space would not have to revisit the oppressive,
neo-fascist language laws and the SS in guise of mild-mannered bureaucrats,
but the squealers continue to interfere with the efforts our local business
people make to try to satisfy the needs of all the customers, not just a
few.

In his masterpiece 19th century study “Democracy in America” French
historian Alexis de Tocqueville warned of how democracies can degenerate
into a tyranny of the majority.

Well, I’m no de Tocqueville, but it appears in Quebec, and elsewhere in
Canada (Ottawa’s non-smoking bylaw comes to mind), our democracy is
degenerating into a tyranny of the minority.

Take the language laws – please, take them – in Quebec. Two lost
referendums, a resurgence of the Liberal vote in the last federal election,
with more than half of Quebecers voting for the federalist party, and we
still have a handful of addle-brained squealers who wrap themselves in the
antique notion – despite what the final report of the Estate General on the
French Language says – that the French language is in danger.

And they pull that sickly rabbit from the hat and proclaim that the
French-speaking peoples in areas such as the Pontiac MRC are in danger of
being swept un by the tides of assimilation with the English, while, from
the other side of their mouths, they engineer a plan to assimilate – and
that’s the word they use – immigrants to Quebec into the French culture and
language.

Well, this smoke and mirrors magic act fools no one. What we have here is a
case of tyranny of the minority. A couple of tattle-tales can round up a
posse of language cops who, God-fearing people they are, abide by the exact
letter of the law, or their interpretations of it. It doesn’t matter to
these empty skulls that the majority of people in Pontiac are
English-speaking (about 60/40) that the vast majority of French and
English-speaking peoples in Pontiac get along quite well, thank you, even
marry, unions I’m sure our ethnocentric, language-obsessed pur laine
fanatics must shudder at.

And, we’ll continue to get along, and play and work and marry together,
despite the poisonous, divisive efforts of a handful of troublemakers.
Vive le democratie!

NDLR – L’adresse électronique du The Shawville Equity est :
Courriel : equity@achilles.net


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