Our country–Publius hammers home:
The Priorities of Modern Canada
…Rather than being an attempt to promote a more bilingual Canada – which is an impracticality – official bilingualism was instead a covert form of pro-Francophone affirmative action.
Yet so central has this policy of appeasement become to our government that nothing is thought of paying a small fortune to educate a dyslexic paper shuffler in French…
The myth of national unity through appeasement contrasts with the myth of socialized health care…There is also no such thing as socialized health care. It is a polite euphemism for monopolistic and bureaucratic health care. The Medicare Cult’s defenders argue that the alternative to government care is a heartless free market, interested only in penny pinching and profit making. Do not, however, the actions of the Ministry of Health sound exactly like the caricature of a heartless corporate penny pincher?..
The reason for this dyslexic individual insisting on training in the French language, is not to provide services to the public in that language. The reason is personal; it’s for the money. That individual will receive a higher salary and pension for being declared as ‘functionally bilingual’.
Our no-choice health care system is extremely expensive – because it must cover the high proportion of irrelevant visits to a doctor and in particular, the use of the hospital emergency room by many people as ‘the doctor’s office’. Many people particularly immigrants go to the emergency as a matter of course. Because our system is funded by the taxpayer, then, the system must also service the high proportion of people who pay little to no taxes.
This unequal ratio of input to output (money) means that services must be limited. That’s what happens in a public health care system.
One of my clients had 2 years of full-time, private French lessons at $100/hour, while still drawing her full salary, not at work; so she could meet the language requirement for a promotion.
She works in the national park system in Ontario, they get about 2 French-speaking, non-English speaking campers/year.
In government health care there is no say, except through the cumbersome and often ineffective method of the ballot box. Assuming there is a political party willing challenge the Medicare Monopoly.
The Medicare Monopoly cannot be challenged until the Mass Media Monopoly is taken care of first.
So much needs to be done to right the politically correct wrongheadedness of priorities, yet to go against the PC orthodoxy would mean getting flayed by the Leftist media.
The battleground must be prepared before the battle can be joined with any hope of victory.
Don’t forget also that we are educating Omar Khadr, he’s learning Shakespeare apparently, perhaps “out, out damn spot” and the aim is to turn him into a model citizen.
There’s no hope for me, though, I’m to be blacklisted unto death then tossed out with the other garbage of Trudeau’s legacy, perhaps because “there’s more in heaven and earth than dream’d of in thy philosophy?” Oh well, doesn’t matter, only cost you about half a billion, that little bit of blacklisting, and you should see the summer cottages the nomenklatura have for their efforts too (should burn like kindling in the big global warming forest fires).
Nothing to worry about, everyone go back to sleep and the big in and out scandal, it’s Important. Evan said so and he’s on twitter.
A family friend who has since passed away had a rare form of cancer which she was told wasn’t covered by the provincial health plan. She had been pink-slipped prior to that from her nursing job to make room for more bureaucrats.
Make no mistake that our “universal” health-care plan is neither universal nor an equitable plan.
One would think that tabulating the amount of francophones per area and assessing correctly the ability of a handful of capable and willing workers to learn French would be a wise plan.
But that’s asking too much.
Of course like black people the French do seem to need a leg up in modern societies, especially Canada. It is unfortunate that we do end up with very much lowered standards in most government services due to the French affirmative action.
Much better people could occupy so many of those positions save for the language clause. We aren’t enriched, but many undeserving certainly are.
Having a dyslexic working for revenue Canada explains a lot. My guess is an auditor position, or Director.
“Do not, however, the actions of the Ministry of Health sound exactly like the caricature of a heartless corporate penny pincher?”
No actually, they don’t. If the MoH was run f9or a profit by “heartless corporate penny pinchers” the hospitals would look like McDonalds. Cheap, fast, clean, limited choices delivered flawlessly. Bus your own tray.
No, our MoH looks much more like its being run by a certain little gentleman with a rather distinctive little mustache, who had a thing about “useless eaters”. Because our MoH is right ont the verge of taking medical decisions out of the hands of the doctors and putting them in the hands of wonderfully bi-lingual bureaucrats, who will be able to tell you “No!” in both official languages.
Aparatchiks will of course be able to get the Gold Plated Care package, delivered to their beautiful party-supplied ZIL limo by comely and well trained peasant girls. Maybe even their very own Saudi doctor.
So make friends with an important government employee now before your Grandma needs that hip replaced. And by “make friends” I mean nail him down on the size of the bribe he’s going to want.
Do not make the mistake of thinking I’m kidding.
I can’t believe nobody has invoked Katewerk’s Law. Kind of like Goodwin’s Law but bringing dear old Tommy Douglas into any conversation about Canada’s socialist health care system.
I recall years back applying for one of these “bi-lingual” jobs.
The proficiency test I was given would challenge a arts grad from the Sorbonne….
When I enquired of those in the know….Because I was born in Ontario…..that’s the test I got.
They have a simpler one for the Pure Laine Quebers.
BTW after 5 years in the Legion….tell ME I can’t speak french….to my face….
C’est vrai……
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there a different standard for an Anglophone to be declared ‘bilingual’ than a Francophone? I’ve been served by ‘bilingual’ staff where my French was better than their English, and that’s scary.
That being said, I’ve recently noted an increase in Allophones in the civil service. I think that’s great except for two problems: I can’t understand their accents, and they can’t understand my vocabulary.
When I was in the armed forces many years ago I objected strenously to sending one of my troops for French language training versus sending him to an Engineer’s bridge camp where his duties would include the essential safety work of directing traffic on winding mountain roads at night in blackout conditions. He didn’t want to go for the French language training prefering to go to the bridge camp especially since we were severely undermanned.
We were flat out overruled by NDHQ with the pronouncement that the number one priority of the Canadian Forces was french language training.
The ultimate kicker was that the soldier in question was French.
Just another Trudeau scam to destroy English Canada.
At the time we all knew it out West. Its why Alberta never sent one Liberal to Parliament during the Pre-Obama Nation busters rein. Like Chretien one of Trudeau’s evil disciples in the deconstruction of Judeo-Christian Canada. AS this his evil shadow of the English hater said. It would have been better for the French to have won on the Plains Of Abraham. This from a PM in an English dominated Country.
JMO
The standard joke in the civil service is, Bilingual… French guy that can speak broken English.
What was entertaining was training unilingual Francophones by unilingual English with some help by Cree French.
Frances, the standard you refer to is:
To be declared bilingual, Anglophones must be able to recite War & Peace in French. From memory.
Francophones must be able to flawlessly say “Good morning. Your papers, please.” Although a hearty “Vive la Quebec libre!” and ten bucks will get them a pass.
I’ve posted on this before, but here goes again…
The tests for an Anglophone to be declared bilingual are an order of magnitude more difficult than for a Francophone. When I took a test, it included analyzing an incident involving a CF-18 and the operations order for an amphibious landing using hovercraft. The administration part had excruciating details of postings and financial entitlements. The Francophone equivalent required not much more than ordering a decent meal. I talked to some RCMP officers and they had the same experience – they had to be able to testify in a court of law and the Franco’s had to be able to order a coffee at Timmie’s. One of the Franco’s working in the office that administered the tests quit over the unfairness to Anglo’s – a man of great integrity.
Thank-you for posting this excellent synopsis of useless Bolshevik ‘everything for free’ mindset residing in the mindset of countless Canadians. We can never, ever claim to be adults in charge of our own lives when we have the gruesome spectre of nanny state slapping us around every time we attempt to get off all fours and walk and talk like adults. Our country, when governed via the BNA Act, was an exciting and prosperous place to live; I remember pre socialized medicare and the way things worked. Doctors cared about their patients, they made house-calls, often on their own time; the hospitals were spotless and nurses showed care and compassion for their patients. Neighbours and churches helped people pay medical bills if they were in dire straits. My Dad once cut his skull open when a farmhand fell on his head; Dad ordered my Mom to sew his cut shut and she was about to proceed (Mom was an excellent first aid attendant and all of her family benefited often from her knowledge and ability)when their Doctor appeared at the door. The doctor had been fishing in the Cypress Hills and he heard from a neighbour that Dad had had an accident. Doctor Knox always carried his bag and this trip was no exception, he stitched up Dad’s head and stayed for supper. He did not send my parents a bill.
Some people did die due to lack of money for medical care but no one died of staff infections caught via filth in hospitals, no one died in hospital wards from lack of water. People who can afford 40 thousand dollar vehicles can afford to pay for the care and maintenance of their own bodies. It is all about priorities, IMO.
As to the bilingualism waste of money; my question is why does Quebec get a pass for rudeness and non adherence to the bi lingual rules. The people in Quebec ignore people who speak English. We should do the same to the French here in the west until things in Quebec improve, IMO. Canadian citizens must take charge and stop looking to guments and bureaucrats for solutions to problems. We have the nation’s wealth and it is up to us to make the rules; we have given away our keys to the treasury for security, we were wrong, it is time to take back the keys.
Trudeau had it in for Anglos (official bilingualism) and Christians (multiculturalism: and please don’t anyone tell me that Trudeau was a Catholic, so what am I talking about? He legalized abortion, for one thing …)
And if you think about it, since his government legalized abortion and elevated a bunch of feminists through the NAC/SOW, about 1-million and a half babies have been aborted in Canada, over 100,000/year. Just think of the babies the aborted females and males might have had, and how many grandchildren … the non-existence of which “necessitated” the LPC’s immigration policies, including family reunification.
The Trudeau legacy: the culture of death in Canada. We’re all paying, big-time, unless we’re a Francophone working for the government, a feminist, or a visible minority immigrant.
And my father and grandfathers fought and risked their lives in two World Wars for this kind of “freedom”?
Appalling.
We out in the Great Left Coast seem to have gone beyond the Bilingual problem. A Vancouver herbal store was shutdown by the language police for not having French labeling. Meanwhile in Richmond, a burb of Vancouver, one or many of the Chinese dialects are on uni-lingual shop signage and store goods. No French; no English, not spoken and not welcome?
By the way, we seem to have a mini real-estate boom of Mainland Chinese buying up properties at skys the limit prices. Anyone know what’s going on?
One of my friends has to go on French training in order to get promoted into a supervisory position where even the French users of the system all speak and use English exclusively, as the manuals and procedures all come from the USA. Friend is doing it in order not to have to work for someone who doesn’t know the job but has French background.
Back in the ’70s, I did French Language Training in Ottawa as an (un)civil servant and got paid full salary for nine months. Those were the days when the whole class (many from the West, who were paid their full salary, were put up in Ottawa hotels for the duration, and got free plane trips home every few weeks), went to Quebec City for three days to “practise French,” all paid for on the taxpayers’ dime.
When I was designated fully bilingual, I returned to my department, walked into the office and said, “Bonjour, Yves, France, Jean-Louis, etc.” only to be responded to with “Hi __________.” They never spoke French to me and because their English was just fine, I never spoke French again in my workplace after nine months and how many thousands of dollars later? Maybe my French co-workers were afraid that if my French got better, I’d be competition for the next promotion.
On top of this, I was never contacted to see if I used French, how often I spoke it, etc. Wouldn’t you think, if this had ever been a legitimate program, there’d be some monitoring after such Gargantuan spending of taxpayers’ dollars?
It was a racket from the beginning.
Canada should just have another war with Quebec to sort this mess out.
Winner take all.
Since I believe that the plot to control Canada eminates from Ontario and not Quebec, my opinion differs from many here. EConomic control of Canada was lost by Montreal with the fur trade. Central Canada (Toronto) supports multi-cult and bilingualism simply because of divide and conquer.
My sister-in-law is a research librarian for the Federal Government in Ottawa. Yes, she took French to improve her job opportunities etc. She said about 5% of her department’s work required a French capability. (THat is the whole department). What English is experiencing there is that a French department head is put in and after that all further employment is French. By attrition Quebecors are taking over the civil service. It was no mistake that the first Reformer elected back East was from Ottawa. The qualification of new hires is second to language preference.
The unanswered national question is what the West will do when it realizes that the entire country expects the oil wealth from the West to carry the country. We sent Reform down there to change things and that hasn’t really happened and there is no public debate of consequence. I guess if bi-lingualism and multi-cult didn’t cause rebellion that the syphoning off of oil revenue won’t either.