Americans! Watch out for the language police:
Flying the bilingual skies
The Tories [Conservatives] moved to extend the grasp of the official languages commissioner on Monday when they introduced an amendment to the Air Canada Public Participation Act that would make not only Air Canada subject to official bilingualism (it always has been), but also all of its “contracted carrier partners.” Now, if you fly United Airlines – or any other carrier that has a contract to provide regional or international flights on behalf of Air Canada – you can demand the same level of bilingual service found on the main airline…
While it may not be their intention this will harm us economically as it makes it impossible for our airlines to compete on a level playing field. In a free market service provided is based on demand. This is a second major mistake by the government following on the heels of not honouring their promise of a redistribution of seats to reflect actual population. Considering that Quebec chose to shut out the Harper Conservatives during every election, giving Quebec special treatment and status at the expense of the country and the economy is the road to political suicide for the party.
Un- F*&%$^-ing believable! I supported Harper but this continued pandering to Quebec has to be stopped. Time to start a new party!
English and Ebonics on American Airlines.
Cool.
Don’t fly Air Canada.
Fly Westjet!
French on United Airlines? Why on earth would this law pass. I work in Vancouver and we have french-speaking Quebeckers call our company and just start speaking in French, without even asking if you speak the language. They’ve been brainwashed into thinking this is normal. Fact is that French is the 9th most spoken language in BC. In the US it’s not even on the radar.
I too supported Harper but this is disappointing to say the least. I never thought it would happen to the Conservatives but it seems like they have become afflicted with the terminal stupidity that has plagued Ottawa for decades. Perhaps its something in the water.
Thankfully, my MP still has her head screwed on straight probably due to the fact that she spends a lot of time attending events in her constituency and limits her exposure to whatever is going around in Ottawa.
Looks like the people on SDA who told me Harper’s regime wouldn’t have conservative policies even if they did have a majority government were right all along.
You people were right, I was wrong.
A brilliant move to get people pissed off with bilingualism.
Good luck getting ANY foreign language spoken on ANY airline flying within the U.S., regardless of whatever silly rules Ottawa imposes!
I can hardly wait to see the outcome of a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Atlanta if they start an announcement in French – an onboard riot would ensue, and rightfully so!
The vast majority of airline ‘frequent flyers’ are BUSINESS people, who tend to NOT be Democrats or liberals of any stripe.
Let’s not forget it was BUSINESS frequent flyers who brought down the terrorists on United’s Flight 93 (“Let’s roll”) over Pennsylvania … Canadian political correctness will collide with American pragmatism, with the predictable result (thank God) of NO FRENCH.
Absolute stupidity. When is Harper going to realize that Quebec is never going to vote for him. Is there some kind of drug that the French put in the water fountains of Parliament Hill that makes governments begin sucking up to them as soon as they are elected?
Sign me up for Reform Party II !
Guys, they have a minority government. They have to compromise in order to stay in power. Once they get a majority, they will implement real conservative policies. Everyone knows this. {Insert stock comment about how anyone who doesn’t agree with this is a concern-troll or libtard). Everything will be fine.
I was hoping to see an end of Quebec wagging the dog.
Why does Harper think he needs to suck up to these people when the result of sucking up before the last election was to lose half the existing conservative seats in Quebec?
If Harper had lost all of the conservative Quebec seats last election he would still have a majority government.
Way to add to Trudeau’s legacy Stevie.
It’s time Harper stopped pissing off his base and taking them for granted.
Hey, look.
Harper’s plan is working.
People are starting to get pissed off at bilingualism.
I know of one person that was pissed off with bilingualism prior to this. I suspect there may be more.
I don’t see United or Continental or any other US airline bowing to this kind of BS. I just don’t understand the CINO that goes on in Ottawa. Must be the water Rob, with Hull just across the river, the stupidity is also in the air…
I’m getting very weary of electing liberals. Bring back the Reform but without Harper.
Well, last election I voted against the Cons because my MP is a complete feces-head. Looks like next election I’ll be voting against them because like every other party in power they have no shame when it comes to both stupid policies and lying to their constituency and their base. Power is the only thing Harper appears to care about.
I should know better than to have hoped that a majority would have meant actual conservative policy from Harper and his puppets. He won’t fool me again.
What an arse-hole he’s turning out to be.
My second language is profanity. Want a demonstration?
This gesture is just as significant as declaring the Quebecois a nation.
Do you bother investigating anything yourselves before rabidly posting nonsense?
This would apply to “designated bilingual” routes, i.e.: those that start, layover, or stop in Ottawa, Montreal or Moncton; those that start and finish in a province with at least 5% French speakers (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick); or those routes that connects two bilingual regions (see the three above provinces).
Currently the law is identical, just that the Official Languages Commissioner has to go through Air Canada to get to its contractual partners — the law would make it so that those partners operating on those routes could be investigated directly.
Give your heads a shake. http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/mediaroom/releases-2011-h097e-6482.htm
Wot the eff? They don’t even need the French vote! No way hose
My, my.
I would say there are some loosers around here and I’d be referring to screws.
I voted Conservative last time despite my MP being an incompetent asshole. I don’t ask that Harper ram through a full conservative agenda. All I ask is that he approach items one at a time and that he doesn’t extend the dictatorship of the proletariat. The last time I gave up on Conservatives was when Kim Campbell, as justice minister passed some gun control legislation.
Great. More jobs for the ‘bilingual’; and if you want to delve into what qualifies as bi, you will be shocked to discover this is really a make work for a certain Canadian sub-species which I cannot name because I live in a country without freedom of speech.
Vote getter in Quebec.
Heh. Just another reason to fly out of Buffalo…although the taxes to fly out of Pearson were reason enough.
When will this country abandon the lunacy of propping up a dying language?
Well said Lorne. Hopefully Harper and crew wake up. Some sources say
that the Canadian Taxpayer has forked out around 700B tax dollars in
the ongoing and expanding Official Bilingual scam. 700B Taxdollars
spent, result one Unilingual Rascist Province. All Bilingual programs
should be ended until English speakers and taxpayers of Quebec are
treated equally. Trudeau’s gift that keeps on giving. If Harper really
gave a hoot about the overtaxed Canadian Families he would bring an
end to this scam along with the CBC. Taxes are now the single biggest
expenditure in every Canadian Family budget in Canada. Taxes now
consume more of the average Canadian Families Budget than Food,
Clothing and Housing combined. The very essentials of life. Criminal
Levels of Taxation.
Hate to say I told you so…no wait I love saying that. Have fun with your New Liberal Overlord for at least the next 3-4 years contards.
I wonder why my comment was nuked?
After the first lawsuit, this will be the end of code-shares for AC with US Air, United, and any other airline. This will only serve to weaken AC, and strengthen foreign (mostly US) airlines. Nose, face, cut, spite.
The Canadian government is destroying the airline and travel industry one stupid law at a time. This will just add extra cost to an already overly costly and time consuming activity.
If we all stop flying then the groping and other stupidity will stop. I am doing my part.
Well that should effectively cut off People’s Air from being able to contract with any airline in the U.S. I expect the response to insistence on the part of Air Canada will be, “?Habla Espanol?”
CJS, your point is? We knew that and it changes nothing. It certainly does not justify the action and neither can we afford more of this silliness.
This move by the Conservatives is absolute GENIUS! How else can we make it “LOOK” like we’re supporting bi-lingualism and “protecting” Air Canada with it’s MANDATORY Montreal head office than to pass a bill that will 1. KILL AIR CANADA DEAD once and for all and 2. With the death of Air Canada REDUCE Quebec’s PERCEIVED position of strength. BWWAAHHHAAHAHAHAHAH – evil genius indeed!!!
1. KILL AIR CANADA DEAD once and for all and 2. With the death of Air Canada REDUCE Quebec’s PERCEIVED position of strength. BWWAAHHHAAHAHAHAHAH – evil genius indeed!!!
The real genius is how this is the thin end of a wedge that can be expanded in the future to cover carriers like West Jet.
I want Harper to roll back Trudeaupia, not expand on it.
Like the lightbulb ban before it, the least Harper could do is nothing instead of moving the Left agenda forward.
— the law would make it so that those partners operating on those routes could be investigated directly.
Nice expansion of Federal powers to apply to private enterprise there.
It caters to Quebec cultural facism and it’s draconian Bill 101 that removes the right for parents in Quebec to educate their children in the language of their choice, thus ghettoizing the French culture in Quebec and moving the day when Quebec’s general interest coincides with the RoC, who have to underwrite every bribe the Feds use to pander to Quebec voters, that much further in the future.
Lovely.
Mr. Harper, Tear Down This Wall…or at least stop adding bricks to it.
If Canada was the European Union, Quebec would be Greece…and here is Harper pandering to them.
Just say NO, Stevie.
Hearing about things like this pisses me off too. I’d like to end bilingualism, shut down the HRC’s, kill the long gun registry and reduce the population of the House of Commons to 250 or less. Starting tomorrow.
PMSH has bigger fish to fry. During the 2008 election he told Peter Mansbridge that there was plenty of work to do regarding federal government responsibilities and he has been focusing on those since before that time.
There is a plan in place to eliminate the federal deficit before the next election;
our military has been expanded and made more capable with even more coming;
some important immigration issues are being addressed;
the approach to criminal justice is being reformed;
the Government has made it clear that it will enforce labour peace for the near and medium term
and Mr. Harper is an increasingly important player among World leaders regarding the financial situation.
On the Big Picture Issues the current Canadian Government is rather more conservative than perhaps any in the last 50 years.
Oh, I almost forgot – happy belated birthday to the CWB.
I was on a series of flights recently from Barcelona to Rome and then Milan to Prague and on to Amsterdam. All announcements and service were in English, Catalan, Spanish, Italian, Czech and Dutch. NOT! Another example of pandering to the minority at the expense of the majority – and sanity.
A couple of weeks ago I flew Lufthansa from Zurich to Frankfurt. Lufthansa is an Air Canada partner. Most of the inflight information was in English or English followed by German. So, flying on a German airline from one German speaking city to another everyone was served primarily in English. And yet the Quebecois are going to insist on French should I fly Lufthansa from Toronto to Frankfurt?????
Attention Mr. Harper: Stop drinking the Trudeauvian Kool-Aid!! Don’t drink the Trudeauvian Kool-Aid!! Not sure how our unwanted, undesired language gestapo are going to force foreign carriers to speak da’ french talk. How does the furthering of this tribal imposition help Air Canada? “Bilingualism is the God that failed”. (Stevie Harper)
I smell the hands of bureaucrats in this, the same as they tried to smoke funding shenanigans by Bev Oda. The whole senior bureaucracy is infiltrated with Liberal hacks who will do anything to undermine the Conservatives. I’m not paranoid – paranoia is a delusion, the corruption of the upper echelons is reality – the MPs just need to recognize that the advice they get is often tainted.
They told me if I didn’t vote Conservative, I’d get a Liberal government… And they were right!
Just ANOTHER reason…as if you needed one…to not fly Air Canada. Think I’ll tell me local MP that.
As stupid as the Official Languages Act is, this may be a move to save money on lawyer fees.
“Air Canada has been subject to the Official Languages Act since 1969. Following Air Canada’s privatization in 1988-1989, official languages obligations were imposed on Air Canada through the ACPPA in order to protect language rights for the Canadian public and the airline’s employees.”
“Airlines carrying passengers and freight under contract with Air Canada on routes that are designated bilingual are currently subject to official languages obligations through their contractual relationship. The amendments will allow the Commissioner of Official Languages to investigate complaints about, and audit the performance of, these contracted carrier partners directly.”
From the backgrounder on
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/mediaroom/releases-2011-h097e-6482.htm
This would apply to “designated bilingual” routes, i.e.: those that start, layover, or stop in Ottawa, Montreal or Moncton; those that start and finish in a province with at least 5% French speakers (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick); or those routes that connects two bilingual regions (see the three above provinces).
Don’t think that is exactly right.
Air Canada services on the ground must also be offered in both official languages in airports that receive at least 1 million passengers annually or if the demand for services from an official language minority community is at least five per cent. The airports with more than one million passengers per year are St. John’s, Halifax, Québec City, Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/09/19/air-canada-languages-audit.html
They should comply… and have the secondary announcements in Spanish.
The natural governing party in Canada is still liberal whether or not they call themselves Liberals. Thanks to two generations of Canadians forever altered in their relationship to the state from socialized health care, there aren’t enough actual conservatives to form a “conservative” government. Harper is, likely a better liberal than Iggy or Bob Rae and certainly not as corrupt as Chretien, but not as fiscally conservative a liberal as Paul Martin.
Chess, a game of patience….what the bear said at October 21, 2011 4:54 PM. I watched the CWB debate and some of QP – the dippers are speaking English most of the time….things that make me go hummm?
Aviator @ 6:26 has it right.
The fact that this couple have made this into a money making operation should not be ignored.
Perhaps this applies to safety announcements only in which case they’re simply taped.
Great! The end of Air Canada is nigh. I’m positive that Harper knew what he was doing when he allowed their death sentence.