No one cares when they can barely speak English;
… it’s really quite strange that [Governor General] Simon headed to the Quebec City area last week for some public events, despite her French having apparently improved not much at all in three years — or at least, not to an extent she is willing to use it in public. (In December last year, Simon told Radio-Canada she had received 184 hours of French lessons. Over the weekend she told CTV News that she can, in fact, carry on a brief conversation in French.)
It was weirder still that Simon cancelled the remainder of her Quebec City itinerary after journalists noticed she wasn’t speaking French.
As a French-Canadian, I find Simon to be a deplorable example of wokeism and reverse-racism while wasting my tax money through outlandish spending. In other words, language is a minor point. Putting her into the job is inexcusable in the government that appointed her. Another embarassment to Canada.
There is no such thing as “reverse-racism”, it is simply racism.
She’s got the Indian card…she’s safe.
She’s not an Indian. She’s an Eskimo. Different race entirely.
One could sympathise with an honest Eskimo in this position. Her people knew nothing of France. Their only connection with the French-speaking world is that some of the aircraft which make contact with them fly out of airports surrounded by French-Canadian suburbs. “Quebec” is just a word on some signs that they put up a while ago, and had no effect on reality. Of course she doesn’t speak French. Doesn’t speak Greek, either. Why the hell would she? And she didn’t break into Rideau Hall and pitch a tent. They appointed her knowing exactly what they were doing. Got a problem, take it up with them.
But no, she’s got to bleat and whimper and be the poor pitiful native. She was not given the opportunity to learn French! Not in a lifetime spent in Quebec, not once. Those white bastards sure plotted like hell to pull off that lovely bit of oppression, didn’t they? Hey, I bet she’s got an entire diary documenting all her fruitless attempts to get permission to learn this vital language, and they just turn her down.
Look, she is receiving the highest level of welfare the government can pay. She is at the top of the native system. Can’t she cut the bloody snivelling and speak with honest pride? Hire a French-speaking butler, turn all requests for French over to him to handle while she takes a smoke break, and speak the King’s English, which after all comes with the office, and maybe the odd fistfuls of doubled qq’s and glottal stops in the old mother tongue for variety. But no. No more dignity than a drenched cat.
l took to high school french right away.
my grade 10 teacher and a pretty grade 13 Quebec girl Anique Dion
both complimented my pronunciation.
but l had NO NEED of it. so let it lapse.
for over 50 years.
l think l was secretly hoping kaybeck would hive off.
I had hoped to be bilingual by the time I was 25. That did not happen but when I spent 3 weeks in France in July 2005, I became much better at French and at reading the signs. I tell this next story because I think it is hilarious. Standing in line at the airport to go back to Canada, I had trouble reading one of the signs. It was in English – I had been living and reading French for 3 weeks, it took me a while to get back into the groove of English.
On another note, my beautiful daughter married a handsome Chilean. I started learning Spanish in 2017 and I understand most of the feeds on Spanish Instagram now. Sadly, I can read and write Spanish but my speech is limited as I have not had practice.
They found a way to run Mary Simon out of town. I appluad that!
Agreed, but If that happened anywhere else there’d be coast to coast racism stories until the next election.
yet another reason to eliminate the position of Governor-General…the string of duds we have endured for an utterly useless concept.. it should have ended in 1982.
While I don’t care for GG Simon, she should answer all French questions in Inuktitut.
LOL – reminds me of the dispatcher I worked with at a Northern Ontario trucking firm. He was quadrilingual – English, Ukrainian, Polish & French. When one of the local French activists would call and insist on using French, he’d answer in Ukrainian or Polish. Since this was a mining town with many languages, English was the Lingua Franca.
Speak what to hell you want. The whole special rights for French and making laws requiring it and trampling on the rights of those who don’t comply was the beginning of Canada’s demise. I said so at the time. But ,hey I’m a nutbar ,among other juicy names.
The funny part is the headline: “Mary Simon is busting bilingualism’s myth that anyone can learn French” Turn a lazy grifter into a trailblazer.
There something seriously wrong with a country that identifies with a language as opposed to its citizens.
The biggest joke of official bilingualism. Only the French are bilingual … because they need to be. Teaching older English speakers French to the point where they are truly bilingual costs a lot and accomplishes very little if anything.
They want their own nation, but won’t leave.
They hate Canada, but love Canadian money.
They want everybody to speak their language and learn about them.
Shit, I just can’t tell one group of grifters from the other.
I came across a bit of a BQ or PQ rally on TV years ago (back when I still watched TV) pushing a referendum.
It looked much like a rock concert: A sea of teenagers and twenty-somethings. I laughed, because who else would be gullible enough to think that Quebec is not just a ‘nation’ but a viable, self-supporting country?
Go ahead and leave. When you come crawling back in a year or so we in the rest of Canada can finally demand some concessions of our own (and you won’t like them)…
She’s not an Indian. She’s an Eskimo. Different race entirely.
One could sympathise with an honest Eskimo in this position. Her people knew nothing of France. Their only connection with the French-speaking world is that some of the aircraft which make contact with them fly out of airports surrounded by French-Canadian suburbs. “Quebec” is just a word on some signs that they put up a while ago, and had no effect on reality. Of course she doesn’t speak French. Doesn’t speak Greek, either. Why the hell would she? And she didn’t break into Rideau Hall and pitch a tent. They appointed her knowing exactly what they were doing. Got a problem, take it up with them.
But no, she’s got to bleat and whimper and be the poor pitiful native. She was not given the opportunity to learn French! Not in a lifetime spent in Quebec, not once. Those white bastards sure plotted like hell to pull off that lovely bit of oppression, didn’t they? Hey, I bet she’s got an entire diary documenting all her fruitless attempts to get permission to learn this vital language, and they just turn her down.
Look, she is receiving the highest level of welfare the government can pay. She is at the top of the native system. Can’t she cut the bloody snivelling and speak with honest pride? Hire a French-speaking butler, turn all requests for French over to him to handle while she takes a smoke break, and speak the King’s English, which after all comes with the office, and maybe the odd fistfuls of doubled qq’s and glottal stops in the old mother tongue for variety. But no. No more dignity than a drenched cat.