Quote:
Originally posted by irateplatypus
"WHEREAS the Constitution of Canada provides that English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada;"
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From my understanding Canada is not an Officially Blilngual country however both French and English are recognizes as Official languages.
New Brunswick is the only Officially Bilingual province by status.
The Federal government is officially bilingual meaning everything done is in both languages equally.
There is alot of angst going on here in Ottawa because the mayor has lied again concerning Ottawa becoming Officially Bilingual. He has said numerous times that 'practical' bilingualism where warranted is functioning and doesn't support the Official tag.Now since there is Liberal premier in Ontario,the very powerful French lobby seems to have gotten there way.
The problem is that no one is willing to explain what exactly the end result will be concerning the word'official'. Everyone in support of the 'official' tag is saying we will tell you after it becomes entrenched in law. That is not fair especially since the amount of francophones in the amalgamated city of Ottawa is about 10%.
If it gets to the point in which some people have suggested that being,..private companies, convienient stores etc,..have to have all bilingual staff,..Ottawa will go back to being a government town.Already rumblings from the tech sector (Nortel) say if the 'official' status affects the way they do business, they will pullout. That is bad news since the tech sector in Ottawa has almost the same amount of employees as does the different levels of government.