From: adrian@splunge.uucp (Adrian Ashley)
Subject: Re: Alberta Conservatives & Bilingualism
Organization: Ashley, Howland & Wood
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 20:31:32 GMT

Peter Galbraith <galbrth@ac.dal.ca> writes:

>My point is that our country is falling apart.  What do you want to do 
>about it?  I'd want people to be encouraged to move around freely.  A prof
>here often tells me he'd like the fed. gov. to set up a nation-wide system
>of student exchange, on a very large scale.  You can't help but feel
>differently about other Canadians when you've travelled a bit.

Sure, I'd welcome student exchanges.  People might be thusly encouraged
to move around the country and learn each other's languages.

>I'd like to make it `possible' for a french Canadian to go work in Alberta
>for 5 or 10 years, 10 years from now.  Keep a friendly climate alive, or
>start one now if it doesn't exist. 

Well, I don't really know how this is supposed to work.  Are Albertans to
be expected to learn French so as to make hypothetical future Francophone
migrants to the province feel at home?  How will we practice our French
if there are no Francophones to talk to?  Will we speak French to each
other?  No, we won't -- we already talk to each other in English.

This isn't just random whining, it's a real problem.  I learned French in
junior high and high school, but I've pretty much forgotten it by now
because there isn't *any* need for it here.  If large numbers of French-
speakers were to move here, I'd find a need for it and pick it up again.

I guess I don't know how a "friendly climate" is to be "started now";
you're assuming that Alberta is currently an unfriendly place for
Francophones, which it isn't, and that we'll all have to learn French
to convince them to come here.   In your previous post you said

>>>If you never create a climate where french canadians are welcomed to
>>>Alberta, where they can find french services from the federal government
>>>and French schools, then they will never settle there.  [...]

What are we to do with the French schools in the years after we've
established them but before there are any Francophones to go to them?

Better, I think, to firmly establish a policy of ``multilingualism where
numbers warrant'', and to assure people of all linguistic and cultural
backgrounds that if there are enough of them in a given place, they can
get services and schools in their own languages.  This way you're
guaranteeing minority language rights without putting the cart before
the horse; furthermore this can be applied to all languages, not just
French and English.  The only argument is then over the definition of
"enough", which shouldn't be *too* hard to hammer out.

>>>I thus argue that French is then different from other minority languages
>>>because they should be encouraged to move around and keep their language
>>>and culture alive, instead of assimilate.
>>
>>Why on Earth should the Francophones be encouraged to keep their language
>>and culture alive, while others should not??  What's wrong with everyone
>>doing so?
>
>See above.

Err, I saw above and still didn't get it.  Why, apart from sheer numbers,
should we treat French differently than other languages?
-- 
Adrian Ashley in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada  ||  adrian@splunge.uucp
"... Motif is very simple.  However, it is hard to see the simplicity because
 Motif is surrounded by a mass of complexity." --Motif book ad in comp.newprod
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