From: hlynka@server.uwindsor.ca (Myron Hlynka)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Radio stations in Quebec, Western Canada
Date: 14 Aug 1992 02:24:12 GMT
Organization: University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Stewart Clamen = SC
Myron Hlynka = MH
(in earlier postings)

MH   When my forefathers came to Canada, it was not officially bilingual.

SC When your forefathers came to Canada, English and French were official
SC languages in the Parliament and in Federal courts.

That is not the same as saying that Canada is officially bilingual.

 
MH   In fact, I must have missed the referendum that made Canada bilingual,
MH   with French and English as first class and everyone else as 
MH   second class. What year was that referendum again??
 
SC Sorry, but I am going to yell here.

SC WHEN MANITOBA WAS CREATED (1870), IT WAS OFFICIALLY BILINGUAL.

True, but the province of Manitoba was created in some sense when the 
federal government had a gun to its head, at the time of the 
Riel Rebellion. 
   
SC The Manitoba provincial government unconstitutionally removed the
SC bilingualism provision.  In the early 1980s (I cannot remember the
SC year), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled (the appeal case had to do
SC with someone receiving a unilingual parking ticket, I believe) that
SC Manitoba had been illegally passing legislation all those years, since
SC they had not been published in both official languages.

When Saskatchewan and Alberta were created in 1905, they were not
officially bilingual. The case of Manitoba was fought earlier in 
Manitoba and Canadian history, back in the 1890's. 

More recently,
Pierre Trudeau stacked the Supreme Court of Canada with people who 
shared his "vision" of Canada. Then his party sought out someone in 
Manitoba who would be willing to a case to court, any case, even a 
traffic ticket. Trudeau's Liberal government paid all of the expenses 
of the man involved.Of course, Trudeau's hand picked Supreme Court 
made its decision as it was supposed to do. 

The result was that Manitoba's laws and legislation were declared 
illegal since they had not been written in French. It is curious
that Manitoba does not have the power to make its own rules 
regarding language, but must get them approved by the Federal 
government, where one can be sure that Quebec will not allow Manitoba 
to remove any French provisions, regardless of the proportion of 
French Manitobans. 

The Supreme Court, amazingly enough, was going to allow 
the Manitoba government to keep its old laws without the 
incredible expense of translating them into French, in exchange
for Manitoba becoming officially bilingual, as acceptable to 
the Societe Franco Manitobain. Where the Supreme Court got the
right to do this, I have no idea. 

Howver, when Howard Pawley decided to make Manitoba officially
bilingual (French/English style), and tried to do so, 
there was a huge outcry. A vote (without any official meaning) 
was held in Winnipeg, (along with a city election) and the 
concept was overwhelmingly defeated and condemned.
The attitude of the Winnipegers was that French English bilingualism 
was completely unfair to the other ethnic groups, especially groups 
numerically larger than the French, such as the Ukrainian Canadians 
and the German Canadians. Thousands of NDP party members in Manitoba
resigned to protest Pawley's decision. When one of Pawley's
own NDP party members, Russ Doern, broke ranks and declared that
he would vote against the proposed legislation, Pawley
backed down, since his majority was very slim and his whole 
government could be defeated on the issue. 

Instead Manitoba was stuck spending millions of dollars 
translating old laws and legislation, much
of which was hopelessly dated, in order to satisfy the Supreme
Court. It was a lose - lose situation. Manitobans have not forgotten.
They did not enjoy being kicked around by Trudeau's Quebec Liberals.
  
                                     Myron









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