Posted Jul 23, 2021, 8:58 PM
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Gros Méchant Loup
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Province 2, Canadian Empire
Posts: 72,949
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext
A spot-on editorial in the Globe & Mail today:
An investigation into Mary Simon’s nomination for governor-general is a colonialist insult
Gary Mason
PUBLISHED JULY 22, 2021
The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages has announced it is investigating the process for nominating governors-general in Canada. This comes, we are told, after the office received “hundreds of complaints” from people upset that the latest nominee, Mary Simon, is not fluent in French.
That there would be some, especially in Quebec, who resented the fact Ms. Simon, an Inuk and the first Indigenous person to be nominated for the position, did not speak one of Canada’s two official languages was a given. The fact we are now going to dignify their grievance with a formal investigation is insulting.
Ms. Simon is the governor-general this country needs right now. Full stop.
It’s unfortunate it took a crisis for the federal government to finally appoint someone to Rideau Hall that represented Indigenous peoples in this country....
...Ms. Simon represents hope – hope that perhaps meaningful reconciliation is indeed possible one day. While the job she will be taking is mostly a symbolic one, her nomination is important. Since its inception, the governor-general’s position has been filled mostly with white elites.
Critics say that by appointing someone who does not speak French, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is establishing a precedent. Perhaps. Or maybe all he’s done is establish an exception to the rule.
Maybe if you speak Inuktitut, as Ms. Simon does, that should count for something. Maybe if you speak one of the country’s first languages, you should not have to learn two others – French and English – to qualify for such federal appointments. Maybe nothing should actually top being fluent in an Indigenous language.
Which is why I find an investigation into the nomination process used to select Ms. Simon so distasteful – so colonialist. That the anger toward her nomination comes mostly from Quebec is both surprising and not surprising.
I mean, francophones in Quebec know what being part of a linguistic minority feels like. Meanwhile, there are 11 Indigenous nations in the province and nine languages still active among those groups. I don’t see anyone in the provincial legislature fighting for their survival.
In fact, Quebec’s Bill 96, which toughens old language laws, is seen as another assault on Anglo institutions in the province. But by all means, let’s investigate the nomination of a distinguished Quebecker, someone who was made an Officer of l’Ordre national du Quebec – the highest distinction awarded by the government.
And let’s not forget that Ms. Simon, by being educated in a federal day school in Nunavik, was denied the opportunity to learn French....
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/...ns-nomination-for-governor-general-is-a/ |
Says Gary Mason in the beautiful words of the most colonialist language the world has ever seen, the only one I am 99.9% sure he has only spoken his entire life, the one that has replaced the native language of two thirds to three quarters of our Indigenous population, and the one that more than a few Canadians are perfectly happy to see dominate all others in this country.
It's a good thing getting hit by irony isn't fatal, because a helluva lotta people would be dead.
But of course you'd think he is "spot on".
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Loin des yeux, loin du coeur.
Last edited by Acajack; Jul 23, 2021 at 9:09 PM.
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Thanks dleung for bringing it up 
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