Quebec MP's "worried" about the lack of French in Vancouver Games

[mr.x]

MPs worried Vancouver's Olympics will be lost in translation


By Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
April 28, 2009 4:01 PM

OTTAWA — The three opposition parties blasted organizers of the Vancouver Olympic Committee on Tuesday, expressing doubts about whether it was capable of ensuring the 2010 Games will respect both of Canada's official languages and its cultural diversity.

Appearing at parliamentary hearings, members of the Games' official languages advisory committee admitted they only had their first official meeting last week, but assured MPs that major efforts were underway to ensure that services, ceremonies, events and broadcasting would all be delivered both in English and in French.

"There is still work to do and we must be vigilant, but while being vigilant we must also be pragmatic," said Jacques Gauthier, the volunteer chairman for the committee.

Gauthier, who is a senior executive from the energy division of Kruger Inc., a paper products company based in Montreal, acknowledged that things got off to a shaky start following a ceremony marking the one-year countdown to the Games that was criticized because of a lack of French.

"There were some francophone activities that evening but not enough and effectively it has allowed us to increase our monitoring to ensure that it doesn't happen again," Gauthier said after his appearance at the official languages committee of the House of Commons.

He said members of his advisory committee, including former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, are spelling out their expectations and have confidence that there will be positive results, starting with the opening ceremonies.

Gauthier said they recruited Raffarin because of his experience promoting the organization of francophone nations at the Beijing Games in 2008. He said they would also soon meet with officials from the International Olympic Committee regarding the opening and closing ceremonies. The official languages advisory committee will not be consulted regarding details of those two events, since they are traditionally kept secret by Olympic organizers.

MPs from the Liberals, the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democrats took turns criticizing the advisory committee for failing to meet and assess issues of concern prior to last week. The opposition MPs also expressed concerns about whether tourism information, signs and billboards in the city and broadcasting would be offered to francophones in town for the events.

"I don't even think that they (the advisory committee) are convinced (they will succeed)," said NDP official languages critic Yvon Godin after hearing the testimony. "If you look at tourism, for example, Tourism BC doesn't even have a website in French. So there's a long way to go."

Liberal heritage critic Pablo Rodriguez said he won't be satisfied if the advisory committee can only pledge to do their best.

"There's an obligation for (the Olympic organizers) to obtain results," said Rodriguez. "The Games must occur in the two official languages of Canada, period."

Francine Bolduc, the director of official languages for the 2010 Games, said that she is also working on putting bilingual volunteers to work throughout the event's locations to ensure that all athletes and visitors can be served in both official languages. She said the organizers are sorting through the applications of 11,000 people who say they are bilingual and hope to find positions for them to fill.

Steven Blaney, a Conservative MP from the Quebec City region who chairs the House of Commons official languages committee, said he was encouraged by the message from the organizers, but would continue to closely follow their progress.

"We want to avoid the missteps committed at the one-year countdown event for the Games and we could see the concerns of all members of the committee about the opening ceremony that is a showcase of Canada to the world and that also reflects the image that we have of ourselves."

Heritage Minister James Moore has stressed the importance of promoting Canada's official languages at the events, noting that nearly two-thirds of the Canadian athletes at the Games will be from Quebec.

The advisory committee also said it wants to ensure that the Olympic events will be broadcast in both official languages. But it said that RDS, the French-language sports network, must still negotiate agreements with about 200 separate cable providers across the country to ensure that coverage will be available across the country.

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© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/Travel/worri...will+lost+translation/1543027/story.html



Bernito
April 28, 2009 - 6:28 PM
I am from the Ottawa Valley and am used to this bull. If you look at Quebec, they go out of their way to make things French only. Like check out their new advanced drivers license, Not a word of English on it even though there are hundreds of thousands of Anglophones in Montreal. So here we have more of this bull of the federal government promoting bilingualism outside of Quebec and allowing Quebec to have shite like Bill 101.



Tom
April 28, 2009 - 5:28 PM
Tourism BC is an agency of the provincial government, which is unilingual, just like every other province in Canada other than New Brunswick, and therefore does not publish in French. Vanoc has recognized the cultural importance of French to Canada, and the IOC's official languages also happen to be English and French, which creates some obligation. French will definitely play a role, but the politicians, as usual, are being hyperbolic about this issue. I hope Vanoc will be pragmatic and not waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on unnecessary translations that the vast majority of residents and visitors will not understand.

[metroXpress]

Interesting reactions and opinons from the locals. I would still hope to see both languages being used during the games. They are our offical languages whatsoever.

[mr.x]

^ both languages will be used during the Games, and for one thing it's IOC protocol that both English and French are used in the Olympics as it's their official languages. Everything VANOC has done so far has been bilingual.

But we don't want to go overboard with the French, considering the cost and the fact that very, very few in town will be speaking French.



I'm not sure why the MP in the article was complaining about the lack of French in the one-year countdown....more French programming would be like playing music to deaf years.

[Yume-sama]

Don't get me started on this one

Must... restrain... must hold back...

[dreambrother808]

it's hard to hold back an albertan and their requisite anti-quebec vitriol...

not that this and other issues aren't necessarily deserving of some review or attack. nevertheless, during my 6 months in alberta i was rather shocked to learn how often la belle province, being so far away and with such little relevance to day-to-day life in alberta, was an angry topic of conversation.

[Yume-sama]

It's OK, I have French friends.

I just don't know how much MORE French can be added to a completely 100% bilingual event.

There is pretty much an Anti-everyone vibe in Alberta... but... BC isn't too different in that respect!

In my experience, Alberta hates everyone, BC hates Alberta and Ontario, Ontario hates the West... but the one thing that makes us all Canadian is that we all hate the French.

[metroXpress]

but the one thing that makes us all Canadian is that we all hate the French.

Are you sure?

[Yume-sama]

Except the French... I guess.

[NetMapel]

I'll respect bilingualism when Quebec start respecting bilingualism.

[ÉricdeMtl]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

It's OK, I have French friends.

I just don't know how much MORE French can be added to a completely 100% bilingual event.

There is pretty much an Anti-everyone vibe in Alberta... but... BC isn't too different in that respect!

In my experience, Alberta hates everyone, BC hates Alberta and Ontario, Ontario hates the West... but the one thing that makes us all Canadian is that we all hate the French.

^ Oh really!? Nice to know about that.
So since most of your xenephobic entourage would hate the French, just might as well generalize and say that all of Canada hates them. Wow great logic !

[Yume-sama]

I didn't say it's *MY* view, but it's a very prevalent "popular" view no matter where you look / go.

[ÉricdeMtl]

Tom
April 28, 2009 - 5:28 PM
Tourism BC is an agency of the provincial government, which is unilingual, just like every other province in Canada other than New Brunswick, and therefore does not publish in French. Vanoc has recognized the cultural importance of French to Canada, and the IOC's official languages also happen to be English and French, which creates some obligation. French will definitely play a role, but the politicians, as usual, are being hyperbolic about this issue. I hope Vanoc will be pragmatic and not waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on unnecessary translations that the vast majority of residents and visitors will not understand.

^It may come to a surprise for some of you, even being a Québécois, I tend to agree with this person, no need to be more Catholic than the Pope . We (in Québec),at least most of us would understand since that the Games are being held in the Western part of the country, most of the dealings were held in the English language.Anyways like some already mentioned, the Games have both English + French as official languages, same goes for Canada by the way,so no need to make a fuss out of what a few Québec MP's are saying.
That article did not even make the news here, not as of yet on the few networks I've seen.
I may be naive, but do think people in Vancouver are genarally pretty open minded and more pragmatic, way more than other places in Canada .

Éric

[flight_from_kamakura]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

but the one thing that makes us all Canadian is that we all hate the French.

fail.

in other news, it's an obviously good idea to have a french component, for tourism, etc. indeed, it seems pretty weird that they don't at least have a website in french. most of the people coming to vanada will actually be coming from other parts of canada, seems like a bonehead move not to make that easier for quebecois and new brunswickes (like the ndp mp yves godin).

[metroXpress]

Mayor won't change Oval's English-only sign

ROD MICKLEBURGH

April 29, 2009

VANCOUVER -- Despite the status of French as an official language of Canada and the Olympics, in the Olympic city of suburban Richmond, English reigns.

As a result, there are no plans to add a francophone element to the large unilingual sign on the outside of the municipality's spectacular Olympic speed skating oval, Mayor Malcolm Brodie declared yesterday.

"If you go through Richmond, you will not find any French signage," Mayor Brodie said. "All our civic signs are in English. We've invested well over $100-million in the Oval, and we named it and signed it just as we would for any other civic building."

The mayor was responding to criticism earlier this week by members of the Senate Committee on Official Languages who said they were disturbed by the English-only sign on a venue to be used for the Olympics.

"You went after a small pizza company [Olympia Pizza], in existence before the Olympics went to Vancouver, and said they could not use that name," B.C. Senator Mobina Jaffer reminded VANOC representatives at the Senate hearing. "You cannot let Richmond use it either."


The sign reads "Richmond Olympic Oval." It sits underneath a huge depiction of the five Olympic rings, agreed to by the International Olympic Committee.

Even as the mayor stood firm, however, the controversy heated up again later in the day, as Vancouver Olympic organizers entered the fray, on the side of bilingualism.

In a statement, VANOC spokeswoman Renée Smith-Valade said the organization intends to discuss the matter further with Richmond officials to look for ways "to render the current exterior signage bilingual."

Although lengthy discussions took place between the IOC and Richmond over the right to use the Olympic rings on the Oval ahead of the Games, the language issue was omitted, Ms. Smith-Valade said. "This was an oversight."

She acknowledged that Richmond does not have to alter the sign, but added: "We can exercise our influence on the venue owner to consider bilingual signage."

During the specific period of the Olympics, VANOC will have control of the Oval, and all signs will be in both French and English.


Among municipalities, Richmond has the highest percentage in the country of residents whose first language is neither French nor English. According to the 2006 census, fewer than 1 per cent of those living in Richmond list French as their mother tongue.

VANOC has been taking its linguistic lumps in recent days over a perceived lack of bilingualism preparations for next year's Olympics. Official languages commissioner Graham Fraser issued a report last week, expressing concern that inadequate resources were available for full translation and interpretation at the Games.

This week, members of both the Senate and House of Commons' official languages committee have raked Olympic organizers over the coals on a number of issues, from local hotels refusing to post bilingual signs to the extent of French-language television coverage to the minimal Francophone content of VANOC's one-year Olympic countdown concert in February.

In a bid to do better, VANOC has now formed its own six-member advisory committee on official languages, headed by board member Jacques Gauthier. Among the members is former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who attended the committee's first meeting last Friday. VANOC paid transportation and accommodation costs for both Mr. Raffarin and an assistant who accompanied him on the journey to and from France.

Mr. Gauthier told parliamentarians in Ottawa that he, too, had been offended by the countdown concert's lack of French-speaking performers. "I did rap [VANOC's] knuckles about it," he said, adding yesterday that Olympic organizers have learned their lesson. "I don't think the mistake will be repeated."

Liberal MP Jean-Claude D'Amours, however, was perturbed that it had taken so long to get anywhere on the issue of bilingualism.

"We've talked about this non-stop. Why has what we said carried so little weight?" Mr. D'Amours said. "This is a serious problem and it's deplorable we have had to wait so long [for action]."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090429.BCOLYMPIC29ART2213/TPStory/National

[rather_draconian]

Right about now I wish I had the option on this forum to give the cyber thumbs down to posts.

[Vaillant]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

It's OK, I have French friends.

I just don't know how much MORE French can be added to a completely 100% bilingual event.

There is pretty much an Anti-everyone vibe in Alberta... but... BC isn't too different in that respect!

In my experience, Alberta hates everyone, BC hates Alberta and Ontario, Ontario hates the West... but the one thing that makes us all Canadian is that we all hate the French.

i hate all english speaking and i don't say it at least me i speak both languages and not you i been 8 months in Toronto and i never saw so much racist against french speaking and now im racists against people like you

[djmk]

Originally Posted by Vaillant

i hate all fucking english speaking and i don't say it at least me i speak both languages and not you i been 8 months in Toronto and i never saw so much racist against french speaking and now im racists against people like you

you may speak english but you have troubles with the use of the comma. and you must be really sensitive if a city of asians (no offense guys) does not quite understand Canada's obsession with french and not Cantonese ticks your bonnet.

"If you go through Richmond, you will not find any French signage," Mayor Brodie said. "All our civic signs are in English. We've invested well over $100-million in the Oval, and we named it and signed it just as we would for any other civic building."

not exactly true. the signage to the airport is in french

[Yume-sama]

It really would be better served if the signs were in English / Japanese / Cantonese / Mandarin / Arabic, all of which are likely to be represented far more than French.

And no, I don't understand Canada's fixation with French outside of Quebec, other than we feel we need to score political points all across Canada by pandering.

Because even when you have a fully bilingual event it is apparently "not enough".

And really, I don't know anybody from Quebec who doesn't speak English. It only makes sense, if you want to go anywhere else in North America outside of their province.

[johnjimbc]

Damn it, I'm learning French right now! What else do they want?

Besides they scored Granville Island for the French Canadian pavilion didn't they? I want to go order "le vin, s'il vous plait" when the Olympics come to town.

I'm doing my part.

Note: This is my feeble attempt to suggest a truce on this iron hot topic that I'll never completely fathom. Please, everyone, lighten up. Can't well all just get along?

[flight_from_kamakura]

hmm, considering how sparsely populated the west is compared with central canada, and that in addition to quebec, ontario and new brunswick have entire regions where french is the everyday language, it seems like a pretty normal thing for canadians to be concerned with. considering how much federal money is being plowed into vanada for this whole thing, and considering that there are something like 8 million francophones in canada, it seems like a basically intelligent and uncontroversial move to provide some basic french language supports.

as a side note about vancouver, i'd just note that there seems to be an interesting mentality that's developed here. i imagine the britons had a sort of similar experience in roman times, where the things that happen in the center of the empire, indeed, the very things that tend to define 'romanness', sort of didn't happen. there's a culture that exists as something apart, and in the same way it would have been difficult for british roman subects to have understood the grain question in italy, it's difficult for westerners to understand where french fits in to canada. it's a defining thing for 2/3 of canadians, but it doesn't make any sense to another 1/3. imagine how the residents of p.e.i. think about aboriginal issues or seeing an asian canadian in a government advertisement. same some of thing.