“Being an official language does not save discrimination”

at Canada Two of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world are spoken. Einglish s French They are the two official languages ​​of this North American country. They are two languages, for everyone, nothing suggests that they are in danger of disappearing. But the truth is that the Frenchman has health problems in Canada. English is spoken a lot in this country, and in recent days a debate has arisen in this state, which is whether the French suffer from language discrimination in Canada. It all exploded because no one spoke French on the new board of directors of Canadian Railways. Even the head of the Generalitat in exile, Carles Puigdemont, The news echoed on his Twitter account. “Being an official language does not save discrimination,” he wrote on social networks.

It’s a real debate in Canada, to the point that the government Justin Trudeau He had to respond to this controversy. The Canadian prime minister emphasized that he was “frustrated” in a situation like this, and emphasized that “French-speaking Canadians should see themselves reflected in our key national institutions across the country”. That is why the Canadian General Railways was urged to take action and reverse this situation, as the French are discriminated against at this point in their leadership. The truth is that this situation is not surprising if one takes into account that there are only eight million francophones in Canada. A rather low number if one takes into account that the number of Anglo-Saxons is 37 million.

In his tweet, Puigdemont echoes the fact that Canadian Railways chiefs do not speak French, even though the general company is headquartered in Quebec. In addition, he recalls, “the president of Air Canada said he did not have time to learn French.” Likewise, he stresses in his message on social networks that this is always necessary “political will“to preserve a language, and that its official status never guarantees its survival or use among the population of a country.

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Tweet by Carles Puigdemont

But the issue is that the controversy is spreading to Trudeau himself. Although he knows French and often uses it in many of his speeches; In recent days he has delivered some of them only in English. Some Canadians lament that the Canadian Executive’s broadcast channels have not dubbed these messages into French. An interesting fact is that more than 90% of the citizens of this country are associated with bilingualism, but Less than 20% of the population is bilingual.

Sacha Woodward

"Wannabe writer. Lifelong problem solver. Gamer. Incurable web guru. Professional music lover."

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