Letter To The Prime Minister

The campaign motto was “Stand Up for Canada”. As I understand its meaning, it is similar to the famous Kennedy phrase: “Ask not what your Country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” People come together as a society for the benefits it can bring us individually and collectively, and also how each of us can contribute, to the best of our ability, to improve the society in which we live and make our sorry lot better with each new generation. Unfortunately, too many people see society as something to be exploited for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. It is called “Socialism” or governance by special interest groups; people who use the phrase: “Tyranny of the Majority” as their attack motto and justification for their lack of reasoning ability. “Stand up for Canada” to me means to stand up for all Canadians, not just a few select groups who might just be good for a few votes or a few flattering comments. So far, in my estimation, you have demonstrated great strategic ability in most areas of policy since taking office, with one exception. The Liberal Governments of the past forty years have fought their battles on the back of “National Unity” while doing everything in their power to destroy National Unity. And the most destructive force behind this pretence of National Unity has been and is to this day the policy of “Bilingualism and Biculturalism”. Those most responsible for the destruction of National Unity, this most over used and misused phrase, have been the French contingent mostly from Quebec and Ontario, and Francophiles of the Liberal Governments of the past thirteen years through the Ministry of Official Languages and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Also playing a very important part in this fraud against the people of Canada was the Ministry of Heritage through which millions upon millions of hard earned taxpayers’ dollars were paid out to a multitude of French militant organisations (more than 150 groups) to finance their activities against Canadian Unity, while ignoring the plight of the majority of Canadians who not only feel disenfranchised, but are indeed deprived of their rights as Canadians in their quest for equality and at the very least equity in their attempts at making their contribution to a Canada for all Canadians. And as such, they find it very difficult to “Stand up for Canada” since Canada has completely refused to stand up for them, because they are not French. Before I pursue this further, let me tell you a bit about myself. In 1992, while living in Western Canada, I joined the Reform Party because I believed in most of its policies and principles. In 2000, I was the Candidate for the Canadian Alliance in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. Subsequently I became spokesman for an organisation called Canadians for Language Fairness who brought a suit against the City of Ottawa contesting the legitimacy of its proposed Bilingualism Hiring Policy modelled on the Federal Government’s policy of intrusion and incursion into people’s freedoms. Consequently, as a guest on a French talk show on Rogers Cable, the host asked me whether I had suffered some traumatic experience in my life that would cause me to take the stand I was taking in what I perceive as fighting for justice for all Canadians, regardless of their “mother tongue”. The French media and commentators perceived me as being against the French. As the show’s host and most Quebecers and Franco Canadians see it, I am a traitor because I am of French ancestry, born in Quebec, and if I am not against the English, then I must be against the French. However, my perspective is somewhat different. It is not based on linguistic or cultural bias. I have lived in more than a dozen countries and at one time spoke as many as five languages fluently. I had the pleasure of reading Scott Reid’s book “Lament for a Notion”, among numerous other books I read on the subject, from various perspectives. French is a beautiful language. At the beginning of the last century, it was the principal language of diplomacy in the European Royal Courts and at most official levels. Language is but a reflection of a culture, which evolves with the people using that language. We are now in a new century and for a very long time French has not been a world dominant language. In fact it is low on the statistical scale of language usage. And all the false “Francophonie” fanfare attempts at reviving it to its former or even pretence of its former glory will not succeed. Like other living things, languages must be allowed to evolve and survive naturally, or fade into disuse or oblivion. And the more attempts are made to force it into continued existence by forcing people to speak it, is a sure fire way to kill it outright. French has served its purpose and should be allowed to survive only as a secondary romantic language for those who freely choose to learn it. However much we like horses and wagons, like French, they are of another era, and just do not suit the times. English, on the other hand, is a vibrant, thriving, evolving language best suited for the times of global economy, space travel, communication, medicine, high tech, science, etc. Many forests have been decimated to print the many volumes of material that have been written on this subject and seen the shelves of book stores and libraries in Canada, so I am not going to regurgitate it all here. The one place where you seemingly have failed to grasp the importance of the effect of the Liberal policies on Official Languages, is in your choice of continuing their tradition of appointing a French person, from Quebec no less, to be responsible for the Ministry of Official Languages. It appears to me and to so many other Canadians that, aside from the fact that this whole idea of two Official Languages and the Ministry of Official Languages as well as and especially the Office of the Commissioner (affectionately referred to as the Kommissar) of Official Languages should be abolished once and for all, the reference is to “Official Languages”. Notice the plurality of the word “Languages”. All the various statistics with all their differing conclusions about who speaks what in Canada, have one thing in common. Considering that there are two official languages, English and French, and the way these two languages are spread throughout the land, the general consensus is that more than 80% of Canadians are either born with or chose to speak English as their language of preference. And in a free country, that is as it should be. No one should be coerced to speak a language they do not feel it is to their advantage to do so, especially for political reasons, as long as they speak at least one of the “Official” Languages of the country. As for French, less than 20% of the people of Canada speak French, and most of these are in Quebec. Only slightly more than 4% of these are outside Quebec. To most Canadians who would most definitely want to Stand up for Canada, such percentages do not justify the imposition of French in any part of their lives, especially in what is supposed to be a free country. And to have their career opportunities ruined by the Liberal policies of Bilingualism and Biculturalism that are still in place to this day and against which many of us have fought for years, goes against everything that we have fought for to have a change of government who we expect will Stand Up for Us. For the sake of the argument, let us assume there are two Official Languages in Canada. Let us also assume there is a need for a Minister for Official Languages. What has been most distressing and a slap in the face to most Canadians, in view of the figures given above, is the fact that all the past Ministers of Official Languages have been French, usually from Quebec, and they have run their Ministry as though it was the “Ministry of the French Language” rather than “Official Languages”. As a consequence, everything that has come out of that Ministry has been biased towards the promotion, promulgation, financing and the glorifying of the French language and the French population across Canada at a cost so far of over 700 billion dollars. And, at the instigation or recommendation of the Commissioner of Official Languages, to the extent of using the immigration department as a source of French speaking immigrants from third world countries, not for increasing the French population of Quebec but for increasing the French factor in communities across the country to justify the use of Bill S-3 that was rushed through parliament and the Senate just before the end of the last parliament, one of the last act by my old nemesis Don Boudria, as his parting volley against the “Maudits Anglais” as is his wont in his attitude towards the majority of Canadians. The Immigration Department also seems to have made it their policy to refuse or at the very least, make it very difficult for people from the traditional sources of immigrants to Canada, and especially people of English or British origin to come here, in preference for people from third world countries, especially where French was at one time the colonial language and where it is still widely spoken as a first or second language. Then there are the much-reported scandals of corruption within the immigration officials abroad, in our embassies and consulates. You have appointed Josee Verner as Minister of Official Languages. Then Ted Menzies was appointed as her Deputy Minister and all hell broke loose from the French quarters claiming it was a slap in their face to do such an atrocious thing as to appoint an Anglo to the Ministry of Official Languages, which proves my point that it is in fact the Ministry of the French Language. As a result of this brouhaha, a clarification was issued from the PMO stating that Mr. Menzies was not involved in the language portfolio. So I ask the question here: “Who is Standing Up for whom here?” My last comment on this subject at this time has to do with the Language Kommissar, Dr. Dyane Adam. She recently made a statement to the effect that the Canadian Military is spending too much time on operational matters and not enough on the spreading of the French language within the ranks. She also said that all upper echelon officers “will have to” speak French by the end of this year or else. My question here is a simple one: “Who in hell does she think she is and where did she get the authority to dictate to other departments as well as to all Canadians that we must all speak French or else?” To this last question I have a simple solution. It is time that a lock be put on the door of the Office of the Kommissar of Official Languages and zealot Dr. Dyane Adam and her militant staff seek employment elsewhere, preferably outside the Federal Government. Mr Prime Minister: “Will you now Stand up for Canadians and put an end to the most divisive policies this country has suffered through for too many years – the bilingualism policies? Enclosed is a commentary I recently wrote on the subject of systemic discrimination within the federal public service entitled: Pointing the Finger. Yours Respectfully: L. Sebastian Anders Director of Media Relations Language Fairness National www.languagefainess.com www.languagefairness.org

Note: www.languagefainess.com www.languagefairness.org