Bilingual Ottawa
 

This whole issue confuses me. I thought Ottawa was already bilingual as Mayor Watson says. Aren't there counter arguments asking to end Ottawa bilingualism? What concretely are these students demanding and what are the pros and cons?


Franco-Ontarian students demand Ottawa be officially bilingual
Students argue Canada 150 celebrations offer perfect opportunity

Close to 1,000 Franco-Ontarian students marched through downtown Ottawa Wednesday morning, demanding Ottawa city council declare the city officially bilingual.

Analysis: Why the debate on making Ottawa officially bilingual won't go away
The sea of green and white marchers, representing the colours of the Franco-Ontarian flag, chanted calls for a bilingual Ottawa, as they made their way from Strathcona Park in Sandy Hill, to rally and speeches outside Ottawa City Hall.

While the request from Ottawa's Francophone community is not new, the students said the upcoming July 1st celebration for Canada's 150th anniversary presents the ideal time to make the declaration.

"This is simply taking a policy that's working quite well for many, and making it official," said Grade 11 student and president of the Fédération de la jeunesse franco-ontarienne Pablo Mhanna-Sandoval, referring to the city's bilingualism policy adopted in 2001.

"If a mayor and council were to be elected in the future, and they were less friendly to francophones, it would be very easy for them to repeal these policies," said Mhanna-Sandoval.

Pablo
Grade 11 student Pablo Mhanna-Sandoval, president of the Fédération de la jeunesse franco-ontarienne, says he doesn't believe fears of rising costs and lost jobs if Ottawa is made officially bilingual are true. (Giacomo Panico/CBC)

Fears unfounded, say marchers

Mhanna-Sandoval admits critics of making Ottawa officially bilingual have so far been successful in delivering their message, when they argue the city could face additional costs for language training, or when they argue that many city jobs would become unavailable to unilingual English candidates.

"The scare mongering on the other side has had an effect," said Mhanna-Sandoval. He said he believes fears of fees, economic loss and job losses are unfounded.

To grade 10 student Éliane Fiset, a bilingual declaration would also boost Ottawa's profile both nationally and internationally.

"The country doesn't see Ottawa as bilingual. It sees Ottawa as an anglophone city that has francophone services. It's not the same to me as being officially bilingual," said Fiset.

student franco protest
Franco-Ontarian students march along Laurier Avenue on their way from Strathcona Park to Ottawa city hall. (Giacomo Panico/CBC)

The sight of a thousand Franco-Ontarian youth rallying for their rights in front of city hall was especially significant for some of the adult activists in the crowd.

"I think it's fabulous that they're involved, because it's their future, it's their city, and they want services in French," said Suzanne Copping. the general manager of the Fondation Franco-Ontarienne.

'It's going to happen'

Copping said despite the repeated rejections for official bilingualism, she remains optimistic.

"It's going to happen, for sure. I come from a family that fought for French schools, and we've got them," said Copping.

Not in attendance to hear first hand from the crowd was Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, who was en route to Montreal for meetings with Montreal's mayor Denis Coderre.

An email from Watson's staff Wednesday said the mayor holds the position that the City of Ottawa is in fact bilingual, as stated in the city's bylaws, and that the city's services and programs are all offered to residents in both English and French.

The student's efforts continue Wednesday evening with a rally including musical performances and sketches scheduled at De La Salle High school in Lowertown.​

The City of Ottawa is obligated by provincial law to provide bilingual services. I believe this push is about rewording that to state in provincial law that Ottawa is a bilingual city.

The whole thing is kind of pointless, IMO. It makes zero practical difference on.. anything.

Maybe when it comes to employment in City jobs it will?

I heard tonight on the radio that there is a concern about court actions. As soon as official bilingualism is declared, it is then subject to interpretation by the courts and therefore is no longer controlled by the politicians even if City Council is acting entirely in good faith. The result can be unintended consequences. It is mentioned in the article that job loss is unfounded but we see the implementation of official bilingualism at the federal level. How can people's fears be considered unfounded based on that example?

That's why it can (and should) only happen in conjunction with a legal definition of what "official bilingualism" means in an Ottawa context. It seems to be a missing element of the discussion so far, apart from general assertions that it would simply give legal recognition to the status quo.

Right. I haven't read anything that would put those fears to bed. Except, that is, for the word, quoted in the article, of the president of the Fédération de la jeunesse franco-ontarienne :shrug:

People have lost jobs they already held on permanent basis in the federal government because they weren't bilingual? Really?

It was a criteria that was sometimes used in DRAP job cuts, but only for those that no longer met the linguistic profile of their position so essentially they were no longer meeting the job requirements. The specific example I know of something like 50 people were competing for a few jobs so the person didn't bother spending a bunch of money or time studying to renew their levels as it was a longshot anyway.

You do not know the reality of the 1970s. I knew two people in my own family who 'left' their public service careers at that time because they were not bilingual.

Regardless, this is not necessarily about job loss but loss of future job opportunities.

I listened again to the radio this morning and it was quite clear that this is about steering the city to a much more bilingual future. A specific example was given. If a course is offered in English, it must be offered in French. This means the instructor (who may be hired to offer that specific course) must be bilingual or they must hire a bilingual instructor or the course simply is not offered. The latter may well be the case. Also, if your local arena employee cannot speak French, there may be objections. In the end, more jobs will require bilingualism and this will grow over time.

There is an impression that this really symbolic but when you start asking questions to those who are pushing it, there is more to it. It becomes an easier route towards demanding more french language services than by asking for them under the current laws.

I'm planning on forming a "Anglo Quebec" social justice brigade. Who wants in? We will march in the streets of Quebec and fly our massively oversized anglo quebec flags all over the place. Right?

Yeah, that will go over really well.

I am intentionally trying very hard to stay out of the debate because I don't live in Ottawa, however there is an obvious logic flaw that permeates the arguments of the opponents. That is that not speaking language X is somehow an unchangeable status. I fail to grasp how in 2017 the school system in Ottawa (regardless of the board) is still unable to churn out a strong majority of graduates who have at least a passable fluency in both of Canada's fficial languages. (If only to meet the requirements of the city's main employer, the federal government. Which employs far more Ottawans than the City of Ottawa ever will.)

Again, this is based on the fallacy that being unilingual is an unchangeable status like the colour of one's skin.

So these people willingly left government jobs instead of taking a stab at learning French?

Hard to believe that, or at least to be sympathetic.

I was only a kid in the 70s but what I do know of federal bilingualism is that was an imperfect beast for quite some time. Unilingual people were grandfathered into their positions which often led to gaps or breakdowns in bilingual service delivery to the public (for example).

The approach was to "ease in" bilingualism, as opposed to saying "as of Monday, everything has to be bilingual, and if you don't speak French, you're out!"

There is also a semi-infamous test that public servants could (maybe still can) pass in order to get a semi-scientific confirmation that they are cognitively unable to learn a second language. Quite a few unilingual people have passed this test in order to get grandfathered into bilingual positions even though they do not meet the language profile of their job. I know a few people in my wider entourage who had this status as recently as five years ago.

Yes, in the two cases I mentioned, there was a choice. Leave your job and take French language training (when you are in your 50s) or leave your job. Life is too short, so they chose to leave their jobs.

Regardless, your comments about language assumes that the majority can easily become bilingual. I have seen the results of French immersion when hiring people. It is imperfect. And the risk of turning children off of education is real.

The other issue is turning career advancement into language training (who is paying?) instead of improving your other job skills. Or requiring that this be done on your own time, when the person has other life responsibilities. If I had taken a year off my job for French language training, somebody else would now be doing my job. I am in the private sector.

I have no objections to providing French language services at the municipal level but engraving in stone 'official bilingual' status I fear will be abused by certain people to the point that the majority may no longer be able to participate in municipal jobs or at the least, will be blocked from turning a municipal job into a career as has happened in the federal public service.

Knock yourself out, I guess, but what is the relevance to the subject of this thread?

By "leave your job and take French language training", I take it you mean "take a leave of absence to go on full-time French language training for six months, with full pay, and have the right to return to the exact same job"? :P

This flies in the face of the reality of second language teaching in scores of places around the world. Where virtually all students end up attaining a decent level in their second and even third languages.

If there is still such a challenge in achieving this in Ottawa (and indeed in all of Canada) it's not just the education system - it's also partly due to the heart not being in it. There is a psychological blockage on the part of many about learning a second language, either because it's viewed as an unfair imposition, illegimate or artificial, or simply "giving in to the other guy"...

Neighbourhoods are de facto segregated by language, schools are de jure segregated by language (and therefore so all sorts of extrecirrciular activities), pop culture is in English. If you speak English at home, the likelyhood of having exposure to French (without significant effort) outside of the allocated time in the classroom is pretty low.

The rest of the world called. They'd like to have a word with you about this.

I have to admit I am not entirely convinced of the usefulness of official bilingualism for Ottawa's francophone community, even if I also don't think it would be that onerous for the non-francophone majority in the city either.

It seems like the intense lobbying efforts and political capital expended on this over several years might have been put to better use, like expanded post-secondary education offerings in French for Franco-Ontarians. Among other more pressing things.

But anyway, that's just me. What do I know?