"More French in the ceremonies"

[dieseluphammerdown]

The Queen.??

She's a nobody in this country , the whole royal family thing is a joke.!!


French is as much a part of Canada as english is, that is unless you choose to be narrow minded.

French can be that way, tell them to stop being so desperate to leave Canada(good riddance) and maybe they will get more respect.

Also the west coast has never been very French, so why would the games even have the dual language. It's the Olympics, just speak English. Makes things much quicker, and the sooner this travesty gets done with the better.

Probably for the FACT french is an official language of this country.

[Al Czervic]

I think the criticism is justified. Aside from some token “French” included in some of the speeches there was really very little of Quebec culture or historical contribution to Canada reflected in the opening ceremonies. I am not suggesting that is a bad thing however it is from my perspective an accurate observation.

[Loed]

Is it an official language of the Olympics? Lets go by the majority and speak chinese/english then since that is what the world majority is. The Olympics are a world event being with Van hosting it, not a Canadian event.
Still doesn't explain why French comes first. Just more *bleep* from the East Coast pushing onto the West Coast.

Ohh well at least Vancouver finally saw it's job market soar and some seriously needed infrastructure upgrades. To bad we will all be paying for it for the next 60 years, though granted most of you will be dead by that time. *assumption based on opinions and manners of pushing said opinions*

[nolanrh]

So how about " respect[ing] and reflect[ing] Canada's [Chinese] community", or Punjabi community, or German community? Both of which are more widely used in BC then French.

None of them, except French, are constitutionally enshrined as an official language of Canada.

[dieseluphammerdown]

So how about " respect[ing] and reflect[ing] Canada's [Chinese] community", or Punjabi community, or German community? Both of which are more widely used in BC then French.

None of them, except French, are constitutionally enshrined as an official language of Canada.

Exactly , IMO a lot of this out rage about the French language is a result of the west inferiority complex.

[sooperphreek]

anyone that went to those olympics knew that the french thing was a farce and canada is mostly english. the one thing that bothers me is the fact that we gave in and spoke more french rather than the token amount of english that they probably used in montreal. french is a very small miniority here in BC and the west. i suppose that the french could come here from quebec and whine about the very same thing that we are in this thread. if we are bi-lingual then why cant i find anyone to speak french with? the same entrenched language barriers are the same on either side of the coasts of canada. that being said im glad a guy from quebec who speaks english and french and embodies what it is to be a true canadian won our first medal and perhaps proved that using both languages was a wise thing. could be worse....we could be like the swiss who have french, english, german, and some italian thrown in as their languages.

[c2c]

Gawd! Interesting that in this era of globalization, some are still arguing against simple bilingualism in Canada. Polyglots unite!

IOC protocol determines why French is spoken first. It has nothing to do with bilingualism in Canada.

In terms of why both French and English should be reflected in all aspects of the Olympics in BC, when VANOC received federal funding for the Olympics, they pledged to respect the bilingual and multicultural nature of Canada.

[Liberty and Truth]

So how about " respect[ing] and reflect[ing] Canada's [Chinese] community", or Punjabi community, or German community? Both of which are more widely used in BC then French.

None of them, except French, are constitutionally enshrined as an official language of Canada.

Yes thank you Pierre Trudeau for that.

[unknown]

We need less French all around. What a colossal waste of our taxes having to say and print everything twice. It is just ridiculous. The French speaking population in BC is very small. Most come here with this Quebec attitude that we should pander to them. The bilingual experiment is a failure, it has only served to drive a wider wedge between the French and the rest of us of all other languages. Everyone else learns English not French.

What do they call you in Quebec if you don't speak French? No matter what your ethnic origin, be it Polish, Ukrainian, Chinese or Mexican, if you don't speak French the Quebecers will call you "les anglais". The most narrow minded and racist society in Canada by a long shot.

Frenchies, take your narrow racist viewpoint and Go Home to quebec and separate please.

[melodykulifaj]

Wow, as an English Canadian I am very ashamed of this post. Canada is english AND french. If you don't like it, move to the USA where when they conquered the land they destroyed all other languages to make them all the same. I am proud to say that Canada is a multi-cultural country where many languages are celebrated INCLUDING french.

You all should be ashamed of yourselves, and start to look at how beautiful our country is and how here in Canada its okay to be different, to look different to speak different languages instead of like the USA where nothing but english speaking is valid.

You might not like the french in quebec because you think they are ride but think of what they have had to put up with since britain came over and look them over, people like here on this post have been telling them they are idiots and either should leave or stop speaking their stupid language.. I probably wouldn't be so nice either..

how about instead of taking such a negative stance on the french in canada and in the olympics.. lets all be positive and support our wonderful country in these games, both the amazing french athletes AND english ones.

[refrig_guy77]

I just saw an online article stating that the province of Quebec is upset over the lack of french at these games and they are being treated as second class citizens.
http://sports.ca.msn.com/olympics/artic ... d=23461962

I think it is time to kick these whiny bums out of Canada once and for all!

[dieseluphammerdown]

Ah yet another thread where the western bigot isfreely yapping and shown it's ignorance.

[Liberty and Truth]

Ah yet another thread where the western bigot isfreely yapping and shown it's ignorance.

you write the cheques to keep propping up French as our official second language - then I will stop complaining about it. Also - you justify to me why I'm a Western bigot because I hate continuing to cater to people that are so bigotted that you can't even put up a sign in English in their province without going to jail, yet we are supposedly a "bilingual" country. Explain that one to me there Mr. "I am so englightened".

[c2c]

To understand why Quebec has a signage law, imagine downtown Vancouver bought out by (say) the Chinese. As they buy up downtown businesses, they decide they want to cater to the growing Chinese population in southern BC and change the signage throughout downtown Vancouver to Chinese only. Would the provincial government be justified to pass a signage law?

Essentially this is what happened to downtown Montreal and other towns and villages in Quebec... except the buyers tended to be Americans who used English only signage.

[Bsuds]

To understand why Quebec has a signage law, imagine downtown Vancouver bought out by (say) the Chinese. As they buy up downtown businesses, they decide they want to cater to the growing Chinese population in southern BC and change the signage throughout downtown Vancouver to Chinese only. Would the provincial government be justified to pass a signage law?

Essentially this is what happened to downtown Montreal and other towns and villages in Quebec... except the buyers tended to be Americans who used English only signage.

Ever been to Richmond? I have no clue what most of the stores are cause they are all in Chinese.