"More French in the ceremonies"

[dieseluphammerdown]

Just a bit more about the disaster that was the opening ceremony .

lympic Games: Language Disaster
Richard Cléroux by Richard Cléroux
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Article online since February 18th 2010, 23:52
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Olympic Games: Language Disaster
John Furlong receives a Canadian flag in a box from sports minister Gary Lunn in recognition of Furlong's "excellent" work on the Vancouver Olympics
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Olympic Games: Language Disaster
We could see it coming a long way off, like a big tsunami still far off at sea.
The language catastrophe predicted a year ago finally hit the Olympic Games at the opening ceremonies last week, leaving Canada hurt and divided.

The anger that swept through French Canada last week has turned into long-term sadness this week. It’s an old Canadian story.

Federalists and separatists are saying the same thing – it was a disaster. That’s always a tip-off something is wrong. And when even the Official Languages Commission agrees, that seals it.

There were 20 million watching on television in Canada and 3.2 billion people more in the rest of the world; it was our golden opportunity to show off is to the world what Canada is all about.

Worse than the lack of French at the ceremony, was the absence of the North American French culture in the presentation. Bring on the all-English show.

The world saw snow and it saw Indians, and even a giant polar bear. It saw the Prairies and the Rocky Mountains, and that is good, because Canada is all of those things. But where was French culture in North America? Where was the rest of our mosaic? And those other shrines, Niagara Falls and the CN Tower, and the Atlantic Coast?

The worse part is that John Furlong, the man responsible for the disaster still can’t grasp what he he did. “It’s no big deal,” he said. Ouch! That one hurt.

Consider Heritage Minister James Moore who poured $20 million into a show that didn’t reflect the Canadian values of language and diversity that his ministry preaches day in and day out.

Moore did have plenty of warning. The first indication came a year ago when the Vancouver organizers put on a dry run of the opening ceremony without a single Francophone performer. They would fix that, they said. They never did.

On the big day, all they managed was one Francophone performer, Garou, an afterthought. They said they called up Celine Dion but she was busy working on another baby, so they just gave up.

The Olympic flame ceremony was no better. When the flame arrived in Moncton, the whole thing was in English. “”Sorry” they said. Then it came to Ottawa once again in English only. Finally the Vancouver organizers were hauled before a Commons committee, before Harper closed down Parliament, and they made more excuses and more promises.

The Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser had enough. Late last year he travelled to Vancouver to see for himself what in Canada’s bilingual name was going on.

Fraser had to throw a fit just to get a few bilingual signs. They really didn’t understand.

Then it came out they hadn’t budgeted translation money. So Moore came up with an extra $7.5 million so they could print up a visitors’ guide, several brochures and an athletes’ manual in both languages.

The Francophonie people came from Europe to investigate and they posted a Swiss official, Pascal Couchepin to report back to them. Still Furlong and his people couldn’t see anything wrong.

Bad enough they couldn’t respect Canadian language law, they couldn’t respect French as the first language of the Olympics, which goes back to 1898 and the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertrin.

Maybe Vancouver should have never bid on the Games in the first place if it wasn’t ready to play by the language rules.

The sad guy in all this is Moore, the manchild minister from British Columbia, proud graduate of French immersion. If there is a guy in cabinet who had wanted B.C. to look good in the eyes of Canada, it’s Moore.

Now he’s stuck as the fall guy. Last week he was going around saying how “sorry” he was. Now he’s had orders from head office not to criticize any more, so he pretends nothing was wrong.

It might be time for Moore to consider another job. As for Furlong, he still goes around saying: “It’s no big deal.”

But he’s stopped joking that he’s bilingual – English and Celtic. It’s not funny any more.

[maxx]

Nobody really cares about this......it's such a trivial sidebar to the whole thing.....

[Liberty and Truth]

Nobody really cares about this......it's such a trivial sidebar to the whole thing.....

exactly - ignore - done with this...

[dieseluphammerdown]

Nobody really cares about this......it's such a trivial sidebar to the whole thing.....

exactly - ignore - done with this...

Thank you.

[TheGnome]

Bad enough they couldn’t respect Canadian language law, they couldn’t respect French as the first language of the Olympics, which goes back to 1898 and the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertrin.


Look at the date, the world has evolved. And at the rate we are going English will no longer be the international language.

[SpaceAddict]

Well if Quebec wants more French then they can put the Olympics on by themselves. Problem solved.

[Liberty and Truth]

Well if Quebec wants more French then they can put the Olympics on by themselves. Problem solved.

They tried that once - in 1976. They just finished paying off the debt in 2006 - 30 years later. The stories of corruption from that Olympics are legendary - Olympic facilities budgeted to cost $300 million ended up costing Montreal $1.5 billion - which was a lot of money in 1976. Look it up yourself, as I know the resident Francophone here will just cry "racist" to obscure the truth like on every other topic about Quebec. There's a reason its going to be a long long time before another Olympics ever gets to Quebec.

[dieseluphammerdown]

Well if Quebec wants more French then they can put the Olympics on by themselves. Problem solved.

They tried that once - in 1976. They just finished paying off the debt last year. The stories of corruption from that Olympics are legendary. Look it up yourself, as I know the resident Francophone here will just cry "rascist" to obscure the truth like on every other topic about Quebec. There's a reason its going to be a long long time before another Olympics ever gets to Quebec.

BLAH BLAH BLAH, What.?

I hope at least you can believe the vomit you spew.!!

[Liberty and Truth]

They tried that once - in 1976. They just finished paying off the debt last year. The stories of corruption from that Olympics are legendary. Look it up yourself, as I know the resident Francophone here will just cry "rascist" to obscure the truth like on every other topic about Quebec. There's a reason its going to be a long long time before another Olympics ever gets to Quebec.

BLAH BLAH BLAH, What.?

I hope at least you can believe the vomit you spew.!!

Don't believe me at all - in fact I never ask anyone to believe me without providing links - look it up yourself Mr. Blah blah:

http://www.insidethegames.com/past-olym ... -montreal/

[dieseluphammerdown]

BLAH BLAH BLAH, What.?

I hope at least you can believe the vomit you spew.!!

Don't believe me at all - in fact I never ask anyone to believe me without providing links - look it up yourself Mr. Blah blah:

http://www.insidethegames.com/past-olym ... -montreal/

I can live with that minor set back , as the games themselves were a success.

That's more than these games in your own back yard will be able to say.

To many western separatists with hidden agendas running things here.

[Liberty and Truth]

Don't believe me at all - in fact I never ask anyone to believe me without providing links - look it up yourself Mr. Blah blah:

http://www.insidethegames.com/past-olym ... -montreal/

I can live with that minor set back , as the games themselves were a success.

That's more than these games in your own back yard will be able to say.

To many western separatists with hidden agendas running things here.

yes - I am a western separatist with a hidden agenda because I pointed out why Montreal was $1.2 billion over budget on their Olympics, and why they won't get another Olympics because of that. You got me. Your powers of observation should be used for good instead of evil - you are that good.

BTW - since you live here now, "these games" are in your own back yard too - much more so than the Montreal games in 1976. Were you even alive in 1976? I doubt it. So not sure what your measure of success is - at least the Vancouver games has everyone attending, most of Africa didn't attend the 1976 Olympics. But before you accuse me yet again of spewing vomit (weird term) here's another link to support that statement:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 555450.stm

Boy - gotta hate Google - always making all of this information available to back up your statements...so frustrating for angry people like you with no ground to stand on to bully people....

[dieseluphammerdown]

I can live with that minor set back , as the games themselves were a success.

That's more than these games in your own back yard will be able to say.

To many western separatists with hidden agendas running things here.

yes - I am a western separatist with a hidden agenda because I pointed out why Montreal was $1.2 billion over budget on their Olympics, and why they won't get another Olympics because of that. You got me. Your powers of observation should be used for good instead of evil - you are that good.

How are those over runs any different then Vancouver's.?

Oh right they happened in Quebec not B.C.!!

[LoneWolf_53]

BLAH BLAH BLAH, What.?

I hope at least you can believe the vomit you spew.!!

Don't believe me at all - in fact I never ask anyone to believe me without providing links - look it up yourself Mr. Blah blah:

http://www.insidethegames.com/past-olym ... -montreal/

What? Support an argument with actual facts? Who would'a thunk it. :dyinglaughing: :dyinglaughing: :dyinglaughing:

[LoneWolf_53]

How are those over runs any different then Vancouver's.?

Oh right they happened in Quebec not B.C.!!

Well for one thing I'm of the mind that it might just be prudent to actually wait for some solid numbers after the event is finished before simply shooting from the hip and using speculation because it makes for good fodder.

I wasn't an Olympic supporter but before comparing Vancouver to the dismal failures of Montreal some actual hard data is required.

[Liberty and Truth]

How are those over runs any different then Vancouver's.?

Oh right they happened in Quebec not B.C.!!

Well for one thing I'm of the mind that it might just be prudent to actually wait for some solid numbers after the event is finished before simply shooting from the hip and using speculation because it makes for good fodder.

I wasn't an Olympic supporter but before comparing Vancouver to the dismal failures of Montreal some actual hard data is required.

and I'm not comparing the two - just pointing out that Montreal's Olympics were 4 times over budget (unbelivable!) - I don't think any Olympics before or since has been that over budget - especially when you factor in inflation and the value of a dollar in 1975-1976 to a value of a dollar now.