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Jeffery Vacante: Mary Simon, Nick Suzuki and the burden of bilingualism – National Post

Oct 29, 2024

New federal and Quebec laws and certain media in the province are making bilingualism a burden to be borne primarily by anglophones

The language skills of Mary Simon are once again coming under scrutiny. Some in the French-language media in Quebec are expressing shock and outrage that Simon, who speaks English and Inuktitut, has so far failed to learn French more than three years after becoming Governor General. This most recent round of criticism comes two years after a number of Quebec nationalists, claiming that Simon’s appointment violated laws mandating bilingualism, filed a lawsuit against the federal government demanding Simon be removed from her position.

Leaving aside the outrageous colonial undertones of such condemnation — demanding the removal of Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General for her failure to acquire only one of the two settler languages imposed on her — these latest attacks on Simon follow similar criticism of Nick Suzuki, the captain of the Montreal Canadiens, for his failure to learn French after five years on the team, as well as of Michael Rousseau, the president of Air Canada, who was pilloried for his failure to learn French after living in Montreal for 14 years.

What these attacks show is an increasingly aggressive campaign on the part of certain nationalists in the province to make it socially unacceptable to live as a unilingual anglophone in Quebec. They also reflect a larger attempt of late to mandate bilingualism on more federal employees. The newly revised Official Languages Act, which imposes more French requirements on federally regulated companies as well as making companies that are located in Quebec subject to the province’s Charter of the French Language, also requires that certain federal positions, including those of deputy minister as well as Supreme Court justice, be held by individuals who are bilingual and who would not require the use of simultaneous translation services.

Read More: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/mary-simon-nick-suzuki-and-the-burden-of-bilingualism

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