🚀 go-pugleaf

JFL <jfl@presse-ouest.mb.ca> wrote:

|Opus wrote:

|> How will that help my grandparents? They can only read Ukranian with
|> any accuarcy. Why doesn't MTS print bills in Ukranian as well, since
|> according to the last census, people in Manitoba of Ukranian descent
|> outnumber those of French descent. And what about our fellow citizens
|> of German descent living in Steinbach, Winkler and Morden? And most of
|> all, what about our First Nation peoples?

|Because of this status your grand'pas has, he may not have been the best
|person to teach you some major facts of canadian and manitoban history.

He did not teach me anything about Canadian history, simply because he
indeed would not have been the best to do so.

|Canada was discovered by Frenchmen. With their spirit of Voyageur (that
|we celebrate in those days here in Winnipeg with Festival du Voyageur:
|http://www.festivalvoyageur.mb.ca), Frenchmen discovered for France the
|whole half East Of North America, up to Manitoba, down to Mississipi.

I am aware of the valuable contributiuon the French have made to North
American history. But they werent alone.

|Then French became a minority because of the Immigration politics of the
|Federal Gvt, who "Flooded" the Frenchmen with Englishmen, Ukrainians,
|Germans etc..., who all accepted to be assimilated by the english
|"culture". Then this new Majority (hmm...) deceided to take away the
|french schools, etc...

There simply was no logical reason for them. The political and
cultural landscape had drastcially changed. This was not a conspiracy
against the French but the reality of massive western expansion with
the arrival of the railroad.

|But French population, since the start, always asked for their rights to
|be given back. Like it or not, Manitoba has some rights to give back,
|and they are giving them back one drop after the other (some kind of bad
|faith).

To what end? "Preserving culture" is the catch phrase often used but
why does the "culture" need any preserving? Here is a little Ukranian
history. Are you aware that 6 million Ukrainians died under Stalin yet
the culture survived. Even more dramatic, Jewish people have preserved
their culture and language through several thousand years torture,
oppression, slavery, attempted genocide AND the complete lack of a
homeland up untill 1948. They didn't recieve help from ANY government.
Several governments systematically tried to wipe them out. If a strong
vibrant culture can survive mass murder then how can the French
culture be in any danger? Unless it is a weak, feeble culture then the
people of thet "culture" only have themselves to blame. PEOPLE are
culture, NOT buildings and bilingual signs. 

|As European cultures, two peoples have equal rights in Canada: French
|and English. These decisions about school in St-Vital/Winnipeg area, and
|about a bilingual public service (partially bilingual telephone invoice)
|are good news for Manitoba, but also for Canada.

This is not good news. Providing French service here will not help the
country. I do not expect English service in Quebec. Language services
should depend on what is needed, region by region. Switzerland has
distinctly separate French and German sections. No German is found in
the French section and vice versa. It works well for them. Swiss
political stability is famous.

|I'm not sure if you are a genuine ignorant, or deleberatly an ignorant
|(because if I read you well, you were educated in Canada) when you
|answer what you did to my post.

Not ignorant at all. 

|Not only Qu�bec has to show goodwill to have this country working
|better, sir. Even Ukrainian and their descendants have to show goodwill
|and comprehension to history of this country. Otherwise, it will be the
|same stupid deadlock for decades to come. Even if Qu�bec leaves the
|Confederation.

I believe the Swiss example is the best one for us, with some
modifications. The people of Quebec probably do not care about French
services in the West. They should have no reason to expect it anymore
than I would expect English in Quebec. I fail to see the national
significance of French services here. 

--

*Opus-* <aka Jim> jbuchy@escape.ca   

"Your fears are like a magnet, they will pull
you to your beliefs" -Master Po, original Kung Fu series.
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___/Television, the drug of the nation      \___
   \Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation/
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"And now for something completely different-
                        -a man with 3 buttocks"
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http://www.momi.com/bbws/opus-.htm