Should Supreme Court judges have to be perfectly bilingual?

Gord

Those who don't understand where this is headed should read the book " Bilingual Today: French Tomorrow" When you use bilingualism as a prerequisite for promotion in all federal government jobs, you will end up with a higher percentage of Quebecers in the top government positions. (global survival dictates that you need to learn English as the Language of Business") Postal, Armed Forces, etc. Then once the ball starts rolling it will be too hard to stop it and those top jobs will be predominately French speaking Quebecers. . . .and I have a problem with a minority group holding a majority of the top government positions.

I wonder, once the French born government workers are comfortable in their top federal jobs, will they make decisions that are beneficial to both the English and French speaking population? Sort of like the one sided decisions that are being made in Quebec presently (Bill 101) where the federal government and Human Rights Commission are turning a blind eye.

The more we designate jobs, government services etc. to be "bilingual" the more we allow the country to become French. – with potential harmful results. I agree that a second or third language is beneficial. I just think that restricting jobs or services to "bilingual" designates becomes unfair and we lose out on often higher qualified and better suited persons.

JamesHalifax

All of your JUSTICE ARE BELONG TO US!!!

Taxslave

As long as the judge can speak English and knows the law I do not if he/she speaks any other language.

JamesHalifax

Theresa J correctly surmised:
"I vote NO. We are dealing with the law, so only facts should matter"

I agree Theresa, however, we are also dealing with "Multiculturalism and bilingualism"

Facts have little if anything to do with the law. Thats how we end up with crappy legislation like the Gun registry, or even more expensive proposals such as National Day care.

It just has to sound good to the naive, non-critical thinkers. All the others; usually in the minority, have to pay for it.

Roy

You are way off the mark on this. People in the National Capital Region suffer this one sided bilingual issue and become second class citizens (arguably replacing the Quebec-ers of a few decades ago). To be bilingual in this area means to be Francophone. And it is not a two way street, Francophone s have no where near the competency in English that the English are required to have in French to be considered bilingual. High School immersion student cannot get jobs as parliamentary pages because their French isn’t good enough.
The BNA was meant to protect French language rights, not place their citizens above others in this country. Not to give francophone s special treatment including jobs over other ethnic groups.
The political compensations we make to the province of Quebec have put them into the ruling class with political candidates afraid to say anything against bilingualism. The pendulum has swung too far!
But the crux is, that, just as Franco politicians have managed to change the laws to protect Francophones over Anglophones and others, it is likely that so-called bilingual Supreme court Judges would even further place the rights of Quebecers over other ethnic citizens. Once again, for bilingual, read Francophone!
Bilingualism looks great on paper and people outside this area can pat themselves on the back at what a great and fair country we have. But if the National Capital Region model is exported to their neighbourhood they will freak. Bilingual (Francophone) Postmaster’s in unilingual English towns like Pakenham, Ontario anyone?

Magan

If this law passes there will be alot of people cheating on their taxes. You might as well keep the money for yourself as give it to some rich old guy from India!!!

NMB

Only 23% of Canadians speak French, only in New Brunswick (30%)and Quebec (82%) is French really used. In all the other provinces, only 2% speak French so why should the Supreme Court?

Terence Carmichael

I am a retiree. Inequities imposed by legislated bilingualism has eroded my pride in our civil and caring country into a festering distrust of politicians who craft laws and rules that fly in the face of our collective reason. It is time to shape Canada by well meaning, logical, reasonably educated and fair minded Canadians and resolve issues such as this by national plebicite. Whatever the result, at least it would be the national will of Canadians . I trust Canadians to generally make good choices about serious matters more than I trust politicians and appointees who have succeeded in turning off the country from voting.at election time. They have disenchanted most of us. Surely the supreme court knows how to allocate the cases that come before them and adjust their ranks to handle them as they see fit from time to time. NO, SC appointment must not be conditional on bilingual ability.

http://intensedebate.com/people/KevinSullivan KevinSullivan

If the Supreme Court Judges have to be bilingual in order to do a good job and represent all Canadians then Members of Parliament or at least the governing party should all have to be bilingual as they represent all Canadians in the legislation and laws they pass.

Compulsory Supreme Court bilingualism a politically correct initiative…oh yes.
Ridiculous…of course!!

JamesHalifax

Hey……….did you hear the Liberals’ next private members bill?

They feel that the NDP has outdone them with this Supreme Court bilingual requirement, so Michael Ignatieff is having Hedy Fry draft a new private Members bill of her own. Only criminals who are fluent in both official languages can be charged for their crimes.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Bernie37 Bernie37

Yes. We are a bilingual country. Our top judicial people must be able to communicate in both languages. Every citizen needs to heart in either French or English.
There is no worry about losing qualified candidates. There is a pool of many more than 9 who are eminently qualified and are bilingual . The difference in their degree of qualification is too minimal to warrant consideration.

Gord

Well stated John. Those who don't understand this should read the book " Bilingual Today: French Tomorrow" When you use bilingualism as a prerequisite for promotion in all federal government jobs, you will end up with a higher percentage of Quebecers in the top government positions. (for the reason you mentioned) Postal, Armed Forces, etc. Then once the ball starts rolling it will be too hard to stop it and those top jobs will be predominately French speaking Quebecers. . . .and I have a problem with a minority group holding a majority of the top government positions. I wonder, once the French born government workers are comfortable in their top federal jobs, will they make decisions that are beneficial to both the English and French speaking population? Sort of like the one sided decisions that are being made in Quebec presently (Bill 101) where the federal government is turning a blind eye.

The more we designate jobs, government services etc. to be "bilingual" the more we allow the country to become French. I agree that a second or third language is beneficial. I just think that restricting jobs or services to "bilingual" designates becomes unfair and we lose out on often higher qualified and better suited persons.

Gino

Actually, bilingualism will always favor the Anglophones, because of the power of attraction of the english language. For example, in a bilingual family (mother French and father English) living outside Quebec, the spoken language within the family is English at 80% (even more if the mother is the anglophone). That means bilingualism can lead to assimilation thus disappearance. That is one argument used by the francophone separatist that I can understand. And I'm not even born a francophone.