Canadian Heritage Minister: Vancouver Olympics Lacks French

[Babbler]

Canada's French-English strife flares at Olympics

By DAVID CRARY
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 14, 2010; 10:17 PM

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- For Olympic organizers, it's a tough challenge - trying to stage a bilingual French-English games in a province with few French-speakers and widespread cynicism about Canada's policy of two official languages.

Millions of dollars have been spent to erect bilingual signs in the Olympic zone, recruit French-speaking volunteers, and ensure translation of news conferences, speeches and documents.

Yet all those efforts failed to avert controversy, as many residents of French-speaking Quebec - and the federal Cabinet minister with the language portfolio - complained that the opening ceremony had too little French content for a country where it's the mother tongue of about 23 percent of the population.

"I was disappointed there wasn't as much French as we were expecting, as we were told that there was going to be," Heritage Minister James Moore told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday.

Harsher criticism came from the president of the Montreal-based Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, which advocates for Francophone rights.

"It was really pitiful," Mario Beaulieu said. "It shows that official bilingualism in Canada is a farce. It's only stated in theory to calm linguistic tides in Quebec, but the reality is it doesn't work."

Coincidentally, Quebec's contribution to the Canadian Olympic team was dramatically demonstrated Sunday. Native French speakers make up more than 20 percent of the overall roster, including moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau, who became the first Canadian ever to win an Olympic medal on home territory.

About 85 percent of Canada's 6.8 million native French-speakers live in Quebec, where French is the official language and where separatist sentiment remains strong enough to influence federal policies.

British Columbia, by contrast, has one of Canada's lowest rates of native French speakers - less than 55,000 out of 4 million people, according to the latest Statistics Canada figures. Opinion polls over the years have found British Columbians among the most skeptical of all Canadians about the merits of bilingualism, and the multiethnic province now has far more people who speak South Asian or Chinese dialects than speak French.

Nonetheless, the Vancouver Organizing Committee, as it prepared for the Olympics, pledged to deliver "a bilingual experience." It equipped many of its 3,000-plus French-speaking volunteers with "Bonjour" pins, ensured that the bulk of Vancouver 2010 merchandise would have bilingual logos, and arranged for play-by-play commentary and venue public announcements to be in both official languages.

VANOC nonetheless encountered a barrage of criticism over the opening ceremony, even though the show included numerous Francophone performers and the main speeches were either in both languages or translated on a video screen.

"We take any concerns by anyone seriously, and in this case it's one of our government partners," said VANOC spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade, referring to Moore's critique.

"We listen," Smith-Valade said. "We'll adapt if necessary."

She said the ceremony, while directed by an Australian, reflected the deep involvement of two prominent producers from Quebec, as well as acrobats trained at a circus school in Montreal. And she noted that of the eight famous Canadians selected to carry the Olympic flag, three were Quebeckers - retired Gen. Romeo Dallaire, race-car driver Jacques Villeneuve and astronaut Julie Payette.

And there was one French-Canadian superstar who had been wooed by VANOC for the ceremony but was unable to appear - Celine Dion.

VANOC did stress the key role awarded to Quebec singer Garou, who uses only one name and performed in French just before the climactic moments of the ceremony. That didn't impress Jean-Marc Garand, a graphic designer in Montreal.

"I was angry about it," he said. "We're an important piece of Canadian history and culture, and I felt like we were mostly ignored, and I don't know if we were forgotten or if it was on purpose, or which is worse."

One striking example of English dominance over French in the ceremony came in the emotional speech by John Furlong, VANOC's CEO, whose French is not graceful. His welcome to the Olympic community, and his passionate evocation of Canadian spirit, was delivered almost entirely in English, with a few French phrases thrown in.

Francine Bolduc, VANOC's director of official languages, said she and her colleagues decided it was best for Furlong to speak mostly in the language he was comfortable with.

"We thought we could not put any additional pressure to make it more bilingual," she said. "With this speech, it's so important for the person who delivers it to really feel what they are saying."

In some respects, the challenges facing VANOC and Canada in regard to bilingualism are shared by the International Olympic Committee. The modern Olympic movement was founded by a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin, and the IOC retains French as an official language, along with English, even though its role as a dominant global language has receded somewhat in recent decades.

The IOC's multilingual president, Jacques Rogge, delivered roughly half his opening speech in French.

---

Associated Press writer Amy Luft in Montreal contributed to this report.

So, I didn't see the opening ceremonies. How much French was there? How much French is there at the main events? Was it too little, or too much, or just enough?

 

[kosiosko 1]

its a bit strange when one considers the first language of the olympic movement is french, so french is always spoken first then locale langage, my understanding is that the city bids for the olympics not the country

 

[Karalysia]

Quebec should secede, Canada should crush it and get your civil war over with.

 

[civ_king]

LOLWUT??? They said everything in French first...

 

[Arwon]

It's really not reasonable to say that fulfilling their mandatory minimum official IOC requirements is doing enough. By that logic, Beijing and Sydney were supporting Canada's bilingual policies by conducting the official parts in French. It would have been nice to see some more singing in French, as long as Celine Dion wasn't involved.

That said, I didn't think there was a huge linguistic problem at the ceremony. The policy of bilingualism means everyone can speak in either language. Michaelle Jean did just that when she opened the games. Jacques Rogge switched back and forth, and bless his heart, the leader of the org-com attempted a few halting words too.

Where there was a big problem, however, was in the general artistic ceremonies. Canada's French heritage was the glaring omission and I for one was assuming it would come in for criticism. Given that there was a long, admittedly pretty awesome section on Canada's Celtic heritage and large sections devoted to the First Nations/Metis/Inuit, I was really surprised that the French Canadians didn't rate a reference. Nary an accordion, fleur de lis or stripey shirt to be seen.

 

[civ_king]

They did a whole thing on Quebec during the ceremony...

 

[Arwon]

Really? I thought I'd seen every part... musta missed a bit. Huh.

 

[Evie]

They did a whole thing on Quebec during the ceremony...

I watched the ceremony and saw no such thing...

And...yeah. I was less than thrilled with the ceremony personally. Not even for lack of French language (though that was a bit annoying too), so much as for the amount of part the whole French part of Canadian history and culture was given.

Off the top of my head, the references:
1. One song in French.
2. One passing visual reference to French-Canadian mythology (the fiddling devil in a flying canoe at the start of the fiddling sequence)
3. One extreme blink and you'll miss it passing reference in the "We are more" slam poetry ("Rockets and Great Ones/Little Number 9 and 99").
4. One quote by a French author during the "Hymns of the North" segment. Translated to English.

I feel included.

(not)

(Don't worry about it, Anglo people. You got to rub our face in how much more important English is in Canada; and we get to rub your face in the fact that while you were busy with ceremonies, we were busy bringing home the first Olympic Gold won on Canadian soil. Deal?)

 

[History_Buff]

One striking example of English dominance over French in the ceremony came in the emotional speech by John Furlong, VANOC's CEO, whose French is not graceful. His welcome to the Olympic community, and his passionate evocation of Canadian spirit, was delivered almost entirely in English, with a few French phrases thrown in.

Now this I don't understand. John Furlong clearly knows no French when you look at how hard he butchered his French portions. But at least the man tried; gotta give him some credit for that.


And what's the percentage of Francophone Canadians that also speak English? Somehow I doubt a lot of people were left out, especially since I'm sure RDI did a full commentary.

 

[Evie]

By "tried" they mean all of one sentence in French.

As for the percentage who speak english, I'd guess around 40%-ish. But the issue isn't about who understood what - if it was about understanding, I wouldn't care what language it's in, I speak both languages, and use English at least as frequently as French.

It's about representation, and inclusiveness. It's about accepting us, our language and our culture as a fundamental and sizeable part of Canada and its history, and showing it, both in your dealings with us and in how you present Canada to the world.

When "We used the sort of theatrics they have in Montreal!" is one of your main explanation for "French inclusiveness", it's just pathetic.

 

[Winner]

Screw French. It's no longer a language with a global reach and it's about time the French speakers realized it and got over it.

I am sick of French being treated as if it was equal to English or something. In the EU, the French are making lives of politicians and civil servant miserable by demanding they speak French whenever the French want. French is spoken by fewer people in Europe than German, yet it still has a better position that it deserves.

 

[Evie]

Because, of course, that should have a bearing in whether a country that constitutionally has two languages, and whose culture is largely founded on two distinct cultures, should take care to showcase the smaller of these two language and culture at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, where it is traditional to showcase the cultures of the host country?

 

[Arwon]

Um, in Canada it is equal with English. French's "global reach" matters not a jot to that.

 

[Camikaze]

it's about the 20%+ of Canadians whose mother tongue is French

It seems your argument is that the ceremony should've focused 50-50 on the French roots of Canada, when really an equitable representation would be 80-20. And from watching small portions of the ceremony, I thought there was an awful lot of French for a nation with such a large English speaking majority, albeit if that French was mandated due to Olympic ceremony protocol with speaking the IOC language.

 

[useless]

Aren't the Canadian-French in Canada a minority? Thus they shoudn't be over represented?

 

[Winner]

Because, of course, that should have a bearing in whether a country that constitutionally has two languages, and whose culture is largely founded on two distinct cultures, should take care to showcase the smaller of these two language and culture at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, where it is traditional to showcase the cultures of the host country?

I was taking about the situation in general - French is totally over-represented in international institutions.

As for Canada, I see no reason why should French be used first. It's not a majority language and F is below E alphabetically, so it should be used as second after English.

In any case, most French Canadians seem to be fluent in English, so I really don't understand why they're making so much fuss about it.

 

[emzie]

Something tells me if Quebec City had won the bid, English would have been treated far better.

Screw French. It's no longer a language with a global reach and it's about time the French speakers realized it and got over it.

I am sick of French being treated as if it was equal to English or something. In the EU, the French are making lives of politicians and civil servant miserable by demanding they speak French whenever the French want. French is spoken by fewer people in Europe than German, yet it still has a better position that it deserves.

If you ever host the Olympics, I hope you also support not speaking Czech during the ceremonies since it's a language with truly no global reach.

 

[Shekwan]

25% is a big proportion of the population - French should definitely be spoken just as much as English. It doesn't matter if those French speakers by and large know English too.

Place aux jeux!

I'd love to see them try and hold an Olympics (a real one, not Special Olympics) in Ireland and the attempts to keep Irish on a level heading with English despite the fact less than 100,000 people speak it.

 

[Winner]

If you ever host the Olympics, I hope you also support not speaking Czech during the ceremonies since it's a language with truly no global reach.

Eh, I see my rather simple logic is difficult for some to follow. OK, I'll try harder:

If there were two official languages here in the Czech Rep., say Czech and German, it would be perfectly OK to use just English and Czech during the ceremonies - English because it's a sort of global language now and Czech because it's a majority language in the host country.

Since in Canada's case the global language is also the majority language, it would be legitimate to use only English. BUT, since the French are so hyper-sensitive, let's give them some French - it deserves its second place. Using it first on all occasions would be ridiculous.

 

[kosiosko 1]

Eh, I see my rather simple logic is difficult for some to follow. OK, I'll try harder:

If there were two official languages here in the Czech Rep., say Czech and German, it would be perfectly OK to use just English and Czech during the ceremonies - English because it's a sort of global language now and Czech because it's a majority language in the host country.

Since in Canada's case the global language is also the majority language, it would be legitimate to use only English. BUT, since the French are so hyper-sensitive, let's give them some French - it deserves its second place. Using it first on all occasions would be ridiculous.

in the Czech Rep. french would be used first, the I.O.C 's oficial first language, English is their second ofical language, I not sure which would be used second, english or Czech, but french is always used first, in canada french was used first for all offical protacols and to announce all the athletes, english second. the show well thats not canada's but the host CITY's. Its the city that hosts the games not the country.