May 8, 06: Census & Fudging Language Skills

You may know this already but I received it so ....

StatsCan urging bilingual francophones to ignore call to fudge English skills by Jonathan Montpetit, Ottawa Citizen/CP, May 01, 2006

MONTREAL (CP) - Statistics Canada is urging bilingual francophones to ignore an anonymous e-mail that encourages them to downplay their knowledge of English when they fill out their census forms.

The e-mail [see below] suggests that a higher number of unilingual francophones will prevent the federal government from reducing its services to French-speaking Canadians. "When people say they are bilingual in a census, governments have a tendency to take for granted that the respondents are 50 per cent francophone and 50 anglophone." the e-mail says.

"So that services offered to francophones don't diminish, don't forget to indicate that you only speak French!"

[....] A person's mother tongue is the only criteria Ottawa uses to gauge the range of French-language services it will offer outside of Quebec, Corbeil said.

Second languages spoken by francophones have no impact on the services the federal government offers in French. [. . . . ]

How very interesting -- fowarded.

Marv Jason (retired from the Office of the Auditor General) has always advised people not to divulge the fact that they speak French because there is the tendency to classify "bilingual" citizens as "Francophones". The more people say that they speak French, the more it will be taken to mean that bilingual services are needed in places that have few French-speakers. This was revealed in Ottawa last year when Alain Poirier was quoted as saying that a "Francophone is anyone who speaks French". Alain Poirier of the French Language Services Advisory Committee in Ottawa has used this definition to boost the figure of French-speakers from 16% to 38% in the Ottawa area. When asked for her opinion on this, Peggy Feltmate, an Ottawa Councilor said:

My understanding was Alain Poirier was asked for a definition of Francophone and provided a definition based on what is in the dictionary. The definition Alain provided matches the definition in the Concise Oxford Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines a "Francophone" as "a French speaking person" when the word is used as a noun and "French-speaking" when the word is used as an adjective.

Marv's message - "For those completing the long census form, remember what you say will affect many funding decisions that will be made for your province. Quebeckers have honed this phase to a fine art. Emails directing them how to complete their forms have circulated widely. The language question is the first. The higher the number of Canadians that understands French, the higher the demands will be for more French services ". [....]

Anonymous message being circulated on the internet

Attention à tous et toutes les francophones
Français seulement

Dans le prochain recensement (le mardi 16 mai 2006), il est important pour les francophones d'indiquer qu'ils parlent le francais seulement.

Bien que le fait d'être bilingue soit un atout pour les francophones dans la plupart des situations, celle-ci les désavantage lors du recensement. Les gouvernements ont tendance à prendre pour acquis que les répondants dits bilingues sont 50 % francophones et 50 % anglophones.

Pour ne pas que les services offerts aux francophones diminuent, n'oubliez pas d'indiquer que vous parlez le francais seulement!

Précision
Passez-vous le mot...

Statistiques Canada conclut, de facto, que de tous les répondants ayant coché la case "bilingue", 50% sont anglophones et 50% sont francophones, et donc, ils ne financent, pour la culture francophone, que le nombre qui représente la moitié des répondants bilingues, ce qui est incorrect et ce qui réduit également l'obligation financière du Fédéral envers la minorité (Francophones hors Québec). Sachant que le gouvernement n'accorde des services en français que "là où le nombre l'exige", nous devons indiquer clairement que notre langue est bien le français pour être comptés comme un, et non comme la moitié d'un Francophone ! Ainsi, si dans une communauté de 5000 francophones, ceux-ci indiquent qu'ils sont bilingues, il n'y aura que 2500 francophones enregistrés et l'offre des services en français en portera les conséquences... Et la culture francophone en subira les contrecoups...
Source inconnue
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ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Attention to all French-speaking people, "French only In the next census" (Tuesday May 16, 2006). It is important for the French-speaking people to indicate that they only speak French. Although the fact of being bilingual is an asset for the French-speaking people in the majority of situations, this is a disadvantage at the time of the census. The governments tend to take for granted that "bilingual" means 50 % French-speaking and 50 % English-speaking. This could mean that the services offered to the French-speaking people will decrease. Do not forget to indicate that you only speak French! Pass the word...

Statistics Canada concludes, de facto, that citizens who tick the "bilingual" box, 50% are English-speaking and 50% are French-speaking, and thus, they will not finance the French-speaking culture and reduces the financial obligation of the Federal govt. towards the minority (French-speaking people except Quebec).

Knowing how the government only grants French services "where the number requires it", we must state clearly that our language is French to be counted like one, and not like half of a French-speaking person!

Thus, if in a community of 5000 French-speaking people, those indicate that they are bilingual, it will have only 2500 recorded French-speaking people there and offers French services accordingly ... And the French-speaking culture will suffer the consequences...

Possibly of interest:

Rogers Cable 22 - May 10th

People in the Ottawa area may want to tune in to Rogers Cable 22 for a show called, "Talk Ottawa" on May 10th from 9:00 - 10:00 pm to participate in a call-in show featuring Graham Fraser, author of, "Sorry, I don't speak French"; Dyane Adam, Commissioner of Official Languages; Jean-Serge Brisson, President of the Libertarian Party and Kim McConnell, President of Canadians for Language Fairness.