[PTBO]

I liked the Vancouver cartoon but I think I'll comment on your latest blog post about the Oppening ceremonies. I largely agree- it was far too Canadian and often cringe indudcing. Having that fat poet guy up there was a scandel- admittedly it was so bad I changed the channel so I didnt hear the whole poem- but having a redone Molson beer commerical in the opening ceremonies just destroyed any 'magic' they were trying to create.

Furlong only said a few sentences in French. French is always prominent at the Olympics because it is the offical language of the Olympic movement. Thus in Beijing it was French, English, Chinese or in Salt Lake French then English or in Turino French English, Italian. Sure its a little anarchronistic but thats the Olympics. And since all of Canada was being represented (and esp. since Quebec has brought the most medals back to Canada) it made complete sense to have a bilingual anthem and a bilingual ceremony opening and a French offical make the pledge. Its not like this a Canucks game or anything. And Rogge always speaks French because its an Olympic language. So that made sense.

I thought the Native Welcoming might have been the best part of the ceremonies- I really liked it for some reason. Were they overrepresented maybe- but really to be realistic VANOC neeeded as much native support as possible. You have to remember that BC is unquie in Canada for not having any treaties with the Natives before settlers arrived. So essentially we are squatters. VANOC could not afford anything less then 100% support for the Games from the 4 host first nations hence the buying out of the leadership and the heavy representation of Native culture.
And since BC has by far the most visible and large population of First Nations in Canada then it makes sense to highlight a bit. But its also a safe choice. For example there was no depiction of pioneers and colonists primarily because (I would guess) there main legacies (aside from the obvious infrastructure and governance) was vast resource exploitation which is in direct opposition to the happy environmental spledor fairy tale that Campbell and Tourism BC feed to the world.

Overall there has been so much faux patriotism crammed down our throats by the government, media and corporate sponsers that I cant bring myself to care about these Olympics. And I love the Oympics. I have strong memories of Muhammend Ali lighting the Olympic torch (the best lighting ceremony in my view) in Alanta, Sydney was absolutely spectactular, Beijing raised the bar to a level that may not be reached again ( and probably shouldnt considering the human cost). The Gold medal shootout in Lillihammer was heartbreaking, 2002 Salt Lake City was fantastic and who can forget the curling final in 06. But I guess I have a very NIMBY feeling towards this Games.

[JJ]

People have repeatedly pointed out to me that French is an IOC language, but I wasn't complaining about the French narration of the ceremony, I was complaining of the fact that Furlong, Michaelle Jean, Nikki Yanofsky, etc all felt obligated to perform their official duties partially in French, despite how weirdly inappropriate it was, given the setting.

I'd also dispute the degree to which VANOC "needed" First Nations support. The "stolen land" set are still merrily protesting away, in spite of the consent of the four chiefs (who have questionable legitimacy and authority, anyway).

Regardless, it's much more in the interests of the natives to support VANOC than vice-versa, since they've clearly benefited enormously from all the slavish attention the Olympic people were oh-so-eager to give them. I honestly can't imagine how things would be in any way different had the tribal leadership boycotted (or something). The games would still occur on the "traditional lands," VANOC would still be able to scrape up Native dancers, we'd still have Muk-Muk and Sumi and the other Pokemon things aping their culture... like I said, it's much more about the Canadian elite class using the Natives as a symbol of their own post-modern tolerance credentials than anything to do with the native people of BC themselves.

But I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was so turned off by that "poet"....

[Andy120290]

Although I think your criticism of the opening ceremonies was a little harsh, I do have to say that I agree with it on several parts. Especially with the whole deal with the natives. When I was watching it, I thought that although it was a nice show, it hardly represents the European descendants and immigrants that make up the large majority of Canada's population. I would like to think that anyone who knows a few things about Canada would know that it is hardly "co-governed" by the First Nations. Whether or not the show really projects that kind of message I cannot really say.

And I definitely agree with the part about the poet. Alright, I am probably a little biased because I never really had an appreciation for poetry, but still. Or maybe I just found it odd how the comparison to the Molson beer commercial ran through my mind as I was watching it.

I do kind of disagree with the comments about bilingualism. Now I do not know a whole heck of a lot about bilingualism in Canada, but I can understand the use of both French and English. It is clear that the designers of the ceremonies wanted to represent all of Canada, not just English-speaking Vancouver. And since, by law, the official languages are French and English, it would make sense for both to be used.

But I still think it was pretty good show overall.

[PTBO]

Personally I would be very disturbed if Jean's little speech or the anthem was not in both offical languages of Canada. That would be like an hypothical Olympics in Quebec City that had the ceremony only in French.

Well aside from "post-modern tolerence" West Coast Natives and their distinctive artwork play very well to an international audience (i.e. potential tourists). Not really any different then the prominent role Aboriginal culture played in the Sydney Olympics. Its a shame that we dont have our own version of Cathy Freeman (I dont even think there is a single Native member of the Oylmpic team).

But still First Nations are a pretty important fast growing demographic in BC (alright BC outside of Vancouver and Victoria). In the bush (or fishing) there are always tonnes of Natives workers esp. with all the Native owned companies (they always have a few token whiteys though). It makes sense that Campbell is trying to serenade this demographic that will only grow in importance.

But yes I do ultimately agree with you that heavy Native representation/protrayel doesnt really ring true. Maybe that was the only part of the ceremony that was aimed at the international viewer?

[PTBO]

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2010 ... mpics.html

why...

[Proculation]

hehhe funny.

But I thought history of Vancouver was more about rain...

[JJ]

Here is something much worse:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/02/ ... z0fYzVFvvF

I'll be writing more about this...

[JJ]

Check out my latest blog post:
http://www.filibustercartoons.com/index ... sm-racket/

[PTBO]

Well I will comment on your latest blog post here.

First off bilingualism was never concieved of in such idealistic terms that everyone was going to be bilingual- the idea was a bilingual federal government that would act as unifying go-between to keep English and French Canada together. It has worked so far.

The Olympics are bit of a slippery slope in terms of whether they are a provinical or federal affair but VANOC has always said these are Canada's Games (not BC's) and more importantly large sums of federal money has supported the Games ( a large portion paid by francophone taxpayers and yes separatist Quebecois as well). So it makes sense that french should be fairly prevalent.

To go thru your list- Rogge and the IOC narration would have remained unchanged in China or the USA or where ever.
Anthem has to be bilingual- thats bare minumin. And besides the French version is much older and has better lines ("As in thy arm ready to wield the sword/So also is it ready to carry the cross". niiiiiiiiiice) Hell they were still singing God Bless Queen until the 70s at the Maple Leaf Gardens.
Jean speaking in french- duh
Furlong saying welcome to Vancouver in not the best French

Not particulary impressive- but I think the complaints were more directed at the cultural component which had one french song. If these are truly Canada's Games then I guess its fairly easy to make a case to include more French. But what I think is going on here is that all these Anglos and federalists that are raising concerns are taking a long strategic view.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/ ... story.html

That's from the Montreal Gazette- the most passionate defender of English language rights in the entire country. These guys are looking to a possibility of a Quebec City Olympics in 2022/2026. Imagine if they copy Vancouver in reverse. Imagine if the chairman says welcome in broken English and for the English cultural component they get Sam Roberts (anglais quebecois) to sing a English song. The rest of Canada would freak out ( and perhaps rightly so) even though 98% of Quebec City is francophone. Hell sepratists are already talking about this- http://angryfrenchguy.com/2010/02/15/th ... -olympics/

Graham Fraser the anglo from Toronto who is the Commissioner of the Offical Languages wrote a excellent and well-researched book on the history of billingualism in Canada. In the book, he actually writes a little bit on James Moore- his parents only agreed with Trudeau on two things: the state should get out of the bedroom and the importance of speaking a second language so they learnt French and taught it to him alongside of their conservative values.

And to go a little off topic, French is pretty prevelent around BC, I have heard it spoken in: Vic, Van, Tofino, Campbell River, Powell River, Nanaimo, Kelowna, PG, Mackenzie, Fort Nelson, Quesnel and Williams Lake. The only other minority language that comes close would be Punjabi. In BC, I have worked at heavily francophone companies where anglos are a minority (you want to talk language politics- talk about it with a dozen francophones over drinking games in a Mackenzie hotel room-Les Cowboys Frigants has to be playing though). BC is a nice place so francophones come from all over- Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, French Africa (Niger, Cameroon, Senegal), Belgium and even France believe it or not. And yes BC is the only province in Canada without any French speaking towns or francophone city districts but the French speakers have a 150 year history of work, exploration and settlement in BC.

French has always been part of Canada and will always be. And if that means an extra French song or two in the opening ceromonies then why not eh?

[JJ]

PTBO wrote:

Well I will comment on your latest blog post here.

First off bilingualism was never concieved of in such idealistic terms that everyone was going to be bilingual- the idea was a bilingual federal government that would act as unifying go-between to keep English and French Canada together. It has worked so far.

You're correct in that bilingualism has always been an explicitly elitist idea. An elite fails by definition if everyone can gain membership. If the entire country was bilingual then the James Moores of the world would have none of the power they presently enjoy by virtue of being so unusual. The problem is that we have an elite subculture presenting itself (to the world, in this case) as if it were representative of the national reality.

Quote:

The Olympics are bit of a slippery slope in terms of whether they are a provinical or federal affair but VANOC has always said these are Canada's Games (not BC's) and more importantly large sums of federal money has supported the Games ( a large portion paid by francophone taxpayers and yes separatist Quebecois as well). So it makes sense that french should be fairly prevalent.

Let's not play the "which community has been subsidizing whose culture more" game. English Canada has vastly, vastly, vastly, vastly given more of its money to promote the cause of French culture over the years than vice versa.

Quote:

To go thru your list- Rogge and the IOC narration would have remained unchanged in China or the USA or where ever.
Anthem has to be bilingual- thats bare minumin. And besides the French version is much older and has better lines ("As in thy arm ready to wield the sword/So also is it ready to carry the cross". niiiiiiiiiice) Hell they were still singing God Bless Queen until the 70s at the Maple Leaf Gardens.
Jean speaking in french- duh
Furlong saying welcome to Vancouver in not the best French

Not particulary impressive- but I think the complaints were more directed at the cultural component which had one french song. If these are truly Canada's Games then I guess its fairly easy to make a case to include more French. But what I think is going on here is that all these Anglos and federalists that are raising concerns are taking a long strategic view. [emphasis added]

Yes, exactly. The strategic, political view. It's the mutation of legitimate Canadian culture to serve the interests of political goals, in this case, the further appeasement of Quebec by a federal political establishment disproportionately obsessed with their concerns.

Quote:

That's from the Montreal Gazette- the most passionate defender of English language rights in the entire country.

No, they are the mealy-mouthed voice of compromise representing the particular interests of a beleaguered minority group inside a hostile majority culture. The Montreal Anglos argue from a position of weakness, and the English Canadian majority absolutely should not view them in any sort of leadership role.

Quote:

Imagine if they copy Vancouver in reverse. Imagine if the chairman says welcome in broken English and for the English cultural component they get Sam Roberts (anglais quebecois) to sing a English song. The rest of Canada would freak out ( and perhaps rightly so) even though 98% of Quebec City is francophone.

I don't think anyone would be allowed to voice much dissent. Certainly no English politician would go on the record saying he wished there was more English in the ceremonies. Certainly the minister of heritage would not raise any fuss. The reality is what I said: unilingual English Canada- bad, "unrepresentative" ; unilingual French Canada- good, empowered, stirring display of the vibrant, independent Francophone culture that makes Canada special, etc.

Quote:

Graham Fraser the anglo from Toronto who is the Commissioner of the Offical Languages wrote a excellent and well-researched book on the history of billingualism in Canada. In the book, he actually writes a little bit on James Moore- his parents only agreed with Trudeau on two things: the state should get out of the bedroom and the importance of speaking a second language so they learnt French and taught it to him alongside of their conservative values.

It's a pretty monstrous book, if you ask me. I couldn't get through it all (and thus didn't read the bit about Moore) because I found it to be just so much pro-establishment blather. The author just says all the same old tired cliches about how bilingualism is this benign, unthreatening presence, and how it's perfectly natural for the country to be ruled by a bilingual (which is to say Quebec-based) elite, because they're just fundamentally smarter, better people than the troglodytes of the hinterland. It was very obviously written as one long cover letter to get Mr. Fraser the job of official languages commissar, and that purpose was achieved.

Quote:

And to go a little off topic, French is pretty prevelent around BC....

According to the 2006 Census, there are only 54,000 native French-speakers in all of British Columbia, or about %1 of a population of four million. The federal government subsidized and hypes this tiny, and largely historically irrelevant community as much as possible in order to strengthen the myth of a "bi-cultural" country.

[PTBO]

Well we are obviously coming from different viewpoints here although I'm a unilingual anglophone as well. I don't really think having a federal government that is able to interact in either offical language with its citizens in any corner of the land that it governs is particulary elitist. In fact, its kinda of egalitarian.

Is the ability to speak both offical languages what makes federal political figures elitist? I would say that backing economic policies that drive down average living standards and increase profits deriving from the capital owned by a small percentage of the population is what makes them elitist.

And I'm certain that there would be a huge uproar if the situation was reversed. Anti-French sentiment is extremely high in English Canada and personally I am ashamed of it. And yes there is Anti-English sentiment among Francos but that does not make anti-French discourse appropiate.

I loved Fraser's book and it changed alot of my views. Also I dont have a problem with compromise in this situation- its just part of life.

So we are probably not going to change each other's beliefs here so I'll just argue one point that you brought up.

Quote:

Let's not play the "which community has been subsidizing whose culture more" game. English Canada has vastly, vastly, vastly, vastly given more of its money to promote the cause of French culture over the years than vice versa.

Sorry but I'll have to briefly play this game. Quebec spends somewhere between a quarter and a third of its higher education budget on English universites and a quarter of its health care funding goes to English hospitals. I highly doubt that Ontario with its half million francophones has a quarter of its university funding going towards the French parts of Larentian and OttawaU and Univeristy of Geulph at Alfred.

In the end it probably evens out. Personally it would be great if even more Canadians would be bilingual. Nothing is wrong with a second language and why not French?

[Psudo]

PTBO wrote:

Well we are obviously coming from different viewpoints here although I'm a unilingual anglophone as well. I don't really think having a federal government that is able to interact in either offical language with its citizens in any corner of the land that it governs is particulary elitist. In fact, its kinda of egalitarian.

It's not elitist for government to be able to function bilingually. It is elitist if bilingual individuals get preferential access to jobs in high government for that reason; the bilingual individuals become a elite, preferred class.

The same bilingual government could be operated by ignoring the number of languages the higher-ups speak and populating the rank-and-file with interpreters. That would deny the bilinguals their elite status while continuing a bilingual government. This is more the way the US government works; presidents and senators are rarely bilingual (and being bilingual is barely a footnote in their campaigns; did you know Bush speaks Spanish fluently?), but the government employs tens of thousands of interpreters for every conceivable language. It's part of being a nearly monolithic English-speaking nation with no official language at all.

PTBO wrote:

Personally it would be great if even more Canadians would be bilingual. Nothing is wrong with a second language and why not French?

French is the foreign language I took in High School, despite Spanish being much more practical in the USA and Japanese being much more "cool". My dramatic failure to pick it up expanded my respect for bilingual people, so I very much agree with this sentiment. But should bilingual people get preferential access to high office in Canadian government? That's a different question.

[JJ]

Psudo wrote:

PTBO wrote:

The same bilingual government could be operated by ignoring the number of languages the higher-ups speak and populating the rank-and-file with interpreters. That would deny the bilinguals their elite status while continuing a bilingual government.

That's a very logical idea, and indeed it was the way Canadian government worked prior to the 1960s. But official bilingualism, in the style we have today, was always intended to be just as much a make-work project for the rising French Canadian middle class and a consolidation of permanent power for the bilingual elite as it was any sort of utilitarian program of "improved communication."

[2oonie]

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