Graham Fraser has written a book to tell Canadians we still don’t get it, after 40 years of official bilingualism. Three hundred thousand kids are in French immersion but there is little opportunity for them to connect with French Canadians or to continue to develop their embryonic language skills. Students can get into and out of university without French and, because core French has become optional in high school, fewer take it. Many national volunteer, academic and cultural organizations show a bilingual face on the outside but inside practice a form of sovereignty-association, Quebec operating autonomously and in French, the rest in English. In the Parliamentary Press Gallery many English-speaking journalists are unilingual and unable to follow campaigns, interviews or anything else that goes on in French outside the official proceedings. In the nation’s capital, away from Parliament Hill and federal government installations, it is English only.
Canada, Fraser...
Lowell Murray was appointed to the Senate by Joe Clark in 1979 and served in Brian Mulroney’s Cabinet as Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister of Federal-Provincial Relations, among other posts. He is a member of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Official Languages.
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