In the not too distant past, September 25 2012, from a not too distant land, Ottawa Ontario, was a pronouncement from 3 wise and learned Judges, the Federal Court of Appeal.
Air Canada, from which a couple flew during a vacation in 2009, was alleged to breach linguistic duties to communicate and serve, with some allowable and reasonable exceptions, in both official languages. So, this couple after filing a complaint with the Official Languages Commissioner’s office went to court wanting a letter of apology, damages, and claiming these breaches are systemic.
http://decisions.fca-caf.gc.
It does not matter that 2 of 3 Judges on this case were born in Quebec and the other born in Saskatchewan and educated partially at the bilingual University of Ottawa, because rule of law and justice is above that. (It is suspicious that 7 of the 13 Federal Court Judges were born in Quebec and no obvious rule in place to have one from each province and territory) If more people were able to see the big picture that has been created over time though, we would see many links and events like this one case, building on the one before and eventually affecting unilingual English and the fewer in number, French only speakers that we now have. Don’t yet think this is not far reaching? Ask Air Canada partners. http://fullcomment.
You may remember Mr. Thibodeau as a federal employee, fully bilingual and has been to court several times for language concerns. I admire that someone stands up for what they believe, however is the real injustice worth it to give the couple 1,500 dollars instead of the 12,000 originally? Air Canada serves Coke products and therefore has Sprite not 7UP but is it such a hardship for a bilingual person to communicate in someone else’s language of choice?
What is reasonable accommodation anymore concerning language? Canada needs a discussion, a proper review at a minimum, of the Official Languages Act & Ontario’s French Language Services Act, but it is all too “controversial” I guess to do the right thing.
Eric Little
Ottawa, Ontario
(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)
Why should they get $12,000…..my goodness, they should count themselves lucky they go $1,200….if that is the case. I say we should picket Air Canda now.
Yes like Guy Lauzon said its too controversial to actually address ,but hey abortion isn’t right Guy?
Then why were you voted in to avoid those tough issues ?
Why out of 13 federal court judges are 7 from Quebec ,yet they have 20% of the population with 60% of federal court judges ?
Why are 60-65% of federal jobs allocated to francophones for that 20% ?
Are there not other competent lawyers from other provinces to fill those federal Judges positions?
Sad to say that this clearly states that the federal government does not respect other provinces .
So is this what the government considers a reasonable accommodation?
Canadians WAKE UP ….do you not see the biases created by our government ?
“but it is all too “controversial” I guess to do the right thing.”
No Eric the NOT SO proud English Canadians do not see the oppression of their culture through the implementation of another culture.
Dancing with the stars is more important then standing up for their OWN rights,of which they are losing more every day.
WAKE UP.. WAKE UP.. WAKE UP.. WAKE UP.. this is not a bad dream but reality!
There are 34 judges on the Federal Court, and that does not include the Trial Division.
Anyone wish to take collections here to coerce the woman whose moniker indicates ‘Stellabystarlight’ to permanently leave this site.
I think we could set up a temporary PayPal account for this stated purpose in mind. I, for one, am volunteering to do so. This person doesn’t even have to give us her real name, we could forward the money somehow, some way.
Anybody wish to do this? Thoughts?
“According to the Federal Courts Act, the Court consists of a Chief Justice and 32 other judges. At present, there are 29 full-time judges (leaving four vacancies in the Court), along with five supernumerary judges and six prothonotaries.
Until 2003, the Federal Court of Canada consisted of two divisions: an Appeal and a Trial Division. With amendments to the Federal Courts Act coming into force on July 2, 2003, these divisions became two separate courts: the Federal Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.”
http://cas-ncr-nter03.cas-satj.gc.ca/portal/page/portal/fc_cf_en/Index
NUMBER OF JUDGES ON THE BENCH AS OF OCTOBER 1, 2012
http://www.fja-cmf.gc.ca/appointments-nominations/judges-juges-eng.html
Ya but she would be like Quebec take the money then command more at the same time as criticizing her donors.
Yet continue to complain why she is treated so bad…boo hoo.
On a different note:
But Quebec prostitutes itself for that easy cash from the rest of Canada,how else can you explain it?
Not willing to merry Canada but willing to sell itself for that cash but only when its convenient for Quebec,similar to prostitution ain’t it?
Canada should kick the social program hooked prostitute out of its bed ,and let it fend for itself.
Quebec people have yet top realize that its financial situation is compared to Greece if not worse they need to kick the habit (excessive social programs) to even barely survive.
Or perhaps Quebec can prostitute itself to other countries?
ahhhhhhhh……. Just thinking
Taken from the National Post article link from the article above:
–
“I don’t know why the Tories continue to harbour the fantasy that Quebec voters can be made to love them. They can’t. Politically and culturally, the Tories and Quebecers aren’t on the same wavelength.”
–
“But the good news for the Tories should be that they don’t need Quebec to maintain a majority in the House of Commons. With just five MPs (out of a caucus of 166), the Tories have the smallest percentage of Quebec members of any majority since the First World War. Also, outside Quebec they won 48% of the popular vote.”
–
Perhaps we should be focusing some effort towards attempting to get “this message” across to Mr. Harper.
–
Then maybe he would deal with the Thibodeaus (remember them? They sued Air Canada over the Sprit / 7Up fiasco) in a better way. IE: the way suggested in the next paragraph of the article.
–
“It could have amended the law to let Air Canada out of the jurisdiction of the official languages commissioner.”
–
YESSSSS… A much better solution for sure…
–
ALL TOGETHER NOW…
–
C’mon Harper. Grow “SOME” will ya. — We’ll support ya —
October Video text fixed
Have a peek … http://youtu.be/B615iJzxxlY
Jenny & John MacDonald, the Federal Court of Appeal who heard this case, are the Judges (and birth locations) referenced above. http://www.fca-caf.gc.ca/about/bios/judges_e.shtml
stellabystarlight, Air Canada does not deserve picketing, they were just defending themselves.
edudyorlik,
Like a wine you and your videos get better with age ,
Eric great letter, Stellapropaganda would believe that Mr. Thibodeau was a hero to defraud Air Canada as well bring frivolous lawsuits and wast taxpayer’s money through numerous court challenges.
A sprite rather then 7up for asking damages originally $ 50,000.
Oh the Hardship.
I think it was for the interest of money rather attempting to uphold an agreement of which Air Canada should not be bound as a private company.
Thanks Higlander. Only problem now is I will be held to task for higher standards for all future vids. Yikes.
As for the Thidideau fiasco. The tragedy lives in these facts:
A) He speaks better English than I do for crying out loud.
And
B) When one pronounces 7Up and Sprite in French one finds they are both very English terms. Sad…
Also, if this were indeed something that was “for the interest of money” I think I could (pardon the intended pun) “swallow” it easier. However, he is more likely one of those, “agitators” who’s goal is to further “the cause” of forcing French on every damn nook and cranny of this country with every little complaint. Apparently, according to something I read, Mr. Pierre Elliot Trudeau had procured himself an army of “these type” back in the day to do just that, bitch and whine and cause employers to be embarrassed enough to ONLY hire bilingual (which we know to mean French) staff thus once again reducing the number of jobs available to the majority unilingual English people of this country.
Go figure…
–
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cDPjg5waewU/UHptYfJYVjI/AAAAAAAAAPM/-hffkows4CM/s1303/10-11-12+-+Francophones+better+off+than+others+-+New+Report+02.jpg
Highlander, Air Canada is and is not a private company. Canada made sure language rights and a Quebec headquarters were part of the deal. Staff, like the Attendant who served the Thibadeaus, was part of the grandfathering that excluded a language requirement.
So we see this all the time, Ottawa for example. When the bilingualism policy was going in, Chirelliie and others were quick to say this will not affect the present workers. Of course, no one looked at what “present” meant for the future staff.
Eric. Yeah, we KNOW what “Canada” did with regard to Air Canada and the idea that it is and is not a private company. Only in Canada could we have such things as a private company that is not private and a Federal party (the Bloc) who’s mandate it is to break up the country. Right. We have MANY examples of the way “things are run” here in Canada. They even (who knows who?) took out the clause that forced members of parliament to swear allegiance to the Queen when taking the oath of parliament. Oh, and that was so the Bloc members didn’t feel they were being traitorous. Go figure. How freekin crazy is all this? Only in Canada. People … hey people… Everyone.. HELLO… WAKE UP … A private company that isn’t private. What the ???