When will our provincial leaders respect principles of Democracy?  by Christopher Cameron LTE

 

LTE UI am not sure if very many Canadians realize this; but “discrimination by language”, in our country is legal.

Yes, you heard it.  LEGAL; as in guaranteed by the Charter of Rights.

Under Equality Rights 15.(1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and in particular ,without discrimination based on race ,national or ethnic origin , colour , religion , sex,  age or mental or physical disability.

With a large amount of the charter related to minorities’ language rights; why was language omitted under conditions of discrimination?

The United Nations in their discrimination clause has language as a condition for discrimination and has chastised our nation on numerous occasions for the practice of language discrimination, and yet our politicians continue to condone it here.

Presently, I have been protesting at the Eastern Ontario Health Unit in Cornwall, ON; which by the way is 100% bilingual, which means 80% of the population cannot work there.  This factor is not based on merit but language.  I will continue to demand our political leaders put a stop to language discrimination at the various local and provincial sites that practice language discrimination through grossly disproportional hiring practices.

I am not asking our politicians to remove bilingualism.  I am simply asking that they put a stop to the provincial practice of language discrimination and bring fair hiring practices through the democratic principle of hiring based on representation by population.

One of the basic principles of democracy is the idea of representation by population.  Why do our provincial leaders not abide by this principle and stop language discrimination pertaining to the provincial hiring practices?

With the provincial election around the corner, I encourage all of you to exercise your democratic rights and vote. Also, ask those provincial leaders if they are willing to take a stand against this type of discrimination.

Christopher Cameron RN

Long Sault, Ontario

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56 Comments

  1. Totally agree Jamie. When people drag out the old comparisons to Nazi Germany, or b!tch and chew about bilingual road signs and such, all intelligent discussion goes out the window.
    BTW Highlander, I am not a “Francophile”. I can barely speak the language. I am, however an expert on the origins of poutine.

  2. Well said Jamie.

    We are not a bilingual province but from the actions of the government one would assume we are!

    Yes politics should not be part of healthcare delivery .
    But its not isolated to just healthcare;the courts arte 80%+ bilingual ,LCBO and the list goes on ; all government entities practice language discrimination !

    If Bob Kilger gets what he wants; Cornwall to officially be bilingual is he willing to advise taxpayers what those costs that the taxpayer will occur? perhaps to the tune of millions to change everything?

    Why is it that political leaders had implemented Ontario’s French services language act without input from the public ?

    With the massive bureaucracies in Ontario regulating everything in our lives from regulating calorie count at fast food restaurants to roundup use.Why is there no oversight or regulatory process with implementing language policies?

    Why not regulate that in the interest of fairness on both sides of the equation? Or is it a convenient oversight?

    This is not a French vs English issue but the Government against unilingual individual’s who ARE THE MAJORITY !

    Your right in saying “I think that when this subject degenerates into a French/English thing instead of the fairness”.
    Its only human to want advantage ,but its the government that encourages disadvantages, when in actuality they are to treat all persons equally but choose not to for active voters and lobbyists !

  3. Jamie wrote “I think that when this subject degenerates into a French/English thing instead of the fairness”.

    This is where YOU FURTZ come into play your comments with intent to agitate through antagonizing of others! You are not being part of the solution with intelligent conversation on the issue thereby you are no different then those you chose to chastise on here with your condescending remarks.

    Will you be part of the solution or continue to degrade the conversation through antagonism ?

  4. Sorry Highlander. My response to your question directed at me was blocked.
    Fight on!

  5. Very good points Highlander.

    Bilingualism / politics have no place in healthcare.

  6. Im sorry Chris to have duplicated what you wrote in re: to Furtz. Its only after I wrote what I did did I check your very similar comment.

    Apologies,

    Cory

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