CFN – Heather Villeneuve is the face of the language wars leaking out of Quebec right across Canada. She’s the victim of a system of hypocrisy.
The Cornwall girl, born and bred has spent over $30,000 on her education graduating as a Medical Lab Assistant in 2011. While the two other Cornwallites got jobs instantly Heather has yet to find employment. Her crime and fault? She’s not bilingual.
Bilingual advocates like Jean Lecompte will tell you the importance of bilingualism; but essentially that’s a political correct way of saying French. The levels of testing for French proficiency are secretive and frankly most native Francophones could not pass these tests. And there are no equivalent English language tests for most employment in particular with government agencies.
Official bilingualism in Canada has been a failure. In the forty years or so of its existence less Canadians speak French than before. Frankly this isn’t an issue any longer about protecting the French language and culture. It’s about an industry that’s evolved to spread Bilingualism that has led to situations where advancement and the ability to gain employment if one isn’t French or able to pass these tests is the life and death knell for communities across Canada.
When you can’t go over the rank of Major in the Canadian Armed Forces without being bilingual that’s scary. When nurses get suspended or fired for speaking out costing hospitals thousands of dollars while appealing to the public for funds that’s an issue.
And when someone who doesn’t want to leave her home after investing in her education locally has to move to find work that’s an issue.
Being bilingual is a wonderful asset; but should it be the deciding factor in someone gaining employment to the degree that it has across our great country?
It’s more about the definition of Official Bilingualism and what society finds acceptable or not and that’s a whole other issue as most of these issues are dealt with behind closed doors. The new buzz is that government employees are now going to have to be bilingual as there is a push for the them to have the choice of what language to speak with to each other. That it’s not about serving the public anymore.
You can get a few hard core political types at a remote government office in the West and bam. The entire team will have to be able to communicate at high levels of French.
While this debate is a much broader subject here in Canada and Ontario Heather Villeneuve is dealing with its injustice in her life. She’s working a minimum wage job trying to pay back her student loans. She’s not even sure she could afford to move when a job opens up hundreds if not thousands of kilometers away from her home.
And sadly she felt that she had to try and turn to a local politician for help and not even in her own town where the Mayor and City Council have ducked the subject entirely.
She wrote a letter to the media and to South Stormont Mayor Bryan McGillis:
My name is Heather Villeneuve, I am a certified Medical Laboratory Technician and I pump gas part-time at minimum wage for a living. Why am I not using my diploma and working in my field? It’s not by choice; it’s because of the discrimination happening in Cornwall and the surrounding area. I am very skilled in my field, but I am not being given the chance to prove what I am capable of, due to one simple factor: I don’t speak French.
For years, I have been discriminated about my appearance; I don’t look the way society generally dictates as “normal”. But it upsets me that I am now being discriminated against, because of a skill that I lack and don’t necessarily need. I was not raised French, and I honestly do not believe that it is a skill I need to possess to do my job properly. I have applied time and time again to hospitals and clinics in the area, for the end result of them all telling me that I am not what they are looking for, because of one small aspect. As someone who has lived in Cornwall my whole life, I have never come across a person that can’t at least speak enough broken-English to get the point across. And as a MLA, patient contact is so minimal that extensive conversations are not needed to be carried out.
I have tried to stand my ground on countless occasions and explain that I can still complete every task assigned to me with the upmost attention to detail, but unfortunately it all comes down to a specific way of thinking, a bilingual way of looking at things. A Census from Statistics Canada shows us that only 3/10 individuals in our province have French listed as their primary language spoken. This proves that more than three quarters of Ontario’s residents are English speaking. ONLY 14% of the French population in Ontario lives in our South/East region.
.
So here I am, stuck in Cornwall, with a college education and nowhere to go. I can’t afford to move with my large sum of student loans, and it will be a very long time until they are paid off from pumping gas at minimum wage. So here’s my question, when is this discrimination going to stop, so the residents of Cornwall will have a chance to better our small community?.
I would like to take this time to thank the South Stormont Council, and Bryan McGillis for advocating for people like me trying to make a difference in the health care system. I appreciate all of their support and efforts in helping me in this process.
We had a chance to catch up with Heather and Mayor McGillis at the Township offices.
Mayor Bryan McGillis:
Mayor McGillis and I spoke about the challenge of retaining young people in Eastern Ontario and the ability to gain employment after finishing education was a hot point.
Were the Heather Villeneuve’s of Ontario told that they’d need such a level of French to attain employment? Did St. Lawrence College inform her before taking her $30,000 locally that she’d need that level of French to attain employment?
Are we ready in Ontario to demand that our schools turn out students with those language schools so that they can fill jobs at home? Does it make sense to try and import people from Quebec purely for linguistic reasons? And are there even people from Quebec ready to fill those positions?
It’s time to look at these issues and talk about them clearly instead of some labeling those that do talk about them as bigots or racists.
Canadians that earn their educations should have the right to work where work is available; French, English, or any language.
You can post your comments below.
Guess what Stella?
I have worked with Aboriginal organizations for a total cumulative time of around 5 years now. Just yesterday, I attended 2 interviews for jobs within the Aboriginal community here in Timmins offering fair compensation. Why is it that Aboriginal organizations (I do have Six Nations Mohawk ancestry but it is not visible) don’t ask me if I speak Cree, Mohawk, Michif, Dane or any other of their ancestral languages when I attend these interviews? Instead, these organizations ask only of things like my qualifications, volunteerism, special projects and such. Generally speaking, they’re mightily impressed and more often than not, I get the job – despite most often times not being of their etnicity or even speaking their language.
Now dear Lady Stella, I wish the same could be said of French-oriented organizations! Ohhhhh how I could help the cause of educating the non-Francophone communities of the French culture, that is, the good components of Les Habitants! But no, alas government institutions and French-only organizations are rotting with this linguistic garbage that sees no end in sight………
Wait a minute though, we do now see the end in sight and a light at the end of the tunnel. The efforts of Mr. Howard Galganov, LFA, CLF and the new outspoken citizens we hear about now on a daily basis are shedding light on this travesty. Lets not forget about the gallant efforts of the folks at CFN who, as I can certainly tell you NotsoStellarbyStarlight, have suffered immensely and not just financially but personally as well, to bring these stories to the light of day….
I digress though, whilst you and your few cadres come here and have your fun by spewing your large quantities of cholera infected feces at real people who are impacted by all of this – you are only doing yourselves and your Franco-Ontarian group a disservice.
Just look at the various times Dear Dull Light that various Franco-rights group leaders open their mouths in front of a video camera and embarass themselves only to have to reappear in a few weeks or months and try to repair their images; only to repeat the process all over again!
So, for the love of Christ and all that is decent in this world, the next time you post something, could you do me a favour, if not for everyone else but at least for me, keep me out of your diarrhea-laced rantings and ravings. This being in response to your following comment:
“Once again for my wonderful english friend in Timmins……a diploma is not a job guarantee. What is so hard to understand? Try to think outside the box, it may open your eyes and help you understand the real world..not the fantasy world you live in of having the english rule this country…..”
Don’t you ever, ever again call me your friend. I’d rather get raped by Satan, Stella than to call YOU my friend.
Wow if you watched the video Heather clearly states that she does not wear her piercings to interviews.
Richard I say get over the fact that some Villeneuves, Campeaus Durochers’ dont’ speak French. Could be their mother’s tongue was English, no different then the McDonalds, MacMillans, that I know whose children speak English with French accents.
Simon say’s:
Your comment reminds me of what “they” said back when they started all this Frencification crap which now has the majority unilingual English citizens in this country scrounging around for jobs while the VERY small minority French just saunter right on though.
“Just take a Valium,” they said. (there is a famous cartoon that goes with it) Yup, just take a Valium. Which basically meant the same then as what you are saying now, “just relax and let us take over. Be nice little complacent English folk and sit on your couch over there and watch some nice t.v. If we happen to start taking too much and you’re finding it difficult to get by, and you find you can no longer pay your cable bill. By then it will be too late. Just move.
Right… Once again, I say “we” are through moving. And I don‘t believe there is any presumption in that statement. When I say we, I have it on good authority that there is a VERY LARGE growing movement of the English majority tax paying citizens of this country that have been F*&$%$#ed around and F87^%$%ked over by this crap for far too long now and yes, “we” are mobilizing. The tide is turning folks and when the majority gets the chance to vote, the numbers will speak for themselves.
You’ll have to excuse my slight “edge” folks but, it’s simply because this issue DOES affect. I take this opportunity to quote a very compelling statement which Cory has mentioned a couple of times now, “there are REAL people being REALLY affected by this cr@p in this country. It’s not just fun and games.”
Jamie (admin) and folks out there I thought about something now that I said before in the rag of SF and I think on Jamie’s site as well. What I came out with before André Rivette said was what Cornwall needs to do is take the old General Hospital that is vacant and turn it in to an “old people’s home” – not apartments or anything fancy like that – but into a hospital like the Glen Store Dunn Lodge.
I think that the people of Cornwall should storm that “good ole boys club” known to all of you as City Hall and get those “blundering twits” to work with the other twit in Toronto McGuinty to get the ball rolling. This would employ a number of people as well as this young lady. People have to get involved in the community and get things rolling. This includes Mayor McGillis or is it Reeve but whatever Mr. McGillis is he can participate in doing just that as well. The entire population of Cornwall must get involved in this cause. The population is aging and you all know that this type of facility is needed badly. I came up with this again and I hope that something gets done and get those “twits” involved and earn their keep. People are more than fed up with all the stupid taxes and getting nothing in return for their money. You all have to fight for something in order to achieve what you want and if you don’t everything gets swept under the carpet like as if nothing ever happened. Get Fitzy on the ball to earn his humoungous salary as well as the woman who takes care of the books and others.
Soc…so well expressed…..said:
Practically speaking, just take a little drive from say… Cornwall to Cobourg. Do you think hospital employees or any employees for that matter have to be bilingual? Now expand that question east and west across the nation!! Most Canadians have no idea what’s sneaking up on them. This is/was the situation with Ms. Villeneuve and her peers. There was no active “warning” because this issue has crept in like a cat in the night.
I was previously lived in Belleviie, Windsor, Peterboro and Bancroft….believe me, these people have no idea of the train wreck coming their way. Just like the hurricane/super storm heading this way this weekend, few of us will be prepared for it and its aftermath……no difference with our education/expectations from said, it has not been fair to stress our youth out with this culture shock the way it has. Displacement causes hardship, chaos, breakup of family ties of our youth, in an unvoluntary way. NOT FAIR, despite the warning signs we’ve had previously.
When the hospital requested ( and THEY DID) a bilingual designation in a ville/city with only 1% unilingual French, IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN GRANTED.
Our over weighted in french administations simply saw it as an avenue or a way to further acquire more funds to manage their deficits. I do not believe they had planned the dogmatic requirements layed out for them The Provincial French Commissioner SHOULD NEVER HAVE GRANTED THE REQUEST yet they too were anxious to show the world how in demand they were to add one more regional conquest for their power building they were only too glad to consider unilingual yet educated anglos other than as collateral damage.
This infectious desease takes no prisoners, lies, cheats aand steals its way to superiority in the top echelons of the work place who also go on their power trips to thwart all English potentials regardless of qualifications to further show their rightiousnes for conquering their own enviroments to fit THEIR world views.
Ya, I know its a little wordy by filter it through the best you can and you’ll come to see the dark side if this monster called bilingualism.
Pull a Quebec alternative…….time to vote English for our backlash, fire the French Commissioners, close their departments and allow ‘THE PEOPLE not the beurocrates to decide whats right and what we want for our society.
Want to get screwed? Keep loving the bilingual microcosm….liken it to the flu, not 24 hour one but the lifetime one. TOUGH LOVE IS WHAT IS WORKING US OVER….TIME TO GIVE IT BACK AND WRESTLE IT TO THE GROUND MY FRIENDS. pAST TIME IS APPROACHING.
Now 22 out
Blame the parents, with a name like villeneuve, she should be speaking french.
I guess I am not the only one who had mixed feelings and thoughts about this article.
Lunatic_angel……absolutely with 250,000 immigrants a year coming to this country, we will be the minority just like english has in the USA. In smaller centers outside Toronto, European languages lead among those who speak a language other than French or english.
Immigration is changing the linguistic landscape of Canada with over 2oo seperate languages in this country…..yet this group thinks they will rule and dictate how this country should be managed because they are the majority…….Dream on!!!
TWO THUMBS UP SIMON……..well said!!!! It’s called proactivism and determination. It’s choices that we make that determines our future.
My daughter registered herself in a private college here in Ottawa and one of the first things that she asked them “do you guarantee that I will have a job” and the man’s answer is that “they cannot guarantee anyone a job” but they are there to educate and train. If placements come up then they place who they can place – usually the top students.
There is this girl from Cornwall who took the pharmacy assistant course here in Ottawa at Algonquin College and do you know where she wound up – well folks she is in a call centre. There are no guarantees in life especially nowadays. What my daughter found out about where she works, including the government and other private agencies is that the government gives incentives to “firms who hire foreigners” and my daughter was in shock about all of this. You may poke fun at the French-Canadians but foreigners are taking our jobs and work much harder than we Canadians. If you go to the hospitals here in Ottawa that is all what you see and the same thing in the labs, etc.
I went to a French school as a child and mom was French and dad English and I learned the language. My daughter went as well here in Ottawa and it was very hard to get her in but it was thanks to my husband’s nephew who got her in to the French school. If I came in from another country everything would have been very smooth and no complications – I know I saw this done here in Ottawa. Don’t put the blame on little Cornwall folks because I wish that you all knew what is really going on.
“Why wasn’t she hired? Like I said before, language is not the only issue..the picture says it all. Enough said.””****** Stella that has got to be the most ignorant, insulting statements I have ever heard.” Enough said.
edydyorlic, you said, “Not many Canadians know this but, Quebec (yes, Quebec the “province”) sends an official emissary to travel with the PM just about every time he travels anywhere”.
I would say nobody knows that. I didn’t. I AM SHOCKED. When it started? Is there an order-in-council or a parliamentary resolution for this arrangement?
Is it the same thing as many government departments have 2 deputy ministers: one English, one French? Even city of Ottawa Police has 2 deputies: one English, one French. When this nonsense of “Canada-two-states” started?
@ Kat RE: October 26, 2012 at 9:21 pm POST
No Kat, I don’t know exactly when it started but, to my knowledge the only other premier that I know of that traveled with the Prime Minister at any time was the former Premier of Alberta Ralph Klein. I don’t remember all the details but that situation seemed like it had more reasoning behind it as this was, I believe, at or around the time of the beginning of the oil fields development. The folks they were traveling together to see were strategic folk who were going to be involved in the financing so it made sense to have the premier of the province in question travel with the PM.
Also, did you know that Quebec is the only province to have 26 different embassies in different cities around the world? And, is the only province that has been granted full control over its own immigration policies. Not to mention the only province that has legally declared itself to be unilingual French ONLY. Yup. Imagine that, they want all of Canada to be bilingual yet they declare themselves Unilingual ONLY. Hrumph.. They don’t call that place Le Nation du Quebec for nothing :- )
And no, I didn’t know about the deputy ministers situation either… Odd…
FLSA-French Language Services Act has been implemented in 25 regions of Ontario, which encompasses over 90% of the province.
@ Jules- Heather would never get a job at The Ottawa Hospital, as they fall under the FLSA too & all jobs are A- French.
Personally, I believe this is ethnic cleansing & language apartheid.
I will not RUN away & to tell this bright young lady to do so is allowing this discrimination to continue!!!!
Heather never feel ashamed for standing up for what you believe is right! Don’t allow yourself to be BULLIED by the bashers….
Hold your head high & many will support you!!!!
Richard said,
Richard tremblay
October 26, 2012 at 5:37 pm
Blame the parents, with a name like villeneuve, she should be speaking french.
Really, is it a moral sin to not learn a language.
Gee, my Mom’s maiden name is Leeman, should I know Hebrew???
franco-ontarienne
October 25, 2012 at 6:05 pm
I definitly agree we need bilingual even if your french isn’t perfect atleast you can reply to them with a basic french. Its simply as saying yes or no, ”oui” ”non”, french ontariens are obligated to speak english, I think english should be obligated to speak basic french.
That’s really funny because if a person goes to school in Ontario they do know basic French, but as usual you have completely missed the POINT!!!
Cornwall Community Hospital demands ADVANCED FRENCH A-…
Even born & raised french have difficulty with the testing & fail!!!
So to ask the average person to learn ADVANCED FRENCH A- is completely ridiculous!!!!
Language apartheid & ethnic cleansing is allowed in our country!!!!
Morning everyone! I extremely appreciate and am amazed by the amount of positivity and support I have received on this issue. Unfortunately, I was nervous when being interviewed on camera, so I didn’t get the chance to say everything I was thinking.
This overall, was not meant to be a political debate. It was meant to point out all of the corrupt actions taking place right in our very own neighborhood!
The main points here are:
-I DO NOT HAVE TO SPEAK FRENCH IN ORDER TO DO MY JOB PROPERLY!!!!!
-WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO LEARN FRENCH IF THEY ARE NOT WILLING TO SPEAK/ LEARN ENGLISH????
English is the primary language of the WORLD!!! Wake-up people! and if Cornwall already has a French Only Clinic (and they will treat you in English once you’ve been accepted as a patient), Why do I have to go out of my way to make a point!
@ Trembley: If you don’t think this is an important issue, go away. Read something else. Your small-minded comments are not needed here.
@ Stella and Wow:
There are always people like you. How dare you judge me, based on my appearance! My piercings have NOTHING to do with the way I function in society. They are a body modification. And let me make this point: if you wake up in the morning and do your hair, or put on make-up; YOU ARE MODIFYING YOUR BODY!!! There are different levels of modifications and trust me when I say, we are all guilty of it. I feel bad for both of you, stuck in a specific way of thinking. You both probably also believe that the world revolves around each of you individually. I suggest that you take your “know-it-all” attitude and put it in a box. Then, open up your mind to all of the amazing experiences human existence offers us. That may not include extreme body modifications, but in hopes, it will change your idea of how society is “supposed to look”.
@ Jamie
Thank you for all your support and giving me the chance to explain my story. 🙂
Dot, you are very wrong about Canada being the only country with more than one official language. Here are the stats from The Economist Magazine:
Canada : English & French
Belgium: Dutch, French & German
Switzerland: German, French, Italian & Romansh
Singapore: English, Chinese, Malay & Tamil
Spain: Catalan/Valencian, Basque, Galician & Aranese
I am unilingual and live in Cornwall. Its true I have been turned down for jobs because I am not bilingual, but that is MY fault, no one elses. On the other hand, I have been given wonderful chances and opportunities for employment, including at the Cornwall Community Hospital, and have absolutely no complaints about the language requirements. I have had a fruitful & satisfying career in spite of my foolish decision not to become bilingual. The opportunities to learn the language are available, make use of them, complaining people.
To Jules: If you think you are getting ‘nothing for your taxes’ you should try living in a country where there are none. I HAVE done so, and let me tell you, it is not fun to live where schools, hospitals, fire protection, roads, sewers, electrical power, transportation and many more things we take for granted in our great nation are not available unless you have cash money to pay for them. The hospital where I worked would not admit anyone unless they had $500 cash deposit on admission, including serious trauma. This was back in the 80s when my monthly salary was $400 so you can imagine how difficult it was to save that much. If you could not pay for private schools, there was NO school to send your children to.Think again my friends. While we certainly are not perfect, this is still the best place in the world to live
I suggest all of our educated young people go to the US until we have equality for all.
To Soc:
Ontario through the FLSA has declared over 25 municipalities as being bilingual. Drive to The Kingston Hospital and know that even home grown nurses with experience are now bilingual “essential”, therefore denied jobs.
In Hamilton, with hardly any french speakers, 2 recent nurse job postings were designated bilingual imperative.
In Vancouver, 2 crown corporations, advertised over 1,000 jobs with only 70, or so, not having bilingual imperative designation.
Good, qualified and experienced english speaking Candians denied to work for their own government without knowing a language that only serves 3 to 4% of french speakers outside the province of Quebec.
Apply this policy where numbers warrant! No more…no less.
Kudos for Heather. Welcome to the language debate that needs to be center stage and not something to be dismissed by our elected officials.
Kudos to South Stormont for standing up and pushing back.
Enough is enough!
One country..one language..save billions
Fiona said,
“I have been given wonderful chances and opportunities for employment, including at the Cornwall Community Hospital, and have absolutely no complaints about the language requirements.”
That’s great for you, but did you get your job before the FLSA or you must be in housekeeping.
The hospital functions in ENGLISH, why the H*** do staff need A- french??????????????????????????????????????????????????
I’ll tell you why- French separatists are running the show at CCH!!!!
Heather is absolutely correct-CORRUPTION !!!!!
For Heather Villenauve and others in similar situations the language laws should be changed.
Vocational skills and qualifications should come before language.
First we must find some MPs, MPPs and MLAs who have the fortitude to see these errors and make changes to the language regulations.
Significant changes to our language regulations must be made where vocational skills and qualifications are rated first over language.
Again…….the linguistic landscape in Canada is changing with 250,000 immigrants a year coming into this country.
Right now in BC they are encouraging students to learn Chinese. NOW…..if one choose not to learn it…….it is their choice……..NO ONE IS FORCING ANYONE TO LEARN ANOTHER LANGUGE.
However, if a student take the easy road….guess what? In ten years the student will be on the outside looking in and perhaps crying discrimination because the better paying jobs will be seeking employees who know Chinese. That is what happened here….
YOU SNOOZE……….YOU LOSE!!!!
Fiona my husband is from Lebanon and has been in Canada for close to 40 years and yes you are right that you really have to have tremendous cash to go to a hospital, a school, etc. etc. etc. My husband’s family had money way back when and were considered kind of well to do over there. What we see here are the very poor who couldn’t afford schools (private schools which are what they go to in order to have a good education) and if you cannot afford any of this then you are cooked so you are right about that.
Concerned Citizen I think that Heather could be hired here in the hospitals here in Ottawa if she really tried hard. All I see are foreigners in both the hospitals and the private labs and private clinics. One man that went for treatment at the Civic Hospital commented on that (he was an older gentleman) and he was right indeed. These people do speak more than one language and they do have that going for them besides having learned the profession.
Heather have confidence in yourself and don’t wear those horrible pearcings. I knew of a beautiful girl in Cornwall who destroyed her appearance with those things. We all have to fight in this life for what we want. Bilingualism is an asset and believe me even during the days of my much older sisters who are 16 and 20 years my senior had to have French in their day and they didn’t have it but my eldest sister who is very intelligent and ran the whole nursing staff at one of the hospitals in Cornwall got by barely in borken French. I did see at a lab where I go with my daughter that one of the technicians needed someone to interpret for her in French so French is an asset. Many foreigners come over usually possessing one of the western languages and sometimes none at all. My mother even got to learn a little Italian because we had a neighbor who would come over and knew no English nor French and you talk about laugh trying to learn the language and we would go after different object in the house and beyond to know the words. When the Italian lady would go to shop it was hilarious (I am talking about a tiny grocery store nearby) and the owner of the store didn’t know what she wanted.
I worked with people from Toronto and area who were unilingual English and I worked with people who were unilingual French in the Federal Government and that was going back to the 70’s and 80’s era and all very nice people and I miss each and every one of them. I often think of them all and some live in Quebec. I even look for them when I go downtown and I go by the building where I used to work wondering if anybody that I know are still there but everyone has been moved around or retired. The memories are so good and it hurts thinking about it.
As for knowing French Heather and folks this has been coming on for some time now. Our world is changing and someone mentioned that as well here. You wouldn’t even begin to know how much it is changing and I will keep my big mouth shut on that because nobody would be able to sleep a good night’s rest and would wonder what planet I am from. I dread the future even for my own children. I will say one thing about this is that you have to fight for what you believe in. Keep up the fight. As for the United Nations folks they are the problem believe me when I tell you that. My husband’s uncle worked for the UN (he was a doctor of internal medicine and he was the director in Beirut and the only one of Arab culture who had that job otherwise they were foreign – UNRWA – United Nations for war refugees). He never spoke about what went on and was a real professional person and kept everything to himself. He was a well educated man (a genius who was a full fledged doctor at age of 24) and was also educated in France. Some of my husband’s friends here in Ottawa met him and were very impressed.
concerned citizen: I got my job and promotions AFTER FLSA and I am a registered nurse, not that it matters if I am or not. I know that they are looking for bilingual nurses, and why not? Every skill one has is a benefit to everyone involved. But I also know that unilingual nurses have been hired, and recently. Get off your butts, lazy people & stop crying because others had the foresight to add skills beyond their peers. Go upgrade yourself and be ready to battle in the job wars.
Could I put this debate in another context? If you were hiring a nanny for your children, and the 2 candidates were fully qualified nannies but one had a teaching degree as well & was willing to tutor your children, which one would you hire? Would the one without the extra skill cry discrimination because you wanted the best, not just ‘qualified’?
Fiona that analogy isn’t relevant. The question isn’t which is better. Of course all things being equal you pick the applicant with extra skill sets. This question is whether the one that is not bilingual should be blocked from working in her field.
A very very different question.
There you go, jaime being is usual un biased self. Jaime, my friend jaime, she isn’t blocked from working in her field. Could I get employment in calgary being unlingual french, nope, could you get employment in trois riviere being unilingual english, probably not. But in an area where there is one third of the population that speaks french, they have a right to request a bilingual person.
Admin: I disagree. My analogy is totally relevant. You said yourself: “Of course all things being equal you pick the applicant with extra skill sets.” No one is prevented from working in their field. It is simply a matter of applying when another has the same qualifications plus the extra skill set that you yourself agreed would be the obvious choice.
Fiona……welcome to the club!!!
I have been saying the same thing for a year now…..it’s all about the choices we make in life, determination and foresight. Obviously you made the right choice and it has paid off.
I am saying this to no one in particular…….what is so irresponsible is blaming the system for one’s demise.
If bilingualism is part of the criteria for employment, so be it. Who has the right to tell any company or institution how and who to hire? If I want to hire a unilingual french person…….that is my business. Bring it to the Supreme Court of Canada…..YOU WILL LOSE!!!!
It’s mind boggling that a group who hates french speaking people could go this far.
Fiona, you haven’t seen or heard anything yet….hang in there **s**
Heather,my son went to the ollege her in cornwall, in 1985 ,he was successful and graduated, he attended university in ottawa he was successful, he tried to get a job in cornwall, not being bilingual and not knowing anyone in cornwall, he applied for a job in the federal service and now is getting ready for his retirement.
My daughter travelled to a university in NB for several years and graduated with high marks. Her next step was a college degree required ( strange heh, I went to public school, high school,college and then university, in that order), then a french course followed ,applied for goverment positions, sorry no positions available.
My daughter found a job in a city south of toronto where no linguistic requirements were needed.
So, Heather, I say to you as I have been told, “Go west my friend and see your future”.
Good luck.
Have a nice day.
stellabystarlight
October 27, 2012 at 1:49 pm
“NO ONE IS FORCING ANYONE TO LEARN ANOTHER LANGUGE.”
So what the h*** is the FLSA ?????
ETHNIC CLEANSING IN THE TRUEST FORM!!!!
LEARN FRENCH OR WASH TOILETS!!!
ENGLISH TO THE BACK OF THE BUS!!!!!!
Jules said
“Concerned Citizen I think that Heather could be hired here in the hospitals here in Ottawa if she really tried hard.”
I don’t think you understand, The Ottawa Hospital-ALL campus’s are FLSA= A- French
Heather would absolutely NOT get hired!!!!
Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is the reality!!!!
ENGLISH NEED NOT APPLY, UNLESS YOU WANT TO MOP FLOORS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fiona said,
“concerned citizen: I got my job and promotions AFTER FLSA and I am a registered nurse, not that it matters if I am or not.”
Okay sure & I’m Queen Elizabeth!!!!!
Ok, so now we’ve established Fiona that you’re purposefully obfusticating reality. If you don’t have French proficiency at a high level you just aren’t going to get the jobs and promotions or at the very least you’ll see a token person occasionally hired to shut up criticism and because there simply are not enough bilingual applicants to fill the jobs. It’s not about skills or competition. It’s about slamming doors in your young people’s faces as has been done to Heather.
How many young people and families will be hurt and how many patient will suffer because of this social engineering?
This will be my last post here, because the majority of you just don’t want to hear any opinion that doesn’t agree with your own. The fact of the matter is, I WAS hired & promoted as a unilingual registered nurse. I made sure that beyond the basic qualifications I needed for the job I was looking for, I had more skills that make me a more desirable employee. I didn’t speak french, but I had other things to offer that made me stand out among the applicants. If you think the world owes you a living, think twice. You make your own choices, you accept the consequences. To you paranoid whining fingers-in-ears writers (especially concerned citizen AKA the Queen of England: – My grandmother always said: you cant fight a battle of wits with the unarmed, and she was right. And to Stella: thanks for making me feel like I am not the only rational voice.
Fiona you can stay or go. You were challenged. Basically people that can’t face a challenge run away. Nobody said they were owed anything. Someone spent $30K going to school to practice a profession that this hospital and other government type organizations have added an artificial linguistic hurdle to that is impacting our community.
We’ve established that and if we’re going to demand that people have this level of language proficiency then every high school graduate should have it.
oops… I broke my own rule…. one more post: @ Admin, I admire your judicious use of the thesaurus. Well done. For the benefit of your less educated (even in the language they so desperately want to protect) english readers, I will save them the trouble of looking it up. It means to confuse, to cloud… I fail to see how I have done so, in that I merely quoted exactly what you said in an earlier post to prove my point. Off I go, to my well-earned job, believe it or not. Its far easier for you to blame the FLSA than your own shortcomings.
Fiona again you are the one clouding and refusing to deal with reality. Again, you made a post. I challenged you. Instead of defending your position or admitting defeat you threw a hissy fit; said you were leaving and came back and threw out a lame attack…
Spin is spin. People like Heather have been spun enough. This is about jobs and our community. End of.
Concerned Citizen:
I think that you are right as well. Just around 6 p.m. my husband came in here to tell me that a woman from the Phillipines had a column in one of Ottawa’s newspapers and has a few university degrees and cannot get a job because she doesn’t have French. This didn’t used to be as much as a problem as it is today because there were always jobs for people who were unilingual English or something like that.
Heather my husband even said that even places that are English will have to become bilingual. I had a good laugh wondering how they are going to swing the west into that system. Maybe they would literally dig up old Pierre Trudeau and feed them to the wolves. My own daughter said that she too has to refresh her French and she may be going to go back to school – a private college here in Ottawa for a while. She went to French schools all her life but after being away for so long and not using conversational French then she has to find a way now of studying it more thoroughly. She was working in all French in an insurance contract whereas those in Toronto did it in English and now both are out of that contract. She is doing a contract that she did some years back which is only till the end of November and then out.
Heather did you apply to London Ontario and that area down there. London is English and so are other towns down that way. My husband suggested that as an alternative for you. London is big but not as big as Ottawa. Some people live in St. Thomas and other small towns and commute to London by car. I was looking at the cost of homes in St. Thomas and what I saw were very expensive. I don’t know how the rents are down that way. If it is anything like Ottawa then hold on to your shorts. LOL LOL. Usually that area is expensive becauses of the GTA.
Someone here wondered about why should one be judged by one’s appearace well unfortunately they are judged that way. Even my daughter’s supervisor told her that in some places she would have to dress more professionally even though she doesn’t wear jeans nor is she all pearced, etc. there are dress codes in some jobs as well as some places. We knew a girl in Cornwall who was so pretty enough to be a model – she had the right height to go with it but came from a bad family and her life went bad as well. She too was all pearced as well and yes one is judged by how they look.
I fail to see how I can defend my position beyond what I have already posted. You & your readers simply don’t believe me, and I don’t know how to defend against that. All I can say AGAIN, is that I am unilingual, I have been hired and promoted, because I made sure I had other skills that made me stand out from other applicants. I feel bad for Heather, and I wish her nothing but good luck and a great job. My advice to her is to find some other way to sell herself, showboat some other aspect of her talents, take advantage of training for resume writing and interview techniques. At least these suggestions are doable right now, are constructive & might just make a difference.
Fiona, your proof that being unilingual is not the end of the world. You can get a job and be successful. Some blame bilingualism because they are not hired, i think them not being hired is for another reason then language. MAybe its because they have a lack of personal skills.
It does happen sometimes that people aren,t hired even when you are qualified.
@ Fiona, Stella & Ricky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMBl7ZOVfBg&feature=g-upl&context=G2ab7300AUAAAAAAAAAA
This is the reality of the English speaker in Ontario.
English are second class citizens!!!
DISCRIMINATION
@ Jules
Check out # 23
French Language Services Act; 25 Designated Areas
1.City of Toronto (All)
2.City of Hamilton (All of the City of Hamilton as it exists on Dec. 31, 2000)
3.Regional Municipality of Niagara: Cities of: Port Colborne and Welland
4.City of Ottawa (All)
5.Regional Municipality of Peel: City of Mississauga, City of Brampton
6.City of Greater Sudbury (All)
7.County of Dundas: Township of Winchester
8.County of Essex: City of Windsor, Towns of Belle River and Tecumseh; Townships of: Anderdon, Colchester North, Maidstone, Sandwich South, Sandwich West, Tilbury North, Tilbury West and Rochester
9.County of Glengarry (All)
10.County of Kent: Town of Tilbury, Townships of Dover and Tilbury East
11.County of Prescott (All)
12.County of Renfrew: City of Pembroke, Townships of:Stafford and Westmeath
13.County of Russell (All)
14.County of Simcoe: Town of Penetanguishene, Townships of: Tiny and Essa
15.County of Stormont (All)
16.District of Algoma (All)
17.District of Cochrane (All)
18.District of Kenora: Township of Ignace
19.District of Nipissing (All)
20.District of Sudbury (All)
21.District of Thunder Bay: Towns of Geraldton, Longlac and Marathon, Townships of Manitouwadge, Beardmore, Nakina & Terrace Bay
22.District of Timiskaming (All)
23.County of Middlesex: City of London
24.District of Parry Sound: Municipality of Callander
25.County of Frontenac: City of Kingston
Fiona, you should be ashamed of yourself. Dictating to the rest of us to get off our lazy butts and learn the language. You should give up the position you have and give it to the more qualified bilingual person if that’s how you really feel.
Hummmm, let’s see…
“what is so irresponsible is blaming the system for one’s demise.”
Aren’t the French blaming the system for the demise of the French language???
WAIT!!!
HOLD ON.
JUST WAIT ONE DARN SECOND HERE…
EVERYONE JUST PAUSE…
Let’s get something straight. IN REALITY… Yes Reality… FRENCH (4-8% OF THE POPULATION OF Canada) is NOT, I repeat, NOT necessary outside the “province” of Quebec. The ONLY REASON why, I repeat again, THEEEEE ONLY REASON why IT IS creeping around outside of Quebec to the degree that it is has to do with the fact that the English were too damn complacent years ago when one of our PM’s (we all know who). wanted to help the French feel more welcomed in Canada so they wouldn’t threaten to separate. The short version is… This PM instituted a policy that was supposed to provide services to the French by the Federal government. THAT’S IT, that’s ALL.
This initial “policy” has somehow (we all can trace how) been parlayed and cajoled into the COMPLETELY false and dreamt up concept that we see today with the inaccurate sense that French is equal to English and thus necessary all over Canada. A little push here, another one there. A little rule change here, another complaint there, and yet another demand over that way… And voila. Holeeeee makenaw… What is happening today is completely INSANE and a complete misleading sense of what SHOULD BE.
The minority SHOULD NOT be calling the shots.
When people say, “oh it’s best if you send you sons and daughters to learn French so they can get ahead in this country.” Who the He(( made up this damn rule? It certainly wasn’t the English… It makes my blood boil when I hear this stuff… THIS IS NOT an absolute truth at all. It is a programmed response. It has been programmed into the English “majority” by the French “MINORITY” over several years now.
The minority French have set this situation up this way. And, for some damn reason the “MAJORITY” English keep going along with this fallacy. It is a con job. It is a “made up ideal” a concept that has been taken as far as it has because the English have not awaken to realize they can (and should) stop it. Or, they haven’t had the ba%$#S till NOW.
There is NO comparison between the numbers. Whether that be attempting to compare the English language to the French language or comparing the “province” of Quebec to the country of Canada. These comparisons just simply CANNOT and SHOULD NOT be made AT ALL. PERIOD… And, anyone attempting to try to make these comparisons should be told to find another way to make their arguments. THIS WILL NOT be tolerated.
Let’s face the facts here people. If the English refuse to keep going along with this charade then it ENDS. It becomes is no longer the case that French is necessary to get ahead in this wonderful country. AND THAT — has to happen — yesterday.
stellabystarlight said:
“Who has the right to tell any company or institution how and who to hire? ”
-The government does -bill 101 and Ontario’s equivalent Russell and 3 other communities.
and the propaganda continues from stella-
“It’s mind boggling that a group who hates french speaking people could go this far”
Fiona said:October 27, 2012 at 5:26 pm
“You said yourself: “Of course all things being equal you pick the applicant with extra skill sets.”
Well if you do not have an A- in french as this its mandatory -all other skills are disregarded .
Therefore without the one all others are excluded-so forget about further educating yourself-french is the priority.
So in Ontario where applying for that the government position -(mandated french) 96 %of the applicants resume’s would not even warrant being looked at no matter the education nor experience tossed aside for one thing -language -not being proficient in french.
ONTARIO IS YET TO BE DEEMED BILINGUAL -THIS IS PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE !
So clearly education and experience is trumped by language if I can not even apply for a position if its deemed bilingual .
This is morally and humanly reprehensible.But acceptable in Canada !
In a true democracy this would not be accepted .
ALL THIS AND WE THE PEOPLE NEVER VOTED ON BILINGUALISM -WE NEED TO HAVE A REFERENDUM LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE !