Angry in the Great White North

From AFP (via Bourque):

Canada's new prime minister, Stephen Harper, has sparked outrage with his appointment of a lawmaker who speaks only English to help represent Canada at the international organization La Francophonie, according to a newspaper report.

Ted Menzies, a member of Parliament from the western province Alberta, was given the nod by Harper to assist Josee Verner, the new minister of La Francophonie, in her portfolio on Monday when his Conservative government was sworn in after winning a recent general election.

The pair will likely attend a meeting of the international cultural and linguistic organization in Romania later this year, the Ottawa Citizen reported Friday.

Romania. Official languages are Romanian, Hungarian, and German. French doesn't make the cut.

So the Francophonie, whose member states are not necessarily French speaking, has a summit this year taking place this year in one of those non-French speaking member states. And people are upset that one of the members of the Canada's team is just learning French? At least he's learning French!

Menzies is taking French classes three times per week, but remains at a beginner level, his spokeswoman Emma Welford told AFP.

"He understands a lot, but is shy about speaking French right now," she said. "Still, he's eager to learn and working hard."

What business does this Albertan have being at the summit, rubbing elbows with all these Romanians and Moldovans?

Of course, I could ask what business does this Romanian have being at the summit, rubbing elbows with all these Albertans and Moldovans?

Or I could rephrase it as...you get the picture.

The fact is that the Francophonie is a nasty piece of business:

Several of the member states have a poor record when it comes to the protection of human rights and the practice of democracy. A proposed measure to sanction such countries was debated at least twice, but was not approved.

The modern Francophonie was created in 1970. Its motto is egalite, complementarite, solidarite (equality, complementarity, and solidarity), harking of France's motto. Started as a small club of Northern French-speaking countries, it has since evolved into an important international organisation whose numerous branches cooperate with the organisation's member states in the fields of culture, science, economy, justice, and peace.

Today, the Francophonie is an important forum for discussions of world-wide cultural and linguistic diversity.

The last sentence captures the true essence of the Francophonie. Linguistic diversity is a code-phrase for "anything but English". Cultural diversity is a code-phrase for "anything but American". With English wiping out the use of other languages on the power of the American-dominated Internet, people who believe French should hold the primary position as a world language and culture will do anything to fight it.

Create an organization devoted to promoting French? Sure. But when the list of member states consists of France, one quarter of Canada, and then a bunch of third-rate dirt-poor former African, Caribbean, and Pacific-rim colonies now run by despots, well, it's time to invite any country that might see fit to help resist English, whatever language they speak. As long as it's not English.

Once English is put in its place, one wonders if France will be eager to encourage "linguistic diversity" for these other languages. I'm pretty sure I can guess what the average French person thinks of Albanian culture.

Michel Guimond, party whip for the separatist Bloc Quebecois, added: "This is a serious insult to francophones."

No, the Francophonie is an insult to my intelligence. Sending a linguistically diverse team to represent Canada seems to be more in line with the stated goals of the Francophonie, but since we all know what the real goal is, we can see why Guimond is feeling upset.

Hearing English spoken at the Francophonie rather defeats the purpose of the whole exercise, doesn't it?

Stephen Harper took a half-step here. He could have made it clear that the Francophonie serves no legitimate purpose, and is dangerously exclusionary. In fact, Canada's membership in an organization devoted to pushing back on the dominance of English only exacerbates the tensions we have here at home by putting the linguistic communities at odds with each other.

Sort of like what it's doing right now.

We should just drop out of the silly business altogether. But I suppose that might be too big a pill to swallow. Right now, anyway.