On The Positive Side...
Presumed entitlements are felt to be as permanent as the sky above, even when their actual need has diminished. So then, present as though there has been no advancement, and skew statistics so that those entitlements will be forever safe-guarded. Dishonest? Most certainly, but just as people attempt all manner of artifices to shield themselves from paying taxes, they will also engage in illegal activities to ensure their gain is not subject to diminishment.
Statistics Canada, that highly respected government body that assembles facts and figures so very painstakingly, to the extent that its efforts have been praised by other countries looking in and enviously imagining that they too could profit from such a statistics-gathering agency to enable their own governments to construct social amenities on the basis of the data gathered in a reflection of society's aspirations has revealed a bit of an anomaly in its data-gathering.
In officially bilingual Canada, where the 'French fact' exists, jealous of its guarantees of equality of language opportunities as a minority cultural artefact of an earlier era, in a majority-language country held to be threatening to assimilate the language of a segment of the country's original migrant settlers, French-speakers are given the right to demand service in the language of their choice. But only where numbers warrant that service.
And if French speaking Canadians are also proficient in the majority language of English, and an insufficient number of French-only-speaking citizens exist in a given area to warrant the extension of French-language services, they are withdrawn, logically. But a strange thing happened on the way to the latest census when francophones were being urged through a French-language email in mass circulation, to deny English-speaking capabilities.
The result being a truly puzzling census result, with the purported number of bilingual francophones falling, in direct contradiction to clear trends over past census data-collection. Suddenly, the numbers of francophones insisting they speak only French appeared to be on a growth spurt. And officials at StatsCan reached the logical conclusion that this trend reversal was a result of false information being given to statisticians.
The purpose of which was abundantly clear; to ensure that federal program funding with French-language services available in geographic areas that no longer required them, would still be receiving them. As though official bilingualism is not sufficiently costly as it is. Not only in the huge expenses relating to providing translation services in every facet of official life in the country, but in job opportunities lost to unilingual Anglophones.
This is one manipulation a stretch too far. But there is a positive side to all of this in that the level of incorrect information, though notable, is not overwhelming. Indicating that most people do have a public conscience. It is estimated, for example, that the number of Franco-Ontarians who may have deliberately given incorrect information would be roughly 10,000.
Leaving one with the happy impression that the other 490,000 Franco-Ontarians are decently honest.
Statistics Canada, that highly respected government body that assembles facts and figures so very painstakingly, to the extent that its efforts have been praised by other countries looking in and enviously imagining that they too could profit from such a statistics-gathering agency to enable their own governments to construct social amenities on the basis of the data gathered in a reflection of society's aspirations has revealed a bit of an anomaly in its data-gathering.
In officially bilingual Canada, where the 'French fact' exists, jealous of its guarantees of equality of language opportunities as a minority cultural artefact of an earlier era, in a majority-language country held to be threatening to assimilate the language of a segment of the country's original migrant settlers, French-speakers are given the right to demand service in the language of their choice. But only where numbers warrant that service.
And if French speaking Canadians are also proficient in the majority language of English, and an insufficient number of French-only-speaking citizens exist in a given area to warrant the extension of French-language services, they are withdrawn, logically. But a strange thing happened on the way to the latest census when francophones were being urged through a French-language email in mass circulation, to deny English-speaking capabilities.
The result being a truly puzzling census result, with the purported number of bilingual francophones falling, in direct contradiction to clear trends over past census data-collection. Suddenly, the numbers of francophones insisting they speak only French appeared to be on a growth spurt. And officials at StatsCan reached the logical conclusion that this trend reversal was a result of false information being given to statisticians.
The purpose of which was abundantly clear; to ensure that federal program funding with French-language services available in geographic areas that no longer required them, would still be receiving them. As though official bilingualism is not sufficiently costly as it is. Not only in the huge expenses relating to providing translation services in every facet of official life in the country, but in job opportunities lost to unilingual Anglophones.
This is one manipulation a stretch too far. But there is a positive side to all of this in that the level of incorrect information, though notable, is not overwhelming. Indicating that most people do have a public conscience. It is estimated, for example, that the number of Franco-Ontarians who may have deliberately given incorrect information would be roughly 10,000.
Leaving one with the happy impression that the other 490,000 Franco-Ontarians are decently honest.
Labels: Canada, Economy, Human Relations, Whoops
posted by Pieface @ 7:02 PM
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