Nove,ber 12, 2001

PROTECTING OUR LANGUAGE AND OURSELVES

We are receiving letters and phone calls from Canadians who left Quebec because of language and are worried about the French language takeover of Ottawa.

All Canadians have reason to worry. Ottawa is the capital of Canada. When Ottawa City Council passed its Bilingualism Bylaw on May 9, 200l, everyone in Canada's capital lost basic human rights. All Canadians are at risk of losing theirs.

I invite you to obtain and read my letter of May 28, 200l. Under the false claim that Canada is a bilingual country, and that French has the right to equality everywhere, the Bylaw effectively makes Ottawa into a French city in which everyone else is a second-class citizen.

You will see how the Ottawa policy violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, denies the right of free expression, establishes a bureaucracy dedicated to the advancement of French, and even requires that firefighters be assigned on the basis of language.

This policy is openly concerned with power, not with service where needed. Private businesses and community groups are not exempt. If they provide any services to the City, or if groups receive partial funding from the City, they will be locked into bilingualism requirements. There is nothing to prevent the City from sending around Language police, just like Quebec.

IT IS IN FORCE NOW. IT MUST BE CHALLENGED IN THE COURTS.

WHY should you lose your rights?

OUR RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT THE BYLAW IS ILLEGAL. But it is being treated as law. It must be challenged in the Courts, or other cities in Canada will be forced to accept the same illegal bilingualism.

Remember how it began. Politicians claimed that Canada consisted of two founding nations, French and English. They said that Quebec must have the right, as one founding nation, to have its own language because the other Provinces were English-speaking. So Canadians stood by while the Quebec Government made English illegal.

Now the argument has shifted. We are told that Canada is a bilingual country. We are told that Quebec, as one of the two founding nations, is entitled to claim half of the other founding nation, and that the symbols and history of Canada and the language of all Provinces except Quebec must also be changed to recognize French at all levels and in preference to English. Quebec is a semi-state, massively funded from the rest of Canada, governing the rest of Canada. Our Prime Minister is determined to impose French on Ottawa and across Canada.

I urge you to see the National Film Board film "The Rise and Fall of English Montreal", by noted journalist William Weintraub. It shows what happened under the language laws in Quebec.

I urge you also to read Maurice King's eye-opening book, "The First Step", on the growth of Quebec nationalism, Federal Government support for Quebec, and the case he took to the United Nations on Quebec's denial of freedom of expression.

Canadians were told that French-Canadians merely wanted to run their own Province. Now we must fight for our own rights in Ottawa or lose the capital of our country. There is no longer any place to run.

What must be done?

Our research has shown that Ontario has full authority over Ontario cities, but is closing its eyes to the Ottawa situation. A Member of the Ontario legislature (Jean-Marc Lalonde of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell) has now introduced a private member's bill in the Ontario legislature to have Ottawa recognized as a bilingual city.

Meanwhile the Federal Government is using threats, misinformation and pressure to force the Province to make Ontario permanently bilingual. Citizens must act.

What can you do?

Join the Institute. Raise funds for our work. We need resources to challenge the illegality both publicly and in the Courts.

This will not be a short, easy matter of telling the Governments that they should obey the law. Our goal is the Courts but our wider goal is to get information out through the media in every possible way, to tell Canadians that they must JOIN TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF ALL CANADIANS.

It will not be easy. The case will be against the Province and perhaps the City. Unless the situation changes, the case would not be against the Federal Government, although it will probably seek to intervene, to raise technical objections, to distract, disrupt and delay. Our challenge must include publicity and must awaken people across Canada to what has happened to this country and what must be done to regain their rights.

I urge you to read the last chapter of the autobiography of the late Honourable Eugene Forsey, nationally known constitutional historian, who was one of the members of the Institute. He called English-speaking people who caved in to the demands of the Quebec and French-Canadian nationalists, "appeasers". He warned that they could bring about the destruction of this country. Read what he wrote.

WE HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE.The Human Rights Institute of Canada can only help if we have the financial resources and your support. We are asking people to join the Institute, to donate to us, to include us in their wills, and to help actively in our work.

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