BetterMost Community Blogs > My "Great White North"

The English Canadian Olympics

(1/8) > >>

Sheriff Roland:
I was offended at the tokenism that was paid to the francophone elements of Canadian culture in last night's opening ceremonies of the 21st Olympics.

By tradition (law?), all announcements at Olympic events are made in french and english and they did that, but when you're dealing with a who's who of Canadian icons, the organizers of yesterday's Vancouver 'games' had one single francophone artist (Garou) in a 3 hour show.

The flagbearers included three francophones, an astronauts, a military  man and a race car driver. None of them spoke, of course.

The athlete taking the plege of fairness was anglo, the judge was franco.

Of the 5 sports icon that were involved with the lighting of the flame, not one was francophone - like they don't exist or sumptin.

Francophones are (again) being marginalised in Western Canada, and not a single report can be found on this gross neglect in the dailies this morning.

Google News (Canadian French) are merely posting about the ceremonies in their Sport section this morning. Last night I couldn't even get THAT much!

Yea, I'm quite disappointed with these olympics, culturally speaking.

Sheriff Roland:
Seems I'm not the only one who noticed ...

Déception chez les observateurs

http://vivezvancouver.radio-canada.ca/vivezvancouver/CultureSociete/2010/02/12/004-francais_place.shtml

Grand Témoin de la francophonie aux Jeux olympiques de Turin, Lise Bissonnette montre du doigt le Comité international olympique (CIO) pour la faible présence du français lors des jeux en général.

Monika:
I remember hearing a couple of speeches in French. The woman who officially opened the Olympics and the IOC President Jacques Rogge.

What percentage of the Canadian population speaks French, Roland?

Sheriff Roland:

--- Quote from: Buffymon on February 13, 2010, 08:38:14 am ---I remember hearing a couple of speeches in French. The woman who officially opened the Olympics and the IOC President Jacques Rogge.

What percentage of the Canadian population speaks French, Roland?

--- End quote ---

25%

But that's not the (only) point. This is an officially bilingual country - with two founding nation, French and English.

That 'woman' is our Governor General, Queen Elizabeth's representative in this country. Of course she would speak in French as she is Haitian born. She would have had to speak in both languages even if she wasn't of french-language origins (as the Queen herself always does every time she visits Canada). And Rogue is Belgian - the IOC's biggest bigwig - therefore not a representative of the French people of Canada. His use of French is the same no matter what nation hosts the games..

I can't think that just those two represent equitably the two-founding-nations principle. This is a FRENCH country too, but you'd hardly think so from last night's francophobic display.

The more I think of it, the more disgusted I get.

Front-Ranger:
I handled the communications for a conference in Montreal once and EVERYTHING had to be published in French as well as English. At the conference little earbuds were very popular into which an interpreter whispered the English of everything that was being said. It was a very interesting experience. I enjoyed using my rusty high school French again to order food and give the taxi driver directions. The French language is very beautiful to hear. But I must confess that I OD'd after a while because all of Montreal, if not the entire province of Quebec, seemed to be about one thing and one thing only--speaking French!! They really are passionate about it!!

I can't see where a large heterogenous country like Canada or China could design a performance that doesn't leave out big chunks of their culture. Imagine what the First Nations people are saying about the Olympics today too! And those tribes have several distinctive cultures. One thing that stood out for me as being a unifying force is the Canadians' altruism. That really shone through in the ceremonies and got me excited about the games coming up.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page