The English Canadian Olympics

[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]

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?

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.

[Sheriff Roland]

Of Montréal and Québec ...

Montréal is the only really anglophile city in La belle province with roughly 40% of it's population being anglophone while the province as a whole in 90% francophone. If you think it was too french for you, you would be disappointed at the rest of the province, as the greatest majority of Ango-Québecois live in Montréal.  In the rest of the province, they cater to english speaking tourists in a way that virtually no other province caters to francophone tourists, but the people ARE francophones!

But this is not what my complaint's about. Vancouver should showcase it's local stars (Furtado, Adams, Nash and even Terry Fox's mother), but they should have done a fairer representation of what CANADA is about, and in my opinion they failled miserably.

Canada will end up winning the most medals, not just Vancouver or just the anglophones.

[delalluvia]

I was expecting a LOT more French as well.  It's traditional for the Olympics and of course, Canada is a bilingual nation, one of the languages being French.

But what offended me the most was the haphazard way the First Nations tribes were put on display.  Some have no idea what their traditions used to be, and so showed up in jeans and suede fringed vests, women were out there dressed in silky white shawls - stuff you find in tourist shops - and they just kind of faked it in their dance routines.

Now on another board I go to, someone is very offended at me for posting this, her opinion is that the First Nations are doing the best they can and thus cannot be open for criticism.  I replied that no native descendant in any of the shows or displays I go to in the SW or Central American countries ever try to claim blue jeans as their traditional dress and I guess it's just a matter of how much pride they have in themselves.

[Jeff Wrangler]

But what offended me the most was the haphazard way the First Nations tribes were put on display.  Some have no idea what their traditions used to be, and so showed up in jeans and suede fringed vests, women were out there dressed in silky white shawls - stuff you find in tourist shops - and they just kind of faked it in their dance routines.

Now on another board I go to, someone is very offended at me for posting this, her opinion is that the First Nations are doing the best they can and thus cannot be open for criticism.  I replied that no native descendant in any of the shows or displays I go to in the SW or Central American countries ever try to claim blue jeans as their traditional dress and I guess it's just a matter of how much pride they have in themselves.

I think you're point is well taken, Del, but I also think you're being a little hard. I think I'd like to have more information. And who are you blaming, the tribes, or the producers, or both? I think it's sad if a group of native peoples have lost their heritage--very sad--but I also think it's a little harsh to blame them for losing it.

As for the paucity of French, I'd also be interested to know if it was a mere oversight--which would be pretty appalling--or if it was deliberate, and if so, why, and if the international TV audience had anything to do with it.

I don't mean to defend or to excuse anybody here, I just have questions.

[oilgun]

I was offended at the lack of French representation as well.  Garou is a big name and a good choice but the fact that he was basically the last performer made me think that he was an afterthought - ["Oh yeah, we'll need a frenchie don't we?  Call Celine." "What!?  She can't make it because she's getting inseminated?  Now what do we do?"  "Well, there's this guy who's supposedly famous in Quebec...Our aupair loves him." ]

It was nice to see two out gay performers though:  Bad-boy fiddler Ashley McIsaac and KD Lang (Is she still a vegetarian? Man has she blown up good, lol!  And what was with that ill-fitting suit with the eighties shoulders?  I noticed a lot of peeps were wearing them, yuck!)

All in all I thought the opening ceremonies were pretty good.  Loved the acrobatic From Both Sides Now sequence!  Didn't think much of the dub-poet guy, or whatever he is, who went on about Canadian identity, that was weak.  It reminded me of the I AM Canadian beer commercials from a few years back.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Bad-boy fiddler Ashley McIsaac

Dang! How did I miss him!?!?!    He's hot!

And, oh, yeah, he's a great fiddle player, too. ...