"Now I don't want to get off on a rant here, but...." -Dennis Miller
Here is my Rant and Roar page. My rants vary in length depending on how I feel and how much I have to say about each issue. Once again, I'd like to point out that I am not trying to offend anyone in particular. This is just me blowing off some steam.
I get the feeling that if you're not from Quebec, then you probably don't know what the language police are exactly or what they do. For those who don't know, let me explain. The language police are a government organization which goes around making sure that the English letters on signs are smaller than the French ones. And no, I'm not kidding. You see, we have a law here in the province of Quebec which states that on all public signs, French words must be bigger than those of any other language. To enforce this law, the government created the languange police. The language police spends the majority of their time handing out fines to those people who have signs with English words larger than French ones or those whose signs (gasp) don't have any french at all! Clearly these people are a threat to themselves and to others! What's next? Equal rights?
So, you might be asking yourself, what's the logic behind this ridiculously moronic law? Well, the French people here are afraid that their culture is being assimilated by the English. To combat this, they've decided to greatly limit the rights of English-speaking Quebecers. If you want an example, then take this one: Not long ago, the owner of a bar was fined because the beer coasters he uses have "Black Diamond" written on them. Now, Black Diamond is the name of the company that produces the coasters. Of course, this didn't stop the Language Police from giving him a fine. And, of course, all the Fench bars which had these same coasters were not fined or even given a warning.
I'm sure you're probably wondering how this kind of action could possibly be constitutional. Well, it's not. Here in Canada though, we have something called the Notwithstanding Clause. This allows governments to create laws which are unconstitutional as long as they have the majority vote. So, now you're probably thinking that this is one of the stupidest clauses that could exist (wow, you sure do talk to yourself a lot). And, you would be correct.
It makes me physically ill to know that my tax money is going to support this government organization which exists only to intimidate those who speak a different language. And what kind of brain-dead moron do you have to be for this job anyway?! The only thing you really need to know for this job is how to use a measuring tape and read French. You don't even need to know any other language. If the words you can't read seem bigger than the words you can read, then you can give out a fine. Can you imagine the interviews they conduct when they hire people?
"It says here on your resume that you can read English and that you know basic math... I'm sorry, but you're overqualified for this job..."
Of course, they probably don't actually conduct interviews for this job. I mean, odds are, these jobs probably go to those inbred elementary school dropouts who get their kicks from drinking gasoline.. but who also happen to be related to people in the Quebec government. Those of them that actually CAN read French or use a measuring tape without hurting themselves that is.
So why do us English speaking Quebecers put up with this kind of crap? Because we're used to it. The Quebec government is so damn corrupt, that those of us who live here are used to it. We may be outraged by it and we may complain about it, but we don't actually DO anything about it. Because the English speaking population of Quebec is the minority, we simply shake our heads and go "that darn Quebec Government is at it again!"
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