LETTER

 

------- Bill 96 & the election

 

In the recent election, although it was federal, many persons and interest groups here raised the question of Quebec's Bill 96.  They wanted the winner of the federal election to commit to intervening in Quebec's legislative agenda on language issues. What could go wrong with that idea?  What were these people thinking? 

Besides Quebec's constitutional sovereignty in its cultural and linguistic matters, we are faced with not one but several existential threats -- from climate change in general to the Chalk River nuclear mega-dump, specifically threatening the Ottawa and St Lawrence valleys. Yet these people feel that any limitation of their right to speak English, or to expect English from their provincial government, trumps all these other truly critical threats.  Doesn't the Anglophone community have leaders intelligent enough to compromise -- or to appreciate the genuine threats facing us. If the NSDF (the dump) ever floods, or just leaks out into the river, it won't matter much what language the survivors are speaking!

M. Scott

Aylmer