By: Nicolas Belliveau
The news in November 2018 that Doug Ford and his provincial government were ceasing the project to build a French-language university in Toronto and eliminating the position of the provincial commissioner for French language affairs was met with backlash.
However, situations like these aren’t novel. French education and culture have been the target of marginalization for hundreds of years. Ford adds to this long list of discriminatory acts, as his decision to cut services and protections to Franco-Ontarians has underlying anti-francophone sentiment and is a violation of minority language rights in Canada.
But why should we care about this? After all, with just over 620,000 people, the French-speaking community in Ontario makes up just 4.5 per cent of its total population.
Growing up French-Canadian in Ontario, practicing and maintaining the language my ancestors tirelessly fought to preserve has proven difficult. Additionally, the limited number of French secondary schools meant that I had to enroll at an English secondary school — adding to the challenge of keeping my mother tongue.
However, Francophones are still Canada’s largest minority with Ontario home to the most populous French-speaking community outside of Quebec. But most importantly, the French language is a right that is protected by the Constitution and language laws.
This didn’t come easily. Throughout all of Canada’s history, francophones have fought for the right to French education and with Ford’s new agenda, the battle appears to be ongoing.
Merely a century ago, the provincial government passed and enforced Regulation 17 throughout Ontario, which restricted the teachings in French beyond grade 2 and limited French teachings to one hour per day in primary schools. After 15 years of enforcement and prohibiting a whole generation from learning French, the law was finally repealed in 1927.
By ending the project for the development of a French university, Ford is reopening a door into the past that most French-Canadians thought was over. The ideology that once disregarded Franco-Ontarians’ identity and equality is now resurfacing, under the new disguise of Ford’s policies.
And what is Ford’s reasoning behind these radical changes? Although Ford has yet to comment on the matter, government officials have cited the province’s $15 billion deficit as being the motivation for these cost-cutting actions.
However, the cost for the French Language Services Commissioner and the university tally up to a total of just $15 million per year. And as of now, Ford’s government has yet to meet the targeted amount of savings, leaving experts to question whether a thorough program review was carried out.
When looking at these realities, it is hard to believe the government’s narrative of the provincial deficit being the sole incentive for premier Ford’s changes, and not worry about an anti-francophone sentiment underlying Ford’s fiscal agenda.
What’s more unsettling is that Ford’s new policy changes cuts into Canada’s Constitution and the protections and rights of French-Canadians.
The functions of a language commissioner prove to be essential in promoting and protecting a language. Not only do they monitor the government for any infringements upon minority language rights, the French language commissioner acts as a liaison between the provincial government and Franco-Ontarians.
By getting rid of the French Language Services Commissioner, Ford is destabilizing the rights and protections of minority francophones and undermining the institutions that promote one of the ‘supposed’ official languages of this country.
I acknowledge that Ontario is already home to three bilingual universities and that the francophone minorities account for just 4.5 per cent of Ontario’s population. Additionally, I acknowledged that the Ford government has created the position of senior policy adviser on francophone affairs following the elimination of the French Language Services Commissioner.
The realities of the mistreatment of francophones throughout history along with the benefits of the French services and protections that Ford is eliminating would make it illogical for one to not consider this as anti-francophone sentiment. To be idle while the government carelessly partakes in these divisive political tactics is a disservice to our ancestors and to all minorities.
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By: Jordan Graber
I used to be scared of feminism. I think a lot of people are still wary when they hear the word and connect their understanding of it. Often, those associated with the word feminism are often seen as angry, aggressive and in opposition of men. This is the first problem with this many people’s relationship with this term; misunderstanding.
Feminism by definition is, “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes”. In recent years, it has taken the world by storm, forming a movement of uprising men and women fighting for the equal rights of all genders. Only recently has it truly been a topic that is important in my own life.
At first, I didn’t really know what the term meant in order to understand my own stance on the subject. As a young woman growing up, I never really recognized the stereotypes towards women, and have been lucky to have experienced no discrimination against my femininity.
I am also fortunate to say that I am confident in my abilities and my feminine qualities. I am a warrior woman and I know that I don’t need a man to tell me who I can be. Given my experiences, why should I inquire further about this social movement.
Unfortunately, this is a common thought that women today may have. It is almost an ignorant stance to take on a relevant social issue.
Feminism is a difficult subject to grasp and is often viewed as an unpleasant subject to discuss openly. But just because the topic may be difficult does not mean that we should be oblivious to the struggles and positions within the movement. Despite the media coverage worldwide, it seems as though topics such as feminism and human rights are constantly pushed to the wayside, ignored and forgotten.
In recent years, it has taken the world by storm, forming a movement of uprising men and women fighting for the equal rights of all genders. Only recently has it truly been a topic that is important in my own life.
I myself have lived my life without fear of prejudice towards my gender. Although I have experienced it, it’s not something I let take me down. Though the term implies that women should be concerned with the movement, experiences vary from woman to woman. As a result, not all women share the same views or interest in the topic. Nonetheless, this topic should be addressed and understood, not feared. In order to achieve this, we should practice open-mindedness and free discussion.
Although your stance may come as second nature, we can’t let our own experiences define those of others. Women have always, and I predict will always face some injustice when it comes to competition with men. As they are different in nature, misinterpretation and generalizing are bound to exist.
Every aspect of our culture is full of stereotypes about marginalized communities.
The best way to learn about the movement is to take part in it. And no, you don’t have to call yourself a “feminist” in order to do so. For those looking for a nearby cause for female awareness, invest some time in Take Back the Night. An annual march in Hamilton organized by the Sexual Assault Centre (Hamilton Area). A feminist, community based organization that works to end sexual violence against women and break social and political boundaries.
Similarly, the “Slut Walk” is a transnational event that is held at different times of the year around the globe, including Hamilton and Toronto, that works to end rape culture and slut shaming of survivors of sexual assault.
Events that work in this greater social movement encourage us to question, our roles and responsibilities. This is not a simple question, and does not come with an easy answer. Personally, I’m terrified of confrontation, and I guess the millions of silent watchers are too. However, I think the issue is that people just don’t want to see what is going on. This can definitely be seen an ignorant position to hold against 21st century ideals.
This is a problem because many may be too afraid to take responsibility for our mistakes and misjudgements, are too scared to stand up and do so. I understand the struggle. Being a feminist is not easy. Being any sort of activist is going to be come with struggle, but my take is, if there is something that you believe must be addressed, fight for it.
We as humans inherently fear being singled out by others, but this is minor next to the larger issue. One does not need to organize a rally to show support for one another. Responsibility is as simple as taking the initiative to learn about a cause. An issue like gender equality isn’t something to be fixed overnight, but with some effort, it can be understood overnight.
I no longer fear feminism. I identify as a feminist. I will fight for my own rights and for the rights of those who cannot fight for themselves.
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Em Kwissa
The Silhouette
I distinctly remember the last time I ever used the word “faggot.”
I was sitting in my friend’s car outside my mother’s house. As he pulled up into the driveway to drop me off he saw out his window, on the ledge beside my mother’s driveway, the big globs of wax that lay baking in the sun. He asked me who had put all that wax there, and I told him that it had been someone I knew in grade school, and he had done it many years ago but the wax had baked and frozen and baked and frozen and never gone away. Matter-of-factly, I called that boy a faggot.
My friend turned to me with one eyebrow raised in a gesture of disbelief.
“Um, hello?” he said. He didn’t have to say anything more. A few months previously, I had found out that my friend was gay.
I hadn’t intended to use the word as a slur. I didn’t mean to say that the boy who’d waxed the ledge outside my mother’s house was gay or that gay people were bad. In the school where I grew up, the word “faggot” was tossed around as a gratuitous insult. I liked it for the guttural sound of it, like “maggot.” There was a strength in the way it rolled off my tongue.
But the hurt on my friend’s face, the way he looked at me like he couldn’t believe what I had just said, changed everything about my perception of that word. I explained to him what I had meant, and he told online pharmacy viagra me it didn’t matter. The intentions behind our words rarely matter more than their consequences.
I was in grade nine. I have never used the word since.
In subsequent years, there are a number of words that I have chosen to remove from my vocabulary, and while I wouldn’t impose my rules for my language on other people, I have yet to hear an argument convincing enough to bring such words back into my life.
For many years, my mother used the word “retard,” no matter how I insisted that it was hurtful. She told me that it was a word from her childhood, and that she didn’t mean it the way people heard it.
It wasn’t until her friend’s disabled son started being called by that name in school, until her own son was identified with a learning disability, that the word started to trickle out of her mouth less and less.
Many times I have heard the argument that culture has taken words like “faggot” and “retard” and changed them to mean something different, much in the way that “literally” no longer means literally. This is an interesting argument, but the intuition that rises in response is that the change in the meaning of the word “literally” is not used to hurt people.
Today, a friend of mine stated that while he still throws the word “faggot” around occasionally, he only does it with people he knows, and who he knows won’t be offended. He censors himself much in the same way that I censor myself when I’m around his mother. I don’t say “fuck” around my friends’ parents, though you can bet I’ll sprinkle it liberally throughout my sentences when in more relaxed company.
Another interesting argument.
My counter-argument is this: People who are offended by the word “fuck” are not a minority that has been systematically oppressed. These people have not had their rights taken away and they are not at a higher risk of violence than other people.
The word “fuck” offends them because it is crude, not because it is being used to marginalize and belittle them.
The word “faggot,” on the other hand, comes from a place that has made it so that there are still parts of the world in which two people who love each other aren’t allowed to get married, among the least harmful results.
It comes from a system that has designated a certain minority as lesser than. It was created by that system to keep those people in their place. One cannot be certain that no one in present company will be offended by that word.
You don’t know which of your friends are closeted or have friends who are. You don’t know which of your friends has a learning disability or knows someone who does. Which is more important – to be hip to the lingo or to do no harm? If anyone has an argument adequately formed to convince me that one can use such words without supporting the systems of oppression from which they are born, please, let me know.
It took a lot of training for me to remove certain words from my vocabulary (I still find myself having the urge to call someone a “pussy” when they can’t kick a soccer ball), and it would be a lot less work to be able to throw words around without really needing to mean them. Until then, I continue pruning my language, difficult though it is, because there are a fuck-ton of people out there who have to deal with way worse shit than I do, and the least I can do as their ally is the work it takes not to use the same language as the people who treat them like dirt.
Making the conscious effort to improve your language in order to reflect how you actually feel about the world isn’t something that’s actually very difficult. In fact, if it’s something you see as hard, you should probably consider yourself lucky that you haven’t had harder things to deal with.
