Sorry, I Don't Speak French

1) ''For the experience is a humbling one. It recreates the immigrant experience without leaving home. One discovers the awkwardness, the limitation, the handicap of being less articulate, less intelligent, less witty, and, at the same time, one experiences the unfolding reality of a world in another language. And even those Canadians who did not attempt the effort of learning French found themselves with a greater awareness that there was another language, another culture, another society within their country; accepting on otherness made it easier to conceive of a country of many.''

2) ''One of the ironies of the application of federal-language policy has been that former Montrealers have been both the most supportive -- and the most resistant. It was a commonplace observation that the constituency that most strongly supported Pierre Trudeau's political ideas was English Montreal. As English Montrealers became more bilingual, many were drawn to the federal government in Ottawa. But, at the same time, as the language of work requirements of Quebec's Charter of the French Language began to take effect, many of those who felt uncomfortable, and left, moved to the Ottawa area. Thus, paradoxically, Quebec's success in transforming Montreal into a city that functions in French has made it difficult for Ottawa to be effectively bilingual -- because many of the anglophones who were unable or unwilling to learn French and adapt to a French-speaking working environment moved to Ottawa, and were horrified at the prospect of seeing Ottawa's institutions become bilingual.''

3) ''Some fear that Canada can no longer be bilingual if it is going to be multicultural. But respect for multicultural communities flows from an innate understanding that there is not a single Canadian culture or language. And there are many indications that Canada's multicultural communities have embraced bilingualism. Montreal has seen the emergence of the phenomenon of 'trilingual Montrealers,' and the Chinese communities in both Vancouver and Toronto have been strongly supportive of French-language education. In Vancouver, the Chinese community asked the French Embassy to have the Alliance Française located in a Chinese community centre, and in Toronto, the Chinese community has provided strong financial support for the expansion of the Toronto French School. Often it is recalcitrant Anglos who use concern for immigrants and visible minorities as grounds to oppose the federal government's language policy; the grounds are false. In fact, it is Canada's acceptance, however inarticulate, of the reality of another culture and language within its national fabric, and its attempt to accommodate that reality -- rather than the desire to undermine Quebec that Quebec nationalists feared -- that has made multiculturalism possible.''

4) ''In the past, the argument has been made that English Canadians should learn French for the sake of Quebec and national unity. No, dammit, we should do it for ourselves.''