As with every type of case heard at the Supreme Court level, our changing social customs, over time, coupled with new appointments at our High Court, usually bring about new judgments on old issues.
As a Canadian citizen, I have reached the end of my patience with the time and money wasted on and by the OQLF.
We need urgent repairs to our infi:astructure, we need to hire more nurses, not lay them off. We need enhanced educational systems and better tools to teach our children. Instead we get Pastagate, now Indiagate. What's next!
Last time I checked, (2 weeks ago), the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed me, and every other Canadian citizen, even those who live in Quebec, the right to use English.
Article 7 guarantees us the "right to ...security and the right not to be deprived thereof ', so stop badgering small business owners, infringing on their security by forcing them to spend time and money on redundancies. Article 15 guarantees us "equal" treatment without discrimination based on, among other criteria, national or ethnic origin. Is the OQLF spot¬ checking restaurants operated by ''pur Iaine" owners?
Article 16 guarantees English [and French] as the official Canadian languages, with "equal" rights and privileges. So why are English Quebecers being persecuted?
While the Quebec legislature is free to advance the equality of status or use of French, it cannot do so to the detriment of English (Article 16(3)).
Article 23(1) states:
Citizens of Canada
a) whose 1st language learned and still understood is that of the English... linguistic minority population of the province in which they reside,
b) who have received their primary education in Canada in English... and reside in a province where the language in which they received that instruction is the language of the English... linguistic minority population of the province,
have a right to have their children receive primary and secondary school education in that language in that province.
Our Charter is to be interpreted in a manner consistent with "the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canada" (Article 27), not its demise.
So tandoori is just as good as "tandouri" and pasta is as good as, not better than, ''pates" and v1ce versa. The Canadian Charter applies to "the legislature and government of each province..." (Article 32(b).
All this said, when are we, the outcasts in Quebec, going to say enough and fight the good fight? It's time to go to Ottawa again. If Bill 14 is passed in any way, and with the President of Tourism Montreal saying the OQLF and Bill 14 are hurting business here, and the negative international headlines the OQLF garnered for Pastagate, our time is now!