The Canadian newspaper the National Post reported yesterday about a proposed bye-law in the city of Moncton, which is officially bilingual, to compel businesses to make their signage in both English and French. Apparently this has so outraged anglophone residents that they are campaigning against the proposal and threatening court appeals and to move out of the city should the bye-law be passed. There is an English-speaking group called "Canadians Against Forced Bilingualism" who are opposed to le Front commun pour l’affichage bilingue au Nouveau-Brunswick, which successfully proposed a similar bye-law in neighbouring Dieppe, and the whole thing is threatening to escalate into "all-out war" between Anglophones and Francophones.
It is difficult to establish why the English-speaking population, a majority in Moncton but a minority in Dieppe, are so opposed to bilingual signs. They argue that the English speakers are being forced out of New Brunswick and that the requirement to have bilingual signs is a threat to free expression. It is difficult, admittedly at a distance, to understand why an apparently reasonable rule in what is, after all, an officially bilingual province, should provoke such ire. Indeed, language such as "all-out war", "friction", and "emotionally charged", while rather hyperbolic, does make it seem like there are some irrational people around and that opponents are being somewhat over-sensitive and a bit precious.
I think that possibly the most telling argument in favour of the proposal comes right at the end of the article. Michel Carrier, the province’s Commissioner of Official Languages, alleges that he has "never come across an anglophone that can no longer speak his language", but he has "met a number of francophones who have lost theirs".
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