Out of the 'Supreme' Court of Canada.
While all eyes were on the Guergis firing, our illustrious House of Commons was voting in favour of a fully Bilingual Supreme Court.
By a vote of 140 to 137 - Member Yvon Godin's Private Bill C-232 passed the House of Commons and is now being considered by the Senate. All Conservatives present voted with the no's.
If it passes the Senate, Bill C-232 will represent the most divisive law since the passage of the Official Languages Act in 1969.
I say this because with the advent of the Charter of Rights in 1982, the Supreme Court of Canada's role changed from one of just interpreting laws to one that includes making laws - as history has shown since then. In some very important instances, the Court's power now exceeds that of Parliament itself.
But hardly a word in Print or in the other media about this Vote.
That said, there was an excellent piece written this past weekend by Dan Gardner in the Ottawa Citizen under the heading 'Most of us need not apply for top jobs'.
Gardner points out that Bilingualism "bars at least 90% of candidates before the search even begins".
Here are some other interesting figures he floats: bilingualism among Anglophones is only 9.4%; among allophones it is but 12.1%; and among francophones 42%.
Although not specifically stated in his article, Statistics Canada shows that Bilingualism (English / French) over the past 50 years has increased a miserly 5% (from 12 to 17%) despite the billions of dollars spent on it.
Gardner deducts from the above that although "you still get good people (for the Court), ..." you won't get the best".
One could argue that with the Supreme Court challenging Parliament for Supremacy - you most certainly want and need the best.
Finally, Gardner makes a rather interesting analogy. Say women, who make up 51% of the population were excluded from consideration - "one half of the available intelligence and energy is squandered". Now compare that to Official Bilingualism where up to 90% of the population is excluded, as a matter of public policy.
Added to this mixture is the fact that Bilingualism exists in numbers only in Northern New Brunswick, Quebec - although it holds to unilingual status, and Ontario - east of Bank Street. Should the Court become exclusively Bilingual, vasts tracts of Canada and the Majority of the Population - in the East and for most off Ontario west - would be effectively excluded. This when Quebec currently already has one third of the Court's appointees (3 of 9).
I fear that should this Bill become law, Separation will soon again raise its ugly head, but this time it will not come from Quebec.
As I see it...
"Galagher"
