Dear Editor,
Bruce Allen’s Reality Check commentary (Sept. 20) on CKNW radio was regarding his recent visit to Shanghai, and his observation that English was everywhere: “Somehow the Chinese in Shanghai have found a way to put things in both languages, from menus, to advertising to storefronts and street directions.”
How ironic. At least 10 years of activism to have some English (an official language of Canada) on signage in Richmond has just recently produced a policy to educate and encourage business owners to include at least 50 per cent English on regulated signage.
A policy, not a bylaw, which has something to do with a potential violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the federal government’s law of two official languages that does not necessarily apply to the provinces.
So can one extrapolate that in Shanghai there is benefit to include English but in Richmond there is not.
Then, interestingly enough an article in the Richmond News — “Ghost-writing ads reappear in KPU Richmond” — revealed yet again that Chinese-only flyers were posted on KPU bulletin boards. It’s not just the fact that the ads are in Chinese only, but that they were a blatant exposure of unethical behavior in an institution of learning no less. Perhaps English should matter more.
Our government’s anemic support of the (official) English language in combination with the “unrestricted flow of global migrants and money,” as Allen puts it, has created some challenging issues. Perhaps we are getting a taste of Justin Trudeau’s idealized Canada as a ‘post-national state’ with ‘no core identity.’ The question is, what will hold us to-gether and what values will float to the surface.
N. McDonald
Richmond
