{"id":64057,"date":"2017-01-21T16:14:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T16:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/?p=64057"},"modified":"2017-01-21T16:14:13","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T16:14:13","slug":"revenge-of-the-comment-section-can-you-repeat-that-in-english-mr-trudeau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/revenge-of-the-comment-section-can-you-repeat-that-in-english-mr-trudeau.html","title":{"rendered":"Revenge of the comment section: Can you repeat that in English, Mr. Trudeau?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Trudeau faced criticism this week after responding to an English question in French <\/span>on his tour stop in Sherbrooke, Que. Initially,\u00a0the prime minister defended his choice, but then conceded the should have answered the question in the language it was asked. Trudeau now\u00a0faces a number of official complaints filed with the\u00a0federal languages\u00a0commissioner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some commenters say responding in French was disrespectful, but others weren’t bothered by the apparent blunder.<\/span><\/p>\n

Was it the right question?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The questioner could have had the courtesy to attempt a question in French in a highly francophone region. Even fractured French is better than an obvious lack of interest in speaking French at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

The prime minister was addressing an audience that was largely French-speaking. Yes, he might have defused this situation by initially responding in English, and then switching to French, but I am not losing any sleep over the fact that Trudeau\u00a0spoke French to a French audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Arved Sandstrom<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bCommon courtesy<\/span><\/h2>\n

Trudeau is arguably the most bilingual prime minister this country has ever had. Answer the question in the official language it was asked. End of story.<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Ben Smith<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Second-class citizens<\/span><\/h2>\n

I am a Quebec anglophone and I will not support Trudeau again. This just highlights the systemic discrimination that anglophones face in Quebec. I should add that my children have been raised to be bilingual so that they won’t have to feel like second-class citizens\u00a0in their own country.<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0David Walker<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Rude<\/h2>\n

A person takes time out of his or her life to go to a town hall and ask\u00a0a question: to not\u00a0actually talk to the person in a way he or she understands is rude. To worry more about the audience and the media than a person who has a problem is just awful. <\/span><\/p>\n

By now I think\u00a0Trudeau gets that. I doubt he was trying to disrespect the questioner. He was in a venue where the vast majority of the people speak French, and that surely\u00a0influenced his choice of language. I think it is ridiculous to believe that Trudeau was deliberately dismissing the person by not answering in English. In hindsight he should have, and he has said so. <\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Arved Sandstrom<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Go back on vacation<\/span><\/h2>\n

No wonder Trudeau’s handlers try to keep him out of the country so much; every time he opens his mouth in Canada he just keeps giving us more and more ammunition for getting rid of him at the next election.<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Anne Foster<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Anglophone rights not protected<\/span><\/h2>\n

Trudeau has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has no interest in protect the language rights of English-speaking Quebecers.<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Harold Fitzgerald<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It shouldn’t have been a surprise<\/span><\/h2>\n

If the prime minister was\u00a0surprised\u00a0to encounter questions in English in the eastern townships, he either needs to fire his handler or start listening more intently. Through the lens of political strategy, this was perhaps a masterful move, but that’s not really the point of the listening tour, is it?<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Derek Heatherington<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Boxed himself in<\/h2>\n

\u200bIn his attempt to highlight his respect and defence of the French language in Quebec \u2014 and perhaps to\u00a0differentiate himself from the gaggle of Conservative leadership candidates whose French is poor or non-existent \u2014\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0both insulted English Quebecers and boxed himself into a language fight he doesn’t need. <\/span><\/p>\n

To add insult to injury, the question was about English services:\u00a0you’d think Trudeau would have the wherewithal to answer in English, even if his initial plan was to answer everything in French. It may have further solidified his support in Quebec, but now if someone asks a question in French in Alberta will he answer only in English “out of respect”?<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Cameron Kernick<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Comments have been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/opinion\/trudeau-town-hall-1.3942874?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Trudeau faced criticism this week after responding to an English question in French on his tour stop in Sherbrooke, Que. Initially,\u00a0the prime minister defended his choice, but then conceded the should have answered the question in the language it was asked. Trudeau now\u00a0faces a number of official complaints filed with the\u00a0federal languages\u00a0commissioner. Some commenters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-64057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}