Multi-Culture

So I was reading my morning news sites, and I stumbled across an article on the CTV website that said some eastern Canadians were up in arms about the lack of bilingualism in the Olympics. One Quebecois politician apparently remarked that VANOC is treating the Quebecois culture as a "subculture". Which it is.

Now what they don't seem to understand, is well, many things. firstly, calling a limited regional culture a Subculture, and using the prefix "sub" is not calling it inferior (cue the wonderful remark "there isn't anything inferior about submarines."). Being that Canadian culture is literally an amalgamation of subcultures. I don't know if there is any major over-arching Canadian culture (which admittedly, is a bad thing), meaning that all the subcultures in fact combine to form our Multi-Culture.

Secondly, I take serious issue with the Quebecois advocated trying to make their culture literally more important than all the other ones in Canada. No culture is more superior than any other, since cultures aren't rated on a scale, nor can they be qualified as a few bad or good things. The age-old rationale for Quebecois culture being more important is that they were instrumental in founding Canada. So was Britain, the too-numerous-to-even-write-down native cultures (many of which in Quebec, are still not allowed to carry out their native traditions, I might add), Chinese immigrants, Japanese immigrants (there are Japanese villages on the coast that existed since 1800's, until WW2 when they were relocated to inland camps). Canada was made up of hundreds if not thousands of cultures, which when mixed together, amalgamate into one large thing we call our Multi-Culture.

Thirdly, and possibly fourthly, its Fricken Vancouver. Why would half the games be in Quebecois and half in English if its held in Vancouver. Around 8% of people in Vancouver can speak any french, let alone fluently. Now I can understand that the Olympics is supposed to represent Canada, but in the past when it has been held on the eastern side of this country, the Quebecois content has understandably been much more. Considering its being held in Vancouver (and seemingly paid for by only British Columbia, and for the next 20 years to come), maybe it should show the subcultures relevant to Vancouver and British Columbia, such as Coastal Natives (and there is a lot of them), Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian (from India), as well as numerous others - even white people (which are actually many subcultures, like Scots, English, Germans, Ukrainians, Italians, French, Scandinavians, and many more, but we all get clumped into "white", since our culture isn't important :P ). If Vancouver wanted to be Bilingual, maybe they should have been in English and Cantonese.

So why is it primarily in English (to the ear-burning anger of all Quebecois)? Well, because English has taken on a role as a somewhat universal language, indeed, itself being an amalgamation of hundreds of other languages, starting as a means for Roman soldiers to solicit Anglo-Saxon women. Thus, most people in Canada, nearly all of them, will understand English. Speaking Quebecois in the Olympics makes about as much sense as having major speeches spoken in traditional Gitxsan. many people would have no clue whats being said.

Now don't get me wrong, I generally don't support that massive over-spending and stereotyping incurred by the Olympics, but in the situation pertaining to not having enough Quebecois content, I can't blame them. As a British Columbian, the concept of "wait a minute, does this adequately represent the culture of a regional people who live 3500 km away?" just does not come to mind.

Well, that was a heck of a rant, I didn't mean to write all that, but oh well.

- Andrew the Scottish, English, North Thompson Indian, Gitxsan, Nisga'a, Viking, and Canadian