When You Cut Through All The Crap

It has little to do with diversity or bi-lingualism or human rights but about safety and when you get past that you know that it is not a level playing field for English speaking workers in Quebec or across Canada when it comes to the federal government.

Safety first in workplace, s'il vous plait
By Licia Corbella

This is news? A Canadian didn't get hired because he wasn't bilingual?

That rather common occurrence is garnering headlines across the country.

Isn't news supposed to be something out of the ordinary? Want a job with the feds in Ottawa? Pardonez moi? Oh, you don't speak French? Ha! Shut the door on your way out, s'il vous plait.

How about this: You're a skilled labourer and you want a job with a large manufacturer in the interior of Quebec.

Well, guess what? Not only are there no English signs in francophone parts of the province but there are likely no English-only jobs.

In Alberta, a Quebec ironworker was fired from his two-day-old job with Suncor Energy in Fort McMurray because he didn't pass a required English test. How do you say, "too bad, so sad" in French?

Or perhaps, more importantly, how would Carol Rioux do at communicating impending danger to the colleagues working around him in the highly dangerous workplace of oil field refineries?

That should be the real question.

Brad Bellows told Renato Gandia of Fort McMurray Today (a Sun Media paper) Suncor feels "a bit stung by the criticisms" since the dismissal is not discriminatory or just about individual safety. "It's a matter of safety for everyone. We need to have clear and quick communication. It's very critical to safety."

The pressure has been relentless. Guy Boutilier, Alberta's International and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, is getting involved, sticking his nose (nez, en francais) where it doesn't belong.

What's next, the prime minister getting personally involved every time a unilingual Albertan doesn't get a desk job for the feds in Ottawa?

Rioux's union is accusing Suncor of attempted union busting and giving preferential treatment to foreign-born workers. There is no evidence of that. The foreign workers just happen to speak better English than Rioux.

His union is also vowing to launch a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. But ask yourself this question: Could you imagine the reverse making news in Quebec?

Mais non, bien sur!