Comment by aithrowawaycomm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by aithrowawaycomm | Hacker News Reader

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aithrowawaycomm

I am not disputing any of that, nor am I trying to put a positive spin on anything coming out of Trump. My only point was that it's misinformation to say that the US is unilingual by policy - that only became partially true in March 2025 via a toothless (and blatantly unconstitutional) executive order.

And it's not "soft acceptance of Spanish here and there," all levels of government are legally required to print official documents in whatever languages their community speaks; cities usually have ballots in dozens of languages. This is a constitutional requirement, bolstered by the Voting Rights Act, and Trump has not yet done enough damage to make those legal requirements go away via diktat.

You genuinely do not understand the level of personal freedom we have restricted in Québec to protect our language. As a francophone, I am forbidden by law to send my children to English school. Any public signage MUST have French predominantly displayed. Any company of a certain size MUST allow its workers to work in French. Any immigrant can receive government services for six months in a language other than French.

We are not kidding when we say that the American way of life and the Quebec one are incompatible. But this is all moot, the Canadian constitution would require a referendum to decapitate Canada, and that would never get the 50% vote per province that is required. Right now they'd get at most 10%.

Sure, I get it. But in Canada:

All federally managed things & services, including travel on airlines, airporst etc, fully bilingual. All packaging of goods, across the whole country. Access to legal services, no matter where, bilingual. Highway signs, etc. The list goes on.

Here in Ontario, at least, right to full public school education in French, in the French system, if you come from a Francophone family.

The idea being that even in areas of the country that are not Quebecois or predominantly Francophone there are rights granted because of the French being part of the founding of the nation.

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