# Chief Justice of Canada and francophone rights group get in dispute about English-only SCC judgments; SCC Registrar gets sued; CJC orders all English-only judgments taken down; no-one is happy **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 12, 2024, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chief-justice-of-canada-and-francophone-rights-group-get-in-dispute-about-english-only-scc-judgments-scc-registrar-gets-sued-cjc-orders-all-english-only-judgments-taken-down-no-one-is-happy/1010123 "2024-11-12T03:53:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2024, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chief-justice-of-canada-and-francophone-rights-group-get-in-dispute-about-english-only-scc-judgments-scc-registrar-gets-sued-cjc-orders-all-english-only-judgments-taken-down-no-one-is-happy/1010123/21 "2024-11-18T12:50:10Z")
Setting aside the legalistic objections, which are large and decisive … It’s 22% of Canadians, but roughly 85% of Quebeckers who speak good French and barely 5% of Quebeckers who cannot converse in basic French at all. Were the francophones scattered evenly across the entire Canadian population, @DrDeth’s idea to tell 1 in 5 people in each and every town to go pound sand might work. When it’s instead darn near everyone in a big concentrated blob, well, the reaction is going to be rather different. See here for more. I can’t vouch for the article, but it seems to this layman to be carefully written. > **[Demographics of Quebec](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Quebec)** > > The demographics of Quebec constitutes a complex and sensitive issue, especially as it relates to the national question. Quebec is the only one of Canada's provinces to feature a Francophone (French-speaking) majority, and where anglophones (English-speakers) constitute an officially recognized minority group. According to the 2011 census, French is spoken by more than 85.5% of the population while this number rises to 88% for children under 15 years old. According to the 2011 census, 95% of Q In... ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chief-justice-of-canada-and-francophone-rights-group-get-in-dispute-about-english-only-scc-judgments-scc-registrar-gets-sued-cjc-orders-all-english-only-judgments-taken-down-no-one-is-happy/1010123/22 "2024-11-18T16:44:46Z")
So, as I understand it, this is the situation: 1. Old Supreme Court rulings were written in English, and French lawyers are completely befuddled by them. They have no idea what they say, and have no way of finding out. 2. Therefore, the solution is to – at least temporarily – make them unavailable to everyone. I have a better idea. The British won the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and the French have been whining about it for 265 years. Maybe it’s time for them to admit that they lost, and move on. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > We all know the e.g 1880 decisions are written in the sorta florid circumlocutions popular in English at the time. It’s hard work to read those closely for content & meaning. > > Should they be translated into 1880-flavored _Quebecois_ or 2024-flavored? Seems to me if Anglophone lawyers have to do battle with archaic writing styles, it would be an act of linguistic discrimination to give francophone lawyers the big easy button of modern language. That’s an excellent point. If those rulings are indeed translated into modern French, then some anglophone-rights group should sue the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada for giving the Frenchies an advantage. I don’t know if there’s an anglophone-rights group, but there certainly ought to be considering how blatantly and openly the English-speaking population is discriminated against in Quebec, even as the French-speaking minority is obsequiously catered to throughout the rest of Canada. Also, see above regarding who won and who lost on the Plains of Abraham. Or as Dave Barry put it, the French and English have learned, after centuries of peaceful coexistence on the great land that they shared, to hate each other. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2024, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chief-justice-of-canada-and-francophone-rights-group-get-in-dispute-about-english-only-scc-judgments-scc-registrar-gets-sued-cjc-orders-all-english-only-judgments-taken-down-no-one-is-happy/1010123/23 "2024-11-18T21:20:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Were the francophones scattered evenly across the entire Canadian population, @DrDeth’s idea to tell 1 in 5 people in each and every town to go pound sand might work. When it’s instead darn near everyone in a big concentrated blob, well, the reaction is going to be rather different. I am not saying “pound sand” > [@DrDeth](#): > > Mind you- I am not saying to stop encouraging people to be bilingual, and etc. What I am saying is _modify the laws_ to prevent these sorts of _radical and expensive excesses._ ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2024, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chief-justice-of-canada-and-francophone-rights-group-get-in-dispute-about-english-only-scc-judgments-scc-registrar-gets-sued-cjc-orders-all-english-only-judgments-taken-down-no-one-is-happy/1010123/24 "2024-11-18T23:43:48Z")
The 1763 Treaty of Paris offered the French to retain their North American possessions (Quebec, Louisiana (east of the Mississippi), etc.), but they decided to give them up and take the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. They felt that the island’s sugar was worth a lot more than the “quelques arpents de neige” in North America. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chief-justice-of-canada-and-francophone-rights-group-get-in-dispute-about-english-only-scc-judgments-scc-registrar-gets-sued-cjc-orders-all-english-only-judgments-taken-down-no-one-is-happy/1010123/25 "2024-11-21T03:28:34Z")
Don’t forget this!: [Saint Pierre and Miquelon - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chief-justice-of-canada-and-francophone-rights-group-get-in-dispute-about-english-only-scc-judgments-scc-registrar-gets-sued-cjc-orders-all-english-only-judgments-taken-down-no-one-is-happy/1010123.md?page=1)