Letter from Lisa Weir to Stephane Dion:
26 03 2008March 24/08
Hello Mr. Dion,
I am a life-long resident of NB and usually an ardent supporter of the Liberal party. I am gravely concerned, however, with what the Liberal party of NB is doing to damage what Liberals overall in Canada. Today I write to you because my main concern is the recent decision by the Graham government to remove the choice of which language our children are educated in, something I have believed to be protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I guess I was wrong about that fact, though, after all these years.
There are many sides to this issue, Mr. Dion, and I am sure you have heard from a great many people. I come at this from a slightly different angle: as a parent of a child with CHARGE syndrome, a genetic syndrome involving hearing loss, vision loss, heart, kidney, and respiratory problems, I want to retain the choice of having her educated in English. I am not anti-French education in any way, I am pro-Kennedy (my daughter) and what she needs. What she needs is to be able to continue working VERY hard, as she has done for the first five years of her schooling, in the English program. I also believe that parents should have the choice to place their children into Early French Immersion if they decide that is what is best for their child. What we all need, as citizens in a democratic country, is choice.
We live in this democracy, yet here in NB, it certainly does not feel like it. We just went through this in the fall, as this government of neo-Liberals attempted, in conjunction with big business, to shut down our Liberal Arts University based on a flawed report and biased individuals completing the report. This decision was made under similar pretenses and the people of NB are getting fed up with a Liberal government that is dictator-like, forcing these regressive decisions down the throats of its citizens. It’s very sad and I feel, will impact the Federal Liberals in the next election. If you had told me five years ago I’d be fighting against a Liberal government twice in a twelve month period because they were trying to remove choice from citizens, I would have thought it quite absurd. It seems to be a recurring theme, however, with this Graham government.
I realize education is a provincial matter; however, if there is anything you can do to help the damage being inflicted by this Graham government, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you again for your consideration in this matter,
Lisa Weir
http://www.chargesyndrome.info
Secretary and Education Chair, CHARGE Syndrome Foundation, Inc.
I understand your point of view… no, I am not Stephan Dion. However, I have a counterpoint to offer. My father immigrated to rural northern Ontario at the age of 5. French, at that point, was offered only in high school , and only if numbers warranted it. My father dropped out of school after grade eight because he needed to work. Since french-emmersion schools, etc. did not exsist my father was discouraged from speaking french and eventually lost the language entirely. The result being that by the time I was born in 1994, my father could not teach me french, and I could not communicate with my grandparents. YEars have passed now, I am 14 and have long since moved back to Le Baie James with my grandparents, and I am now functionaly bilingual ,although I think my english may be suffering.. As a mother, imagine not being able to communicate to your child. Imagine not knowing their world… imagine not knowing that they could neither read nor write. Thats the situation my grandmother was in for years until shee “eemprroovd er eenglish” enough to be able to understand the conversation between my father and his friends and the notes from my fathers teachers. MY father is illiterate in two languages, all because the society into which he was uncerimoniously plunked didn’t want their children speaking french, didn’t think it was important. I realise that this is not the case for you… but it is for many others across the country. My father drank himself to death about a year and a half ago. No-body would hire him, because of the way he spoke-
(a mixture of french slang and grammatically incorrect english of his own invention unintelligible to both anglophones and francophones. I suppose it is a tragedy. I do not know. What I do know is that it happens every day across the country. When I read in the newpaper of New Brunswicks decision, I was very happy- and I’m sure my father would have been, too. I understand your predicament and I understand that all you want is whats best for your child- but I remind you of my father, dead at 32, leaving behind 6 orphaned children under the age of 12, his mother and father, both in their early fifties, and a legacy of pain, shame and hardship. I wish you all the best in your struggle to achieve what is best for your daughter. Vive le Canada.
Sophie-Marie Geffros