Letter FromnCanadanby Kenneth McDonaldnIci On Parle AnglaisnWhen Canada’s federal governmentncommitted the country to two officialnlanguages, it set the scene for the socialnrevolution that has since been foistednupon the Canadian majority.nThat was in 1969, when PierrenTrudeau’s Official Languages Act declarednEnglish and French to be thenofficial languages of Canada, possessingnand enjoying “equality of status in allnthe institutions of the Parliament andnGovernment of Canada.” Twenty-fivenpercent of federal government jobs werendesignated “bilingual” in proportion tonQuebec’s share of the population, andn44/CHRONICLESnCORRESPONDENCEnLIBERAL ARTSnBUT WE’RE STUDYING!n”bilingualism” became the criterion fornemployment in ever-widening circles ofngovernment and government-relatednactivity throughout the whole country.nHowever, official bilingualism wasnnot about language; it was about politicalnpower.nThe legislation discriminates againstnevery Canadian who doesn’t happen tonlive in Quebec or near its borders withnOntario and New Brunswick. Canadiansnwho live in or near Quebec, innFrench-speaking societies but also withinnsight and earshot of English televisionnand radio, and with daily opportunitiesnto acquire fluency in English as well asnin French, have a tremendous advantagenover Canadians everywhere elsenwho have no occasion to use French inntheir daily lives, rarely meet a Frenchspeakingnperson and, even if they takenFrench immersion courses, still have nonchance to practice French and thusnThe discovery in March of an electronic bulletin board fornsexually explicit stories on the Cyber mainframe computer atnthe University of Massachusetts (Amherst) has sparked andebate over whether campus administrators can censorncomputer mail.nJohn F. Dubach, acting director of the computing center,nsaid that the stories are similar to the forums run in Playboynand Penthouse. The forums, which are created and managednby students, contain two hundred sexually explicitnmessages, including thirty to forty stories about sex. Thennumber of students reading the forums increased fromnabout thirty a day to well over a thousand in the week afternnews of their existence hit the campus newsstands.nStudents pay a $10 fee to work on the Cyber system, butnthey must also sign a document agreeing to use Cyber fornonly academic purposes. A public meeting to discuss thenissue was scheduled for March 28.nnnretain their fluency.nMoreover, “bilingualism,” it hasncome to be understood, is the codenword for a French-speaking Canadiannwho also speaks passable English. So itnisn’t enough for a young Albertan ornNewfoundlander to learn French; theynhave to be French, which of coursenthey’re not. The bilingual requirementnhas become a racial requirement. Byn1988, the percentage of Francophonesnin federal government service had risennto 28.5, while in some key departmentsnFrancophones occupied from 35 to 70npercent of the posts.nUntil 1969, Canada’s institutionsnwere essentially English. Parliamentnwas supreme, and everyone was equalnunder a common law, which itselfnevolved with changing times. However,nwhen Pierre Trudeau declared thatnhe would not leave Ottawa “until thencountry and the Government are irreversiblynbilingual,” he knew that undernthe English system his Official LanguagesnAct was reversible; it could benchanged, or repealed, by another Parliament.nTherefore, in 1980, when with thenaid of the Quebec vote he was electednfor a fourth term after seven months innopposition, he set out to rewrite thenEnglish-style Constitution in thenFrench style, with rights “guaranteed”nby the state, and parliamentary sovereigntynreplaced with a written Charternof Rights and Freedoms that includednhis language provisions and becamen”the supreme law of the land.” Henconfirmed this in a speech on the newnConstitution in December 1981:n”And we’ve got the entrenchment ofnboth official languages, which can nevernbe removed.”nAt the same time (as noted in ThenCanadian Encyclopedia), “the federalngovernment made significant demandsnof its own for new, centralized powersnover the economy.” That was less thanna year after launching the NationalnEnergy Program, a massive state interventionnin Canada’s oil and gas industrynthat devastated Alberta’s economy.nFor the majority, Canada has alwaysn