Talk:Bilingual belt

Sault Ste. Marie is *not* bilingual belt

I removed Sault Ste. Marie from the list before, but it's been returned. I have to remove it again; I'll elaborate on the reasons I gave in my earlier edit summary.

Percent of the population whose first language learned and still understood is:

• French, or both English and French, in Ontario: 4.63%
• French, or both English and French, in the Sault Ste. Marie CA: 4.35% (2001 Census of Canada)

If a lack of first-language Francophones (and think of how much allophone-heavy Southern Ontario cities weigh the Ontario-wide numbers: for Northeastern Ontario, the Sault's Francophone numbers are shockingly low), there is also the Sault's deep-seated and infamous history with reactionary Meech-era anti-bilingualism. How about:

• "The story begins in the late 1980s, when the official languages policies of Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, and David Peterson collided with the Sault’s deep-rooted resistance to bilingualism. The man at the centre of the uproar over the city’s infamous English-only resolution was Mayor Joe Fratesi, whose unwavering support for the resolution made him a wildly popular local hero." (About a book on Joe Fratesi)
• "[after a description of that awful Brockville flag-burning incident:] The extensive coverage of English-language resolutions in Ontario municipalities such as Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay also added fuel to the flames... Both French and English media referred to the resolutions as "symbolic decisions" and "evidence of bigotry." In a Toronto Star article on February 3, 1990, reporter Darcy Henton drew a link between the Sault Ste. Marie resolution and Quebec's perception of it. "The Council vote has sparked a national controversy, adding fuel to tensions already inflamed by the debate over the threatened Meech Lake constitutional accord and the role of Quebec within Canada." And when Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Joseph Fratesi tried to defend his position as not anti-French, the Quebec media were skeptical. Lise Bissonnette, publisher of Le Devoir and former columnist for the Globe and Mail, wrote: "Soo Mayor Joseph Fratesi's first attempt to camouflage the bigotry in the city's move had to do with money..." "But it was a gratuitous, untimely slap at francophones - a run on the bank of tolerance when its reserves were already low," Andrew Cohen wrote in his book A Deal Undone, the Making and Breaking of the Meech Lake Accord. More and more, language became the catalyst for further divisions between English Canada and Quebec. In a Globe and Mail article on February 1, 1990, two senior Quebec cabinet ministers described the unilingual resolutions as "deplorable but not surprising in light of increasing language tensions." (Ryerson Review of Journalism)

I agree with the addition of North Bay, though. Samaritan 05:32, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

And here's a neat local history, in French, from L'Association canadienne française de l'Ontario régionale Supérieur-Nord: Sault Ste. Marie. I'm certainly not disagreeing with the importance or coolness of the Sault Francophone community. But I don't think the community is bilingual. Samaritan 05:53, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Map

How about a map/image addition, gentlemen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.163.66.50 (talk) 22:11, 2 November 2007 (UTC)