Tweet French!

"My dept. is fully compliant (tweets in both languages) -- as it should be. Press releases are the same. While my French is coming along nicely, and I have a great desire to be fully proficient in it, English is still my primary language and as such tweets from my personal account reflect the same."
"Many folks give criticism for tweets being too scripted and non-spontaneous -- I think the key is to use many tools to communicate while respecting the spirit of the official languages act, which my colleague [John Baird] does very well."
Michelle Rempel, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification

"It's trying to make that determination -- what is a ministerial tweet versus a personal tweet. It's where to draw the line ... how do we go about ensuring those important messages that are important and ministerial in nature are provided in both official languages."
Nelson Kalil, spokesman, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

"If he is going to make comments about the government and government affairs, that's their responsibility. They're using Twitter as social media. Well, when they use the media it has to be in both languages."
Yvon Godin, NDP official languages critic

"I think it's a ridiculous waste of time. I sometimes tweet in French, much in English. If he [Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser] proposes to overlord me, I will quit Twitter..."
Tony Clement, president, federal Treasury Board

The issue is laughable, or it would be if it weren't so frustratingly absurd. Because Canada is a democracy and is legally federally bilingual recognizing the language stature of the two "founding" cultures, English and French, equal time and space is given to both languages in all federal institutions and documents; Canadians are assured they will be served in the "language of their choice" reflecting federal bilingualism, within the federal bureaucracy.

As a law-abiding society whose population derived from a multitude of sources around the world managing to get along together without strife in an atmosphere of egalitarian neutrality we indulge on occasion in satisfied self-indulgence congratulating ourselves for our culture of even temperance. Under it all lies the spectre of francophone dissatisfaction at the fact that English reflects the preference if not the mother-tongue of the majority of Canadians.

Enter the Official Languages Commissioner, Graham Fraser, tasked with his staff to investigate complaints by the disgruntled over lack of respect for French, over the over-use of English and the paucity of French being indulged in by federal bureaucrats. And now the focus is on the casual comments that federal cabinet ministers make on their personal Twitter accounts; if they're of Anglophone background they naturally gravitate more frequently to English than French....

And this gives heartburn to their critics, waiting in the wings to trip up the unwary. Foreign Affairs minister John Baird, tweeting more frequently in English than French has been pilloried by critics and is now under investigation by the commissioner who has struck an enquiry to determine whether cabinet ministers have responsibilities under Canada's language laws on their personal Twitter accounts to give equal time and space and expression to both languages.

John Baird

Verified account

@HonJohnBaird

Canada's Foreign Minister, and MP for Ottawa West-Nepean

There goes spontaneity, the fulcrum and hallmark of Twitter. Next on the agenda an app to automatically convert English tweets to French, and re-tweet without human intervention.

Civil conflict, war on ISIS, Ebola outbreak, anyone?