In his letter (“The British are fed up with privilege”)Roger Power claims that the top positions in Ottawa should be filled by bilingual people. Except it’s not! To those he mentions, I can add the names of deputy ministers and heads of organizations who never met the bilingual requirements of their positions. And yet, I know of no francophone working in Ottawa who must not know and use English every day in their work. This means that 100% of qualified francophones cannot apply for any of these jobs unless they know English. As the author claims, shouldn’t we hire them based on their qualifications and not the language they speak? What about a Governor General or a Supreme Court Justice who does not know English? The French are tired of this favoritism. Unless we all start to see and accept, once and for all, that knowing both official languages is a key qualification for a certain position.
