Comments on: Jack Layton Is Delusional

By: What’s the third?

What’s the third? — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:38:23 +0000

[...] Tip of the hat to Because No One Asked. [...]

By: Michele

Michele — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:15:13 +0000

The quote includes Layton as “ensuring services in Punjabi.” Is the quote completely wrong? Should the reporter have a remedial course in the use of quotation marks? Or has Layton just been caught out pandering to a minority group when he thought no one else was paying attention?

By: crazybengal

crazybengal — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:58:40 +0000

In addition, I hope that this does not mean that the federal and provincial governments would be expected to provide service in punjabi. This would be expensive.

By: crazybengal

crazybengal — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:54:30 +0000

Thank-you for the clarification. However, what does it mean to “recognize” a language – everyone recognizes that there are different languages, and many languages are spoken by the people of Canada. Official recognition of a language seems sort of redundant and silly.

By: jay

jay — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:39:48 +0000

This is a problem with translation. Layton DID NOT call for Punjabi to be an official language and other blogging tories have noted that it was a mistake. I hope you will too. Thnx

http://www.stephentaylor.ca/2008/10/english-french-and-punjabi/

Subject: from Gurmukh Singh, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), New Delhi

Clarification: Since the word ‘official’ in my report has caused confusion, let me explain it from our Indian perspective.

In India, an “official’” language does not become a “national” language. The acceptance of a language by the government makes it “official”, not a national language.

So Hindi and English are link languages (but never mentioned as national languages in the Indian Constitution), and 21 other languages are our official languages (but not national languages).

So my use of the word “official” might have been confused with the word “national” by some people. But that was not my intention.

All I wanted to know from Jack Layton was whether he will give some kind of recognition to the Punjabi language as it has been here for about a hundred years. Not the status of a national language.

Jack also didn’t promise anything except say that he will support any idea of such a recognition if his party is voted into power.