Saturday,
December 01, 2007
Grow up, Italians tell
French Montreal Activists
The
ANNOTICO Report
Italian-speakers
are
The
Grow up, Italians tell French Montreal
Activists
The Gazette
Jeff
Heinrich
Friday, November 30, 2007
Italians in
"I have
something to say to our friends at the Mouvement
Montreal francais," a spokesman for an Italian
business organization told the Bouchard-Taylor commission this morning,
referring to a citizens' group that campaigns against the use of English in the
city.
"We like
them a lot," said Giuliano d'Andrea,
vice-president (communications) for the Canadian-Italian Business and
Professional Association, who is also a former member of Alliance Quebec and
the Equality Party.
"But
sometimes we'd like to tell them two little words in English: Grow up."
"It's true
there are problems, it's true there are little conflicts, but we're losing the
vision of the beauty that is
"So it's a
cry from the heart, our message," he added.
"There's
nothing wrong with talking in English," he told reporters in French after
his presentation.
"We wrote
our brief in English, not because we couldn't do it in French, but simply to
take back a bit of the public space that we have a right to. The English
language has a right to be here."
Italian-speakers
are
Also this
morning, the reasonable-accommodation commission heard that day-care centres in
Some CEGEPs, too, draw the line at demands by religious staff
and students who want special arrangements made for them, the commission heard
as it wound up its first of two weeks of hearings in
In day-care centres, Muslim educators can wear the hijab
but not the niqab or burqa,
said Gina Gasparrini, who runs the day-care at St.
Mary's Hospital and is president of the Regroupement
des Centres de la Petite Enfance
de l'Nle de Montrial.
Muslim staffers
also can't stay outside the pool when kids are taking swimming, and they can't
object to boys and girls doing recreation activities together, said Gasparrini, whose organization represents 172 day-care centres, including many in-home centres.
At Collhge Bois-de-Boulogne, a north-end CEGEP that has over
350 employees and 2,600 students, Muslims women studying nursing have asked to
be exempted from exams during Ramadan, the month of fasting.
But that request, like others, have been refused, because the
administration considers them unreasonable, a delegation of three
administrators told the commission.
For example, an
Orthodox Jewish teacher who asked not to be give a course scheduled after
sundown on the Sabbath was told he had to; Jewish students who didn't want to
take exams in Friday were told they'd have to; a dozen Muslims students who
asked for a prayer room were turned down; and a group who wanted to put up a
kiosk about their religion at a student fair were denied.
jheinrich@thegazette.canwest.com
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