Racist or what?
- Thread starter toughb
- Start date
You make valid points Fuji. I agree that all candidates should be invited to participate. However, even with a good translator any non-Cantonese speaker would be at a serious disadvantage.
I think the only ones yelling with an all male gym would be the few members who are not gay.
Sure, but on the other hand there are people in Toronto who are fluent in Cantonese who have trouble taking in a debate in English. Though some candidates are disadvantaged by holding the debate in Cantonese, that has to be balanced against the right of Cantonese speaking citizens to participate in the election.
It's the same thing when there are French language debates at the Federal level--some of the candidates speak French poorly, some even need to debate by way of a translator, but they're still invited to the event, and even though some candidates don't speak French or Cantonese very well, it's valuable because it reaches voters who wouldn't pay attention to the English language events.
So yes it's unfair, on the other hand that's no reason to make it EVEN MORE unfair by refusing to even invite them to participate, not even by way of a translator.
Papa this is complete bullshit. It is never acceptable to discriminate. However, there has always been discrimination, and the pendulum is shifting.
While I find it despicable that white person would face discrimination, I have to admit that there is some part of me that finds it funny.
Toughb, are the candidates being excluded from the debate based on Race or based on whether they can speak Cantonese?
I don't know how these debates are set up or scheduled. I do believe that anyone can host a debate as long as they have candidates
willing to attend. I don't think that they have to invite every candidate to every debate. For example, when they have the Mayors debate, they
dont' invite every candidate, just the major players.
So if a TV Station wants to have a debate in Cantonese only, it is their priviledge. Still they should not be able to exclude candidates based on language or race.
I think that this shows you alot about how some groups think. In Canada, we make sure we provide translation services for people when they go to court to ensure they understand and
that they are represented and treated fairly. Many ethnic groups use these services (which are not only provided free, they are mandatory at the request of anyone going to court).
When the shoe is on the other foot, it is interesting to see how quickly their priviledge is abused.
This hit big in York region for most of the above reasons, and it is an election in Canada , a country that has two official languages, you should invite all the candidates and they can attend if they wish. As to the column by Tim Wise posted above.. There is a considerable difference between Bristol PAlin being pregnant and some other young girl. The big one is that the PAlin family has the finacial resources to support the child .
Maybe people who can't speak or read english well enough to follow a political debate should not be voting. If I moved to Japan or Denmark and wanted to live there and take part in political activity I'd think learning the local language would be kinda important. In an ideal world this would apply to those people whose english is not up to task, even when english is their only language, but that would be asking too much. Informed voters, dare to dream.
Maybe, but until we pass laws denying citizens their constitutional right to vote, just because they don't speak one of the official languages fluently, then I think we ought to do our best to see that they are well informed in their own language.
In this case they're attempting to inform themselves by organizing a debate within their own community. Just they're not doing it right.
We should probably just enact a law asserting that if a debate is held in a language that is not an official language of Canada that translation services must be offered to candidates who are not fluent in that language. It gets a bit dicey requiring the organizers to invite ALL the candidates--there are usually very many candidates running who are joke candidates, who will not get more than 10 votes, and you wouldn't want to invite them. But all candidates who have a reasonable prospect of winning >10% of the vote should be invited.
So you want to force a private tv station to invite non-cantonese speaking candidates to speak with their cantonese audience. sounds fruity to me. let's see if the Italian hour on that multi-cultural station uses up their time with english. it would be crazy. there's plenty of english spoken everywhere. newspapers too. let those with a different mother tongue participate in our great democracy. and if the public is not paying a penny, it's private.
if me and my friends get together to discuss the election we could speak portuguese. what if we invite a portuguese candidate? what if we were able to invite two of them. we're just deciding between those two. don't care about others outside the tribe. should we need to invite all the candidates? will you pay for them?
if me and my friends get together to discuss the election we could speak portuguese. what if we invite a portuguese candidate? what if we were able to invite two of them. we're just deciding between those two. don't care about others outside the tribe. should we need to invite all the candidates? will you pay for them?
I think it's reasonable to pass laws ensuring fair coverage of elections. The non-cantonese speaking candidates would be expected to have translators so that their message is conveyed in cantonese. By no means do I expect the station to broadcast English content--I expect the station to broadcast the cantonese translation.
Nope, other than the Chinese, the Indians are equally guilty too.
Just take a look at the nonsense in the Kiwi land.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...queen-Jacinta-Lal-accused-looking-Indian.html
BTW, Jacinta is hotter than Aishwarya Rai. Doubtful she's going to be stereotyped as hairy and definitely less spicy on DATY.
Actually there is something wrong with it. This is Canada - last time I checked we speak English and French here. I am so sick and tired of seeing and having to deal with people who live here and do not speak EITHER.
I'm not sure where you checked, but there are FAR more Chinese speakers in Ontario than French speakers, and Ontario has no official language, so I have no idea what you mean by "we speak English and French here", it's false. If we were to declare official languages in Ontario then unless it was English only, some form of Chinese is a more viable candidate for an official language than French is.
French does have special status in a few places in Ontario, bills are published in English and French for example, but French does not have the status of an official language in Ontario. Neither does English, nor Chinese.
It's not racist as the exclusions are based on language not race, and having traslators for a debate simply is not practical , in fact it gives the non cantonese speakers a bit of an advantage, as they can use the translator as a excuse to take time in their replies; further this would seriously drag down any debate.
I would hope however those in the debate were advised not to mention any opponent who was not there due to this language restriction , as they can not rebute anything they say.
There are about 1/2 million french speaking people in ontario, but mostly in the north and eastern part of the provinces.
The question however is, how many Cantonese speaking are in Ontario , the question is , how many eligible voters only speak Cantonese ?
I would hope however those in the debate were advised not to mention any opponent who was not there due to this language restriction , as they can not rebute anything they say.
I don't think we even need one.
There are about 1/2 million french speaking people in ontario, but mostly in the north and eastern part of the provinces.
The question however is, how many Cantonese speaking are in Ontario , the question is , how many eligible voters only speak Cantonese ?
Refresh my memory is not one of the requirements of Naturalization in Canada being able to speak one of the Official Languages?
