Letters: A disgrace to Canadian Forces
Re: ' All four men in Quebec terror case had military ties: Canadian Forces ' (The Gazette, July 9); ' Army commander was kept in the dark about Ottawa soldiers' 'abhorrent' Facebook group ' (National Post, July 8)
I am a PhD candidate studying military culture and gender violence. I am also a veteran. It is incredibly disheartening to see, yet again, stories of the Canadian military dropping the ball. There is no place for antisemitism, misogyny, any other form of discrimination, any kind of racism or extreme political behaviour in our military.
It is time to clean up the military once and for all. Many Canadian soldiers wear the uniform proudly, and need to be safe from those who do not adhere to the rules.
Victoria Jonas, Beaconsfield
Translation requirement is easy to meet
Re: ' Official-languages absurdity has shut down a valuable federal resource ' (Opinion, July 8)
I was disappointed to read Tom Spears's opinion piece about unilingual postings that were taken down from the National Capital Commission's website.
When it comes to commitments to language rights made under the Official Languages Act, which include that public communications on government websites must be in both official languages, Spears asks the wrong question. He wonders why that commitment can't be waived in the name of access to information. Instead, he should ask why that commitment can't be kept.
He gives the example of 256 pages of technical information, as if it would make no sense to translate them. If that information is posted by a federal agency in the public interest, the federal government should have the ability to produce a translation.
The true scandal here is a possible absence of investment in verified automated translation. The EU has 24 official languages and has the ability to produce highly technical documents in all of them in real time. I was able to produce an accurate translation of Spears's article in five seconds using DeepL Translate.
The NCC's decision to take down a section of its website rather than translate all its contents is the issue. It parallels an even more disturbing decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to stop giving access to old unilingual decisions on its website rather than translating them.
And let us not forget that despite the constitutional requirement to do so, we have yet to produce an official French translation of a document far more important than any invoked by Spears: the Constitution Act, 1867.
Prof. Richard Janda, McGill University, faculty of law, Montreal
Illustration may lead to misunderstanding
Re: ' Children's book club is latest target of CAQ's identity politics ' (Toula Drimonis, July 4)
Regarding the girl in a hijab featured in an illustration promoting a children's book club: In Islam, modesty for men and women is a highly laudable trait. Wearing the hijab is enjoined only after physical maturity. The depiction of a young Muslim reader as a little girl wearing a hijab is unfortunate since it leads to misunderstanding at best, and/or advancing politically motivated agendas of identity.
Samaa Elibyari, president, Canadian Council of Muslim Women — Quebec chapter
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