Hotel Owner Charged With Racism Toward Employees

Yeah, because it's, like, a French speaking province. Quelle surprise.

You wouldn't get a job in most parts of Quebec if you didn't speak French, language law or no language law.

And yes, there are a myriad of laws regarding the French language in Quebec.

Way too complicated to go into here but its roots go back to the government of Jean Lesage in the 60's.

My original point remains: if you open a business in a city where one language--Spanish, French. Albanian, Polish or Russian--is the predominant one spoken by70% of the population, it would be a foolish business decision to try and force your employees to speak English only. That's all.

 

ya I guess.

If this situation was in say......Iowa, it would be a different story but the owner couldn't be surprised that the employees speak Spanish.

A good business owner would agree to learn to speak Spanish as long as his employees learn to speak English.......it would help both parties.

 

Ashy, I agree.

I mean, the Swiss figured it out a few hundred years ago. Pretty much everyone (well, except the North Americans) I met while I worked there spoke English, French, Italian and German --with varying degrees of fluency.

It makes it easier to do business if you speak the language of your customers and employees. and that goes for both parties.

 

Maybe the employees were all out getting a taco [/bobgriese]

 

I have a good friend who runs an organic tree farm south of Taos. It's an odd city. Anglos are the late-comers to the party.

Taos Pueblo (American Indian) has been there for 700 years.

The Spanish have been there since the early 1600s.

It's also an artist/hippie hang out.

Of course developers have moved in to make money where they can.

And Mexican immigrants have come, looking for work.

How Whitten didn't see the possibility of conflict is beyond me. All these groups fight with each other and among themselves.

I'm guessing that he's just used to bullying his way in.

 

On the Metro in Montreal, all the announcements are in French. That means if there is a delay, all the anglos are there staring at each other, now knowing if its an emergency, or if some rat got fried in a transformer. In Paris, the announcements are in 3 languages.

 

And in Toronto, the subway announcements are in English although you could make a case they could be made in fifteen.

 

Here's the problem with copy editing pet peeves. Folks get wrapped up in them so much that they miss other stuff.

Whitten wasn't charged with anything.

 

But it's not illegal. At least not down here.

 

hijo de puta works pretty good too.

 

Montreal has the cleanest subway that I've been on. BART in the San Francisco-Oakland area is the cleanest in the USA IMO.

 

Is what illegal?

Is what illegal? Learning a second language?

Legality has nothing to do with this guy or the instances I just cited where English is NOT the predemoninant language. If you want to open up a hotel or restaurant in a predominantly Spanish speaking town, learn the languare.

It's basic business.