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PortraitBecoming Canadian by Robert Rothon – Vancouver, British Columbia
One of the most charming and unexpected manifestations of our country’s linguistic duality takes place in a courtroom in Surrey, British Columbia, where citizenship judge Shinder S. Purewal presides. The November 21, 2007 edition of Maclean’s describes the little twist Judge Purewal adds to the ceremony welcoming new Canadians: “They recited the oath of citizenship in halting French. [...] Then they recited the pledge again in English.” Judge Purewal includes the French version of the oath and a few words of French in his ceremonies, he says, “to underline the fact that this country’s basic framework is based on the foundations of two languages—English and French.” This small gesture makes a big statement about two cultural realities in Canada and the federal policies that frame them. “There is no Great Wall of China between the policies of multiculturalism and bilingualism” Judge Shinder Pal Singh Purewal From Punjab to Surrey Shinder Singh Purewal was born in India to a family of small farmers. His father was murdered when Shinder was a month old (“some thugs killed him with an intent of taking possession of our land and assets”) leaving his mother to raise a family of four. Having noticed young boys from the village leaving for Canada, she resolved that her family would live in a peaceful country. They arrived in Canada in September 1979. Shinder was 17. “I could not speak more than a few words and very basic sentences in English.”
He had learned this rudimentary English at the modest government school in his village. “Students of each particular state begin their schooling in their own mother tongue, Punjabi in my case, from Grade 1. They must start learning the national language, Hindi, from Grade 4, and English from Grade 6. I arrived in Canada with the basic skills of reading and writing in English.” While a student at Princess Margaret Secondary School in Surrey, he also attended English as a second language classes at a local college. Doing so allowed him to take the courses he needed to graduate from high school. “I was able to speak fluently in English within a couple of years of my arrival, basically when I finished my Grade 12.” Learning French in Surrey circa 1979 was a different matter altogether. How many people speak Punjabi in Canada Punjabi represents 1.2% of all mother tongues in Canada, 6.1% of non-official mother tongues in Canada and 14.2% of non-official mother tongues in the Metropolitan Vancouver region.
Find out which languages are the top 10 most spoken languages in Canada. The language of Voltaire Purewal became aware of the French language and of its importance to his adopted country while studying political science at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario). “After studying the political history of Canada, I became conscious of the role played by people belonging to both linguistic groups in shaping and forming the economic foundation, the political-legal framework and the symbolic order of the state.” But learning French (“who wouldn’t want to learn the language of Voltaire?”) remained an elusive goal. His children, he is proud to say, have done better in that regard. It should come as no surprise to anyone interested in policy-making that bilingualism and multiculturalism are seen by many Canadians as having contradictory, even opposing, aims. Purewal, who interviewed Pierre E. Trudeau for his master’s thesis on the politics of multiculturalism, attributes this to a lack of common understanding of the 1971 multiculturalism policy. “It was entitled ‘multiculturalism within a bilingual framework,’” he points out. “Linguistic duality is an important institutional framework for all Canadians to build and sustain a common bond with each other—from coast to coast to coast. In fact,” he adds, “the English and French languages are the vehicles of advancement for any immigrants to this country.” The art of communication
When asked how linguistic duality can be made to speak to the large Sikh community in British Columbia, he replies: “In order to be successful in Canada, language skills are absolutely necessary. All immigrants know this much. Of course, they will try to learn the language of the environment. If we had basic French instruction for newcomers, along with ESL, they’d be more aware of the country’s linguistic duality and its benefits for the second generation. You want to give your children an edge.” But most immigrants, he says, have not even heard of French immersion.” Since 2005, Judge Purewal has heard more than 30,000 new Canadians recite the citizenship oath. He has come to believe that “it is only through the art of communication that we understand other people’s cultures, traditions, customs, attitudes and beliefs. The art of communication in Canada involves learning either English or French, or both.” And that is why the oath is recited in both official languages in Surrey, British Columbia.
References: Purewal bio: www.cic.gc.ca/english/about/citizenship/commission/cit-judges.asp |
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