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It is alarming to continue seeing impassioned arguments from some Canadian leaders against embracing either of Canada’s official languages. Dismissing the merits of bilingualism is to dismiss diversity, science, diplomacy, economics and federalism itself. The attitude is destructive, and just as ugly and irrational in English as it is in French.

The vocal “antibilinguals” in both linguistic camps are very different, but their fears are similar. Quebec’s ethnic nationalists, typically sovereignists who gravitate toward the Parti Québécois and myriad linguistic activist groups, play the victim card: The presence of the English language dilutes and will eventually kill francophone culture, they claim, citing the junk science that purports French is strengthened by making it visibly predominant over other languages. Anglophone antibilinguals in the Rest of Canada see embracing French as unnecessary and some see it as pandering to the Quebec nuisance. The two anti-federalist factions are forever intertwined, unable to sustain productive dialogue, but content in their isolation and blissful ignorance.