[LINK] "Russell bilingual sign fight in court"

[rfmcdonald]

Along Ontario's eastern frontier with Québec lives most of Ontario's Franco-Ontarians, French Canadians associated with the Québécois. A recent sign law passed in the bilingual Russell Township two years ago, requiring commercial signage to be in English and in French, is now before the courts.

Ontario Superior Court proceedings will continue until Friday, hearing arguments for and against the controversial bylaw passed in Russell Township in 2008. The municipality, which is about 20 kilometres southeast of Ottawa, includes the communities of Embrun, Russell, Limoges and Marionville.

"I think people are fed up with being pushed by all sorts of minorities and special accommodation for everybody," said Howard Galganov, an English-rights activist who launched his fight against the bylaw in 2008. "We're talking about our right to express ourselves in any language."

[. . .]

Lawyer Ronald Caza is representing the municipality and defending the bylaw.

"Nobody has the absolute right to do whatever they want in anything," he said.

He said the francophone minority is vulnerable to being assimilated, and that's why it's vital to have French included on English signs.

According to the 2006 census, 45 per cent of the population of Russell Township lists French as its mother tongue and 50 per cent lists English. However, while 37 per cent of the population has no knowledge of French, just 6 per cent said they had no knowledge of English.

On Wednesday afternoon, residents canvassed by CBC News said they didn't care whether the signs are in French or English or they think the language of the signage should be a matter of individual choice.

It's worth noting that Galganov is something of an extremist in Québec's language wars. It wouldn't be inaccurate at all to say that he's transferring whatever ethnic tensions might exist in Montréal to Ontario, especially since he's been on the record encouraging boycotts of businesses owned by Franco-Ontarians.