Immigrants should learn English to join civic culture
Harry Reid
By: | TriCities.com
Published: April 08, 2012
Canada was settled by both English and French. It had no choice but to be a bilingual nation. By contrast, the United States was originally blessed with a single common language.
Canada has experienced social unrest, threats of separation and a referendum that came within a hair’s breadth of breaking up the nation.
One of the major reasons for America’s great success as the world’s first “universal nation,” for its astonishing and unmatched capacity for assimilating immigrants, has been that an automatic part of acculturation was the acquisition of English.
When it was proposed to make English the “official” language, to be used in business with the government, tax forms, court proceedings, ballot boxes, etc., the best the Senate could do was pass an amendment to the immigration bill declaring English to be the “national” language. Even that was too much for Senate leader Harry Reid who called the resolution racist.
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Unfortunately, most efforts to engage youth have been initiated by groups and organizations that I feel do not reflect the ethno-cultural diversity of Canada’s major cities. As an activist in Ottawa’s Muslim communities who is passionate about civic engagement, I wanted to take a lead in addressing what I’ve seen as a lack of engagement among young Muslims of voting age.





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