Chinese Characters: Canada

Foreign Language Dept: Most of us have no problem coping with a foreign language as long as it uses the familiar Roman alphabet. But replace it with Chinese characters and people start clamouring for government intervention, according to Vancouver Sun. The case for restricting Chinese-language signage in a community where Chinese predominate is not only illogical, to do so would likely be unconstitutional. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression. Surely, that implies expressing oneself in any language of one's choosing. Canada's Official Languages Act gives English and French equal status, and establishes the right to be served by federal agencies and institutions in either language, but it has nothing to say about the use of other languages for commercial or other purposes and how many diners at Vancouver's tony Cafe Il Nido know that Il Nido is Italian for The Nest? Do we really need to translate Pied-a-Terre, Le Crocodile or Les Faux Bourgeois before eating there? Would you order the ikapiri at Guu without a Japanese phrase book? Such is the case in Richmond, where Kerry Starchuk is seeking a city ordinance to restrict Chinese-language signs. Although one might sympathize with longtime residents anxious over the transformation of their neighbourhoods, change is inevitable in a dynamic, evolving city. Metro Vancouver, including Richmond, not only has the highest proportion of ethnic Chinese in Canada, it is the most Asian city in the world outside of Asia. Since the late 1980s, waves of Chinese immigrants have refashioned a commercial district of Richmond bordered by No. 3 Road, Garden City Road, Alder-bridge Way and Sea Island Way into a new Chinatown. The City of Richmond has designated it as the Golden Village, an official acknowledgment that it is what it is. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.