Bilingual Bust in Vancouver

French and English are the official languages of the Olympics. They’ve been so since Baron Pierre de Coubertin set up the modern-day Games in Athens in 1894 after going to England and getting all wrapped up with the elitism of the “Playing fields of Eton.” At the time, French was the first language of diplomacy.

The Games have been bilingual ever since. Montreal was no problem in 1976. Even China put on bilingual Games. So why can’t Vancouver?

When John Furlong, director-general of the Vancouver Organizing Committee stuck out his hand for federal cash he promised “truly bilingual” Games.

They’ve had problems. Last December, in suburban Richmond, B.C. they opened the magnificent Olympic speed skating rink – a grand building that cost us only $178 million. The Olympic dignitaries found themselves staring at an English-only sign: “Richmond Olympic Rink.”

More than a little embarrassing especially in front of Sports Minister Gary Lunn who had signed a lot of the cheques. The word got around quickly that the Vancouver Organizing Committee couldn’t cut it in both languages.

When Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie announced the building was remarkable “for our collectivity” exactly which collectivity was he talking about?

Lise Routhier-Boudreau, president of the Fédération des Communautés Francophones et Acadiennes sent the mayor a letter suggesting Richmond get its act together.

Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser’s people noted the lack of communications in both languages coming from Vancouver. He sent Vancouver a list of 18 recommendations on how to respect the committment they made to bilingualism.

Vancouver was told politely there could be some big problems when several thousand athletes show up with their biographies expecting to have them translated for the news media and web-sites around the world.

The word went out that Vancouver wasn’t spending enough of money on bilingualism. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge issued a statement saying the IOC is "deeply attached to the defence of French."

Two months later the organizing committee put on a dry-run of the opening night ceremonies and invited international dignitaries. Sarah McLaughlin was lined up as the star attraction for the English side. Rather smart. She’s good.

But for the French side, they chose Luke Doucet of Vancouver, who usually performs in English as part of Sarah’s band. Doucet translated a couple of his songs into French and served them up as the French portion.

Vancouver might have done better.

The Vancouver people have built wonderful venues, great buildings. Everything is on time so far, and they have excellent First Nations and multicultural participation. That’s important too. It’s bilingualism that appears to be their hang-up, respecting Article 24 of the Olympic Charter which allowed Vancouver to have the Games.

Franco-Columbians offered Marianne Goodwin of Quebec to help make sure the Vancouver Games respect their promise.She was part of the reason the China Games were such a cultural success a year ago.

The president of the international Francophonie organization, Abdou Diouf, who is president of Senegal, appointed the former president of the Swiss Confederation, Pascal Couchepin as the special language watchdog for Vancouver.

About two billion people around the world will watch the opening ceremonies on television next February.

Canada could get a black eye if Vancouver falls down on its language committment. Opening night will be too late to try to correct mistakes or begin translating documents.

Canada does not want to be remembered as the bilingual country that couldn’t put on bilingual Games.

There’s still plenty of time to fix things before opening night, but Vancouver better get moving. The days are flying by – in both official languages.

And everybody is watching.