Michel Thibodeau, a French Candian who is fluent in both official languages, has a hobby of suing Air Canada for not providing service in French. He has recently been awarded $12,000 in damages for ordering a 7up and receiving a Sprite instead because the flight attendant could not speak French on a flight that he and his wife were taking. This is his second successful suit against them.
This also reinforces my feeling that too many judges are spineless and refuse to throw out such frivolous cases. Justice Marie-Josee Bedard wrote in her judgment "The applicants' language rights are clearly very important to them and the violation of their rights caused them a moral prejudice, pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of their vacation". Really? Loss of enjoyment of their vacation. What a load of crap. Is she really that removed from reality?
To quote someone I do admire, "As a religion, bilingualism is the god that failed. It has led to no fairness, produced no unity, and cost Canadian taxpayers untold millions." That was said by Stephen Harper when he was president of the Canadian Taxpayers Association.
Unfortunately, I think he is keeping thoughts like that to himself these days.
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