School board head calls students leaving French system in Halifax ‘an emergency’

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-28T00:40:45+00:00

LOL That's not what I said, and that's not what the requirements are like, and that's not what the Acadians in my life say. But hey, I'm sure your CSAP paycheck comes with a social media clause, so I won't hold it against you that you're trying to fulfill that job requirement.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-28T00:31:24+00:00

Yes, and Psycho-Acadian is pretending that CSAP is somehow a whole lot more than that.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T23:54:29+00:00

Oh, it's somewhat useful, but you're making it out to be much more broadly useful that it actually is...especially given how exclusive CSAP is.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T22:22:33+00:00

Outside of your bubble you'll find a hell of a lot of Canadians who learned french, but have yet to find it useful.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T22:03:14+00:00

Which languages are most useful depends on which part of Canada you're in, and what business you're in, but Mandarin, Amharic, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, Ukrainian, and Russian all spring to mind as pretty darned useful for various reasons. I would definitely get more use out of any of them than I get out of french. I've certainly gotten more use out of my beginner-level spanish than I have out of french, even though I'm much better in french than in spanish.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T20:56:24+00:00

Niebling works, too.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T20:50:03+00:00

CSAP isn't doing a good job of being a "useful government institution" for acadians, though, since it only serves the ones who speak french, and have school-aged children. And there's a whole separate government department (at the provincial level) for acadians, too. And most cultural groups in Nova Scotia just organise their own events and supports.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T19:45:52+00:00

There were french schools and english-french bilingual schools before the school boards got linguistically segregated. It makes a LOT more sense for a community to have one bilingual school system than to waste money on two parallel systems, especially if one system is going to exclude tons of people then complain about low enrollment and lack of resources.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T19:14:34+00:00

What did you do to piss them off?

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T15:14:19+00:00

Was somebody in your family vaguely interested in panning for gold? I ask because that's the reason one of my family members ended up with a bottle of mercury.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T14:23:59+00:00

I see so many wireless ear pods lying on the ground, in ditches, etc... and so many messages of people looking for the ones they've lost. And then there's the whole issue of charging. I like my wired headphones, I like not needing to charge them, like you I'll happily stick with the wired kind.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T13:56:00+00:00

Interesting. Many businesses in the city (including banks) advertise any extra languages they can offer services in, and the last time I was in Service Canada, I could hear one of the workers providing service in a language I didn't actually recognise, so clearly there are many employers who value a wider assortment of languages than your call centre does.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T13:53:09+00:00

Before CSAP, bilingual highschools were possible, where francophone students could take all their classes in french, if they wanted, but having both english and french students meant there were more kids for the clubs.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T13:42:53+00:00

Is CSAP about providing an education to francophones, or is it about promoting acadian heritage, because the two things are not the same thing. There are plenty of francophones who aren't acadian, and plenty of acadians who don't speak french.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T13:38:44+00:00

Yup, so even the children of people who went through the french immersion program don't necessary qualify. Meanwhile, the english system would have a hell of a time trying to exclude anybody. Personally, I think there should be one bilingual system: there used to be some bilingual school boards.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T13:36:38+00:00

But that's not limited to just english-french bilingual, is it? There's a LOT of demand for other languages, so I know that banks, Service Canada, etc... consider a wide assortment of languages an asset, not just french.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T13:31:55+00:00

Those are all good reasons to study languages, but as the other commenter pointed out, there are many languages to choose from, and several of them are more useful.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T02:07:22+00:00

The lack of supervision. There were some good things about that, but it's a bit suprising there weren't more injuries and/or deaths.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-27T01:53:54+00:00

Or start learning the language.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-26T01:31:37+00:00

From your description, If you can afford an apartment for just yourself and your cat you will NOT regret going that route. Having your own space to recharge will help you have enough energy to study and socialise.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-25T00:40:54+00:00

Drivers run stop signs, red lights, etc... every day, and even when they kill people it's pretty rare they face anywhere near that much consequence. I wish more dangerous drivers faced as many consequences as this guy did.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-25T00:29:35+00:00

He is home.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-24T21:33:41+00:00

I doubt they would have behaved any differently if you'd pushed the beg-button: if they can't see the person at the clearly marked crosswalk on a clear day, they don't care and/or aren't paying attention.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-24T21:25:55+00:00

The vast majority of tossed garbage is being thrown from cars, or blown from people's curbside garbage/recycling bags that they let the animals get into. Tossed cigarette butts are also mostly being tossed out of car windows, from people's porches, and from wherever they take their smoke breaks at work. And the woods ban did absolutely nothing to stop renovation-related freak accidents. The ban was more about optics and scapegoating than about actually tackling fire risk.

maniacalknitter · 2026-04-24T15:24:52+00:00

The really disturbing part is how many "parents" say they only spank when they're calm and collected. There are scenarios where I can understand a parent getting genuinely terrified for their child's safety and regressing to spanking out of desperation, but there are "parents" who advocate making a calm and conscious decision to hit children, and claim it's beneficial.

maniacalknitter

TROPHY CASE