Ray van Eng (06/19/97)                             

Being the northern neighbor of the United States, Canada is often perceived around the world as an English speaking country.

That is hardly surprising, after all, one of the most endearing symbols of all Canadian images is that of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which is gearing up to celebrate its first 125 year in existence in 1998.

The RCMP was established in 1873 by Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister who was inspired by the Royal Irish Constabulary and the "mounted rifle" units of the US Army during the times of the American West.

Regardless of the Irish heritage, the word "Royal" these days has most often been associated with the source that has given us all that entertaining gossips about the princes and princesses and their very public private affairs.

Nonetheless, Canada is a paradoxical country. National unity is constantly on the nation's political agenda. The threat of separation between the French Quebec and the English Canada is a never ending saga.

At his acceptance speech right after the country voted him in for a second term with a slim majority Liberal government on June 02, 1997, the Quebec born Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien addressed the nation in French first and then in English.

But on the other hand, the elected leader of Her Majesty official opposition party -- Reform Party's Preston Manning, who was born in Alberta in western Canadian hardly speak any French at all.

And when it comes to Internet matters, Canada is also seemingly contradictory.

Internationally, Canada is helping other developing nations to set up access points to the Internet, while inside its own confines, some Canadian web sites are being banned from publishing certain election content and in Quebec, the fight for language and culture has spread onto the Internet.

Recently, under a Canadian effort called the AfriNet program which cost Canadian taxpayers $10 million (USD$7.2M), countries such as Mauritius, Senegal, Mauritania, Cameroon, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Madagascar and Mali were linked to the Internet.

The project was also backed by the Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique (ACCT), a French culture preservation group.

But back home, Canada is banning anyone from using the information super-highway to disseminate election opinion information in the 72 hour just prior to going to the vote. But some prominent pollsters such as Angus Reid and others continue to publish election polls figures right up to the ballot hour or setting up mirror sites in other countries to do so.

In another instance, Elections Canada tried to prohibit Krishna Bera, a citizen in Ottawa, the nation's capital from publishing an anonymously sponsored ad on a web site called Vote Green.

According to the Canadian government political watchdog, you either have to name your sponsorship and affiliation in any election advertising or you are not allowed to post it in any form including the Internet.

Bera argued that, "I say it's political speech; they say it's an ad. Who's going to decide?" Apparently, a judge will and any violator faces one year jail time or $1,000 fine.

Bera does have his supporters though. The Electronic Frontier Canada indicated that they are prepared to challenge the law on behalf of Bera.

The Vote Green site was also widely mirrored in no less than 50 other sites which spanned all the way from North America (Florida, New York, Texas, British Columbia, Ontario etc.) to the world in places like Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Norway, England, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and many others countries.

Recently, Morty Grauer, a Quebec computer store owner was told by the Office de la Langue Francaise, a special government agency responsible for enforcing French language rights in the province that his company's web site was illegal because it is in English.

Grauer's initial reaction was indignant, arguing that the Internet is worldwide and therefore should not be governed by Quebec laws but he could face up to a Cdn $1400 fine if he does not comply. He later relented, and said his web site will be bilingual by July 1.

It is interesting to note that almost all Quebec street signs even commercial ones are in French.

In Canada, all government official publications have to be in both languages and in Quebec, a 20 year old law known as Bill 101 dictates that all publications made in its territory must include the French language.

Since Bill 101 does not specifically include or exclude the Internet, there has been quite a bit of confusion on the interpretation of the legislation especially in regard to the electronic medium.

Meanwhile, the federal government is watching the development of such cases closely. Federal heritage minister Sheila Copps suggested that Quebec could be over-reaching in its attempt to regulate content on the information superhighway which she thinks falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

It is estimated that 90% of all Internet content is in English while only 2% is in French.