Some Richmond residents are frustrated by local businesses posting signs in Chinese and not English but columnist Gordon Clark says Richmond has no right to demand they use English. 

Gordon Clark: Richmond's regrettable return to Chinese signs issue

The best thing one can say about the Chinese sign controversy in Richmond, which sprung up again this week, is that at least the city’s mayor has the right take on the issue.

Malcolm Brodie said he was surprised that Richmond council wanted to explore again the issue of restricting Chinese business signs, having considered and rejected the notion twice, in 2013 and 2015, according to a CBC report.

On Monday, council was being asked to consider a bylaw that would clarify the type of signs allowed in an effort to declutter windows when an amendment was proposed by Coun. Bill McNulty requiring “that all future signage require a minimum of 50 per cent of one of Canada’s official languages.”

The motion passed 5-4, with the mayor voting against it.

“I was surprised that this idea came up again because as far as I was concerned we had thoroughly debated this issue a couple of years ago,” Brodie told CBC.

For what it is worth, I’m also surprised.

In the 2011 census, people with Chinese ethnicity represent 49 per cent of Richmond residents. They then represented 91,890 of the city’s 189,305 souls. At 60 per cent, Richmond also has the highest proportion of immigrants of any Canadian community.

I suspect, given recent immigration (Richmond’s population is now estimated to be 218,307), the results will push that figure over 50 per cent in the 2016 census.

What all that means is that the Chinese in Richmond are not outsiders, nor have they been for decades. They are Richmond, they are as Canadian as anyone in this country and as entitled as anyone to use whatever language they wish in the signs they use in their private businesses.

Detail from a Chinese-only sign at a Richmond business in 2015. An amendment to a recently passed motion at Richmond council requires that ‘all future signage require a minimum of 50 per cent of one of Canada’s official languages.’ 

With all due respect to McNulty and the other four Richmond councillors who thought his amendment was a good idea, no politician should be ordering anyone in Canada in which language they must communicate. I’m no lawyer, but it strikes me that this proposed bylaw is in breach of the Charter of Rights, something Richmond’s city lawyers may explain to council in the coming days as they look at how to implement McNulty’s idea.

While I understand that some people may feel uncomfortable with all the Chinese-only signs in Richmond, perhaps feeling they are not welcome to visit stores that do not display English signs, my only advice is to get over it. Whatever discomfort — or whatever they call it — doesn’t give them the right to force Chinese merchants in Richmond to change their behaviour.

One of our Charter of Rights and Freedom’s four “fundamental freedoms” is “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” While Canadian governments must use Canada’s official languages, they have no right to force Canadians to use them to communicate.

While I’m sure none of the councillors who backed the proposed sign bylaw consider themselves racists, and I wouldn’t accuse them of it, there is something at least a little racist in the assumptions behind their plan to force Chinese businesspeople to use English and French, although the idea they’d use the latter is silly. It’s racist because it assumes that English (or French) is the norm, or that the Chinese signs are a breach from some expected standard.

In Richmond, in fact in the entire Metro Vancouver region, that is simply false. The whole point of multiculturalism is that all cultures should be equally expressed and respected.

Richmond store owners aren’t being racist in not displaying English signs; they are simply doing what works best for their businesses and their customers. They aren’t trying to be unfriendly or give offence to non-Chinese Canadians.

It’s funny, but I bet the same people upset by Chinese signs in Richmond are also opposed to the language laws in Quebec that force everyone to use French when many would prefer to use English or other languages. Those people should think about the underlying reasons they feel that way. If they do, and are honest with themselves, they will realize that they hold the untenable view that everyone should use English. In 2017 in Canada, how can anyone think that?

Hopefully, under the leadership of Brodie, Richmond council will retreat from this sign bylaw proposal and put the issue to rest for good.