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From "COMBAT CAMERA" (National Post, 2007-12-19. Page 4).
I cannot provide a link as I'm an online subscriber, and read the paper offline - this article is shared in accordance with the "sharing" provisions of my subscription:
To be honest - I never noticed this, then again as an anglo, I probably wouldn't.
Roy
I cannot provide a link as I'm an online subscriber, and read the paper offline - this article is shared in accordance with the "sharing" provisions of my subscription:
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COMBAT CAMERA
FORCES PHOTO SITE SHUT DOWN
BY DAVID PUGLIESECanWest News Service
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OTTAWA •
The Department of National Defence has shut down its Web site featuring photos of Canadian military personnel after receiving a complaint that onscreen commands used to download the pictures were not in both official languages and that information regarding the images was poorly translated into French.
The Combat Camera page, which contains thousands of images of Canadian soldiers, sailors and air force personnel, is one of the most popular sites on the Defence Department’s Web site. It receives between 3.6 million and 5.6 million page views each month from the public, according to figures supplied by the Defence Department.
But the site was shut down last Friday after NDP MP Yvon Godin complained the onscreen commands for downloading the photos were in English only and there was poor use of the French language in the photo captions.
The photos have information captions in both French and English.
The pictures, taken by military photographers, are used both by the public and news media outlets who want to illustrate various missions, in particular the ongoing operation in Afghanistan. The main Defence Department Web site is still operating.
In response to a question from CanWest News Service about when the Combat Camera site will be back up, the Defence Department responded in an e-mail that would happen “as soon as all the required work is complete.”
“The site will be the same except for the changes to make it compliant to official languages regulations,” the email added.
The Defence Department also noted the site was taken down for maintenance that “is also part of the day-to-day work performed to ensure compliance with all government regulations.”
Privately, Defence officials say they are concerned the site might not be fixed in time for Christmas, shutting down a portal for the public to see how the troops in Afghanistan are celebrating the holiday season.
Mr. Godin, a New Brunswick MP who is the NDP’s critic for official languages, said he never requested the Defence Department site be shut down. “I just asked them to fix it,” he said.
“What they had was terrible,” added Mr. Godin. “All the commands were in English. There was bad translation, words that did not make any sense.”
Mr. Godin, who represents the riding of Acadie-Bathurst, said he thinks the Defence Department uses a computer to translate material from English to French but such programs can insert errors. Such translations should be reviewed by department staff before they are put up on government Web sites, he added.
Mr. Godin said there have been similar incidents before.
Robin Cantin, public affairs manager for the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, said Mr. Godin did not make a formal complaint but asked that the Defence Department fix the problems on its Web site.
In its e-mail, the Defence Department responded that it decided not to keep the site running while changes were made since it “wanted to make sure that the site was fully compliant before we had it back up and running.”
Mr. Godin said he wants the Defence Department and other government departments to follow the law of the land in offering both official languages.
To be honest - I never noticed this, then again as an anglo, I probably wouldn't.
Roy