Plain language crusade can save government money

A 76-year-old retired accountant with aching legs is Canada's crusader for Plain English. Single-handedly over the past 20 months, Cy Whiteley and his scuttling pen have revised 1,100 forms and leaflets from 39 federal departments and agencies.

Cy Whiteley's pen scuttles furiously down the government form, slashing legalisms and turning gobbledegook into plain English.

"Affix your signature," Whiteley mutters. "Why not just, sign." "Do you have any absences from Canada?," he reads. "An ordinary person would ask, 'Have you been away from Canada', but not these pseudo-lawyers." By now Whiteley is in full fury; his unrelenting pen decorates the once-neat page with accusing arrows, blackened blocks and caustic comments. The revised document is sent back to the federal government agency that inflicted it on the public.

Another blow for official prose that can be easily understood.

Britain has Plain English overseers in the prime minister's office, Australia a special cabinet adviser on Plain English and the United States a federal Plain English regulation signed 10 years ago by Jimmy Carter.

Canada has a 76-year-old retired accountant with aching legs whose hobbies used to be brisk walks and writing letters to the editor under seven pseudonyms (six male, one female).

But the local newspaper only prints a few of his many letters and various ailments have given a rest to the pedometer on Whiteley's belt. Instead, Yoda-like, he instructs Plain English novices from an anonymous corridor of empty government offices just a few blocks from the Parliament Buildings.

"I've been niggling at people for years," he grins. "It's a thing you grow up with." Some niggling. Single-handedly over the past 20 months, Cy Whiteley and his scuttling pen have revised 1,100 forms and leaflets from 39 departments and agencies.