Modernizing the Official Languages Act: how the feds got it wrong

MONTREAL—Let’s assume that you haven’t spent much time thinking about Canada’s Official Languages Act this summer—or ever. Please take a moment to do so now because the federal government is poised to make fundamental changes that will have profound effects on the language rights of a great many Canadians. These changes will not bring the "two solitudes" together. Instead, they are likely to reopen old grievances, and divide Canadians along linguistic lines. Bill C-13, an Act to amend the Official Languages Act, to enact the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act and to make related amendments to other acts, is based on unwarranted deference to Quebec, and is an unprecedented retreat by the Government of Canada from Parliament’s legislative powers. The bill abandons half a century of official language policy and focuses on the protection and promotion of only one official language. It pushes Canada toward a more asymmetrical federalism, enshrining a special language regime in Quebec within a quasi-constitutional statute, the Official Languages Act. Bill C-13 contains special recognition of Quebec’s Charter of the French Language—legislation that operates notwithstanding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It would permit federally regulated businesses to choose between provincial and federal legal regimes in an area that is squarely within the authority of the Parliament of Canada. And the act proposes creating a regime for French-language rights only, on a territorial basis. Parliamentarians should consider how they will explain to English-speaking Canadians that they will not have equal rights under the law in their dealings with these enterprises. And federally regulated businesses should consider how they will operate nationally within this tangle of conflicting legal regimes. The fact is that most Canadians support the idea of the country’s linguistic duality, a national core value that emerged in the mid-20th century following the work of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. English and French would not only be Canada’s official languages, but also its national languages—a central pillar around which a multicultural society would be built. Canada’s English and French official language minority communities would ensure the presence of the official languages from coast to coast to coast. At the federal level, English and French would have equal rights in law. This equality was reflected in the original Official Languages Act of 1969 and carried forward in subsequent versions of the act. Although there has always been some pushback against official bilingualism, linguistic duality is supported by a majority of Canadians. Parents want their children to speak English and French. Indeed, many young Canadians today are plurilingual. Federal spending power continues to support and advance the use of English and French in Canadian society, for example, through education transfers. Canada has invested billions of dollars in official language strategies—the lifeblood of English and French linguistic minority communities across the country. This appears to be about to change. Efforts to modernize the Official Languages Act began in 2017, led by the Senate’s Standing Committee on Official Languages which did an exhaustive two-year study on how to modernize the act, fix its structural problems, stem the demographic decline of francophones outside of Quebec, and improve the transparency and accountability of federal transfers to the provinces and territories for English and French linguistic minority communities. A high-level of consensus was achieved between Canada’s English and French linguistic minority communities. The table was set for modernization that would respect Canada’s core value of linguistic duality. But in 2019, nationalist media in Quebec began to trumpet that the French language was in peril, and the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) had to be strengthened. This argument was and is based on selective statistical analysis. In the federal election, it became clear that asymmetry in official languages was on the table, as were special concessions to Quebec. The 2020 Speech from the Throne proclaimed that “The government … has the responsibility to protect and promote French not only outside of Quebec, but also within Quebec.” This was a profound shift in thinking. The territorialization of language rights had been specifically rejected by the Bi and Bi Commission in favour of a national vision of linguistic duality. No more. In the 2021 discussion paper, "English and French: Towards a substantive Equality of Official Languages in Canada," policy was firmly focused on the protection and promotion of French. The paper noted that “all provinces and territories have adopted legislation, policies or programs to guarantee that they offer provincial services in French or to recognize the contribution of their minority communities,” and that “Quebec … has adopted French as its sole official language.” The paper observed blandly that Quebec “offers many services in English, some of which are guaranteed by laws, notably in the case of the courts and hospitals, among others.” Bill 96, of course, was yet to be tabled. Bill C-32, an Act to amend the Official Languages Act, was introduced just before the House rose in the spring of 2021. C-13—almost identical to C-32 in its policy direction—followed in March 2022. Bill C-13 does not reflect the 2018 official language minorities’ consensus. The bill’s underpinnings are fatally flawed. It’s time to stop, get back to basics, and return to the consensus achieved by the people the Official Languages Act affects the most. The Quebec Community Groups Network represents Canada’s English linguistic minority. We are firmly committed to the protection and promotion of French in Canada. We strongly support efforts to modernize the Official Languages Act in a way that supports a national vision of linguistic duality. The Supreme Court noted that language rights are “deeply rooted in our history” and “are basic to the very idea of Canada.” More than 1.2 million English-speaking Quebecers depend on Canada to remember this. Joan Fraser is a former senator. She and Eva Ludvig sit on the Executive Committee of the Quebec Community Groups Network. The Hill Times

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Modernizing the Official Languages Act: how the feds got it wrong

The federal government is poised to make fundamental changes to the Official Languages Act that will have profound effects on the language rights of a great many Canadians.

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