Official Languages Act (Canada)

The Official Languages ​​Act ( engl. Official Languages ​​Act, French Loi sur les langues officielles ) is a 1969 law passed by the Parliament of Canada in 1988 and revised law. It granted the English and French have equal status within the Canadian federal government. You are thereby elevated to official languages ​​and are classified by law to other languages ​​. Although the Official Languages ​​Act is not the only language law of the covenant, but it is the foundation of official bilingualism.

Summary of Key Points

The Act regulates, among other things,

• That Canadians have the right to receive services from federal agencies and state enterprises in both official languages ​​;
• That Canadians have the opportunity to be heard in federal courts in the official language of their choice;
• That Parliament adopts laws in both official languages ​​and published regulations and that both versions are equal;
• That in certain geographically defined bilingual areas English and French within the federal having the same status as a working language ( this concerns mainly the Ottawa, Montreal and New Brunswick region ), but also in certain services abroad and in parts of the country, where a sufficiently large demand for services in both languages ​​there. In the rest of the country is the working language, either French ( in Quebec ) or English (other provinces ).

The federal government has enacted regulations that language requirements for certain jobs within the civil service set ( anglophone, francophone, bilingual). Ministries and agencies of the federal government are required to fill these posts with people that meet these requirements. Monolingual state employees are given incentives to learn the other official language. The government offers language courses and grants a bonus on bilingualism.

Part VI of the Act stipulates that English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians must not be discriminated against because of their ethnicity or their native language at work offers and promotions.

The Act also designated as an Official Language Commissioner Authority was created. She was awarded the contract to receive complaints from citizens, to carry out investigations and to pronounce concerning the status of the two official languages ​​recommendations.

Section 32 of the Official Languages ​​Act authorizes the Cabinet to adopt regulations defining the geographic regions in which services of the state must be offered in the minority language. In general, the rule is that in a certain area at least 5,000 speakers of the minority language living or their share in the total population is at least 5 %.

Political Context

The Official Languages ​​Act was one of the major achievements of the government of Pierre Trudeau. The law was an attempt to implement some of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and biculturalism recommendations that had been used by the federal government in 1963 and has since been regularly published reports on the unequal treatment of English- and French speakers in the federal administration. At that time, only 9 % of the jobs were filled within the federal administration of Francophones, although their share in the population is a quarter. The proportion of jobs for Bilingual increased to 1978 to 14% and by 2004 to 25%.

One of the main objectives of the 1969 Law is to ensure that services the federal government offered in both official languages ​​, wherever the population could indicate the necessity was. This principle was subsequently included in the Canadian Constitution, in section 16 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In 1988, the Official Languages ​​Act was revised to meet two requirements. First, it was necessary to update the Act of 1969 to the effect that the language provisions is given in sections 16 to 23 of 1982 came into force the Charter. Secondly received the revised law provisions to promote the English-speaking minority in Quebec and French-speaking minority in the other provinces. Among other things, will come from the federal schools for linguistic minorities financed because the educational system falls otherwise exclusively within the competence of the provinces and territories.

Reactions

Provinces

In 1969, the law was adopted with the support of all parties in the House. However, in the following decades were the reactions of the provinces from very different:

• New Brunswick, where the percentage largest French- speaking minority ( about a third of the population), took over shortly after the federal government regulations and issued their own official language law.
• Ontario, where the numerically largest French- speaking minority (about half a million and 4.3% respectively ), adopted the French Language Services Act, the French-language services of the provincial government in certain areas only offers ( either more than 5000 native or proportion of the total population is higher than 10 %) and the French not the full equal status alongside English granted.
• In Manitoba, the province with the third largest French-speaking minority, the Parliament and the courts refused to lift the ban in 1890, adopted French as an official language. The province was but in 1985, following a ruling of the Supreme Court forced to because this contradicts the Constitution.
• Quebec, with its English-speaking minority has traditionally been the only province that used a generous use of linguistic minorities and was therefore considered by the Royal Commission as a model of bilingualism and biculturalism. But the provincial Parliament enacted in the 1970s, two laws, the Official Languages ​​Act and the Charter of the French Language. This reduced access to English-speaking Quebecers services, prevented immigrants and Francophones in the enrollment of their children in English-language classes, French declared for general working language and even restricted the use of English on commercial labels.

Public opinion

The public acceptance of bilingual services grew strongly between the mid- 1960s and the late 1970s. Although there are no polls to the Official Languages ​​Act itself before, but surveys on similar subjects show a marked change in the attitude of the British Canadians. 1965 resulted in an opinion poll that only 17 % of Canadians living outside of Quebec supported the use of state funds to finance French-language schools. This proportion increased to 1977 to 77% (though the question was less specific and was only asked whether approval of the provincial government to provide French-language services would be possible ).

In Québec, the changes in the treatment of Francophones met within the federal approval. However, there was skepticism as to whether this is actually beneficial for the monolingual French-speaking minority of Quebec, which continued to be ruled by all as " bilingual " advertised jobs of the covenant, because this definition is mandatory for the use of English. Anyway, was the introduction of official bilingualism not help to curb the rise of the separatist movement. The separatist Parti Québécois managed barely a year after the entry into force of the Act the breakthrough achieved in the provincial elections, 23 % of the vote and dissolved the National Union as the leading force of Quebec nationalism from. Six years later, the Parti Québécois presented for the first time the provincial government.

The approval of the law in English- speaking Canada is significantly lower than in Québec. According to a survey carried out in 2002 opinion poll, 98% of Quebecers consider the official bilingualism as "very important" or "important." This proportion decreases in the Atlantic provinces to 76% in Ontario to 72% in the Prairie provinces to 67% and in British Columbia to 63%. Another survey from 2000 shows that more than half of Canadians outside Québec believes that too much effort has been made to promote bilingualism. Only 26% of Quebecers shared this opinion.