THE THEORY
It is common to hear that Canada is a bilingual country. But bilingualism in Canada, is primarily a matter for Quebecers.
Although the constitution does not use this term, the Official Languages Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights, officially, treat English and French equally in Canada (it being implied at the federal level).
The purpose of this Act is to (a) ensure respect for English and French as the official languages of Canada and ensure equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all federal institutions . .. OLOA, art. 2
English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada.Charter, art. 16.
But, at the individual level, a small minority of Canadians are bilingual, less than 18%; see Official bilingualism in Canada Wikipedia 31 05 2024. And the rate of bilingualism is approximately 5 times higher in QC than in the ROC; see French-English bilingualism in Canada: recent trends after five decades of official bilingualism 2023 Statistics Canada. And the proportion of the population in the ROC that is French-speaking continues to decline, and was only 3.5% in 2021; see Statistics on official languages in Canada 31 05 2024 Canadian Heritage.
REALITY
So, given these figures, is it realistic to aim for, if not achieve, the equal status of the two languages as working languages at the federal level outside QC.
In theory, the LLO claims to aim for equal treatment of the two languages as working languages:
French and English are the working languages of federal institutions. Their employees therefore have the right to use, in accordance with this part, one or the other. Art. 34(1), OLA.
But in practice, this does not happen.
Here is how a federal official explains the situation on the ground. In a letter to the newspaper Le Devoir, Anna Pellerin Petrova lifts the veil on the linguistic reality of the federal government in Canada outside Quebec.
She explains:
Unless there is a radical change, the “bilingual” meetings I attend will continue to be a hoax containing only two French words, “bonjour” and “merci”.
The author explains how the Canadian public service is dominated by English. She explains:
Like 82.5% of civil servants in the NCR, I work in English. Thinking, speaking, writing and reading in English every day represents an immense mental effort for me, despite my bilingualism.
A teacher from Gatineau recounts the same challenges, that French in federal institutions is most of the time reduced to informal conversations between French speakers in the cafeteria or around the coffee machine:
In any case, the main obstacle that federal civil servants encounter when they try to learn French, to maintain or regain their lost level is the following: almost everything in the federal public service would take place in English, even in Gatineau, in Quebec territory, where many Canadian government buildings are located. In other words, once the minimum linguistic level to obtain a promotion has been obtained, on paper, for the sake of form, the language of Molière is perceived by many employees as being useless...
Aside from more or less bilingual team meetings where the manager will be content to sprinkle a little French here and there, it seems that French in federal institutions is most of the time reduced to informal conversations between French speakers in the cafeteria or around the coffee machine, situations that are increasingly rare with the generalization of teleworking. Langue de travail Administration fédéral Anglicisation Le gouvernement fédéral, cette gigantesque machine à angliciser 2024 Yann Leduc Le Devoir
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we invite you to:
read this document.
to distinguish between the theory and practice of the use of French at the federal level outside Quebec.; and
to compare the working language of employees in the QC government administration, which is officially unilingual French, with the working language of employees in the federal government administration outside Quebec, which is officially bilingual. In practice, is there a big difference between the two in the use of the two languages at work?
Useful documents, links, images and videos
Administration fédérale Langue de travail Bonjour-hi Bonjour-merci Hégémonie de l'anglais Dérives linguistiques dans la fonction publique canadienne 2023 Anna Pellerin Petrova Le Devoir
Image related to this article
Marc Ryan
Author