INTRODUCTION

This issue of INFOACTION traces the ups and downs of a story that began in 1969 with the adoption of the Official Languages Act.

The record of the past 35 years reminds us what a long, tortuous, and difficult road we have travelled. It also highlights the many steps taken to benefit language communities, in such various areas as education, communications, culture and, more recently, health, immigration and the economy. Linguistic duality did not deliver its promises in one fell swoop; rather, it developed through leadership from the Government of Canada and sustained pressure from citizens.

The presence of French has been strengthened in Quebec and maintained in the rest of Canada. Indeed, there have never been as many bilingual people in Canada as there are today. More federal government services are available in both official languages, and English- and French-speakers are equitably represented within the federal Public Service. Canada’s major cultural institutions embody and support linguistic duality.

No longer are there futile debates about the relevance of bilingual product labelling or the usefulness of spending part of the national budget every year to respond to the legitimate expectations of both language communities.

Nevertheless, political will for linguistic duality is as unpredictable as the weather. Fine sunny days are too often followed by grey, overcast skies. Still, no storm appears to be brewing on the horizon. And so, the time has come for the government to take heed and increase its efforts for linguistic duality to become an integral part of the organizational culture in all federal institutions, which in turn will stimulate the development of language communities.

The official language performance report card, published for the first time this year in the Annual Report, gives a precise assessment of the road yet to be travelled.

After 35 years within a linguistic framework, none of the 29 federal institutions assessed earned an overall mark of “outstanding”, while seven were even ranked as “poor”. What are we to think of these results?

The Action Plan for Official Languages is the best thing to happen to linguistic duality in a long time. Yet, unfortunately, its implementation is not up to expectations. Political leaders make a great hue and cry, then run out of steam, none of which is adequate to give firm root to the revitalization announced in 2003.

This issue of INFOACTION is a very brief summary of a long story, with contributions by the Office of the Commissioner to parts of its chapters. Perhaps, one day, our readers will be among those who will write the chapters to come.

CANADA’S LINGUISTIC FRAMEWORK

The true and concrete recognition of language rights in Canada has been marked by a lengthy social and political process, and a progression of obstacles to be overcome. Indeed, from the time of Canada’s creation, the pact between the two founding peoples has been sorely tried by a succession of school crises.

The very existence of French schools was threatened, and Francophone minorities reacted by forming their first collective organizations as early as 1881. During the same period, the Government of Canada began to provide a number of bilingual services, however modest.

The creation of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism in 1963 was a watershed in the development of the linguistic framework. The Commission recommended a series of official language measures intended to remedy any wrongdoing to the language minorities of the country. As the language issue developed and became more widely understood, major gains followed; these were the result of epic battles and many court decisions for the language communities involved, including the following:

• Adoption of the Official Languages Act in 1969, amended in 1988.
• Launch of the Official Languages Program in Education in 1970.
• Creation of the Court Challenges Program in 1978.
• Agreement between Quebec and the Government of Canada on immigration in 1978.
• Creation of the National Program for the Integration of Both Official Languages in the Administration of Justice in 1981.
• Enshrinement of education rights and language rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, affirming the equal status of English and French in Canada and access to instruction in the language of the minority.
• Recognition of the right to be heard and understood by a judge in one’s own official language in 1985.
• Confirmation from the Supreme Court of Canada in 1990 that section 23 of the Charter is to remedy past injustices in the area of education, and that language minorities have the right to manage their own schools (Mahé judgment).
• In 2000, definition by the Supreme Court of Canada of the powers to be held by school boards and the obligations to be fulfilled by governments (Arsenault-Cameron judgment).
• An innovation for joint governance in human resources between representatives from federal institutions and the Francophone community in 1996. The model is applied to health in 2000 and to immigration in 2002. Similar structures in health and human resources were developed concurrently with the Anglophone minority community.
• In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada specifies that equality of official languages in Canada means “equal access to services of equal quality” (Beaulac judgment).
• The government appoints the very first Minister responsible for Official Languages in 2001.
• With the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in 2002, knowledge of official languages are incorporated as a selection criterion for immigrants.
• The government announces its Action Plan for Official Languages in 2003. The goal of this plan is to correct the negative effects of government restructuring on the promotion of official languages and the development of official language minorities, particularly in the area of education.
• The Treasury Board adopts a policy that imposes, in general terms, the hiring of bilingual persons to fill positions designated bilingual.

In addition to these achievements, we note over the same period the adoption of official language laws and policies by a number of provinces and territories: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.

THE FACE OF CANADA

Although the ethnic origins of Canada’s population are increasingly diverse, English and French remain the most widely spoken languages in the country. In 2001, just 10% of the population spoke a language other than English or French most often at home.

In 2001:

• At least 5.2 million people described themselves as bilingual, representing 18% of the population;
• 41% of Quebeckers spoke both official languages;
• 34% of New Brunswickers were bilingual; and
• Over the previous 30 years, the rate of bilingualism doubled to 14% among young Anglophones outside Quebec aged 15 to 24. In total, nearly one quarter of young Canadians were bilingual.

Canadian civil society is becoming more and more bilingual, and many major national organizations now operate in both official languages. Dialogue between English and French communities has become richer, thanks in part to the work of Canadian Parents for French.

Linguistic duality is also making inroads in the private sector, especially in large Canadian companies and those that do business in Quebec.

Support for bilingualism remains strong among Canadians on point of principle, but falters when it comes to the costs associated with implementation:

• Nearly 80% of the population recognizes the right of all citizens to receive services from the Government of Canada in both official languages.
• Some 91% of Anglophones support public funding of French language schools outside Quebec.
• According to 70% of Canadians, bilingualism makes our country more attractive to immigrants.
• Between 40% and 50% of Canadians believe too much effort is devoted to bilingualism.

Through the years, Anglophone and Francophone minorities have organized to protect and uphold their interests by banding together in community organizations, which receive financing from Canadian Heritage to encourage their growth. This support, however, is clearly not enough to finance the implementation of their overall development plan.

SHARED GOVERNANCE

More recently, new ways of working together for linguistic duality have arisen, in particular through the creation of joint committees featuring representatives from federal institutions and from English- and French-speaking communities. This co-operation exists in the areas of human resources, health, immigration, and economic development and employability.

• The formula of joint governance or joint committees should be replicated in other areas of government activity, where these bodies can contribute to the development of official language minorities. Partnerships with communities should be sought out.

FRANCOPHONE IMMIGRATION TO MINORITY COMMUNITIES

Immigration serves above all to swell the ranks of Anglophones across the country. Quebec has been able to partially correct this situation thanks to a federal-provincial agreement reached in 1978 that allows the province to manage its own immigration programs.

The Francophone minority outside of Quebec is barely beginning to make its presence felt in the area of immigration. The new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act specifies that immigration should contribute to the development of language communities.

• The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has set the goal of increasing the number of immigrants to Canada’s Francophone communities from 3.4% to 4.4% by 2008.
• The Government of Canada has signed an agreement on immigration with British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and the Yukon, but the language clause in the agreement is quite vague.

Things seem to be moving in slow motion at Citizenship and Immigration. A shot in the arm is needed to ensure that the Department is able to reach the objectives that it set for itself.

GOVERNANCE

LANGUAGE OF SERVICE AND LANGUAGE IN THE WORKPLACE

Between 1978 and 2004, the proportion of positions providing service to the public that were designated bilingual increased from 14% to 25%. The proportion of employees that met the language requirements of their position rose from 70% to 86% over the same period.

In the 1990s, budget reductions and government transformations endangered the ground gained by bilingualism. Nevertheless, these changes encouraged innovation in service delivery, making space for the creation of bilingual service centres.

Service to the public is the major reason behind complaints lodged with the Office of the Commissioner: in most years, service triggers 80% of all complaints about official languages. Exceptionally, this proportion fell to 69% in 2004–2005.

Every study conducted by the Office of the Commissioner since 1994 has made clear that numerous federal offices designated bilingual are still unable to deliver services in both official languages. A change of culture remains imperative, even though the Government of Canada did adopt a new staffing policy in 2004 specifying that, in general, a candidate for a bilingual position must speak both official languages when he or she assumes the position.

Still, more is required than good bilingual capacity to respond to members of the public in the official language of their choice. An active offer must be made over the telephone or in person. The creation of bilingual government service centres, or single windows, could be the solution of the future, ensuring that services are provided consistently in both official languages.

The Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations are getting older and are starting to show some weaknesses. This legislation must be re-examined, simplified, and made to serve Canadians.

LANGUAGE IN THE WORKPLACE

Once a marginal issue, language in the workplace now holds greater importance in the federal Public Service, thanks to major progress made between 1978 and 2004. A larger proportion of public servants in internal administrative and supervisory positions that are designated bilingual have the necessary language skills. Improvement is particularly noticeable among those in supervisory positions. Moreover, employees generally have work tools in their preferred language.

However, English still predominates within the organizational culture of government departments located in the National Capital Region, and a considerable number of senior managers rarely communicate in French to their French-speaking employees. In bilingual regions of Quebec, the dominant language in the workplace is French.

Without a clear commitment from leaders and senior management, there is no prospect of a profound change in the work culture of the federal public service. For now, language of work remains, at best, a work in progress.

EQUITABLE PARTICIPATION

After shrinking by half from 1918 to 1946, Francophone participation in the federal administration has followed an upward course, reaching 21% in 1966 and 27% in 2004.

In Quebec, the rate of Anglophone participation in the federal Public Service began to wane in the 1960s. Today, Anglophones hold just 7.6% of positions in Quebec. However, they are better represented (14%) if one considers all federal institutions as a whole. On the whole, however, it can be said that the representation of English- and French-speaking communities in the federal administration is roughly equivalent to their demographic weight.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Under the Official Languages Act, federal institutions are responsible for supporting the vitality of language minorities and encouraging the promotion of linguistic duality. They are also under the obligation to promote English and French—something they all too often forget.

Since the Act was recast in 1988, federal institutions and departments have seemed reluctant to meet their obligations, typically relegating them to Canadian Heritage, which acts as the leader on this point.

GROWING AND LEARNING

The development of official language minority communities is built, in large part, on education in the community’s own language.

Recognition of the right of Anglophone and Francophone communities to instruction in their own language is punctuated with somewhat remarkable events. It must be recognized that the difficulty of the path taken by these communities varied according to the time period and the particular needs of each.

Francophone minority education rights were acquired through numerous struggles. Over the past 35 years, significant further progress has taken place, especially in the 1990s, when the courts ensured respect for the right of parents to manage their community schools.

• The rights to minority language education and school governance were enshrined in the Constitution in 1982.
• The Supreme Court of Canada rendered three key judgments favouring the language minority that interpreted education rights from a collective rights perspective.
• The 1990s saw the creation of French language school boards.

FRANCOPHONE MINORITY

Even today, however, the Francophone minority school system recruits no more than half of all those students who are in fact entitled to schooling in French, and this hinders the system’s development. Moreover, Canada’s Francophone and Acadian communities have no early childhood resources or services, limiting their ability to pass on their language.

In post-secondary education, major needs persist, despite the enormous progress made in the past 35 years through the establishment of college and university networks. Funding for these institutions is still insufficient in several provinces and territories, and in some regions, the language minority has no access at all to any post-secondary institution.

ANGLOPHONE MINORITY

In the 1970s and 1980s, the English minority in Quebec faced a different challenge when the school population dropped by about 60%. Nevertheless, since 1991 the number of students enrolled in English schools has seen some growth.

Efforts to recruit students in Quebec’s Anglophone school network have been successful: almost all English rights-holders attend English schools. Preserving these schools has proven to be much more difficult outside major urban centres, because of rural depopulation. Distance learning may be one solution for small communities. Furthermore, the English school network must adapt to an increasingly diverse student body.

SECOND LANGUAGE

Second language learning has been quite successful these past 35 years. Anglophone parents in Canada have enthusiastically welcomed French immersion. At least two million students are learning their second official language at school.

One ambitious goal of the Action Plan for Official Languages is to increase the number of secondary school graduates with functional knowledge of both official languages from 24% to 50% by 2013. Still, implementation of the Plan has lost pace because of delays in signing agreements with the provinces and territories, which hampers the Government of Canada from reaching its objectives.

Language training for federal Public Service employees has seen its share of ups and downs. Today, in the National Capital Region alone, there are over 5,000 public servants taking second language courses. Unfortunately, the results are not what we could expect, as studies show that these learners tend to make little use of their newly acquired language skills at work.

COMMUNICATING AND CREATING

COMMUNICATIONS

Official language minority communities have made broad strides in the area of communications. In addition to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which broadcasts its programs from coast to coast to coast, there are networks of community radio stations and newspapers that work to keep their audiences abreast of local, regional, and national issues.

In the face of regular budget cuts, the CBC must constantly defend its ground. Ensuring that the CBC has adequate funding remains imperative if we insist on it continuing, through its network of regional stations, to inform official language communities all over Canada, to produce and broadcast cultural programs, and to cover special events—in short, to exist as a concrete presence in the lives of Canadians.

The presence of a number of public educational broadcasters in Canada should not be overlooked. Still, there is no national educational television network, either in English or French.

Community media—especially newspapers—have a hard time getting federal institutions to purchase advertising space as these institutions do from major media outlets. Advertising is the lifeblood of this sector, where survival is difficult, and numerous complaints persist around this issue. For a time, the precarious situation of community media was weakened even further by a Government of Canada moratorium on advertising.

CULTURE

Today, a vast network of national public institutions exists, supporting artistic and cultural creation in both official languages. Some examples are the National Film Board, Telefilm Canada, the Canada Arts Council, Culture.ca and, of course, the CBC.

A prolific artistic community, both English and French, has encouraged the birth of a cultural industry in both official languages in publishing, film, music, song, drama, and television. In 2002–2003, nationwide public spending in the arts and culture sector was close to $7.5 billion. Furthermore, cultural industries in both official languages provided a livelihood for 61,100 people in 2001.

Francophone minority communities have succeeded in making the most of what they have, creating dance and theatre troupes and publishing houses, among other things. Artists have banded together in cultural associations in the various provinces. A national organization—the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française—has been their mouthpiece for 25 years, and offers training and promotion services.

Despite investment and the creation of an infrastructure to support culture, there are still major challenges that must be taken into account if we are to reflect linguistic duality in communications and give it life in cultural productions.

• We must ensure that the Internet expresses linguistic duality.
• The CRTC must create “bilingual” markets to better reflect Canadian reality. To this end, broadcasters would need to offer minimum programming in both official languages.
• Financial support should be added to the Action Plan for Official Languages to support cultural development in minority communities.
• We should encourage cultural and artistic interactions between the two language communities.

HEALTH, WORK AND TRAVEL

HEALTHY LIVING

For a number of years now, the concerns of language communities have expanded beyond the confines of education or the provision of federal services in English and French. Other pressing concerns have now arisen in the name of linguistic duality, such as the demands for health services in the minority language.

Health moved to the forefront with the crisis triggered by the fate of Montfort Hospital in Ottawa. The struggle to prevent the hospital’s closure, which lasted from 1997 to 2001, and the Franco-Ontarian community’s two legal victories pushed health to the level of a national priority for official language minority communities.

Still, it should not be forgotten that health is under provincial jurisdiction. Five provinces (New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia) have enshrined the right of the language minority to receive services in their own language. Their legislation allows the creation of bilingual facilities or health districts, or guarantees the provision of services in the language of the minority where demand warrants.

The Government of Canada also sees health from an official language perspective and has a greater concern for the specific needs of language minorities. Health Canada created two consultative committees with representatives of English- and French-speaking minority communities to advise the Minister of Health on their priorities. One of the first results of the work done by these consultative committees was the establishment of regional health networks.

The Consortium national de formation en santé was formed in 2003 from a network of 10 Francophone post-secondary educational institutions. The objective of the Consortium is to train 2,500 new health professionals able to offer services in French by 2008.

Yet, while the Action Plan for Official Languages may have earmarked a considerable amount for health, there is no guarantee that funding will be renewed after the fifth and final year of the initiative. Furthermore, progress made in the provinces is still in jeopardy, and can be vulnerable to network reconfiguration and changes to facility mandates. This is the case in Ontario and New Brunswick.

Sport is another important aspect of healthy living. The Francophone minority has created a number of sports events in its image, where they can participate in sports in their own language: the Jeux de l’Acadie, Jeux franco-ontariens and Jeux de la Francophonie canadienne.

Still, national sports organizations have always encountered difficulties in offering high-performance amateur athletes quality service in French. Very recently, the national sports policy and the Physical Activity and Sport Act clearly laid out the government’s expectations for bilingualism.

THE ECONOMY

Since the passage of the Official Languages Act, which obliges the government to encourage the development and vitality of English- and French-speaking minorities in Canada, the economy has become another important issue for language minorities.

The establishment of the National Committee for Canadian Francophonie Human Resources Development, made up of representatives from the government and the Francophone and Acadian communities, has generated a new dynamic. Eleven federal institutions now have partnerships with Francophone communities for economic development. Co-ordinating groups on economic development and employability, now established across Canada, allow communities to implement economic development projects to facilitate rural development, the knowledge economy, the integration of youth, and tourism.

The Anglophone community in Quebec and the Government of Canada drew from the same model to create the National Human Resources Development Committee, which oversees a network of regional committees on employability and community and economic development.

LANGUAGE AND THE ECONOMY

Canadian bilingualism is not just a matter of cost. An entire industry has sprung up around linguistic duality in the fields of translation and language training. The language industry in Canada generates more than $900 million in goods and services. It is made up of over 1,300 companies that generate work for 28,000 people in the language service sector.

The federal Action Plan for Official Languages recognizes the importance of this sector, supporting the creation of the Language Industry Association and the establishment of a Language Technologies Research Centre.

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation has long been a major battlefield for the defenders and promoters of bilingualism in Canada. The epic battle of Quebec air traffic controllers in the seventies for the right to use French in air traffic communications remains today the most outstanding example.

Historically, Air Canada and VIA Rail have long been less than compliant with bilingualism. The airline has been the object of a multitude of complaints for over 30 years, and year after year, successive commissioners of official languages have reported the company’s failure to meet its obligations.

In 2002, Air Canada finally submitted its own action plan on official languages, which was conditional upon receiving federal funding for language training. Subsequently, the airline went through a financial crisis and changed ownership. As a result, bilingualism remains on the back burner. The government must pass legislation to ensure that the language rights of the travelling public and Air Canada employees are respected. In addition, Air Canada itself is expected to demonstrate leadership in this regard.

VIA Rail is another Crown corporation that has been the subject of numerous complaints from travellers since its creation in 1978, especially with regard to its services in the Montréal–Ottawa–Toronto corridor. However, in recent years, VIA Rail has considerably improved service to passengers in both official languages pursuant to a court remedy.

Given all the significant changes that the transportation sector has undergone and will be subjected to in the future, we believe it has become urgent for the Government of Canada to re-examine its transportation policy in light of the Official Languages Act.

THE ACTION PLAN

The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is concerned about how the Government of Canada is managing the Action Plan for Official Languages (unveiled in March 2003), and about the delays seen in some departments toward meeting the objectives of the Plan.

The implementation period for the Action Plan, which provides $751.3 million in investments over five years, will soon reach the halfway point, and the results are mixed.

• Participating departments have used $50 million of the $65 million allocated for the first year of the Action Plan.

Canadian Heritage alone has access to $381.5 million—just over half of the Plan envelope—to reach two ambitious goals: to double, by 2013, the proportion of high school graduates who are competent in their second official language; and to increase to 80% the proportion of rightsholders enrolled in French language schools outside Quebec.

• It took Canadian Heritage time to reach an accord with the provinces and territories on the terms and conditions of the next Protocol Agreement on minority language education and second language teaching.

Progress is equally slow in the area of early childhood development. Despite good co-operation between Social Development Canada and certain community organizations, daycare pilot projects will not begin until the third year of the Action Plan. The Commissioner expects the Department to demonstrate greater leadership on this front.

There is also a serious problem of accountability. More than two years after adoption of the Action Plan, the government has yet to put in place the necessary performance measurement framework, a shortcoming that never fails to astonish the Commissioner.

Nevertheless, there have been some breakthroughs since the Action Plan was launched.

• Health Canada effectively supports community networks and health professional training networks in minority communities.
• Citizenship and Immigration Canada continues to develop avenues for immigration in Francophone minority communities.
• Industry Canada has renewed its Francommunautés virtuelles program and created a network of regional advisors, in addition to undertaking pilot projects in distance learning and on-line services.
• The Language Industry Association was created, and a research centre in this field is under construction at the Université du Québec en Outaouais.
• Canadian Heritage and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada have improved the Summer Language Bursary Program and the Official Languages Monitor Program.

Nevertheless, implementation of the Action Plan is burdened with a lack of cohesion and co-ordination. The government must rectify this situation or risk putting the renewal of linguistic duality in peril.

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT IN LINGUISTIC COMMUNITIES

The Commissioner met and wrote to Social Development Minister Ken Dryden in early 2005 to stress the importance of ensuring that the Early Learning and Child Care national initiative meet the needs of linguistic communities.

In April and May 2005, the federal government concluded Early Learning and Child Care Agreements in Principle with five provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador. In July, Alberta signed an agreement with the Government of Canada.

All the bilateral agreements signed included specific provisions aimed at ensuring that Francophone communities have access to services in their language, taking into account their program development needs and reporting on progress made in the area of availability of early learning and child care services in French.

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS: SOME FOLLOWED, OTHERS IGNORED

Steps have been taken, or will be taken this year, to follow up on several of the recommendations made in the 2003–2004 Annual Report of the Office of the Commissioner:

• In response to the concerns expressed by public servants, the Canada School of Public Service and the Public Service Commission are to review the language evaluation method, as well as the effectiveness of, and access to, language training.
• In the spring of 2005, the government tabled a bill to amend the Air Canada Public Participation Act. It remains to be seen whether the proposed changes will protect the language rights of the travelling public and Air Canada’s employees, regardless of any changes to the structure of air transport.

Despite these measures, the government has shied away from other recommendations:

• The government agreed to leave funding allocated to the Action Plan for Official Languages intact, but did not make any such commitment for funding allocated to the Official Languages Program in its entirety.
• The Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada set explicit assessment criteria for institutional performance in official language matters. However, it did not review the accountability framework to make bilingualism a basic element of citizen-oriented services.
• Canadian Heritage asked those institutions that are required to produce a plan pursuant to Part VII to plan additional activities to promote linguistic duality. However, this new approach only affects about 30 designated institutions.

In other cases, delays persist in implementing our recommendations:

• The government is reluctant to clarify the legal scope of Part VII.
• The government remains closed to the idea of reviewing the appointment process for superior court judges, although such a review could help alleviate the shortage of bilingual judges.

THE PERFORMANCE REPORT CARD: ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

For the first time, the Office of the Commissioner has published a performance report card of federal institutions that are subject to the Official Languages Act. The report card is intended to publicize the successes and failures in implementing the Act. It is part of efforts to ensure greater accountability and to measure the progress made.

Although none of the 29 institutions assessed had a perfect score, none were any ranked very poor either; in the middle of the curve, 11 institutions were graded “good”, another 11 were graded “fair”, and 7 were graded “poor”.

Generally speaking, social and cultural institutions performed better than those in the economic, transport, and security sectors. The report card indicates that there has been a nationwide stagnation in the quality of bilingual services delivered to the public. Specifically:

• Service was delivered in the language of the minority community in three quarters of cases.
• An active offer of bilingual service was made one quarter of the time only.
• Bilingual service delivery improved in New Brunswick and the National Capital Region.
• There has been a decrease in bilingual service delivery in Alberta, but it remains very good in Quebec.

THE LEON LEADERSHIP AWARD

The recipient of the 2004–2005 Leon Leadership Award is Marcel Beaudry, Chairman of the National Capital Commission (NCC).

Mr. Beaudry has successfully integrated both official languages into the NCC in an exemplary fashion, as well as promoting bilingualism in the National Capital Region. Here, for example, are just some of the laudable initiatives that the NCC launched over the past year:

• Noon-hour language training courses for employees;
• The development of a protocol for chairing bilingual meetings;
• Active offer of service in both official languages;
• The creation of an action plan to ensure that commercial tenants are aware of and comply with official language requirements;
• Co-operation in organizing the television broadcast of Les trophées de la langue française, hosted by Bernard Pivot, a tribute to outstanding Francophones in various fields of activity;
• Co-ordination of an open-air French film festival.

SUCCESS STORIES

This year has included a number of success stories in the area of language training. Some examples include:

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada began a voluntary language training program, offering second language courses to employees who hold unilingual positions.
• The Canada Revenue Agency launched a virtual language skills retention centre to help employees maintain or regain their skills in their second official language.
• Statistics Canada developed a French language training program intended to help employees with an intermediate level of proficiency in oral French attain superior proficiency.

There were also notable successes in the promotion of official languages and in the development of official language minority communities:

• To celebrate Les Rendez-vous de la francophonie and St-Jean Baptiste Day, the Toronto Centre Tax Services Office of the Canada Revenue Agency organized festivities to foster an awareness of French culture and language among employees.
• The Official Languages Committee of the Prince Edward Island Federal Council studied a five-year community development plan for Acadians and Francophones in their province.

Some encouraging initiatives in other sectors of Canadian society also deserve recognition:

• Nova Scotia passed a bill on French language services in the fall of 2004.
• The Manitoba Department of Justice inaugurated the first bilingual provincial court, in Saint-Pierre-Jolys.
• The Ontario Ministry of Education launched a language management policy to help French-speaking students preserve their culture, improve their academic performance, and increase their self-esteem.
• A group of organizations in New Brunswick created a permanent body intended to ensure progress toward the equality of the two official language communities.
• The Chambre de commerce de Québec launched an Internet portal designed for English-speaking newcomers to the city. It provides information on a range of services offered in English in the greater Québec area.

INVESTIGATIONS AND AUDITS

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF COMPLAINTS

The number of complaints from the public since the application of the Official Languages Act has fluctuated considerably over the years. Complaints increased progressively from 1970 to 1986, then increased sharply for five years, remaining at an annual average of over 2,000 until 1990.

The number of complaints decreased in 1991 and remained stable throughout the 1990s, at an annual average of slightly less than 1,700. Starting in 2000, the number of complaints dropped to around 1,250 per year. In the first year of its existence, the Office of the Commissioner received 181 complaints. The largest number of complaints received in a single year was 2,743, in 1989.

Often, upsurges in complaints are due to specific events that stimulate and feed public interest in official languages: the debate on the Meech Lake Accord, the passage of the new Official Languages Act and the issue of language in the workplace, or the sustained focus of the media on a specific language issue.

Over the last 35 years, complaints have become a way for Canadians to make themselves heard and to ensure their rights are respected. They are in fact an important tool in attaining equal language rights for all citizens.

Historically, the majority of complaints have been about service to the public, typically amounting to a little less than three quarters of all admissible complaints.

A 12% INCREASE IN 2004–2005

In 2004–2005, the Office of the Commissioner received 1,151 complaints, which represents a 12% increase from the previous year. The majority of complaints (81%) were lodged by Francophones. Meanwhile, complaints from Anglophones almost doubled.

This increase in the number of complaints is due in part to the matter of equitable participation of English- and French-speaking public servants at all levels of federal institutions. Indeed, it can be attributed to the new Treasury Board directives issued on April 1, 2004, according to which staffing must be on an imperative basis unless otherwise justified. “Imperative basis” means that candidates must meet the language requirements of their positions at the time of appointment. There was also a marked increase in complaints about Elections Canada and Air Canada.

Over half of the 847 admissible complaints targeted just 10 institutions, the majority of which are in close contact with the public.

Complaints about service to the public concerned verbal exchanges, written correspondence, communications in the media, telephone conversations and Air Canada ground services for travellers.

Nearly half of all admissible complaints about language in the workplace came from the National Capital Region, with an additional 23% from the Atlantic Provinces and 15% from Quebec. These complaints involved internal communications, professional development and written correspondence.

CONCLUSION

Thirty-five years ago, the Official Languages Act triggered a series of changes in society that contributed to moulding a modern Canadian identity—one that strives to respect the character and aspirations of both major language communities.

It then took the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, pitched battles against opponents of bilingualism, various court rulings, amendments to federal laws and a plethora of Government of Canada programs to confirm and uphold the language rights of Canadians.

Linguistic duality today is no longer a heresy or a fable. Time has finally done its work, and the children born of bilingualism are leaving their mark on the face of tomorrow’s Canada in their own way. Increasing numbers of countries with citizens of different languages and cultures who have difficulty living together turn to Canada as a model.

More and more Government of Canada services are provided in both official languages, and English and French speakers are more equitably represented in the federal administration. The importance of the right to health care in the official language of one’s choice is making headway, and sports teams in Canada are open to athletes from both language communities. Just imagine what things will be like 35 years from now!

Most provinces and territories have also adopted linguistic systems that put both official languages in the picture. It has taken time, patience and an iron will, but the major tensions emerging from language differences have, so to speak, vanished from the Canadian landscape.

This does not mean that there are no challenges left—quite the opposite. When government leadership is strong, linguistic duality advances; when it is weak, when vigilance flags, the ground gained is lost little by little, as we saw so often during the nineties.

The State can do a lot more. It cannot be said today that we live in a truly bilingual society fully equipped for the multilingualism that emerges from globalization. We have the expertise and the means to get more conclusive, concrete and even spectacular results.

To respond to future challenges, the Government of Canada must seriously consider the status of the linguistic system and its commitment to making linguistic duality the heart and soul of Canada.