30 YEARS! WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?

  Thirty years is not a long time in the history of a country. Yet noble pages of that history have been written since the creation of the Official Languages Bureau, as the Office of the Commissioner was first called. It was on July 9, 1969, that the Canadian Parliament adopted the Official Languages Act, and that it came into effect on September 7 of that year.

  In order to implement the new Act, the legislator introduced a number of measures, including one establishing the position of Commissioner of Official Languages and setting out its duties and powers. On April 1, 1970, Keith Spicer, a young university professor and journalist, became the first Commissioner. He had to create everything almost from scratch. Very early in his term, Keith Spicer set the tone for what was to become a marvellous adventure that still continues. The Official Languages Bureau was born, and an eventful life awaited it!

  Those first years were no bed of roses. Just ask Keith Spicer. But over the years, the Office of the Commissioner protected Canadians’ language rights. It closely monitored the implementation of the Official Languages Act within federal institutions. The agency experienced both tumultuous periods and days of glory and success. It worked unflaggingly to promote the development and vitality of the official language communities and to promote the Act and linguistic duality in Canadian society.

  Since 1970, the Office of the Commissioner has been first and foremost a team of people who believe firmly in the mission that the Act has conferred on them. That is what Dyane Adam wanted to highlight at a simple celebration that quickly took on the air of a family reunion. It all took place in Ottawa last November 16 in an atmosphere of warm nostalgia. Keith Spicer and Victor C. Goldbloom were at the party, as were many former employees of the Office of the Commissioner. To everyone’s regret, Maxwell Yalden was on a business trip outside the country and D’Iberville Fortier was ill and could not join the celebration.

  INFOACTION is marking the event with a few pages from the family album. These photos, stories and reminiscences will remind you that, over the years, stalwart teams of public servants have supported the commissioners since 1970, and that they believed and still believe that the official languages are an essential part of what makes Canada such a good country to live in.

  Hats off to all those who built the Office of the Commissioner!

AS THE YEAR BEGINS

   There is an old saying that hours may pass slowly, but years always pass quickly. Yet the hours of the first year of the new millennium passed quickly ... and here we are already in 2001. Rather than delivering the traditional New Year’s message, I would like to share a thought from one of my favourite authors, Paulo Coehlo: “There is a universally understood language ... It is the language of enthusiasm, of the things done with love, with passion, to achieve a result that one wants and believes in. When you really want something, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it.” (The Alchemist, 1998, our translation.)

   It is that language of the heart that will make the vision of a proud and dynamic Canada a reality. I wish it for you and for our country.

Dyane Adam

MEMORIES ...

   Reminiscences from some employees who have worked for the Office for 20 years or more and some others who worked in the regions.

   One of my most vivid memories of my time at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is meeting with Maxwell Yalden, the second commissioner, when he hired me. “Your territory extends to the Pacific and it is your responsibility to make the greatest possible number of Canadians aware of the existence of the Official Languages Act and what it means in terms of receiving and providing services. (Our translation) And then he wished me the best of luck!

   So how was I going to do it? After studying a map of the vast territory assigned to me, I decided to make maximum use of radio and television to communicate the Office of the Commissioner’s message. I had myself invited to every conference and meeting possible. Each time, I urged people to exercise their right to be served in their own language, particularly French, in federal offices. I insisted that they contact our office if they could not get service in their own language. Once I had an officer with me, we could normally settle complaints quickly and simply. It was a time when the bureaucracy was simpler and more effective, perhaps because it was less centralized.

Maurice Gauthier
First representative of the Commissioner in Manitoba and Saskatchewan
(1978-1985)

   I’ve been at the Office of the Commissioner nearly 20 years. Why so long? Quite simply, because I believe in what I do; otherwise, I would be somewhere else. Here, I have confidence in what I accomplish. I feel that my work helps make a difference in Canadian society. That is what motivates me every day.

Marc Robert

   For almost 20 years, the Office of the Commissioner has given me an opportunity for growth and self-affirmation. And it’s given me a chance to work with incredible people. I continue to work at the Office of the Commissioner because it’s like a big family.

Sylvie Parent

   I’ve worked at the Office of the Commissioner since 1987. As the Commissioner’s representative in Alberta, British Columbia and the three territories, I have had the unique opportunity to work with three commissioners and with many outstanding colleagues, people motivated by profound convictions and values. Thanks to the Official Languages Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Office of the Commissioner has been able to promote the official language communities’ development and vitality. We have often acted as the government’s conscience in its relations with the minority official language communities and Canadian society.

Nice work if you can get it!

Deni Lorieau

   On two occasions, I was asked to become the Commissioner’s first representative in Ontario and to open a regional office in Sudbury. I finally agreed to represent Commissioner Maxwell Yalden in the country’s most populous province.

   My time there gave me a chance to meet many Ontarians, both Francophone and Anglophone, who believed in the value of official languages. Not being from Ontario, I was touched by the welcome I received from Ontarians, be it in Windsor, Thunder Bay, Wawa, Rockland or Mattawa.

Jeanne Renault

   What am I doing at the Office of the Commissioner after 20 years ?

   What brought me to the Office in 1980 was a strong academic interest in linguistic rights. What has kept me here for over 20 years is the sense of pride I have in helping to put these rights into practice. We still refer from time to time to working for “a cause.” A cause can wear you down if you’re fighting a losing battle. That’s not the sense I have, obviously.

   It’s also important to me that the Office of the Commissioner is a small organization, compared with most federal institutions. Generally, we all know each other and, because of that, there has always been a strong sense of working together and a willingness to help that goes beyond one’s duties. I was fortunate to join the Office of the Commissioner 20 years ago, and I’m glad to be here still.

David Phillips

   As the saying goes, “time flies when you’re having fun”. Even though I’ve been working within the federal Official Languages Program for my entire career, I can hardly believe that it has already been 27 ½ years. When I started with the Public Service Commission in June 1973, my first job was a logical extension of my recently acquired Honours BA in linguistics and languages. As a native of Stratford, Ontario, and as an only partially bilingual Anglophone with the federal government in the 1970s, I was somewhat of a rarity there, and I ended up working in a near-perfect environment to allow me to improve my language skills and become fluent in French. By 1980, with my bilingual skills in hand, I felt I was ready to defend Canadians’ language rights by working as a complaints investigator and special studies officer at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.

   In 1987, I was the first employee to work in the Office of the Commissioner’s newly opened Toronto office, where I was part of the “Sky Team” trying to bring English-speaking and French-speaking Ontarians to a better understanding of one another. My career of over 20 years at the Office of the Commissioner has given me the opportunity to work with four of Canada’s five commissioners. As the months and years flash by, being part of the team of Canada’s language ombudsman, attempting to bridge the gaps between Canada’s two solitudes, and trying to work as an agent of change in Canadian society remains a challenging and rewarding task!

Janette Hamilton

   Over the past 25 years, I have seen the Office of the Commissioner become one of the most important institutions in Canada. I am privileged to have been able to work here in both official languages, but thanks to the Act, I could choose to work in my mother tongue.

Claire Trépanier

   As a native of Russell, Ontario, where Francophones are a minority, recognition of the status of the two official languages is a fundamental value for me. Although I was a little young to appreciate the impact of the adoption of the first Official Languages Act in 1969, I have made up for it since by helping to promote the principles of linguistic duality in my community and at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, where I have held a number of positions. Since I started in 1976, I have been pleased to observe a growing mutual respect between the members of the two language communities, not just in my hometown but across the country.

Diane Côté

   As a member of a minority community who lived in Alberta for a few years before joining the Office of the Commissioner, I saw my job as an opportunity to make a modest contribution to better relations between the heirs of these two great European cultures. While helping to implement the Official Languages Act in Western and Northern Canada, I also had an opportunity to get to know communities that were prepared to be fully part of the Canadian social fabric and to play a tangible role in making language rights a reality.

   Those few years in Alberta left me with some unforgettable memories, unbreakable friendships and a greater appreciation of the challenges and opportunities that our official language communities face.

   Gérard Finn First representative of the Commissioner of Official Languages in Alberta

   I began my career in the federal public service at the Office of the Commissioner; I have been here over 21 years now. Why so long at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages? Primarily because it is a small organization ... a family! I feel at home there, because everyone knows each other so well. I feel as if everyone contributes to everyone else’s success and, because the people here are so committed and charming, it is a very satisfying place to work.

Louise Dubé

   What makes me tick?

   A very large spring located just below the spleen – I wind it up every Sunday night, and it keeps me going until Friday at noon. I’m looking for a bigger spring to see me right through to the end of Saturday…

   What is an English-speaking Calgarian doing working for the Commissioner of Official Languages? I fell in love with the French language during a high school exchange program, when I spent two weeks in Donnacona learning the language from a family as large and noisy as my own.

   When I was offered a job at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages in 1981, I moved to Ottawa from Vancouver to accept it. Since then, my work has taken me all over Canada and introduced me to all kinds of people from a serial murderer to Mounties to MPs. (On the whole, I prefer the Mounties.) My last project was a special study of official languages in high performance sport, during which I met athletes, coaches, and sports administrators and visited national sport centres – including, to my delight, the one in Calgary.

   My ideal is for everyone to enjoy the linguistic and cultural diversity that makes this country great.

Mary Lee Bragg

   I have thoroughly enjoyed working with four of the five Commissioners of Official Languages over the past 19 years. The time I have spent in the Investigations Branch of the Office, first as an investigator and then as a manager of investigations, has been a highlight of my career in the public service. Not only have I been able to assist Canadians in obtaining federal government services in their preferred official language but, on a more personal level, I have been given a golden opportunity to improve my own ability in French. For this I am very grateful.

David Snook

THE OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER’S FIVE ANTENNAE

   The term “antenna” comes from Keith Spicer, the first Commissioner of Official Languages. That’s what he called the first regional Office of the Commissioner when, in early 1977, he decided to set up an office in the Atlantic provinces, in Moncton. Robert Pichette was the Commissioner’s very first regional representative.

   The first regional office, like those that would follow, had a mandate to establish and maintain close relations with the official language communities and federal public servants in the region in order to inform them and raise awareness of the rights and obligations established in the Official Languages Act. The regional office was also to maintain close links with the region’s linguistic majority.

   In 1978, Maxwell Yalden recruited a deputy minister in the government of Manitoba, Maurice Gauthier, to set up a second “regional antenna” in Winnipeg, this time for the Western provinces. These first two offices proved very important, on the one hand, in providing a presence for the Office of the Commissioner outside Ottawa and thus serving the public better, and, on the other, in representing regional needs and accomplishments at the national office.

   In 1981, Mr. Yalden opened three more regional offices. Joan Gavan was the first representative at the Quebec office, in Montréal. Jeanne Renault opened the first Ontario regional office, in Sudbury, while Gérard Finn opened the Edmonton office to provide greater representaion in Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon.

   In 1987, D’Iberville Fortier moved the Ontario regional office to Toronto because of the large number of federal regional offices in the Queen City. Monique Cousineau opened that office.

   The Office of the Commissioner is proud of these “five regional antennae”, which have given it a presence across Canada since 1977.

BEFORE CROWN AGENTS, DO YOU HAVE ANY RIGHTS?

   You certainly do! Language rights, at least. For a number of years, plaintiffs and jurists’ associations have been telling the Office of the Commissioner about the difficulties some people have in exercising their language rights before federal tribunals.

LISTENING TO YOUNG CANADIANS

    As part of the youth consultation already under way, Dyane Adam met with delegates to the Parlement franco-canadien du Nord et de l’Ouest, held in Winnipeg last November 9 and 10. During this meeting, the exchanges and discussions were primarily about the values that are fundamental to young people and the specific expectations and needs of young Canadians in linguistic minority communities.

CHATTING WITH THE COMMISSIONER

The 30^th anniversary of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages was a time for both joyful reunions and contemplation. INFOACTION took the opportunity to talk with Commissioner Dyane Adam.