Toronto, October 14 , 1999
The Internet: a Window on Canada's Linguistic Duality or a Trojan Horse?
Speech to the Cercle Canadien of Toronto
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
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It gives me great pleasure to meet today with members of the Cercle canadien of Toronto as Commissioner of Official Languages. It is a pleasure to meet friends and colleagues here, to visit Toronto, a city I love and where I worked for years, but above all, I am pleased to share with you this afternoon a message that is very dear to me. I would like to invite you to work with me to make Canada's linguistic duality a reality of daily life based on individual and collective commitment.
This commitment demands, specifically, that we now work to ensure that French occupies a meaningful place on the Internet. As Jacques Attali, author and advisor to the President of the Republic of France, noted recently in the newspaper Le monde: "We have used many images to describe the Internet ... a network, a highway, a database, a library. In fact, it is much more than that: it is a virtual continent, the 7th continent, where we will soon be able to set up everything we have in our real continents, but without the constraints of matter: libraries, of course, and then stores, to be followed by production plants, newspapers, movie theatres, hospitals, judges, policemen, hotels, astrologers, adult entertainment sites ... It is vital that we set foot on this new continent ... at the risk of leaving its vast treasures for others to claim"1 (our translation). The Internet, as you know so well, is becoming a defining factor, not only for the Canadian government, but also for Canada's economy, trade and society as a whole. In this sense, as Jacques Lyrette wrote in a document for the Montreal conference for ministers of the Information Highway "the place held by content in various languages on the information highway is an indication of the linguistic, cultural, economic and political vitality of its users"2 (our translation). This presents us with a formidable challenge: will our children, our future leaders, develop their imagination primarily on the basis of elements of the American dream?
Let us consider the type of society we would like to have. Do we want to see Canadian culture and values endure? We have a precious heritage: the principle of sharing our collective wealth equally; the principle of respect for fundamental human rights embodied in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and the principle of respect for linguistic duality and official-language minorities, as set out in the Official Languages Act.
I raise these issues today because we have reached a crossroads and you have an important role to play as economic stakeholders. The emerging knowledge based society is surpassing predictions. The changing reality is affecting governments, industry, universities; and, it must be admitted, the public's ability to influence the current economic and social changes is steadily decreasing.
We currently have a deficit in rigorous reflection. We have mobilized our collective efforts to bring budget deficits under control; we must now overcome the deficit in reasoning in view of the formidable growth of the information highway. This deficit is certainly not typically Canadian, but Canada -- as an important economic player in the Americas, and with its connection to Europe through its official languages -- must nevertheless act quickly to preserve Canada's linguistic duality.
At the INITI@TIVES 99 symposium held by the Agence universitaire de la francophonie, I released a study entitled, The Government of Canada and French on the Internet. This study makes an urgent appeal to the Government of Canada to take action to increase French-language content and services on the Internet, and thereby facilitate the creation of a critical mass of information in French. I also requested a response from the Clerk of the Privy Council on behalf of the Government of Canada by December 1, 1999. I have brought you a few copies of this study, which is also available on the Internet site of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.
As you know, French accounts for less than 3 percent of the entire Web. Over 80 percent of the content on the Web is in English, while only 10 persons in 100, the world over, can speak this language3. A Statistics Canada survey on household Internet use does not distinguish between the number of Anglophones and the number of Francophones who are connected to the Web. It would also be useful to specifically study the number of Francophones outside Quebec who are connected to the Internet. As an indication of the situation of Francophones and the Internet, the same Statistics Canada study reports that the residents of Quebec are the least connected of Canadians: only 26 percent of them as compared to 45 percent of Alberta residents4. Among the reasons cited, one third of Francophone users stated in the report Internet : Accès et utilisation au Québec that "Speaking only French is an obstacle to use of the Internet"5 (our translation). The recent study by the Centre francophone d'information des organisations and the Institut de la statistique du Québec entitled, L'appropriation des technologies de l'information et de la communication par les très petites entreprises du Québec, also shows that only 30 percent of Quebec firms with less than 10 employees were connected to the Internet in May 1999.
With thirty years of effort and accomplishments, the economic gap between Anglophones and Francophones in Canada has now been closed. Will we now stand idly by and witness the resurgence of new social and economic divisions, that will be nourished by relatively broad access to information, knowledge and services? Will we let new tensions arise between the information haves and have-nots, in turn affecting relations between Anglophones and Francophones in Canada?
As Commissioner of Official Languages, I recommended in the study, The Government of Canada and French on the Internet, that the Government of Canada assert linguistic duality as a guiding principle for any political framework or federal action relating to the Internet. I also recommended that the federal government create the tools to match its intentions, namely, a coherent implementation strategy for all federal institutions, and a new avenue for Canada's cooperation with countries of the Francophonie, in order to create throughout the world a window on Canada's linguistic duality that will fill us all with pride.
The Internet, which is linking more and more Canadians to one another, is rapidly transforming Canadian society and the Government of Canada. It is vital that these changes reflect the equal status of English and French stipulated in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the vitality of the official-language minority communities as intended by Part VII of the Official Languages Act. Francophones in Quebec, in Acadia, in Ontario and in all the provinces of Canada as well as the international Francophonie must make the powerful tool for communications and cultural and economic development known as the Internet their own. The Government of Canada has devoted unflagging efforts, under the National Strategy for Connectivity, to making the Internet available to the largest possible number of Canadians6. In March 1999, Canada became the first G7 country to have completely connected all of its schools and public libraries. Well-directed policies and investments are now needed to increase the French-language content on the Internet.
To back up these policy statements, the Government of Canada must make a sufficient investment to translate, digitize, create portals, and make the Internet accessible in French, by making use of the appropriate linguistic tools available on the Web. I also recommend assistance to promote the expansion of private-sector and non-profit agencies working in the areas of French-language content and services. As the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission stated in its notice of May 1999: "Francophone new media developers are faced with higher production costs than English-language producers because they often have to create a product in both languages and develop more costly marketing and distribution strategies to expand their market. Export options are also more limited in the Francophone market."7 And as my study notes, "The Canadian government could invest more to promote the growth of industries and community sites related to the production of content and services in French, by the best methods available: advertising, technical proposals, electronic links between government sites".8
These recommendations all make the point that the Government of Canada must adjust its sights to prevent the "trivialization" of Canadian identity, culture and values. Economic globalization does not necessarily mean adopting a one dimensional culture for the planet. Americanization is not a foregone conclusion, but as the Conference Board of Canada noted recently in its annual report on Canada's social and economic performance, Canada will have to make a much greater investment in research than it now does so as not to be wiped off the map, as far as innovation is concerned. This was reiterated in the latest Throne Speech. The future is now being invented in the United States. The role of the Commissioner of Official Languages in this context is to publicly proclaim the importance and impact of these issues, for Canada's linguistic duality and for the promotion of official languages in Canada.
From now until the year 2005, predicts Michel Cartier, communications professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada will continue to experience an ever-increasing rate of technological, economic and societal change9. If we act quickly, these radical changes could provide opportunities for new initiatives.
With regard to technology, we will move from the present convergence of technologies to a new digital network that will make the content industry of primary importance, as a result of electronic communication, electronic commerce, public services, electronic media and financial activities. It will be a post-industrial sector, born of the meeting between knowledge, the arts, culture, interactive technologies and new capital. It will offer value-added content and services to specific audiences.
Economically, Canada will by the year 2005 move from a continental market -- NAFTA -- to a global, duty-free market, and see the expansion of electronic commerce, to include 500 million Internet users. The Canadian Bankers Association predicts for instance that direct sales over the Internet will double every year in the years to come.10 The stock market has seen more significant changes in its operations over the last five years as a result of the Internet than in the whole last century. As Patrick Bloche, Member of Parliament for Paris, noted in his report, Le désir de France, "The Francophonie has to date failed to become an economic and commercial space, but electronic commerce can now make up for this shortcoming by making available to Francophones products described and sold inFrench"11 (our translation).
Socially, Canada will also undergo profound changes by the year 2005 when generation Y, the 9 to 12 age group, whose primary access to information is through images on the computer screen, will take power in a world made up of real and virtual products. Did you know that an average American child spends 900 hours at school, 1,500 hours watching television and 1,600 hours on the computer?12 In this context, we must also ensure a commanding presence at the portals, proudly bearing the standard of the Francophonie. Will the emerging collective intelligence, based on communities of interest and transcending borders, be multilingual when one considers that Computer Electronics reports that 43 percent of Internet users are not Anglophones?
Today's managers and proponents must master the technological, economic and social changes which are upon us. They must anticipate trends, protect collective interests, modernize our ways of doing things, innovate and manage the impact and costs of changes in order to increase the GDP, create jobs for young people, develop new markets and maintain the full vigour of Canadian cultures and official languages in order to fully benefit from all the advantages they provide us as Canadians. In this context, it could be most relevant for the Government of Canada to support the creation of mechanisms to observe and make predictions about technology, the economy and strategy so as not to be left behind. In 1977, Ken Olson, President of DEC Computer Services, stated: "I cannot see why anyone would want to have a computer at home". And then the DECCA production label that turned down the Beatles in 1962 saying, "We don't like their music, and the guitar is on the way out". This is why I suggested in my study, The Government of Canada and French on the Internet, that "[The federal government] might [...] consider [...] calling upon a group of experts capable of providing it with advice of a forward-looking nature on the impact of the Internet on the ecology of the official languages in Canadian society".13
This mastery of technological, economic and social changes would seem essential to economic and social survival alike in the face of the anticipated upheaval. A country is first of all an abstract concept, a personal concept made up of values and attitudes, to be sure, but also a collective concept based on culture. It is on the basis of this vision that people create the consensus required for society to function smoothly. This vision is based on mastery of a given space and time and, in Canada, its borders are official languages and multiculturalism. "The information highway", as Michel Cartier so aptly noted in Nouvelles technologies : modernité, compétivité et humanité, "gives us what is here and elsewhere, but without content, it gives us only what is somewhere else"14 (our translation). The multilingual content industries represent a strategic economic development sector for Canada, but also provide an opportunity to affirm our identity in this emerging knowledge society.
As Commissioner of Official Languages, my mission is to preserve and promote a Canadian jewel: our linguistic duality and respect for linguistic minorities. It is my duty, as it is yours, to show foresight and be aware of the powerful trends affecting our society. Linguistic duality, the promotion of official languages and the development of linguistic minorities in Canada require the government to make the appropriate decisions to give the French language a significant place on the Internet. Culture is one way of expressing our identity, and the Internet is one way of disseminating it. The recommendations made in The Government of Canada and French on the Internet are designed to help achieve this necessary mastery.
Furthermore, I am delighted by the measures announced in the Throne Speech concerning the Internet because they are in harmony with the recommendations in this study. This augurs well because the federal government must decide before the end of the year on the concrete measures it will take to follow-up on our recommendations. In the implementation of the Throne Speech, it is essential that development projects that will be put into effect reduce the current roadblocks Francophones across Canada face as far as their use of the Internet is concerned. I am confident that the government will recognise linguistic duality as a guiding principle of development of the Internet in Canada and that it will act with the necessary determination to assure Francophones equal opportunity as proclaimed in this Throne Speech which marks the turn of the millennium.
The implementation of these recommendations requires investments, to be sure. To those reluctant to make them, I would ask: what investments must be made to ensure that our children are Canadian? What value should we attach to being Canadian, and to being Canadian fifty years from now?
Notes
1 Jacques Attali. Le Monde. August 7, 1997.
2 Canada, Les inforoutes et la Francophonie. Les inforoutes au service du développement. Réflexion canadienne, Conférence des ministres responsables de l'autoroute de l'information. Prepared by Jacques Lyrette for the Canadian Delegation, Montreal, March 1997, p 6.
3 Human Development Report 1999. New technologies and the global race for knowledge.
4 Canada. Statistics Canada. Household Facilities and Equipment. Ottawa, 1998,
Catalogue No 64-202.
5 Internet : Accès et utilisation au Québec, Rapport d'enquête, BSQ, CEFRIO, RISQ, Collection Infomètre, November 1998, p 87.
6 Canada. Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. The Government of Canada and French on the Internet, p 20.
7 Canada, Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, Public Broadcasting notice CRTC 1999-84, paragraph 79.
8 Canada. Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. The Government of Canada and French on the Internet. Special Study, Ottawa, 1999, p 19.
9 Michel Cartier. 2005. La nouvelle société du savoir et son économie. Conference summary. Montréal. 1999, 5 p.
10 Commerce Enters a New Age. Canadian Bankers Association. Toronto, 1998, p.19.
11 Patrick Bloche. Le désir de France. La présence internationale de la France et la francophonie dans la société de l'information. Report to the Prime Minister, Paris, Service d'information du gouvernement, December 1998.
12 Dave Chalk's Computer Show. No 45.
13 Canada. Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. The Government of Canada and French on the Internet, p 14.
14 Michel Cartier. Nouvelles technologies : modernité, compétitivité et humanité, sont-elles conciliables ? Symposium for federal public service managers (Quebec Region). Montréal, January 28, 1999, p. 3.
