Toronto, January 29, 2000
The Mission of Providing Instruction in the Language of the Minority
Address to the French-Language Early Childhood Summit
(États généraux sur la petite enfance)
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
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I am very pleased to be with you here today. I feel especially at home because I have spent a large part of my career in the field of education.
What a marvellous way to start the second millennium by holding this French-Language Early Childhood Summit. After all, is it not best to begin at the beginning, including in education? I will return to this idea shortly.
I feel privileged to have the opportunity to speak to you at this time. As parents, teachers, school trustees, school or school board administrators or professionals working in the Ministry of Education, you are the leaders responsible for achieving the mission of French language schools in Ontario.
The mission of French-language schools
The mission of French-language schools in Ontario was set out in the Canadian Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada has clearly defined this mission for us in the decisions it has handed down on the minority language education rights guaranteed in section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which has been in force since 1982.
In the unanimous Arsenault-Cameron decision handed down on January 13, the Supreme Court of Canada emphasized the social and cultural role of schools by stating that "a school is the single most important institution for the survival of the official language minority" (Arsenault-Cameron v. Prince Edward Island, 2000 SCC 1, p. 4). It also recalled that, in 1990, the Court stated, in the Mahé decision, that "Section 23 is also designed to correct, on a national scale, the historically progressive erosion of official language groups and to give effect to the 'equal partnership' of the two official language groups in the context of education."
The fundamental mission of each French-language school in its community in Ontario is therefore to correct the historically progressive erosion of the French-speaking community and to foster its vitality.
Your role as the persons responsible for carrying out the mission of French-language schools in Ontario is of vital importance.
In order to correct the erosion of the French-speaking community, it is first necessary to understand it.
First, it must be understood that this erosion results from past injustices that must be remedied. It results in large part from the cumulative effects of inequalities between the English-language and French-language education systems that have existed all across the country since Confederation.
Second, it must be understood that this erosion is psychological, social, institutional, economic, cultural and demographic in nature and that each of these dimensions reinforces the others.
The Court has outlined a genuine societal project for all the partners in French-language education at the elementary and secondary levels. The success of this project is vital to the future of Canada's Francophonie and of Canada itself as we know it.
In my view, the first challenge is to develop together a plan to implement minority language education rights. This plan must be effective and must ensure the speedy achievement of the aim of section 23. It must also be realistic and provide for appropriate resources that match the scope of the objectives. The matter is urgent, and the clock has been ticking since April 17, 1982. Canadians must have the assurance, based on the determination of each of the partners in education and on your enlightened and concerted action, that the aim of section 23 can be achieved and that it will be in the foreseeable future.
To effectively correct, on a national scale, the progressive erosion of the official language minorities, logic tells us that it is essential to properly serve the clients eligible under section 23 of the Charter.
The challenge of eligible children
As you know, parents who belong to the English or French linguistic minority of the Canadian province or territory in which they live enjoy the right to have their children receive instruction in their language in minority educational facilities that use the language of the minority, reflect its culture and are managed by it. The expression "eligible children" is used to refer to young Canadians of school age who meet one of the three conditions of eligibility for the minority language education rights guaranteed by section 23 of the Charter.
The number of children eligible for French-language education is estimated on the basis of the number of children from ages 6 to 17 living outside Quebec, at least one of whose parents (a Canadian citizen) has French as their mother tongue.
Across the country, nearly half of these eligible children are still enrolled in the English-language school system. French-language schools, therefore, are not fulfilling their mission, within the meaning of section 23. When they graduate, these young Canadians will have been deprived of the greater part of the rich cultural heritage of one of their parents, if not both, and may well be unilingual Anglophones. In addition, all their descendants will be deprived of the constitutional right to have their children receive their instruction in a French school.
Among the successive generations of young people who had a constitutional right to French-language elementary and secondary education but nevertheless receive their instruction in English schools, the youngest, those who were six years old in 1982, are now 24. Some of them already have children. Their children and grandchildren, however, are deprived of the right to French-language education because their parents did not exercise their rights.
The start of this new millennium is a good time, as is often the case when we cross an important threshold, to take stock and draw up a balance sheet. It is an opportunity to ask ourselves what we have accomplished and what remains for us to do.
Despite the considerable progress of the 1990s, of which we can be proud, particularly with regard to securing French-language school boards, we are still far from the aim of section 23 as set out by the Supreme Court of Canada. We must roll up our sleeves because we still have a great deal of work to do together.
If we are to achieve the goal of French-language elementary and secondary education in Ontario, the following four conditions must be met. These conditions are inseparable from one another and constitute the blueprint for a minority language education rights implementation plan.
First, practically all eligible children must receive instruction in the language of the minority. They must therefore be recruited and care must be taken that they do not go through the English school system along the way, as 2,000 young people in Ontario did in 1996-1997, for example. This means that the parents, as rights holders, who alone can enrol their children in a French-language school, must be convinced, like their English-speaking spouse (for that is now the situation of most rights holders), that this is the best choice for their child, even if he or she has to travel a longer distance to get to school.
Second, the French-language school must be a centre of excellence in which pride in mastering the French-language and participating in the culture of the community are such that eligible children who know little or no French learn it quickly, thanks to the active support of their fellow students who already know it and are aware of their community responsibility in this regard. The resources required to succeed must be obtained, and the needed intake and integration services be provided at the appropriate levels. This is the type of school that must be the first choice of the parents of both French-speaking and English-speaking eligible children.
Third, the French-language school must offer its students an education of the highest quality that fosters their development and provides them with the tools required to continue to learn and innovate their whole life long and to succeed fully in the trade or profession they will choose. In short, to compete on an equal basis in some instances, the minority school may well even have to be better than the majority school.
Fourth, the French-language school must be the school of its community, one where the family, school and community are extensions of one another and mutually support each other. This means that the official language minority community must be able to count on the school's leadership and services to compensate for the community's institutional shortcomings. The community must, whenever necessary because of environmental conditions, be able to find a full range of preschool services associated with the school, including daycare services. This is required, first of all, because the minority community is far from enjoying the range of institutional services enjoyed by the majority community, although in some cases it may approach it, locally. Second, not only must measures be taken to prevent future French-speaking eligible children from being anglicized before they go to school, which would lead them directly to the English-language school, but, what is more, if the aim of section 23 of the Charter is to be achieved, a large proportion of future English-speaking eligible children must have had the opportunity to acquire at least enough knowledge of French, in daycare and preschool, to promote harmonious integration. For its part, the school must be able to rely on the ongoing support of all the other partners in education as part of a concerted and well-targeted effort to correct the multidimensional erosion of the minority and ensure its vitality.
But all this, you will object, is too demanding and we are barely managing the essentials at present. Schools operate in a social, political, economic, bureaucratic and legal context that is often complex. Nevertheless, I am convinced that this is the kind of vision for the future that we must endorse because it is an exciting project and because, together, we have a real chance to make a difference.
Our ancestors, including those who fought Regulation 17 at the beginning of the last century, fully understood that education is the cornerstone of the development of our communities. The challenge we face today in Ontario is of the utmost importance because, numerically, this province has half the eligible children in Canada. We must succeed here; we must demonstrate our leadership and know-how.
Demanding? Perhaps, but do we really have a choice? Moreover, it corresponds to the five characteristics of the report L'école franco-ontarienne de la réussite, the vision for the future that, together, you developed in the spring of 1997 at the Estates General on French-language elementary and secondary education in Ontario. In recent months, some 20 public and private agencies in New Brunswick have taken the laudable initiative of establishing a support network for the integration of eligible children. The time for a new departure has come.
The National Children's Agenda
Let us now return to early childhood, our point of departure. The Mustard-McCain report on early childhood sounded the alarm regarding the fundamental importance of the first six years of life and, particularly the first three. The psychologist in me can only applaud. We cannot overestimate the importance of the quality of the mother's diet during pregnancy, of the parents' expressions of affection and encouragement for their child, of family security and of the quality of sensory stimulation, including games based on problem solving, on the child's cerebral development and on the development of his patterns of response, which will be life-long. Cerebral development related to vision, emotional control, language and symbolic thinking is completed at the age of three. That is why investment in early childhood pays off big and over the long term!
Therefore, instead of leaving the learning of one of the most important functions of a human being to chance, French-language schools should take the lead by starting immediately to make adolescents aware of the importance of their future role as parents and developing in them the effective parenting skills they will need later. This is also an excellent opportunity to familiarize adolescents with the linguistic and cultural development of their future child. Faculties of education should get to work to provide teachers with the tools and support they need. Schools, in turn, could bring together the expertise needed to establish parental resource centres and provide the support parents need to meet their responsibilities effectively. For the official language minority, this responsibility involves an important community dimension. By investing in early childhood education, we shape a better future.
Clearly, the early childhood agenda cannot be restricted to the field of education, although we must reach eligible children in the cradle and future parents in their adolescence. It is important that a range of initiatives be launched in co-operation with community health centres, social service agencies, the offices of family doctors and obstetricians and various groups such as the Réseau des intervenants francophones en santé et en services sociaux de l'Ontario (RIFSSSO). The early childhood agenda must bring together all the pertinent sectors and mobilize all the practitioners who support women, couples and families throughout their lives.
The timing of this Summit could not be more timely. Thanks to your work, you can be among the first to submit proposals under the federal-provincial programs being developed pursuant to the National Children's Agenda, which was announced in the last Speech from the Throne. The more you present a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how you expect to get there, the more your efforts will be crowned with success. I encourage you to submit ambitious projects and to make many targeted interventions. Human Resources Development Canada, the Department of Justice and Health Canada are among the chief federal departments associated with this initiative. The Francophonie Team, put together two months ago by the FCFA, has already made the federal government aware of the importance of taking the special needs of the communities into account when developing programs, pursuant to its obligations under Part VII of the Official Languages Act.
The time has come to draw up detailed plans and mobilize to find the resources required to achieve the aim of section 23 of the Charter, for, as the Supreme Court of Canada reminded us in the Beaulac decision, language rights can be exercised only if the means to do so are provided. An adequate network of daycare facilities, additional preschool services and appropriate French-language early childhood programs are all indispensable resources for "providing the official language minority with equal access to high quality education in its own language, in circumstances where community development will be enhanced. Substantive equality requires that official language minorities be treated differently, if necessary, according to their particular circumstances and needs." (Arsenault-Cameron, supra, at p. 3 and 22)
Sections 16 and 23 of the Charter prescribe that the federal and provincial governments must do everything in their power to maintain and actively promote instruction in the minority language. They must therefore provide the means and resources required to achieve the aim of section 23.
Consequently, armed with an unshakeable faith in our ability to shape our future, our determination will be reinforced by the importance of what is at stake, the strength of our vision and confidence in our success.
