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Bilingualism in Canada refers to laws and policies of the federal government – and some other levels of government – mandating that certain services and communications be available to the public in both Template:Ll and Template:Ll.

At the provincial level, only New Brunswick is officially bilingual, though all provinces and territories offer services and education in both official languages.

History

Official bilingualism in various forms dates back to Canadian Confederation in 1867, when the British North America Act allowed both French and English for parliamentary debates and federal court cases. However, for many decades French was given an inferior position in Canadian confederation. The use of French, especially in education, was on several occasions curtailed in mainly English-speaking provinces such as in the Manitoba Schools Question and Ontario's Regulation 17. Bilingualism in its more extensive modern form began with the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, which started work in 1963 and eventually led to the original Official Languages Act in 1969.

In 1974, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act required the use of both French and English on all consumer packaging across the country, and bilingual packaging remains the most visible aspect of bilingualism for the Canadian general public.

In 1977, Quebec introduced its Charter of the French Language (the so-called "Bill 101") to promote and preserve the French language in the province, directly challenging the federal bilingualism policy. Most controversially, the charter bans the use of English on commercial signs in the province, and forbids children from attending English-language public schools unless their parents received the majority of their education in English, in Quebec.

In 1982, the Constitution Act (which the government of Quebec did not endorse) required provinces and territories to make education available in both official languages where numbers warrant. It also added the Canada Clause, extending minority language education rights across Canada. In 1988, a second version of the Official Languages Act was introduced, taking into account the new requirements of the Constitution Act.

In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the case of Ford v. Quebec (A.G.) that the commercial sign law provisions of the Quebec Charter of the French Language, banning the use of the English language on outdoor signs, were unconstitutional. In 1989, the Quebec national assembly invoked the Notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to set aside enforcement of the court ruling for five years. A UN appeal of the 'McIntyre Case' resulted in a condemnation of Quebec's sign law — regardless of the 'Canadian' legality of the notwithstanding clause. In response, the Quebec national assembly passed its Bill 86 in 1993, availing itself of the suggestions proposed in the losing 1988 Supreme Court ruling by allowing other languages on commercial signs, subject to French being markedly predominant .

On March 31, 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that the interpretation of major part requirement in Quebec's language of instruction provisions, limiting access to English-language public education, violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court did not strike down the law but, as was the case with the 1988 ruling on sign laws, presented the province with a set of criteria for bringing the law into conformance with the charter.

Support and opposition

Support for bilingualism in Canada is mixed. Some Canadians living in provinces with small French populations resent the federal bilingualism policies as unnecessary and excessive government regulation, and for those opponents, the presence of French on their cereal boxes and other packaging is a constant reminder of the policy. Many French-nationalists in Quebec, though benefitting from the inclusive labelling law, resent the federal bilingualism policies just as strongly, seeing them as an attempt to dilute their language and culture with English (Quebec is officially unilingual French). Support for bilingualism appears to be strongest in the area known as the bilingual belt, covering parts of Ontario, Manitoba, western Quebec and Montreal, and the areas of the Maritimes, and weakest in western Canada, though there are supporters and opponents in every part of the country.

Groups such as the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada, and books such as Bilingual Today, French Tomorrow, have advocated the end of official bilingualism. More recently, the Reform Party of Canada advocated the policy's repeal. In the 2004 election, Conservative Member of Parliament Scott Reid, the party's language issues critic, caused controversy by suggesting that if elected, his party would review Canada's language policy and potentially reduce the provision of bilingual services.

French immersion is an optional education programme that supports bilingualism. It is a method of languge education where the student is taught all subjects in the French language, not just the language itself. Its popularity is viewed by some as support for bilingualism; others view it as elitism in public education. Support for French immersion has weakened considerably in many parts of the country, but it continues to be popular in Ottawa, with its large civil service population (who must meet bilingualism requirements), and Montreal, where a knowledge of French is now necessary. A similar program of English immersion is also available for French students in Quebec but are often in conflict with the official language policies of the Quebec government

Links

• English-language Federal bilingualism web site
• English-language text of the federal Official Languages Act

See also

• Acadian
• Anglo-Quebecer
• Franco-Ontarian
• Franco-Manitoban - Fransaskois
• Anglophone
• Francophone
• Allophone

• Canadian politics
• Languages of Canada