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rfmcdonaldKeith Spicer's Ottawa Citizen article "Still bilingual after all these years" is one article among many commemorating the 40th anniversary of official bilingualism in Canada.
Spicer, mind, was the first federal commissioner of official languages.
Bilingualism didn't achieve everything that people hoped it would. Anglophones often resented the new priority given to a language that, outside f the bilingual belt, they rarely had occasion to learn, especially in the context of Québec's language laws. Francophones observed that English/French bilingualism remained something far more common among Francophones than not and did little to slow the assimilation of most Francophone minorities outside of Québec. This poll suggests that official bilingualism remains most popular in central and eastern Canada, i.e. where Canada's Francophones are concentrated, and that the West is much more hostile.
It's not an ideal policy, but Spicer's right to imply that if there wasn't official bilingualism as a federal government policy Québec might well have opted for independence, perhaps in the 1980 referendum, perhaps earlier. If living in a Francophone environment could be seen as impossible under a government that made relatively few concessions, instead of going 40:60 against independence it could well have gone 60:40. A writer from that history blogging about the natural straight-line transition from conservative introverted Québec province to an outward-looking yet decidedly Francophone Québec state would sound plausible enough, don't you think?
Forty years ago today, Canada became officially bilingual. Broadly, the federal government would serve French-speakers as well as English-speakers in the language it taxed them in. It would allow its employees to work in either English or French. How did this happen?
It started with Quebec's "Quiet Revolution." In 1960, Jean Lesage's Quebec Liberal party defeated Maurice Duplessis' corrupt, inward-looking Union Nationale. Ensuing intellectual ferment sapped Quebec's co-domination by the Catholic Church and Anglo business. Dissatisfaction with Quebec's power elites took on anti-Canada tones, with mail-box bombs and talk of separatism.
Pressed by Le Devoir publisher Claude Ryan, prime minister Lester Pearson named a Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (the "B and B Commission" or, after its co-chairmen, "Laurendeau-Dunton" Commission). Its job: propose steps to "develop ... an equal partnership between the two founding races, taking into account the contribution made by the other ethnic groups. ..."
The B & B Commission's bombshell 1969 report became the bible for language reform. On Sept. 7 that year, after bitter parliamentary debate, it led to proclamation of the Official Languages Act. The act made English and French Canada's two official languages with equal status, rights and privileges in all (then) 181 federal departments and agencies.
Spicer, mind, was the first federal commissioner of official languages.
Bilingualism didn't achieve everything that people hoped it would. Anglophones often resented the new priority given to a language that, outside f the bilingual belt, they rarely had occasion to learn, especially in the context of Québec's language laws. Francophones observed that English/French bilingualism remained something far more common among Francophones than not and did little to slow the assimilation of most Francophone minorities outside of Québec. This poll suggests that official bilingualism remains most popular in central and eastern Canada, i.e. where Canada's Francophones are concentrated, and that the West is much more hostile.
It's not an ideal policy, but Spicer's right to imply that if there wasn't official bilingualism as a federal government policy Québec might well have opted for independence, perhaps in the 1980 referendum, perhaps earlier. If living in a Francophone environment could be seen as impossible under a government that made relatively few concessions, instead of going 40:60 against independence it could well have gone 60:40. A writer from that history blogging about the natural straight-line transition from conservative introverted Québec province to an outward-looking yet decidedly Francophone Québec state would sound plausible enough, don't you think?
