Maintaining Canadian Heritage

This charter means that everyone no matter what race, religion, sex, national origin, age or mental and physical abilities they have they are protected. The charter allows people to have basic human fundamental rights that most government rules and regulations were restricting before it came into act. The freedom of speech, religion and to associate yourself with whoever you want are just some of those rights that are being offered with the entrenchment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Finally the last achievements that Pierre Trudeau did that assisted in making Canada better are the legalization of laws on abortion, homosexuality and lotteries.

Having to move to a new country can cause a cultural shock, with this cultural shock, comes Language barriers. Many immigrants and refugees are faced with language barriers upon entry into a new country Language barriers causes an immense amount of difficulties and make simple day to day interactions seem impossible. More often immigrants and refugees get to Canada with a little to less fluent grasp of English. Employments, transportations, and even receiving assistance in both areas is more daunting without a good grasp of English. Immigrants and refugees worry that their foreign accent and cultural traits will make them seem too different. Immigrants and refuges to Canada bring a vast amount of benefits that will be beneficial to the Canadian economy, society, and the country has a whole, this is overlooked because the English language skills of these immigrants and refugees is often too dwelled on. Refugees and Immigrant parents are usually disadvantaged and disfavored in terms of finding a meaningful employment because of their English proficiency levels. Despite most immigrants and refugees have enough knowledge of the English language, if it is not their first language, they are faced with communication struggles on their arrival to Canada.

Special allowances are given to companies who include French-speaking components in their programming, and even for including international media that has been translated into French Canadian by a French Canadian. Not only does this increase the job market in Canada, but continues to bring awareness to the fact that Canada is a dual speaking nation. The Canadian school system has cut French from grades K-6, and have only a grade 9 requirement upon entering high school: thus, the French language is being further lost as each generation passes through schooling. The importance of the use of French in Canadian history is incredibly tied to its cultural identity, and the removal of the language would certainly alienate a large population of Canada, notably of course Quebec. Providing allowances for the inclusion of French propagates the language, reminding new generations who would otherwise miss the opportunity to learn of the French importance in Canada, a large indicator in the differences between Canadian and American

Canada’s identity comes in many shapes and forms. Multiculturalism has been adopted and is at the forefront of Canadian identity. Following the Second World War, Canada’s multiculturalism policies became more acceptable and even successful in, not only accepting, but inviting multiple ethnic cultures in. In contrast to other countries, multiculturalism adaptation works for the Canadian culture. Canadian policies on multiculturalism have shifted over the past few decades; policies are now implemented for integration, not discrimination.

This research paper will be looking into and discussing, whether or not the French language in Quebec is still under threat. This project will discuss the existence of a threat to French language, and its culture. Also look into possible reasons why people may believe that there is a threat or not.

My research focuses on the Croatian language where I will explore the Croatian diaspora in Ontario, Canada to look at the connection between language, pride and the effect it has on one’s identity. In a major destination country such as Canada, immigrants have a strong presence. Given this diverse and vibrant cultural diaspora in Canada, many Croatian immigrant communities have taken to celebrating their heritage, providing them a sense of position in such a multinational country (Winland, 2007). There is a rather large population of Croats living in Canada, with a total of 114, 880 (Statistics Canada, 2011). Of this total, Toronto, Ontario, has the largest Croatian community in Canada, with approximately 12,665 Canadians of Croatian ethnic

Yet despite the change of attitudes regarding the French language it is still highly visible that English remains superior in terms of public and personal communication amongst many Montrealers. English is the universal language in modern day society aside from its high status providing economic advancement in Canada, young people continue to conform in using English as a the route to entering the working world. Kircher (2009) suggests that there has been minimal research conducted in regards to the increasing globalization that has been occurring over the last decades. The role that English currently possesses as the global lingua franca has inhibited the use of French in Quebec, and in addition this, its status provides upward mobility in the rest of Canada and North America. Colonial history reflects the challenges that minority languages faced, since English reflected the economic elite who were in possession of high paid jobs. Matched-guise models draw distinctions based on the attitudes of participants regarding the different languages spoken, along with the attitudes held towards the social groups with which these languages belonged to. “Language choices suggest that just like the Anglophones and Francophone’s investigated by Lambert et al. (1960) and Preston (1963), the allophones, too, attributed more status to English than to French from World War II up until the 1970s, allophone immigrants to Quebec overwhelmingly opted for English as their main language of public usage” (Kircher p. 23). Going back to Giles et.al notion of how threat alters the significance of language, we see how this led to a movement to shift from the highly regarded Anglophone elite and “reconquer”

For Canadian Francophones, nations are built around culture in which language, laws, and faith are the foundations of (Carty & Ward, 1986, p. 4). Thus, there was a continuous political war between two founding nations as there were fundamental differences in language, laws, and faith between English Canada and French

In 1977, in the province of Quebec, French was declared, by the Federal government, followed by English to be used in all their official language provincial government, businesses, schools, hospitals, courts, restaurants, and other public places. The majority of Quebec’s

“To what extent do you think the U.S.-Canadian magazine dispute was motivated by genuine desires to protect Canadian culture?”(Uopeopleedu, 2016)

Canada’s first people used at least 53 different languages. Each group referred to themselves by a specific name in their own language.

Canada, with its economic and political stability offers a variety of business opportunities. With such a large population of immigrants, Canada is known for its acceptance of diverse cultures. English and French are Canada's official languages and there are many other languages spoken freely by diverse racial groups on Canadian soil. Many different religions are also practiced freely and peacefully in Canada.

Here in Quebec language is an extremely interesting and at times a controversial topic depending on who you speak with. The way that people who live in Quebec communicate is unique to our part of the world since we are a bilingual province. I believe that Quebecois people are a perfect example of the definition of language. I realised that while performing this field work I do not know many people who have gone to French schools because in my town the main language spoken for the most part is English. However, my cousin did go to a French school and I found her to be a particularly intriguing participant because she has been in both the English and the French system throughout her academic career. Instead of asking my participant about the specifics of language I asked her about her life

Outside of attempting to achieve sovereignty, the Parti Quebecois has advocated for French language and cultural rights within Canada and Quebec for its entire existence. The most prominent advocacy is perhaps Bill 101, which entrenches the rights of the French language in the Canadian constitution . Championed by Leveque’s government in 1977, it outlined the terms which protected the French language in Quebec by setting out the terms of its use and access. The move was crucial to maintaining the position of Quebec in conducting business and the language’s ability to be used in an official capacity where before the only inclusions were where the stipulations in the British North America Act . Instituting such protection as law has gone from being part of their platform to the focus, given the cultural force English Canada possesses compared to Quebec’s.

Canada as a country has two official languages: English and French. This means that all federal services, policies and laws must be enacted and available in both French and English. Some common examples of Canadian bilingualism that visitors encounter are road signs, TV and radio, product packaging, and bus and tour groups. However, the status of English and French as Canada's official languages does not mean that both languages are widely spoken across the country or that every Canadian is bilingual. Canadian bilingualism is more