Multilingualism In Canada

The Canadian Constitution ensures duality of French and English in language. The Constitution (1867) states that both French and English "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada," (Section V). However, the French language is a definite minority throughout most of Canada, with Quebec as an exception. In 1977, Bill 101 was passed through legislature, which defined French as the official

“Section 27 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires that the Charter “be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.” The Official Languages Act has significantly made an effective contribution on Canada’s immigration success. It has allowed Pierre Elliott Trudeau to further expand his ideas on allowing individuals of all ethnicities and races to live their lives freely. English and French languages can be used in all government institutions of Canada, communicating freely within the public area and in the home. Both the English and French languages can be used in debates, courts, schools and any public institution. The importance of the Official Languages Act is to guarantee equality rights such as privileges and status between the French and English Canadians. Nevertheless, Pierre Elliot Trudeau was productive in ensuring the equal opportunities and rights of citizens. In modern day society, Pierre Trudeau’s accomplishments in enacting human rights has significantly improved. Overtime, it has diversified the cultures in schools and other public institutions. More individuals are becoming acceptant of race, ethnicity, homosexuality and religious beliefs. Due to the result of the diversity of cultures in schools, it has brought humans closer to one another and accepting of ones’

Canada was set up to be a bi-lingual country for both English and French to be equally represented in the government. However, the number of French speakers began to disappear in the country. “In Quebec, 7.7% of the population reported English only as mother tongue, 78.1% reported French only, and 12.3% reported only a non-official language, in 2011. In comparison, the national percentages were 56.9% for English only, 21.3% for French only and 19.8% for non-official languages only” (Canada). While the providence is not officially bilingual, it is apparent that francophones are dominant in Quebec and Anglophones are more common in the rest of Canada. Before traveling, one should be sure to make note of the prominent language within that city to be

Trudeau fought for Canada to be a country of many languages and cultures, he did this by introducing The Official Languages Act. In 1969 Trudeau established The Official Languages Act, this made English and French the official languages of Canada. It required all federal institutions to provide services in English and French. The Act was passed on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism on 7 September 1969. The act was to ensure respect and equality of all rights and privileges as to their use in all federal institutions. The act supported the development of English and French linguistic minority communities and advanced the equality of English and French languages within Canada’s society. Trudeau truly lead Canada to success and wanted the nation to become more diverse. Trudeau noted, “Bilingualism means you can speak to the other; duality means you live in one language and the rest of Canada will live in another language.” Trudeau strongly pushed for Canada to be Bilingual and thought it would make Canada stronger as a country. Trudeau felt that Quebec had to be less isolated and that it would allow French Canadians to maintain their culture while playing part in a key role in Canada. It was because of Pierre Elliott Trudeau that Canada kept peace amongst everyone and continued to be a united country. Trudeau made Canada better by bringing

Being an English speaker myself it is very encouraging and helpful that I am perfectly bilingual, being bilingual has helped me in the work force, in my studies and in my social life. These are some factors that have English speaking Quebecers speak more French and really made an impact among English and French speakers of Quebec. In Bernard Landry’s video he talks about speaking to his cousins that live in British Columbia and displays how they have lost their French Background it is in the Parti Quebecoise best interest to prevent this from happening. As we have seen, la survivance was the notion that fuelled traditional Quebec nationalism. The Quiet Revolution gave rise to a new type of nationalism in Quebec which had a different vision of the state and its ability, through its institutions, to help the French survive (L7, S49). The French-English divide was further aggravated when the Quebec government decided to use its institutions to implement legislation to ensure the survival of the French language in Quebec. This caused a great deal of controversy in English .In an attempt to counter such nationalist language tactics and appease the French, the federal government also used its institutions to enact legislation related to language. There is no doubt that the

1) Because of differing state policies when approaching multiple languages, Belgium only gains antagonism from multiple languages while Switzerland has more unity. Belgium gives autonomy to regions based on the two differing languages they speak, which creates more difference. Switzerland has four national languages, because they are using their diversity as a unifying factor rather than a dividing one.

During the 15 years as prime minister of Canada, Pierre Elliott Trudeau treated Quebec equally which helped Quebec stay united with Canada. Pierre Elliott Trudeau stated that "I am trying to put Quebec in its place — and the place of Quebec is in Canada."(Pierre Elliot Trudeau, "Quotes by Prime Minsters- Pierre Trudeau”). Quebec place is in Canada because Quebec had a major impact for Canada confederation. This is why Pierre Trudeau said this to the country. Pierre Trudeau passed a bill that was called Official Languages Act in 1969, that made English and French the official languages of Canada.The act declared that “the English and the French languages are the official languages of Canada, for all purposes of the Parliament and Government of Canada and possess and enjoy equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada.” (Cruxton, Bradley and Douglas Wilson, “The Official Language Act 1969”) Until that time, only 14 percent of the high rank government jobs were held by French Canadian, even though they made 25 percent of Canada population. Pierre Trudeau believed that the Official Languages Act was the only way to keep the French heritage in Canada and to treat the Quebec people equally like English Canadians. Trudeau’s ability to keep French and English Canadians

However, Quebec’s nationalism also helped improve French-English relations with the Bi & Bi Commission. “The official Languages act is passed, which made Canada bilingual, as a Nation. The French Canadians alienation from the rest of Canada, was growing and problematic, the commission was used in attempt to try and unify the country. It was a very Influential commission, making Canada Bilingual as a nation” (Alderson, Lauren). This quote shows how the Bi & Bi Commission which was created to make Canada bilingual, tried to improve French-English relations by placing both languages on equal footing in Canada. Finally, Quebec’s change in nationalism added tension to French-English relations because Quebec started to make decisions independently. For example, in 1961, the Quebec government started to open government offices in countries such as America and France. “When Quebec announced its intention to sign cultural and educational agreements with France’s government, the Canadian government intervened, asserting that only the federal government could enter agreements with foreign

Though the separatist movements came very close to achieving their goal, the steady actions of PM Chrétian show a change in attitude towards French Canadians in within the country. The fact that Chrétian managed to succeed in keeping Quebec from separating further proves that the perspective of cultural differences in Canada started to develop for the better. The language rights within Canada add depth to the sincere maturity and growth that Canada has experienced in the years after WWII. Some direct impacts were the immediate enactments of French policies within the federal government, and indirectly the language rights reduced tension within all of Canada and mainly Quebec. Over the years, language rights have helped the country learn to blend itself back into a bilingual nation of acceptance and diversity. Canada, during the years after WWII, managed to stop the cultural bond between the French and the English from further deteriorating and helped to repair previous bruises by accepting Quebec’s ideas and beliefs, by enacting language rights, and through Chrétian’s active attendance to maintaining the balance between French and English

One of the major problems associated with a bilingual country, inevitably, is national unity. In Canada, national unity usually refers to the relations between both the French and English Canadians. English-French relations have always been unstable, ever since the English conquest on the French in the late 1800s. In the twentieth century, this link was further depreciated primarily because of conscriptions during the First and Second World War along with the Quiet Revolution and the October Crisis. Conscription during the First and Second World War was one of the initial major causes that began the deterioration of French-English relations largely because the French had no desire to go to war. The Quiet Revolution was an effort to

According to research conducted after the 1995 referendum, a large number of Quebecers, who speak French, believe that there is a real threat to the language. This is due to the fact that in the early 90s, francophones were the majority of people in Quebec, but that in the late 90s, they started to become the minority, which obviously scared a lot of people. By looking into more research as

McRoberts argues that Anglophone Canada has never been responsive to Quebec and its distinct needs. But to make matter worse, Anglophone Canada has taken on the opinions of Trudeau, and as such view giving any extra powers to Quebec as unfair. Thus, true recognition of Quebec has not happened, and the outlook for its future is not very bright. Seymour adds to this by stating what English Canada has not recognized is Quebec`s linguistic identity, as French, and its cultural identity, as bilingual. Finally, Gagnon and Taylor argue that the only way to properly recognize Quebec is through asymmetrical federalism. This will allow Quebec sufficient autonomy to protects its own culture as it sees

Finally in 1867, the United Canadas joined two other British Colonies, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to form the Dominion of Canada (McRoberts 1991, 413). French-Canadians continued to fight against assimilation and received autonomous privileges with exclusive jurisdiction over matters regarding its cultural distinctiveness***. Thus, the Francophone language and culture has always been at the forefront of Quebec priorities. Since Confederation, Quebec nationalist have felt that the Francophone language and culture has been at risk of assimilation by the rest of Canada. As a result, Quebec nationalism is fundamentally rooted in the preservation of the Francophone language and culture (Guiberneau 2006, 52). Political leaders in Quebec continuously urge for the recognition that Canada is composed of two nations or cultures (McRoberts 1991, 413). Prior to confederation Quebec enjoyed numerous autonomous privileges. Unfortunately, post-confederation Quebec did not enjoy as many autonomous privileges because Canada was created as a relatively centralized federation (Beland and Lecours 2007, 406). A centralized federation not only took several of these autonomous powers away from Quebec, but it also threatened the Francophone language and culture (Beland and Lecours 2007, 406). With this said, Quebec nationalism has placed a great deal of pressure on the federal government to decentralize, giving more powers to provincial governments.

While the rest of Canada employs the concept of multiculturalism, Quebec emphasizes on another theory: interculturalism, or the notion of support in cross-cultural dialogue and challenging self-segregation tendencies within cultures. In the province, the word multiculturalism announces pejorative meanings. This was due, in part, to the fact that “a federal commission which was charged several years ago with the task of developing policies for Canada, based on its bicultural and bilingual character emerged with a recommendation that Canada think of itself as a multicultural and bilingual country.3”. Francophones, on the other hand, felt that this concept placed them at the same level as minority ethnic groups, thus erasing their thoughts of being seen as one of the country's founding nations.

Who can argue against the fact that a successful government must be unified in, if nothing else, its communications? However, the debate over the official language spread deep. Remembering the previous paragraph, foreigners will be here no matter what. They are the majority in some communities. This means that there is a whole population of consumers speaking and understanding only a language other than English.