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<h1>Trudeau Government Spending Another Half Billion To Prop-Up Official Bilingualism</h1>
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<a href="http://dailycaller.com/author/dkrayden/" target="_blank"><div class="gmail-name" id="gmail-name">David Krayden</div></a><a href="http://dailycaller.com/author/dkrayden/" target="_blank"><div class="gmail-authortitle">Ottawa Bureau Chief</div></a>
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<div class="gmail-dateline">10:16 AM 03/29/2018 </div>
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<p>OTTAWA — Canada’s Liberal government plans to spend another $500
million over five years to reinforce an official bilingualism policy
first unveiled by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre
Trudeau.</p>
<p>The funding, announced Wednesday by Heritage Minister Melanie Joly, is <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2018/03/28/liberals-promise-historic-investment-as-official-languages-action-plan-unveiled/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in addition to $2.2 billion</a> that the government has previously allocated toward enforcing the equality of English and French in all federal institutions.</p>
<p>Despite the billions that have already been spent to encourage
Canadians to speak both official languages, the policy has largely
failed. In its last comprehensive examination of the success of official
bilingualism, federal agency <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-006-x/2013001/article/11795-eng.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Statistics Canada found</a>
that the percentage of Canadians who were fluently bilingual was
actually declining: dropping from 17.7 percent in 2001 to 17.5 percent
in 2011. In 1961, without any government money contributing to the
bilingualism objective, 12.2 percent of Canadians were classified as
bilingual.</p>
<p>Most of the new money to promote official bilingualism across Canada
will go directly to groups that promote minority language rights. The
new funding will also allow the federal government to conduct more
investigations into alleged violations of the Official Languages Act,
when government agencies or departments are suspected of not utilizing
English and French equally.</p>
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<p>The Trudeau government is also furnishing money to assist Canada’s
capital of Ottawa to become an officially bilingual city. This new
status will force the municipal government to make all documents and
services available in French and English and would require most
employees to be bilingual. The Ontario provincial government is also
under increasing pressure to become officially bilingual.</p>
<p>“It’s not a secret that the French language outside Quebec has
regressed over the past few years,” Trudeau said as he stood with Joly
during the announcement. Trudeau later reiterated that statement in the
House of Commons — suggesting that the previous Conservative government
of Prime Minister Stephen Harper had not spent enough money on official
bilingualism and that the program had suffered as a result.</p></div>
<br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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