[lg policy] Canada: Language Politics North of the Border

[Harold Schiffman]

Blog: Language Politics North of the Border
October 24, 2012
by John Parisella

An enduring characteristic of Canadian politics in the last 50 years
has been the question of language and how it plays out in the French
speaking province of Québec.  From the outset in 1867, Canada adopted
a federal system of government at Québec’s behest, giving the
constituent federated states defined constitutional jurisdictions.
The Canadian Constitution (1867) also guarantees the use of French and
English in both the national legislature (House of Commons and the
Senate) and Québec’s legislative assembly (the National Assembly).

Over the years, linguistic tensions and divisions emerged in different
parts of the country leading many in Québec to question whether
linguistic equality actually existed, and whether Québec remaining in
the Canadian federation was the best course for ensuring the survival
of its French character.
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In an effort to respond to the concerns of Canada’s French-speaking
minority, (French communities outside Québec, and Quebec’s French
majority population), the country’s national leadership eventually
adopted the Official Languages Act 1969 making French and English
official languages.  This Act was later given constitutional force in
1982 by amendment.  The principal effect of this move was felt in the
federal bureaucracy and within Canada’s minority language communities
in their dealings with the central government apparatus.  Official
bilingualism remains a major feature of Canadian democracy.

While the federal level was coming to grips with language issues in
the nation’s capital (Ottawa) and beyond in the 1960s, Québec was
undergoing its “Quiet Revolution” with the election of a progressive
government headed by the Québec Liberal Party in 1960.  By the end of
the decade, progressive forces in and out of government had changed
Québec’s political and sociocultural landscape dramatically in nearly
all sectors of civil society.  However, economic challenges remained,
and linguistic activism soon emerged as the growing force in the
public debate.

By the mid-1970s, following much study, debate and protest, French was
declared Québec’s only official language by legislation. This was
first introduced by the pro-federalist Liberal Party of Québec in 1974
and later reinforced by the new pro-sovereignty Parti Québécois
government in 1977.  This approach may have contrasted with the
federal initiative of two official languages, but it did represent a
growing consensus within French-speaking Québec in dealing with the
survival of the French language.

Québec’s new policy did not occur without reaction and confrontation.
Many in Québec’s English-language population reacted immediately—some
chose to leave Québec fearing discrimination, while others chose to
contest the policy in court.  Over the years, however, Québec’s
language laws have evolved because of new realities, court rulings
based on both the Québec and the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, and legislative changes by successive Québec governments.
It is important to add that the English-language community continues
to have institutions that meet its needs and defines its character.
While irritants remain, Québec has undergone a sustained period of
linguistic peace since the mid-1990s.

Today, with increased immigration flows, the growing lure of new
technology and greater globalization, new pressures are placed on
Québec’s language policy.  While French is still the first language of
82 percent of Québec’s population, it remains a minority language in
Canada and is now the third most spoken language after English and
Spanish in North America.  No one in Québec’s current political class
is ready to declare victory in the historic battle to protect the
French language.

The recently elected Parti Québécois government in Québec has
committed to reexamine existing laws to reinforce their applicability
to protect and promote French, and likely to initiate new policies to
expand the use of French.  Despite this intention, it remains clear in
opinion surveys available to all lawmakers that the Québec
population—both French speaking and English speaking—values multiple
language skills and also insists on greater access to individual
bilingualism.  This latter point is encouraging for those who wish to
find pragmatic solutions to linguistic issues.

Language will always remain a part of the political debate both in
Canada as a whole, and especially in the federated state of Québec.
Having been part of some of the past battles, I remain confident that
the road travelled provides a more positive path than a negative one.
The hope is that policymakers will see dialogue, pragmatism,
inclusion, and an incentive-based course of action as more productive
for progress and harmony than a win-lose approach.

Finally, some outside Canada who study the conduct of language
politics north of the border may well see it  as an example to other
countries faced with the challenge of accommodating more than one
language in their governance and in civil society.

John Parisella is a contributing blogger to AQ Online. He is the
former Québec delegate general in New York and currently an invited
professor at University of Montréal’s International Relations Center.
His Twitter account is @JohnParisella.

http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/4059

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