It’s time to get serious about the Official Languages Act

Having the ability to conduct business and trade in English and French gives Canada a competitive edge in the world market of the 21st century. This is an asset that needs to be nurtured and grown.

The current Official Languages Commissioner Raymond Théberge, pictured speaking to reporters in Ottawa in June 2018, like his predecessors, has remarked on the Official Languages Act’s inefficiency and incoherence in reports to Parliament, writes Jean Johnson. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY JEAN JOHNSON

September 25, 2019

On Sept. 9, 1969, Canada’s first Official Languages Act came into effect. The goal of the legislation—and of the updated act, which replaced it in 1988—was to achieve substantive equality for English and French within government, but also before the courts and in Canadian society. Has this goa...

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