SHIFTING LANDSCAPES English-speaking Quebec and the Official Languages Act VOLUME 17 | NO. 1 | 2020 THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT AS A TOOL FOR INTRODUCTION ENGLISH-SPEAKING QUEBECERS Our Official Languages Regime has Played a Critical Role in the Survival of Canada as a English-speaking Quebecers care about the Official 3 Cohesive National Entity 21 Languages Act – they just don’t know it Geoffrey Chambers Anthony Housefather English Language Rights in Quebec and Defining The Official Languages Act and its Importance 5 What it Means to be Canadian to the English-Speaking Community of Quebec - Miriam Taylor The Perspective of an English-speaking Quebec 24 Member of Parliament Marion Sandilands SHIFTING LANDSCAPES THE IMPERATIVE TO DEFINE AND EDUCATE From Spicer to Théberge: 50 years in the life of the relationship between the Commissioner of Official Languages and the English-speaking communities How mixed up are English-speaking Quebecers? 7 of Quebec 27 Jack Jedwab David Johnston Do We Need to Know our language Rights? F. R. Scott and his fight for the English minority A survey of Quebecers knowledge of Canada’s 12 in Quebec 32 Official Languages Act Graham Fraser Jack Jedwab MINORITY LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES AND OUR VISION TIMELINE OF CANADA English-speaking Quebec and the Official Toward Truly Equal Voice and Equitable Treatment: 37 Languages Act Quebec’s English-Speaking Minority Community 15 and the Official Languages Act Sylvia Martin-Laforge A Law for National Unity: Pierre-Elliot Trudeau’s 18 Attempt to Unite Canada’s Two Solitudes Camille Harper CANADIAN DIVERSITY IS PUBLISHED BY Canadian Diversity is a quarterly publication of the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS). Opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect ASSOCIATION FOR CANADIAN STUDIES BOARD OF DIRECTORS (ELECTED NOVEMBER 23, 2019) the opinions of the ACS or sponsoring organizations. The DR. JULIE PERRONE Association for Canadian Studies is a voluntary non-profit Chairperson of the Board of Directors, Director, Communications & Marketing, organization. It seeks to expand and disseminate knowledge Finance Montréal, Montreal, Quebec about Canada through teaching, research and publications. The ACS is a scholarly society and a member of the Humanities CELINE COOPER Editor, The Canadian Encyclopedia, Instructor, Concordia University, and Social Science Federation of Canada. Montreal, Quebec HUBERT LUSSIER Retired – Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, Ontario JANE BADETS LETTERS Retired – Assistant Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario TITRE Comments on this edition of Canadian Diversity? GISÈLE YASMEEN Executive Director, Food Secure Canada, Montreal, Quebec We want to hear from you! PROFESSOR HOWARD RAMOS Canadian Diversity / ACS DalhousieBio University, Halifax, Nova Scotia 850-1980 Sherbrooke Street West THE HONOURABLE MARLENE JENNINGS Montréal, Québec H3H 1E8 P.C., LLb.,Lawyer, Montreal, Quebec Or e-mail us at <[email protected]> MADELINE ZINIAK Consultant,Résumé. Chairperson of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association, Toronto, Ontario PROFESSOR CHEDLY BELKHODJA Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec This special edition of Canadian Diversity is published in JEAN TEILLET partnership with the Quebec Community Groups Network. Partner at Pape Salter Teillet LLP, Vancouver, British Columbia PROFESSOR JOANNA ANNEKE RUMMENS We would like to thank them for their valued collaboration. Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario PUBLISHER A special thank you to Rita Legault, QCGN Director of Jack Jedwab Communications and Public Relations, for coordinating MANAGING EDITOR the issue. Miriam Taylor This edition benefits from the financial support of the TRANSLATORS Miriam Taylor Government of Canada through the Department of Louise Sultan Canadian Heritage. Louise Trépanier CathelineTxt Moreau COPY-EDITING & PROOFREADING Rita Legault Jan Ravensbergen Gemma Knights Catheline Moreau Louise Legault COVER ART DESIGN & LAYOUT CAMILAHGO. studio créatif Chelsea Craig 2 FOREWORD OUR OFFICIAL LANGUAGES REGIME HAS PLAYED A CRITICAL ROLE IN THE SURVIVAL OF CANADA AS A COHESIVE NATIONAL ENTITY Geoffrey Chambers, President of the Quebec Community Groups Network, has a long track record as an advocate for the preservation of the rights and institutions of Quebec’s English-speaking community. Ask any English-speaking Quebecer about language legis- time to time neglect this most potent tool. Our Act has quietly lation. You’ll very likely get a detailed, informed response served as an effective support mechanism for the mainten- about Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) in Quebec – ance of our national pan-Canadian collective project. but not much awareness of or interest in the federal Official Languages Act. Here in Quebec language policy and practice Facing nine provinces and three territories operating entirely in are a perpetual hot topic, but the role of federal legislation is English – with an unsustainable variation in New Brunswick not widely understood or appreciated. – a Quebec operating and living 100% in French would have a very short half-life. Happily, our situation is different. Our The Francophone majority population in Quebec might view collective national project is rooted in a commitment entered the federal Act as an important mechanism to protect fragile, into freely over a century and a half ago that two, highly inte- often fragmented French-speaking communities scattered grated but distinct communities and cultural entities embark throughout every other province of Canada. It is easy for together on a project of nationhood. Francophones to overlook, and often difficult for them to rec- ognize, the need for equivalent protections for our minority English language community here in Quebec. “ Our Act has quietly served as an effective support This is unfortunate. mechanism for the maintenance of our national pan- Canadian collective project.” Our official languages regime has played a critical – but gen- erally underappreciated – role in the survival of Canada as a – Geoffrey Chambers cohesive national entity. It has served as a bulwark to defend and support the English-speaking fact in Quebec. This has led There was not unanimous support for this undertaking then. many of us to take the Act somewhat for granted, and from There certainly isn’t now. But, now as then, forces which 3 champion a parting of ways, or a redefinition of the founding • literally dozens of textual amendments to that law principles, are in the minority. Circumstances evolve. Eco- defending the interests and rights of the English- nomic, demographic, ideological, and technological factors language minority community; adjust. Nothing is unalterably carved in stone. Without a commitment to a respectful language and culture defining • virtually all of the constitutional litigation and regime such as the one exemplified by the Official Languages resulting jurisprudence – access to education, the sign Act, the chances for the survival of any recognizable future law, use of English in the courts and legislature, etc. version of Canada would be negligible. All these achievements would have been impossible without This is an enormous burden for any piece of legislation to community leadership initiatives supported by the backing of carry. Our Constitution, buttressed by common law and federal programs furthered by the Act. rights-based instruments developed and refined going back all the way back to the Magna Carta, provides the foundational The Official Languages Act has performed a vital service. It defining framework for and of our society. As grandiose as it is needed. may seem to say, here in Canada the Official Languages Act belongs in that category of key mechanisms which shape the Our undertaking now is to redesign and modernize the Act way we live, work and evolve together. in light of what the last half century has taught us about the value and benefits of linguistic duality. We must ensure that we have all the tools to address the challenges we face today and will face over the next phase in the evolution of this Our undertaking now is to redesign and modernize the inspiring, exemplary, and successful project of human civiliz- “Act in light of what the last half century has taught us about ation we call Canada. the value and benefits of linguistic duality.” – Geoffrey Chambers Within this conceptual framework we must include the federal government’s language infrastructure stemming from the Act. As a declaration of principles and intent, the Act empowers support for official language minority communities from sea to sea to sea. With Canadian Heritage serving as the engine and successive federal Action Plans and Roadmaps providing much of the fuel, official language minority communities including our own benefit from a spectrum of policies, programs, and funding initiatives from numerous partners including Health Canada, Justice Canada, Treasury Board, and Employment and Social Development Canada, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. In Quebec, defence of our civil liberties through litigation – with critical federal support from the Court Challenges Program – and through dialogue with provincial authorities has only been possible through the advocacy capacity in the English-speaking community underpinned by federal programs. Virtually all of the changes and improvements in provincial language legislation over our last three generations, have flowed from the Act and its related programs. These