Ontario Bilingual? Quebec French!!!
by Jimmy Kalafatidis
June 6, 2001
Printed in the suburban and other papers
One province (Ontario) a sea of English the other a sea of
French(Quebec) both with a official language minority majority
situation Ontario about 540,000 (5%) French-speaking and Quebec
more or less 925,835 English-speaking ( 14%)
Both provinces like coin flipsides have provincial government
funded French language watchdog groups born out of their own
French language legislation, both ready to handle complaints by
the populace regarding the French language and both with not one
provincial funded English-speaking agency (for better or worse)
In Ontario we have the French Language Services Act (FLSA) which
was passed in 1986 , its goal, to guarantees the French-speaking
minority in Ontario the right to receive provincial government
services in French in 23 designated areas. Those 23 designated
areas in laymens terms account for 44 municipalities and cover a
population of 5,417,940 people half the population of
Ontario.(Ontario total population 10,753,570). Today, about 85%
of Ontario's francophone population has access to these services
The administrator of the the FLSA legislation is the minister of
Francophone affairs who sets up a watchdog group called the
Office of Francoiphone Affairs created in 1970, (or better know
as the OFA, armed with a 3 to 4 million dollar budget (staff 17).
The OFA raison d'etre (a) examine the availability and quality of
French language services and make suggestions to improve them (b)
recommend the designation of public service agencies and the
addition of designated areas (c) require non-profit corporations
and government agencies to supply to the OFA information for the
recommendations respecting their designation as public service
agencies; (d) recommend changes in the plans of government
agencies for the stipulations of French language services; (e)
make recommendations in respect to exemptions and shall perform
any other function assigned to it by the Minister responsible for
Francophone Affairs, the Executive Council or the Legislative
Assembly.
What is apparent is that Ontario is working hard towards aiding
the official language French-speaking minority in feeling
comfortable in a majority English-speaking province.
In Quebec it's another story, what Quebeckers have is the Charter
of the French language born 1977 or as we English-speakers like
to call it Bill 101. Bill 101 gave birth to two French language
protector agencies. One, The Office de la langue française (
staff around 200 persons budget 16 to 17 million) a government
agency which promotes French, handles complaints and makes sure
business firms, government departments agencies apply
francization programs. Second, The Commission de protection de la
langue française (language police) a staff of about 20, budget a
few million, who are responsible for, measuring the size of
English compared to French and follow-ups on complaints
(harassment) from the public with regards to non compliance with
the Charter of the French language.
What is astonishing is the reverse situation exists in Quebec
compared to Ontario. In Quebec we have the French-speaking
majority publicly funded to protect itself from the English
-speaking minority and in Ontario we have the English-speaking
majority publicly funding a French watchdog group to protect and
promote the French minority.
Here are some examples of the differences between the two
provinces languages legislation.
The French languages act of Ontario recognizes and allows
municipalities with a French-speaking population (10% or 5000
french-speaking people in urban areas) provincial Bilingual
status. For example a city like Toronto with a total population
of 2,3385,425 with a French population of 38,215 (1.6%) bends
over backwards to provide the 1.6% French-speakers provincial
bilingual services. In Quebec their is no obligation to provide
provincial bilingual services no matter how many English-speakers
live in a given territory.
Not only does Toronto have provincial bilingual services, but it
also has a municipal French language protection group called the,
City of Toronto French Committee (CTFC) The CTFC (created in
1981) with a mandate , to give more visibility to the French
community, encourage French involvement at the municipal level,
defend French interests, and increase the number of municipal
French services in Toronto. The CTFC is made up of city
councilors, members of the French community and organizations.
In terms of municipal bilingual status in Ontario their doesn't
seem to be any standard percentage on who can have and who cannot
have (rule of thumb10%). In Quebec municipal bilingual status is
only given to municipalities with 50% English-speaking
populations.
The Ontario French langauges act does not interfere in free
enterprise, the act lets the market decide on the level of
biligualism at the private workplace, regarding hiring and firing
practices, public signage, and language at the workplace while
Quebec does not, Quebec intervenes and punishes corporations with
fines and threats for French only or French predominance at all
levels.
In terms of provincial highway signs and safety, Ontario has
bilingual signs, Quebec does not. Ontario's driver's licenses and
OHIP (healthcare) cards are all bilingual, Quebec's are not. The
list goes on and on of how Ontario aims at becoming more and more
bilingual and how Quebec aims at becoming more and more French
exclusive.
Imagine for a second if the reverse situation were true. Onatrio
enacting a Bill 101 type law aimed at protecting only its
English-speaking majority from the French minority. The English
majority using public money to discriminate against its French
minority. Only English and any use of the French language by the
minority maybe fined and prosecuted. Absurd.
The standard rational for the double standard in the Quebec
linguistic unfairness is that the French language is threatened
in North America and around the global world. Nonsense. Nothing
can be further from the truth when one looks at the facts. French
is the language of the people of France and is also has official
presence in countries like Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Guiana,
Indochina, Hati, Madagascar ect... all in all about 28 countries
or more in the world have French as a official language. Over
72,000,000 have mother tongue French and 220,000,000 people in
countries with official language French (ranked 6th in the
world). Now how can French be threatened??? When one compares
French to Greek, Greek is spoken by about 12,000,000 people in
the world and has official language status in 2 maybe 3 countries
yet Greek has survived for aprox. 4000 years with no restricted
language legislation.
In conclusion, if we are to have two official languages, then
both official languages should be respected equally, and that
means English as well as French and the federal government should
be the watching over the provinces and keeping fair play. Either
all language groups get equal funding and legislation or no one
gets nothing. Should a bilingual Ontario exist then their is
nothing wrong with having a bilingual Quebec. Lets use a little
common sense and make a better healthier Canada. Where all
languages are treated with equality.