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After more than fifty years of official bilingualism forced upon us, fewer than one in ten people outside of Quebec can carry on a conversation in French. Photo by Klein Media/Winnipeg Sun
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There are certain things we are not permitted to say publicly in Canada. Some are demonstrably true. For example, official bilingualism has been a failure. (cue the collective gasp)
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While this will be perceived as blasphemous in the office of the minister responsible for enforcing bilingualism in Canada, the evidence is clear. Canada was declared to have two official languages under Prime Minister Trudeau, le per, back in 1969. He argued, reasonably, that if a French speaking Canadian walked into a government office that he or she should be served in French.
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But, of course, that’s not where it stopped. The Official Languages Act quickly became politicized. At that time we faced a genuine crisis with the possibility of Quebec separating from the rest of the country. By way of appeasement, the federal government told Quebecers that the rest of us would learn French if only they’d remain in Canada.
The Winnipeg Sun’s Daily Headline News
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Laughingly, many Canadians bought into the faulty notion that if only the rest of us would become bilingual that Quebecers would learn to love us. What the rest of Canada (ROC) didn’t get, was that Quebecers could not have cared less if we spoke French. They wanted it spoken exclusively in Quebec and what ROC did was of no importance to them.
Still, we hammered away at it. French immersion became de rigueur across our fair land.Sadly, the kids in Victoria or Lethbridge, or even here in Winnipeg, graduated high school not being particularly skilled in either of our official languages and rarely, if ever, used French again, unless they wanted to work for the federal government, Air Canada or the RCMP.
According to the 2021 census,only about 18.5% of Canadians could carry on a conversation in both English and French. Most of them live in Quebec. The rate outside of La Belle Province dropped to about 9.5%.That figure would include pockets like our own St. Boniface and Ottawa, which is perhaps our most truly bilingual city.
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After more than fifty years of official bilingualism forced upon us, fewer than one in ten people outside of Quebec can carry on a conversation in French. Statistics Canada tells us that of those outside of Quebec who spent their school years in French immersion, fewer than 61% could have a conversation in French.
That number alone is evidence that our federal government’s policies have failed. But, evidence of a failed program has never persuaded any government to end it. Instead, they’ll double down.
Our federal government spends significant amounts of your money trying to convince us all to become bilingual (when this term is used here it’s in the context of English and French, acknowledging that many Canadians are bilingual but one of the languages may not be either English or French.) The typical annual budget for official bilingualism is about $2.4 billion. However, the feds’ Action Plan for Official Languages has a budget of $4.1 billion for a five year period ending in 2028. Don’t expect the tap to be turned off at that time. If anything, we’ll see more of your money poured into this ineffective sinkhole.
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If governments made decisions based on facts we would see a far different approach to spending. Instead, the misguided notion that Quebecers care if the ROC speaks French continues to dominate on Parliament Hill.
It’s understood that knowing more than one language enhances a person’s life in a variety of ways. But it’s also clear that, in spite of more than five decades of trying to legislate culture, it’s plus ca change,plus c’est la meme chose.
— Geoff Currier is a former Winnipeg broadcaster, and a guest writer for the Winnipeg Sun.
Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca.
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