Preface
Message from the Prime Minister of Canada
Message from the President of the Queen’s Privy Council
for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
Message from the Prime Minister of Canada
When the Government of Canada introduced the official languages policy 30
years ago, it was motivated by a desire for fairness and inspired by the report
of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. At that time, I was a
very young Francophone MP and minister, struggling with the basics of English
— the language that was used almost exclusively within the federal government.
Time has changed many things.
The ideal of a bilingual Canada where everyone could benefit from our
Anglophone and Francophone heritage seemed to us in those days to be a
fundamentally just ideal for our society. And aware of the varied origins and
cultures of our country’s population, we chose to enhance our vision of Canada
by acknowledging its rich linguistic heritage. My time at the Department of
Justice a few years later gave us the opportunity to protect that heritage by
including minority language rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms. This fundamentally democratic document is a source of great pride
not only for me as Prime Minister, but above all for a great people, a just
people: the Canadian people.
Today’s Canada contains a veritable world of peoples within its borders,
and its two official languages, both a major presence on the international
scene, enhance its competitiveness and its influence. Our linguistic duality
means better access to markets and more jobs and greater mobility for workers.
In that spirit, the Action Plan for Official Languages strives to
maximize these advantages for all Canadians.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Minister Stéphane Dion, who
chaired a group of Cabinet colleagues particularly interested in the official
languages: Don Boudria, Claudette Bradshaw, Martin Cauchon, Denis Coderre,
Sheila Copps, Anne McLellan, Lucienne Robillard and Allan Rock, as well as
Secretary of State Denis Paradis. Their efforts, inspired by a deep-rooted
attachment to our country’s official languages, have culminated in an action
plan that will breathe new life into our linguistic duality and that reflects
one of the primary values of today’s Canada.
The paper version was signed by Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister of Canada
Message from the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
This Action Plan with new momentum for the official languages policy of the
Government of Canada will benefit all the many Canadians who want to have better
access to our rich linguistic duality.
In the two years since the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Jean
Chrétien, asked me to coordinate official languages policy, I have travelled
the length and breadth of the country — sometimes to announce one of the many
new measures we have put in place; sometimes to hear suggestions from
communities, experts and my provincial counterparts; and sometimes to propose
directions the Action Plan might take. My Cabinet colleagues who have worked on
official languages have done the same.
As a Francophone Quebecer, I was aware of the great importance Francophones
in my province place on Canada’s bilingual dimension. We in Quebec want French
to be respected everywhere and we appreciate the efforts the Government of
Canada is making to ensure the influence of the French language and culture in
Quebec, throughout Canada and throughout the world.
As a Quebecer, I was aware that the Anglophone community in my province was
experiencing great change. But I have learned a great deal more about it during
these two years of dialogue and action. For example, there is not enough
awareness that a main aim of the Anglophone community is to have governments
help their children learn French so these youngsters can become better
integrated into Quebec society and increase the likelihood that, as adults, they
will feel at home in Quebec. This community is more and more effectively
combining the Anglophone, Quebec and Canadian identities.
As a former professor at the University of Moncton, where I taught in 1984, I
recall a city cut in two, with the campus purely French and the rest of the city
apparently unilingual English. What a change in 20 years! This time I saw two
linguistic communities helping each other give their city remarkable drive.
I was aware that our immersion schools were exemplary, and copied by many
other countries. But the reality of it really struck home when I visited one
such school in British Columbia and heard young people of Asian origin speak to
me in excellent French. Those young people demonstrate better than anyone the
complementarity of our multiculturalism and our bilingualism, the two strengths
that open us up to the world.
At St. Boniface Cathedral, on October 5, 2002, when I attended the funeral
service of that great fighter for the French cause, my colleague Ronald Duhamel,
I shared the emotion of a Franco-Manitoban community rich in its culture and
inspired by its history. When I saw the report the Société franco-manitobaine
submitted for the preparation of the Action Plan, this sentence struck me as
especially forward-looking: “To occupy a larger demographic, social, cultural
and economic space, the Franco-Manitoban community intends to incorporate the
Francophone project into the social project of the province as a whole.” In
fact, it is our linguistic duality that we need more than ever to incorporate in
the Canadian project.
I could cite many other testimonies and experiences I have benefited from in
the two years since the Prime Minister sent me on this fascinating adventure.
But what I especially want to express here is a conviction that has never ceased
to grow throughout this experience and which inspires the whole policy statement
that follows. It is my conviction that one of the conditions for future success
is our linguistic duality in a world where communications are exploding, where
cultures are coming together and where openness to others and knowledge of
languages is becoming an ever greater asset.
The policy statement and Action Plan on the following pages consist mainly of
programs and figures. But behind all this, there is a human dimension: a major
endeavour for our country where we place our bets on pluralism and
communication. Canadians have so much to say to one another, and so much to say
to others. More and more, they want to say it in both official languages. The
Government of Canada will help them powerfully through this Action Plan.
The paper version was signed by Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Dion
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