History of the Office of the Commissioner
The Canadian Parliament adopted the first Official Languages Act in 1969 when the Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau was Prime Minister of Canada. The Act declares that English and French enjoy equal status, rights and privileges as to their use in all the institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada. A new Official Languages Act came into force in 1988 and was amended on November 25, 2005.
The Commissioner of Official Languages is appointed, after approval by resolution of the Senate and House of Commons, for a seven-year, renewable term. The Commissioner reports directly to Parliament.
Dyane Adam (1999-2006)
Dyane Adam, a Franco-Ontarian, became the fifth Commissioner of Official Languages on August 1, 1999. From the outset, Dr. Adam saw her role as that of an agent of change. She showed commitment and determination in protecting and promoting English and French across Canada.
Concerned about ensuring that her actions led to concrete results, Dr. Adam denounced the indifference of federal institutions toward official languages. She pressed the government to take quick corrective action so that Canadians' language rights could be exercised on a daily basis through equal opportunities, wherever they may be in Canada.
Dr. Adam placed great importance on linguistic duality as the core value of Canadian identity. She called on government officials in Canada to take actions that lived up to their promises.
Victor C. Goldbloom (1991-1999)
Victor C. Goldbloom, a native of Montréal, was appointed Commissioner in 1991. As an ombudsman, he defended the language rights of Anglophones and Francophones, promoted the use of both languages and focused on building bridges between the two communities. He was particularly interested in minority language educational rights and closely monitored the progress of school governance. Dr. Goldbloom put pressure on federal institutions responsible for implementing the Official Languages Act, especially the Treasury Board and Canadian Heritage.
D’Iberville Fortier (1984-1991)
D'Iberville Fortier, originally from Quebec and a diplomat for over 30 years, was appointed Commissioner in 1984. On assuming his position, he noted that his predecessors had emphasized the need for official language minority communities to have access to educational, social and cultural services in their own language. He sought to increase the Office of the Commissioners' role in these areas.
The adoption of the new Official Languages Act in 1988 gave Mr. Fortier new tools to achieve his objectives. Among other things, the Federal Court was given final responsibility for interpreting the Act.
Maxwell Yalden (1977-1984)
Maxwell Yalden, the second Commissioner, was appointed in 1977. Like his predecessor, he did not limit his activities to the simple question of bilingualism in the federal public service. In 1982, the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
gave legal status to the two official languages. During this period of constitutional turmoil, Mr. Yalden stressed that these language guarantees required greater tolerance on the part of Canadians than they had shown in the past.
Keith Spicer (1970-1977)
The first Commissioner of Official Languages, Keith Spicer, was appointed in 1970 for a seven-year term. At that time, he stated that he would seek to "uncover all infractions of the Act and prevent their repetition." He was delighted with a resolution by Parliament in 1973 to make English and French the languages of work in the federal government.
For more information, see Volume I of the 2004-2005 Annual Report, which was published on the occasion of the Office of the Commissioners' 35th anniversary.
