One observation is immediately obvious: French is on the decline everywhere in Canada as well as in Quebec. Indicators showing the decline of French are multiplying on all sides and highlighting the urgent need for governments to act to protect this minority language. However, Bill C-13, An Act to achieve substantive equality between the official languages of Canada, presents a solution that does not respond to the problems experienced with regard to French as the language of work and as the language of use in Company.
We must first fight this dominant ideology about the symmetry of minority languages: it is false to claim that English is just as threatened in Quebec as French is elsewhere in Canada. The Canadian government does not have to promote English in Quebec when it is the dominant language in North America and the universal language of communication in the world and online. Some MPs need to understand this reality.
Our union organizations are calling for stronger means to ensure workplaces where people speak French, particularly in the federal public service, where the government can act unilaterally. The Commissioner of Official Languages himself points out in broad strokes that no provision of C-13 forces federal institutions and businesses subject to the Official Languages Act — such as Air Canada and CN, for example — to communicate in the official language chosen by the clientele. What’s more, we are in a position to observe that it is practically unthinkable for a unilingual Francophone public servant to have access to a senior management position, when the opposite is quite possible. In short, this confirms a well-established reality: bilingualism in Canada applies in fact to only one linguistic community. No need to mention which one!
Confusion
Moreover, if the federal government were really serious in its desire to preserve and promote French, it would send a clear signal showing that it is ready to work with the Government of Quebec so that the Charter of the French language applies to all private enterprises under federal jurisdiction carrying out their activities in Québec. The opposition parties in Ottawa have understood that the Liberal Party of Canada must now do the same by not further encroaching on Quebec’s language skills.
As far as labor is concerned, the C-13 proposal for the private sector would put in place a Kafkaesque system, to say the least. Thus, private enterprises under federal jurisdiction (those operating in telecommunications, radio, television, in air, maritime, rail and interprovincial transport, etc.) could choose to be subject to the Charter or to the new law provided for in the law Project. In addition to creating confusion, such a system would be unfair for workers in Quebec. It would also deal a blow to our democracy by transferring to private companies part of the legislative power entrusted to our elected officials. This is unacceptable.
The federal government must also come to the 21ste century in linguistics. Instead of devoting its energy to fighting the application of the Charter of the French language in Quebec, it should see further and join the Quebec government in order to provide us with a strategy aimed at strengthening the presence of French on the Web, for example. The Government of Canada could also be a forerunner on the international scene by proposing strategies to support languages other than English on the Web. The House of Commons will soon vote on Bill C-11, which should force major international broadcasters — like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ — to produce original French-language programming, but more needs to be done.
There is an urgent need to act to preserve our French language, and the means exist to achieve this. The federal government must take action now to improve Bill C-13 in order to truly protect French and make it a contemporary project, worthy of the 21e century.
* Also signed this text:
Frédéric Brisson, General Secretary of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (SCFP-Québec);
Daniel Cloutier, Quebec director of the Unifor union;
Dominic Lemieux, Quebec director of the United Steelworkers;
Yvon Barrière, Regional Executive Vice-President — Quebec of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC);
Alain Robitaille, president of the Montreal local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)