The appointments of unilingual people to positions of high responsibility have provoked a “real tidal wave” of complaints, reveals the annual report of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, unveiled on Tuesday.
In total, 5,409 complaints were received and deemed admissible by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages in 2021-2022. In comparison, the number of complaints was 1870 for the period of 2020-2021, 1361 complaints in 2019-2020, 894 in 2017-2018 and 415 in 2012-2013.
“More than 89% of the admissible complaints registered this year relate to incidents that took place in Quebec or in the Ontario part of the national capital”, can we read in the report.
In his report, the Commissioner of Official Languages, Raymond Théberge, considers that two events are mainly at the origin of this volume of complaints: the appointment by the federal government of a person who does not speak French to the post of Governor General (1,346 admissible complaints), and the speech delivered in English by the President and CEO of Air Canada, Michael Rousseau (2,680 admissible complaints).
“[Ces événements] have shown to what extent the appointment of unilingual people to positions of high responsibility can harm the advancement of official languages in Canada,” wrote Mr. Théberge.
Other complaints have also been received regarding the appointment of a unilingual Anglophone President and CEO at Parks Canada, and the lack of language requirements in the call for candidates for the position of President and CEO at the Canadian Museum of the story.
For the Commissioner, these appointments “first create a strong feeling of injustice among many Francophones, because they reinforce the impression that of the two official languages of Canada, one is certainly more important than the other”. Furthermore, they suggest that proficiency in French by those appointed to positions of authority in government or other entities “is not considered an essential skill”.
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“The concepts of linguistic duality and inclusion should never be approached as if they were in opposition to each other, even implicitly. The example of the recent appointment to the Supreme Court of Mahmud Jamal, who speaks both official languages of Canada, eloquently demonstrates this,” said Mr. Théberge.
Recommendations
The Commissioner of Official Languages is therefore making two recommendations to the government.
First, it recommends that a parliamentary committee on official languages study language obligations in the staffing of senior management positions in the federal public service, as well as Governor in Council appointments “to determine whether knowledge of the two official languages must be a hiring criterion for this type of position”.
It also asks the Minister of Official Languages to ensure that federal institutions are well informed of their obligations in light of the judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal of January 28, 2022 for breaches by the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie -British (FFCB).
“I hope, as I begin the second half of my mandate, that our leaders will understand the message that the people of Canada and I are sending them: linguistic duality is a value shared by all of Canadian population, and it deserves all the work necessary to make it a real priority in Canada,” concluded Raymond Théberge, who was appointed to his position in 2017.