The Commissioner of Official Languages received “a veritable tidal wave” of complaints in 2021-2022, mainly due to the appointment of a Governor General who is not fluent in French and the speech given in English in Montreal by Fr. -CEO of Air Canada.
The annual report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday reveals that the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages received a total of 5,409 admissible complaints, including 2,680 concerning Michael Rousseau of Air Canada and 1,346 relating to the Queen’s representative in the country, Mary Simon.
By comparison, over the past nine years, the total number of complaints deemed admissible has fluctuated from 415 to 1,870.
“The message comes from above, the example comes from above,” insisted Commissioner Raymond Théberge at a press conference.
“Appointments of this kind first create a strong feeling of injustice among many Francophones, because they reinforce the impression that of Canada’s two official languages, one is certainly more important than the other,” writes the Commissioner Raymond Théberge in his report.
Such appointments can also “lead people to believe” that fluency in French represents “an obstacle to valuing diversity and genuine reconciliation with Indigenous peoples”, he added, citing the example of the appointment of the Governor General.
According to Mr. Théberge, it is “an error” to appoint people to positions of authority who do not master the language of Molière.
Hiring criteria?
At the end of his report, the commissioner says he recommends that a parliamentary committee study and determine whether knowledge of both official languages should be a hiring criterion for senior management positions in the public service and for appointments that pass through a cabinet recommendation.
He said he would like the results of this reflection to be incorporated into Bill C-13, which modernizes the Official Languages Act, in order to make it “more robust”.
The appointment of the Governor General should also be part of this study, according to the commissioner, since bilingualism is “extremely important” at all levels.
“If we make exceptions, the message we give is that there is one language that is more important than the other,” he summed up.
Be that as it may, Mr. Théberge believes that the federal government must ensure that bilingualism is a minimum requirement for obtaining a senior management position in the public service, whether by amending the Act respecting official languages or otherwise.
It also recommends that the Minister of Official Languages remind federal institutions of their obligations under Part VII of the Official Languages Act, namely that which deals with the promotion of French and English and which aims to foster the vitality of official language minority communities in the country.
Complaints about the absence of Francophones on the Canadian National (CN) Board of Directors were not counted in this annual report.