The Commissioner of Official Languages (COL), Raymond Théberge, expects to end his 2021-2022 year with at least five times more complaints than the annual average.
Posted at 6:39 p.m.
For the current period ending March 31, the CLO has already received more than 5,500 complaints, while the trend for recent years is around 1,000.
“Over the past few months, we have received a record number of complaints related to the unilingual speech of Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau, and a large number of complaints related to the announcement of the appointment of Mary Simon as Governor General of Canada,” Mr. Théberge revealed to the Standing Committee on Official Languages on Wednesday.
According to the Commissioner, through these complaints, the Canadian population, and mainly Francophones, sent a “clear message” to the federal government to do more for the respect of French and English.
Mr. Théberge was called before the committee to talk about the urgent issues for the application of the Official Languages Act, which is awaiting a reform bill.
The Commissioner did not fail to repeat his requests in order to encourage federal institutions and enterprises to comply with the law. He wants to rely on powers other than those to investigate and recommend.
In particular, it proposes the possibility of imposing fines (administrative monetary penalties) and entering into enforceable agreements requiring an institution to make commitments to comply.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Facebook and The Canadian Press News Fellowships.