Who said “The next president of the CTRC will be bilingual”? The easy answer would have been Pablo Rodriguez. Mistake. Asked to react to the job offer published by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission specifying that proficiency in both official languages ”would be preferable”, but “not essential” for this sensitive position, the Minister of Heritage thundered: “He’s going to be bilingual. Believe me it will be bilingual! And that is perhaps what is most shocking about this story: its painful repetition, which starkly reminds us that once the indignation has passed, it is too easy to return to regular programming.
So, who said “The next president of the CTRC will be bilingual”? You have to go back to January 2012 to find it. Those exact words were forwarded to The Canadian Press on behalf of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Minister James Moore. The Conservative minister had found a way to keep his promise with the appointment of Jean-Pierre Blais, bilingual as he should be. At the time, to excuse the linguistic reluctance of the appeal to those who had taken offense to it, Minister Moore’s office had hinted at an already worn refrain. No need to look for bullet points: the process and the display text are “standard”.
A novelty, this wording? Not even. In 2006, posting was no more demanding in terms of language skills. It was Konrad Von Finckenstein, bilingual like his predecessor Charles Dalfen, who had won the bet. Despite a volley of green wood that has become common over the so-called “standard” displays, how do we explain that we are still, in 2022, begging for assurances from the Minister of Heritage? Don’t we learn from our mistakes?
It is already customary for certain important government postings to opt for more demanding linguistic criteria, even indicating bilingualism as “essential”. The Trudeau government believes in it, sometimes. Making bilingualism an essential skill for judges of the Supreme Court of Canada is, for example, on the drawing board of the Minister of Official Languages.
The vigor of Mr. Rodriguez’s peremptory exit suggests that he would have expected the same for the presidency of an organization as sensitive as the CRTC, whose mandate is inextricably linked to the vigor of our national culture, which plays , it is worth recalling, in both official languages. This is also what we would have expected.
However, not only does this posting deviate from the ministerial will, but it specifies that preference could be given to women, Aboriginals, persons with disabilities and visible minorities, thereby threatening the principle of alternation between Francophones and Anglophones which at the head of this administrative tribunal. Minister Rodriguez has already said that the work-study program is of little importance to him, as long as the successful candidate is bilingual from the time of hiring. We apologize for not going as far as him. This moral commitment of good quality still had symbolic force, we would have appreciated that it held.
Many Francophones have not yet digested the appointment of Mary Simon as Governor General, bilingual, of course, but thanks to her mastery of English and Inuktitut. She has promised to learn French and she is making progress, they say. So much the better. It doesn’t matter to us that she puts in the time, her function in Quebec is seen at best as an accessory, at worst as an odor that we would like to get rid of.
It’s a different story with the CRTC, whose mandate is to “ensure that Canadians have access to a world-class communications system that encourages innovation and enriches their lives.” At a time when the major project to modernize the Broadcasting Act (C-11) is entering its home stretch, it seems essential to reiterate that the organization that will oversee its application must embody bilingualism in all directions. Up to its directing head, from day one.
All the more so when you know that Canadian culture makes its way to its audiences better in French than in English, at least on TV. In 2020, of the ten most-watched shows in English, ten were from the United States. And in French ? We give it to you in a thousand: in 2021, the ten positions belonged to productions from here.
Dead on the soap opera in its former incarnation (C-10), Bill C-11 has in its sights the digital giants that escape our regulations. Unsurprisingly, it enjoys strong support from people in the audiovisual sector. Anglos as Francos. For all those people whose job it is to promote our culture, having online broadcasters contribute to Canadian culture is a matter of pure necessity. It is the “soundtrack of our lives” that “is at stake”, they say. We give it to them easily. And that’s why we can’t imagine that whoever is holding the wand isn’t in tune with them.