The federal government should immediately give up on the idea of granting an exemption from the bilingualism requirement to its public servants who speak an Aboriginal language, but who do not master English or French, believes the Bloc Québécois.
“It should be made clear now that there’s no question of compressing French once again, as if it’s a second-class language,” declared Mario Beaulieu, the Bloc’s spokesperson for official languages.
According to him, the federal government “is constantly looking for exceptions” and in the end “every time there is a difficulty, it is French that takes the edge”.
However, the Official Languages Act must be respected, he insisted, adding that French is not “an obstacle to reconciliation”, but that it is rather “complementary with diversity”.
The Canadian Press revealed on Sunday, thanks to the Access to Information Act, that senior officials from several departments are considering offering an exemption for positions where bilingualism is mandatory for candidates who speak an Aboriginal language and who have sufficient of one of the official languages.
The government has avoided making it clear whether it intends to go ahead with this proposal. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller, however, noted that the idea of giving exemptions is a sensitive subject, that this type of decision is “almost always to the detriment of French” and that a majority of the population does not wouldn’t find that acceptable.
The working group formed to discuss possible changes to bilingualism requirements in the public service also mentioned that Aboriginal language courses be offered to all federal employees who wish them and to extend the annual bonus of $800 given to bilingual employees. to those who speak an indigenous language.
Mr. Beaulieu indicated that the Bloc Québécois is not opposed to Aboriginal language courses being offered to interested public servants. However, he indicated that he is not ready at this stage to comment on the question of the bonus.