After promising it during two election campaigns, the Liberals finally delivered their reform of the Official Languages Act late Thursday evening, when Bill C-13 passed unamended at third reading in the Senate. It therefore only needs royal assent to become a reality, which is only a formality.
According to the results announced in the Upper House, 60 senators voted in favor of this piece of legislation whose short title is “An Act to ensure real equality between the official languages of Canada”, five voted against and five abstained.
The pressure was strong on the Senate to complete its work expeditiously after C-13 was adopted almost unanimously by elected officials in the House of Commons a month ago. Both the Government of Quebec and the Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities (FCFA) implored them to hurry up and adopt the bill as is, before the adjournment of the session in the coming days.
The Senate committee studying the bill went so quickly that its members went through all the steps in just two meetings totaling eight hours. They made no amendments, only “comments”.
The bill enshrines a new right to work and be served in French in Quebec and in “regions with a strong Francophone presence” in other provinces in private companies under federal jurisdiction, such as banks and airlines or railway companies. It is now aligned with the Charter of the French language of Quebec.
The piece of legislation also gives the Commissioner of Official Languages the power to issue orders to federal institutions and creates a penalty regime, but these are limited to $25,000. Also, it forces the appointment of bilingual judges to the Supreme Court.
The Official Languages Act came into force more than 50 years ago and its last major reform dates back more than 30 years. His record is, to say the least, mixed. The proportion of French speakers is in decline in Quebec and the French-speaking minorities in the rest of the country are constantly being anglicized. Although bilingualism is on the rise, it is almost exclusively Quebecers who are responsible for it.
The reform will give “bite” to the law, repeated ad nauseam the godmother of C-13 and Minister of Official Languages, Ginette Petitpas Taylor. The New Democratic Party (NDP) seemed rather on the same wavelength. However, the Conservatives only concede C-13 “milk teeth”. The Bloc Québécois also does not hide its dissatisfaction and has resigned itself to taking what it considers better than nothing.
In its observations, the Senate committee recommends that the federal government establish a “coherent and clear” language rights regime for travellers, while C-13 applies to the airline industry the notions of “significant demand” and “strong Francophone presence”.
In reaction to the “significant reservations” of the English-speaking communities of Quebec, the senators suggest that “special attention” be given to developments affecting these groups “without waiting for the review of the law scheduled in 10 years”.
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages heard 130 witnesses and held 25 meetings. The course of the bill has been strewn with so many pitfalls that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had been forced to clarify in recent months that his ministers will all have to vote in favor of C-13 after one of them , Montrealer Marc Miller, would have said that he reserves the right to oppose it.
Within the Liberal caucus, other Liberals representing English-speaking communities in the Montreal region led a campaign to remove from C-13 any reference to Quebec’s Charter of the French language. Among them, Marc Garneau (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount), Emmanuella Lambropoulos (Saint-Laurent) and Anthony Housefather (Mont-Royal).
Their Franco-Ontarian colleague Francis Drouin then publicly reproached them for making a ” show of shameful smoke” and the Bloc Québécois portrayed them as the actors of the “West Island Story”, wanting to defend their own interests, even if it means sacrificing those of the French-speaking minorities.
The three opposition parties, which hold the majority on the committee, had indicated that they would support an amendment that would subject private companies under federal jurisdiction on Quebec soil to Quebec’s Charter of the French language rather than giving the choice between this and the Official Languages Act, thus forcing the hand of the Trudeau government.
The Liberals, backed into a corner, then found a compromise with the Government of Quebec and amended C-13 at the last minute so as to copy large parts of the Charter of the French language into federal law. The opposition parties then rallied and abandoned their amendment.
The liberal rebellion ultimately did not materialize at the final moment. MP Housefather was the only MP in the entire House of Commons to vote against the bill at third reading. Mr. Garneau, for his part, left politics denying that his position on C-13 played a role in his decision.