Bilingualism in Canada

SIGNIFICANCE: Canada has committed itself to English–French bilingualism by supplying public funding for the teaching of official languages, encouraging the use of both languages in the federal civil service, and making bilingual fluency a criterion in government job opportunities. The ultimate aim is to make both languages equitable in representation and significant for work and various realms of public service. However, the language issue remains one of the most contentious political aspects of Canadian life and a serious threat to the fragile unity binding the provinces of the country. 

It was perhaps inevitable that Canada would adopt English–French bilingualism in view of the strong French presence in the province of Quebec. The people of Quebec have expressed an interest in retaining a distinctive identity, albeit that of a minority in a predominantly English-speaking North American continent. This desire for distinctiveness has aroused considerable controversy in the rest of Canada because of a perception that all provinces must be viewed and treated as equals.

However, many Canadians are sensitive to the unique character of Quebec society and believe that the French aspect of Canada provides an important distinction between Canadian and American culture. They believe that bilingualism distinguishes Canada from its southern neighbor and gives a rich and varied quality to Canadian life. 

The Canadian political agenda on race relations is dominated by the “Quebec issue,” almost to the exclusion of the needs and desires of the other ethnic groups that are part of Canadian society. The so-called visible minoritiesBlacks, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Latin Americans, other Pacific Islanders, South Asians, Southeast Asians, West Asians, and Arabsas defined by the Canadian governmentconstitute a significant and growing proportion of the Canadian demographic picture. The overwhelming emphasis of successive Canadian governments on Quebec and its francophone population has pushed the visible minority agenda to the background of Canadian political concerns. 

Statistics

The 2021 census established that 18 percent of Canadians reported being bilingual, which was up from just over 12 percent in 1961. The province of Quebec had the highest concentration of bilingual residents with over 46 percent of the nation’s bilingual population. The census also noted that francophoneswhose first language is Frenchhave a higher rate of bilingualism than do anglophoneswhose first language is English. This statistic is true not only in Quebec but across all of Canada.  

Immigrants from Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa have caused major demographic changes in Canada. The allophone percentage of the populationthose whose first language is neither English nor Frenchmore than doubled between 1981 and 2010.  According to the 2021 Canadian census, 4.6 million Canadians predominantly spoke a language other than French or English. This number constituted 12.7 percent of the Canadian population. The Canadian government estimated that it will continue to increase from seven to eleven times faster than the general population and could double again by the year 2031. Several dialects of Chinese are spoken in Canada. The two most prevalent are Mandarin and Cantonese. Native speakers of both languages total over 1.3 million people, or 3.5 percent of the Canadian population.  Every province of Canada has significant allophone communities, and there is a vibrant ethnic media including national television programming and newspapers and books published in more than fifty languages.  

Historical Background

Aside from its contribution to a richer, more diverse cultural heritage for all Canadians, the concept of bilingualism has played a crucial role in attempting to prevent secession by Quebec and its francophone majority from the Canadian confederation. In the late twentieth century, Canada dedicated itself to the concepts of multiculturalism and pluralism, in contrast to the “melting pot” theory that has dominated in the United States. Multiculturalism seeks to provide a Canadian identity that recognizes the importance of unity in diversity by encouraging immigrants to retain aspects of their heritage while acculturating themselves to Canadian society in practical ways such as developing linguistic capability and the proper skills for employment opportunities. Multiculturalism, however, functions within the overall societal and governmental framework of bilingualism, which emphasizes the predominance of English and French. It remains to be seen whether Canada will eventually recognize other languages as they acquire prominence. 

In 1969, the Canadian government passed the Official Languages Act, which declared that English and French would enjoy official status and could be used equally in parliament, in federal courts, and in federal institutions. Federal bilingualism got a real boost as a governmental policy with the election in 1976 of the separatist Parti Québécois government in Quebec. This served as a wake-up call to the federal government, and some significant measures were taken to implement bilingualism in practice as well as in theory. 

In 1978, the criminal code was amended to provide service to the accused in the individual’s own official language. In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms constitutionally enshrined the policy of official bilingualism and provided extensive language guarantees that have been interpreted by legal scholars to provide equitable representation for French, to include French as a language of work, and to expand the coverage of bilingualism to Crown corporations and other governmental institutions. Although the 1982 constitutional accord was widely perceived as a move to gain the confidence of francophones, the Quebec government refused to accept it. 

Canada also provides for mechanisms of enforcement for bilingualism and funding for Canadians who believe that their language rights have been violated and who wish to launch a legal challenge. Section 23 of the Canadian Charter provides for minority language guarantees in the realm of primary and secondary education, a clause that has helped francophone minorities in various Canadian provinces establish their own schools but that has also generated much controversy, particularly in Quebec, where it has been perceived as conflicting with the Quebec Charter of the French Language.  

Canadians encounter both languages every day of their lives. Canadian money and postage stamps are printed in both languages. All products sold in Canada, including imported products, must carry instructions and information in both official languages. Parliamentarians are shown on television flowing easily from one language to the other in their speeches. Prominent Canadian prime ministers such as Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, and Jean Chrétien are Quebecers. 

Perspectives on Bilingualism

Bilingualism began with the premise that a solid nation can be built by enabling people to speak each other’s language and communicate freely. The assumption was made that the ever-decreasing French minority would identify more with a Canada that had some appreciation of its language and its rich cultural heritage. Years and millions of dollars after its promulgation, there are as many contentious opinions about bilingualism as there are Canadians. Opinions range from great enthusiasm, particularly among those who are fluently bilingual, to total cynicismlargely prevalent in parts of western Canada, which is emphatically English-oriented. The Reform Party, which originated in western Canada, resolved in 1987 to prevent the expansion of bilingualism in the west. Citizens’ groups, such as the Association for the Preservation of English in Canada, have sprung up to denounce the bilingual agenda and to promote an English-only policy in various towns and cities. Statistics Canada demonstrated that the proportion of Canadians speaking French at home declined in the provinces outside Quebec between 1991 and 1996. 

The linguistic issue is both a bone of contention encouraging separatism and a foundation for unity within the country, despite schoolchildren across the country flocking to French-immersion programs funded by the government. The enrollment in French-immersion programs rose significantly to total over 341,000 student in the 2010–11 school year, which is a 28 percent increase over the 1991–92 school year. The French-language television stations that exist across the nation do not draw a large anglophone or allophone audience, which they would if bilingualism were truly successful. Other measures to encourage French usage such as the insistence on French language on all products sold in Canada have resulted in higher costs to consumers, a reality that is often irksome to shoppers. In some western and eastern provinces of Canada, French enjoys at best a marginalized status simply because there is no real incentive to use it. However, in the realm of sports, interestingly, French, English, and all peoples of Canada have come together in that hockey stars from every province including Quebec command a nationwide admiration. Athletic endeavors have proven to be a significant unifier of Canadian people. 

Detractors argued that bilingualism is expensive and that it fails because although people can be trained in a language for years, if they did not live in a French-speaking community, they rarely retained their linguistic ability. Critics also believed that bilingualism contributed to the weakening of Canadian unity by emphasizing the differences between people. New Brunswick remained the only officially bilingual province of Canada, adopting the policy in 1969. 

Critics also pointed to the fact that all the efforts by anglophone and allophone Canadians to learn French have not stemmed the separatist tendencies of Quebec, which had frequently elected provincial governments dedicated to independence or sovereignty of their region from the rest of Canada.  

The most compelling critical argument points to the absence of bilingualism in most regions of Quebec because its government promotes the use of French at the expense of English via the implementation of the Charter of the French Language (1977). This document declared French the official language of Quebec. Formalized and official discrimination against English in Quebec in matters referring to store and restaurant signs and education for allophone children has proven to be a potent argument against bilingualism in the rest of Canada. Bilingualism was perceived as a hypocritical and unsuccessful form of appeasement of an ever-decreasing French minority that responded with greater assertiveness in stressing its distinctive Frenchrather than bilingualidentity. Such detractors questioned whether requiring the rest of Canada to learn French would ultimately prevent the separation of Quebec or have any impact on that issue. 

Results

Despite the critics, statistics proved that bilingualism had some success in Canada. In 1971, 13 percent of Canadians2.9 million peoplewere bilingual. By 1991, the figure had risen to more than 16 percent to represent 4.4 million people and, by 1996, rose to 17 percent at 4.8 million people. In 2011, the census confirmed over 5.8 million Canadians were bilingual. By 2021, this rate increased to 18 percent. 

Interestingly, in Quebec, despite the unilingual political context, bilingualism increased dramatically between 1971 and 1996, rising from 28 percent to 38 percent, and increasing to over 42.5 percent in 2011. This could be because most young Quebecers have to learn English to acquire good jobs, especially in the burgeoning information technology field, which English dominates globally. In 2011, 44 percent of francophones throughout Canada were bilingual, a statistic in marked contrast to the eight percent of anglophones who were bilingual. 

The policy of bilingualism has provided Canadians with an awareness of diversity and possibly a greater tolerance of another culture. However, acceptance of bilingualism has not been enthusiastic or wholehearted in many parts of Canada. The goal of a fully bilingual population, fluent in both official languages, may never be achieved, but the tradition of accommodating two forms of communication within one society has now been established and has become a distinguishing feature of Canada as a political entity.  

According to a November 2016 article in Language Magazine, a national survey in early 2016 showed about 90 percent of Canadians supported bilingualism and the Official Languages Act. The survey was conducted among one thousand Canadians over the age of eighteen. 

This change in language demographics in Canada will likely become more prevalent in decades to come as immigration has become a national necessity. Similar to developed countries worldwide, in the twenty-first century, native born Canadians began to experience decreased birth rates and longer life expectancies. Birth rates fell below levels needed to sustain its population size. Thus the native Canadian population began to age, and younger demographics contracted. Canada realized it was dependent on attracting immigrants to both maintain its population and for labor. Its immigration policies soon reflected this. 2025 projections showed Canada would permit entry to 12.5 immigrants per 1,000 residents. In comparison, the US planned to allow three immigrants per 1,000 residents. In practical terms, Canada scheduled the admittance of more than four times the number of immigrants as America on a per capita basis. In the mid-2020s immigration accounted for all the growth in Canada's labor force. Furthermore, in the coming decade, assessments were that immigrants would provide 100 percent of the country's population growth. 

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