Trudeau Government Recognizes French as Official Language of Québec

Earlier this year, the Trudeau government made the Official Languages Act the law of the land. It recognizes French as the official language of the province of Québec, which it already officially was.  

But it also seeks to make English and French equal across all of Canada. This means that all companies that serve the public and have more than 25 employees need to provide French language services, if they do not already do so. Also, all Supreme Court Justices must be bilingual, if they are not already. It should be mentioned that this Act will make a point of not undermining indigenous languages.  

It will also aim to defend the rights of the English-speaking minority in Québec.              

All of these are provisions of Bill C-32, which became the law of the land in June this year. It seeks to definitively and substantively make English and French equal languages in Canada. Historically, this has been a very divisive issue throughout Canadian history.              

Even though I myself am not Canadian – although I sometimes wish that I was – nonetheless this seems like a good idea to me, and promotes fairness. Whether or not people take to it is another matter. However, I applaud the Trudeau government in this serious effort to try and make the two languages more equal all across the Canadian nation. To me, it seems almost incredible that Francophone culture, and the French language in particular, somehow managed to survive in a relatively large place. It did so for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that it is tucked away in a corner of the continent, in one of the regions that has some of the most brutal and inhospitable weather, and also because poverty often dominated. A lot has changed, and Québec province is now the largest province in terms of geography, and the second biggest in terms of overall population, in Canada. It also has the second most powerful economy, well behind Ontario but well ahead of the other provinces. All of this while speaking French, which is to the credit of the people there who made a point of successfully preserving it. Contrast that to other regions all across the continent where other languages and cultures outside of the English-speaking majority are now mostly either tiny pocket communities, or in most cases, ceased to exist altogether long ago.

This hopefully will help preserve Francophone culture, and the French language, in Canada in general, and in Québec in particular.