Navy leader to tweet in French after questions were raised
Posts had mostly been in English
The head of Canada's navy will start tweeting in both official languages after questions were raised about why he was putting messages on that social media platform mainly in English.
Vice-Adm. Art McDonald has been on Twitter since 2011 and has more than 11,000 followers. But he rarely tweets in French, prompting some Royal Canadian Navy sailors to raise the question with the Citizen why their commander wasn't following Canada's official languages policy.
A number of senior officers who are on Twitter, such as Vice-Adm. Haydn Edmundson, commander of military personnel command, and Canadian Army commander Lt.- Gen. Wayne Eyre, tweet in both official languages on their accounts.
After the Citizen raised the sailors' questions about the tweets, McDonald started sending out some tweets in French.
The Department of National Defence says going forward McDonald's social media account will reflect both official languages.
“While VAdm McDonald's use of social media has been consistent with federal government guidelines for professional Twitter accounts, the RCN wishes to ensure more fulsome connections with the Navy family and Canadians,” DND spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier said.
“As such, future content will be released in both official languages.”
According to federal guidelines on the use of a personal account for professional purposes, the “use of both official languages is recommended.”
“The greater your visibility or management responsibilities in the GC, the more likely your account could be perceived as official,” the guidelines noted.
McDonald is seen as a leading contender for the position of chief of the defence staff, the top military job in the Canadian Forces. The current Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Jon Vance, tweets in both official languages.
There are about 1,800 francophone sailors in the 17,500-member Royal Canadian Navy.
Some Canadian Forces personnel said that, since McDonald considers his account a personal one, there was no need for him to tweet in both official languages.
In addition, the popular Twitter account, Canadian Forces in the U.S., known as @CAFinUS, does not tweet in both official languages. That account, with more than 59,000 followers, is widely read in both the United States and in Canada. Meanwhile, the Canadian Forces in Ukraine Twitter account has messages in both official languages.
“There is currently dialogue between DND/CAF and the Official Languages Commissioner regarding the @CAFinUS account, which will help us determine whether it is allowable to have accounts that predominantly tweet in the language of the audience base it caters to,” Le Bouthillier said.