Canada’s new Commissioner of Official languages settling in
Having taken office on January 29 of this year, Canada’s new Commissioner of Official Languages, Raymond Théberge, says that he is working on getting his bearings in a difficult but important role.
“The first thing I realized when I started two weeks ago was the complexity of the work involved,” Théberge told The Record on Wednesday. The new commissioner explained that his role focuses on ensuring the vitality of linguistic communities across the country through advocacy, education, promotion, and direct intervention in different ways, and said that at the moment his focus is on understanding the work of his predecessor. “It is a daunting task,” he said, acknowledging that Graham Fraser occupied the role for a decade. “We try to always build on what came before,” he added.
Although clear that he takes his role as commissioner seriously and sees it as a big pair of shoes to fill, Théberge does not come to the position lightly. Having completed studies in both Quebec and Winnipeg and worked in educational institutions in those two provinces as well as New Brunswick, the commissioner has spent his life in some of the parts of Canada that see the greatest intersection of the country’s two official languages. Drawing on that background and looking at the work already underway in the office of the commissioner, Théberge highlighted two main action areas he wants to focus on right away.
First, he pointed to the importance of access to minority language services in early childhood development.
“Nowadays we have a lot of what we call mixed marriages or exogamy,” Théberge said. “These are parents who come from different language groups and their children can learn one or two languages. We try to ensure that the children have access to daycare and early childhood education in the language of the minority.”
Although the commissioner said that a report on the subject and government agreements are being made to develop these kinds of spaces, he emphasized the importance of ongoing advocacy work to make sure that the recommendations of the office are taken to heart.
The second, and larger, key project that Théberge identified was the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
“In 2019 the Official Languages Act will be 50 years old,” he said. “Canada has changed quite dramatically over the last 50 years.”
Although he pointed out that it is up to parliament to actually amend the act, Théberge said that the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is working on developing an official position on the matter by this fall. This, he said, is an enormously complex and technical task focused on finding replacements for wording that is either too vague or no longer suited to the realities of Canadian life. AS an example, he pointed out that the rise in immigration has blurred the lines of what constitutes an Anglophone or a Francophone, definitions that are important to defending the rights of these groups in communities across the country.
Outside of those two focus areas, Théberge said that he will continue to work on ensuring the vitality of minority language communities in different ways; something that he pointed out can be quite complex. Asked about matters pertinent to the Eastern Townships, for example, the Commissioner noted that Quebec offers a case of minorities within minorities.
“It is a very special situation in Quebec,” he said. “You have an Anglophone minority within Quebec but English, of course, is the majority in North America. Then you have a Francophone majority that is a minority within North America. It leads to what I will call some linguistic insecurity on the part of the Francophone majority.”
Despite that complexity, however, Théberge underlined that his job involves defending the rights of both of those groups.
Asked about the new Secretariat for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers created by the Provincial Government, the Commissioner said that he has not directly communicated with the office so far.
“What I can say is that my experience in other provinces where they have French languages services secretariats it has always been very helpful,” Théberge said, adding that his predecessor was in favour of the development of such an office. “It is new, but my experience in other provinces is that it has been very, very useful.”
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages is currently reviewing government support programs for official language minority community media. Asked about the role he has to play in that process, the Commissioner explained that the office put out a report on minority language press last year whose key recommendations included bringing government advertising back to print and away from online sources.
“The Government is looking at that,” Théberge said. “When the action plan on official languages comes out in the next little while, we will see whether or not certain measures are in there and react accordingly.”
In the mean time Théberge said that he will be spending the next three months meeting with minority language leadership across Quebec to get a feel for the needs of different communities.
“There are different realities in Quebec,” he said. “We have to look at how we respond to those various regional differences.”