Baird’s unilingual business cards come under fire

OTTAWA — Canada’s official-languages commissioner has asked John Baird to dump his Englishonly business cards.

Baird ordered the unilingual cards in May 2011, soon after being appointed foreign affairs minister.

The cards were also embossed with goldcoloured ink, and the word Canada was sharply reduced in size, leaving Baird’s name in the largest typeface.

Graham Fraser, the official-languages commissioner, soon received four complaints about the English-only cards, which are against long-standing government policy on bilingual communications.

At the time, Baird dismissed public criticism, saying he also had a set of bilingual cards printed and that these were always available for distribution as well.

Fraser issued a preliminary report in April this year, calling on the Foreign Affairs Department to ensure that all communication tools — including business cards — reflect both official languages.

But Fraser’s final report issued Thursday went further, recommending the department “immediately commit to completely disposing” all of the unilingual business cards.

The department’s deputy minister, Morris Rosenberg, wrote to Fraser on May 10, repeating the position that the languages commissioner should never have launched the investigation in the first place.

“At no time was the minister solely in possession of English only business cards,” Rosenberg wrote. “At all times he has possessed bilingual cards and has used and continues to use them daily.”