Should English-speaking Quebecers Care About the Official Languages Act?
Geoffrey Chambers is president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, which brings together English-language community organizations across Quebec.
The English and French languages have been at the core of the Canadian experience for centuries. But only with the adoption of the Official Languages Act in 1969 did Canada establish its first national level policy respecting and promoting two official languages. Parliament acted at the urging of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, after it concluded our nation was going through its “greatest crisis in history.” The Act has since been strengthened to better protect and promote the two languages and create an obligation for the federal government to enhance the vitality of our English and French linguistic minority communities.
