Good afternoon.
An unusual linguistic dynamic has taken shape in Quebec in the past 15 years or so. Since 1871, the demographic weight of francophones in Quebec had never fallen below 80%. Now it is 78%, having declined 3.4 percentage points in 15 years, a record. It is also falling quickly with regard to the language spoken in the home. Statistics Canada's demolinguistic projections suggest that the relative weight of francophones in Quebec will continue to decline for the foreseeable future.
Fundamental changes will have to be made to the Official Languages Act in order to halt the decline of French in Quebec.
The act was passed in 1969 and its purpose is to “ensure respect for English and French as the official languages [and to ensure] equality of status” and “support the development of English and French linguistic minority communities.” The Official Languages Act declared English and French our official languages and put those two languages on a strict legally equal footing, without however taking into consideration the sociological situation of English and French in Canada, a reality that is actually based on a demographic power relationship, as a result of which English is the dominant language across Canada, even in Quebec.
Book 1 of the Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism states that, according to the 1961 census, English, relatively speaking, was assimilating other languages nearly five times faster than French in Canada. In other words, English was already far more vital than French. The Official Languages Act, which was passed by Pierre Elliott Trudeau's government, did not take that elementary reality into account.
Anglophones in Quebec assimilate approximately half of allophone immigrants, whereas they represent only 8.1% of the population, which means that, all other things being equal, the anglophone group's assimilation power is nearly 10 times that of the francophone group in Quebec.
Thus, contrary to what the Official Languages Act would have us believe, there is no situation of egalitarian bilingualism in Quebec. The situation is more one of inegalitarian or competitive bilingualism.
The Official Languages Act is based on the idea that language is the result of an individual's preference: this is the principle of personality. The personality principle was, and still is, a nonsensical proposition. Language is not an individual characteristic; it is a medium of exchange with others and is, by definition, collective.
Note that the Charter of the French Language is based in large part on the principle of territoriality, the principle that, over a given territory, a single language serves as a language of convergence or common language. There is thus a clear conflict between the federal and Quebec approaches to language planning.
In my view, the principle of personality must be abandoned if we truly want to achieve genuine equality between English and French in Quebec. The Official Languages Act should consider and acknowledge that Quebec is a French-language province. That proposition would have numerous practical consequences. For example, immigrants seeking permanent residence in Quebec would have to demonstrate their knowledge of French, not of French and English.
Now let's consider the double majority.
Within a framework of symmetry, the Official Languages Act institutes a double majority in Canada in which anglophones form the majority outside Quebec and francophones the majority within Quebec. This double majority is real only if one considers that the linguistic dynamic is determined by provincial borders. However, this is false. The linguistic dynamic is determined by the country to which Quebec belongs, which is Canada.
The Official Languages Act thus fosters the development and vitality of Quebec's anglophone minority. However, that minority is not a minority. It is in fact an integral part of the Canadian majority and possesses all its attributes, including linguistic vitality.
This concept of a double majority must be abandoned in the Official Languages Act.
That means abandoning grants in support of the vitality of English in Quebec, such as those made under the Canada-Québec Agreement on Minority-Language Education and Second Languages Instruction, funding that enhances the status and vitality of English in Quebec.