The decline of French in Quebec and the choice of linguistic indicators- the conclusion of the Standing Committee on Official Languages during its review of Bill C-13
Introduction
Canada's Official Languages Act (OLA) was amended in 2023 by Bill C-13. The amended Act now recognizes the predominant use of English in Canada and acknowledges the contribution to Quebec of the Charter of the French Language of Quebec (better known as Bill 101), which promotes the advancement of the use of French.
The purpose of this Act is... 2 (b.1) advance the equality of status and use of the English and French languages within Canadian society, taking into account the fact that French is in a minority situation in Canada and North America due to the predominant use of English and that there is a diversity of provincial and territorial language regimes that contribute to the advancement, including Quebec’s Charter of the French language, which provides that French is the official language of Quebec; 2 (b.2) advance the existence of a majority-French society in a Quebec where the future of French is assured;
This reference to Bill 101 in the OLA was strongly contested by the English-speaking lobby group Quebec Community Group Network (QCGN).
QCGN also unsuccessfully challenged the measure requiring that any federal support for Anglophones in Quebec must respect the need to protect and promote French in Quebec, given that this language is a minority language in Canada and North America.
41 (1) The Government of Canada is committed to (a) enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada and supporting and assisting their development, taking into account their uniqueness, diversity and historical and cultural contributions to Canadian society; and b) fostering the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society..
41 (5) Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that the commitments under subsections (1) to (3) are implemented by the taking of positive measures.
41 (6) Positive measures taken under subsection (5)... (b) shall respect i) the
necessity of protecting and promoting the French language in each
province and territory, taking into account that French is in a minority
situation in Canada and North America due to the predominant use of
English
QCGN's opposition to these new measures was widely reported in the media. The purpose of this text is to explain why the federal government overrode QCGN's opposition. QCGN is funded almost exclusively by the federal government. One might assume that there must have been serious and convincing reasons for the federal government to act in this way and set aside QCGN's opposition.
And that was the case.
The decline of French is under rigorous scrutiny
In May 2023, as part of its review of Bill C-13, the Standing Committee on Official Languages published a report entitled GOVERNMENT MEASURES TO PROTECT AND PROMOTE FRENCH IN QUEBEC AND CANADA. This committee was composed of 12 members representing the four main federal political parties. Given the importance of the subject, ten other members of the House of Commons also participated in the work.
The committee examined statistics on the evolution of the French language in Canada and Quebec with the aim of determining whether there was a decline of French in Quebec (and Canada)
Demographer Patrick Sabourin defined the “decline of French” as follows: We’re talking about a reduction in the demographic weight of francophones compared
to other language groups. As the comparative weight of French diminishes, the less competitive it becomes, demographically speaking, by which I mean that there will be
fewer people speaking French, lower demand for services in French, fewer opportunities to work in French, fewer immigrants who have the opportunity or the
desire to live alongside francophones, and other similar considerations.8
Obviously, to the extent that it had concluded that there was no decline, this would have supported QCGN in its opposition to the measures proposed for inclusion in Bill C-13, which aimed to promote the use of French in Quebec.
The Experts
The positions of various experts were explicitly considered by the Committee, including those of Charles Castonguay, retired professor, Professor Marc Termote, and Jean-Pierre Corbeil, former Assistant Director of the Diversity and Sociocultural Statistics Division at Statistics Canada.
Three experts were cited by QCGN in its 2022 submission (see note 63) to the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages (which was also examining Bill C-13): the same JP Corbeil, as well as Professor Calvin Veltmann and author Jean-Benoît Nadeau.
63. See, for example, Jean-Pierre Corbeil, "The "Decline" of French: Willful Blindness and Magical Thinking," Le Devoir (October 5, 2021); Calvin Veltman, "Sociolinguistic Reading of the Canadian Census: Unexpected Success of Bill 101" (March 8, 2022), online: Recent Studies | The Linguistic Situation in Quebec | Sociolinguistic Studies (mobilitelinguistiqueveltman.net). See also: Jean-Benoît Nadeau, "To End the Decline of the French Language," L'actualité (April 9, 2022).
These same three experts are also cited in the submission to the Standing Committee on Official Languages by the Fédération québécoise des associations foyers-écoles inc.
Mr. Castonguay and Mr. Termote cited data on mother tongue and language spoken at home to conclude that French is in decline in Quebec.
QCGN, in its submission to the Senate on the same bill (see the Senate committee reports here and here), refers to a purported decline of French in Quebec. This choice of words clearly indicates its disagreement with the assertion that there is a decline of French in Quebec. It would have been more honest to state this explicitly.
The House of commons committee in its report explains:
Mr. Jean-Pierre Corbeil, former assistant director of Diversity and Sociocultural Statistics at Statistics Canada, reported that the data on mother tongue or language spoken most often at home are generally used to track the status of French in Quebec. Outside Quebec, mother tongue and first official language spoken are typically used to measure the vitality of French.29
The committee explains Mr. Corbeil's position as follows:
Regarding Quebec’s linguistic landscape, Mr. Corbeil argued that the following issues need further study: the language of work
and of services in Quebec; the underrepresentation of immigrant communities in provincial, regional and local public administrations and in the Crown corporations of the greater Montreal area; and the role of language and educational paths, on the one hand, and of the language used in the public sphere in Quebec, on the other.5
My comments on the QCGN/Corbeil positions
The Supreme Court of Canada recognized that Quebec joined Confederation with a Francophone majority and the motivation (a collective goal) and the political power to promote the language and culture of the majority:
The principle of federalism facilitates the pursuit of collective goals by cultural and linguistic minorities which form the majority within a particular province. This is the case in Quebec, where the majority of the population is French-speaking, and which possesses a distinct culture. This is not merely the result of chance. The social and
demographic reality of Quebec explains the existence of the province of Quebec as a political unit and indeed, was one of the essential reasons for establishing a federal structure for the Canadian union in 1867. The experience of both Canada East and Canada West under the Union Act, 1840 (U.K.), 3-4 Vict., c. 35, had not been satisfactory. The federal structure adopted at Confederation enabled French-speaking Canadians to form a numerical majority in the province of Quebec, and so exercise the considerable provincial powers conferred by the Constitution Act, 1867 in such a way as to promote their language and culture. It also made
provision for certain guaranteed representation within the federal Parliament itself.. Source: Reference re Secession [1998] 2 SCR 217.
We are delighted that Bill C-13 added to the OLA a text which explicitly recognizes the necessity to maintain a french majority in Quebec:
3- Paragraph 2b) of the Act is replaced by the following:... b.2) advance the existence of a majority-French society in a Quebec where the future of French is assured; and;
The choice of linguistic indicators to determine whether there is a decline in French must favour those that best identify individuals motivated to pursue the collective goal of the Francophone majority in Quebec. The Canadian census includes a question on the language spoken at home. This dates back to the B&B Commission report, which identified the language spoken in private as a good linguistic indicator. Moreover, the United States has a linguistic question in its own census; here too, it asks what the language spoken at home is.
Adopting, as suggested by Mr. Corbeil, as a linguistic indicator the fact of speaking French at work would include those who do so only because the French-speaking majority in 1974 adopted a requirement to this effect (Bill 22 Official Language Act of the Robert Bourassa government). But there is no guarantee that those who comply with this legislation today will have the motivation to support such a requirement in the future. To take this reasoning to its logical conclusion, one could envision a Quebec where everyone speaks French at work and English at home. According to Mr. Corbeil, there would be no decline in French. But how long could such a situation continue to exist? Not very long, in the North American context where English reigns supreme. Without the necessary motivation, language legislation would quickly fall by the wayside. Even today, the Anglophone minority has so much political power that none of the candidates for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) dare, in their debates, refer to the decline of French in Quebec; see text by Jean-François Lisée.
In our opinion, it is much more likely that the mother tongue and the language spoken at home best identify those people with the motivation to speak French themselves and maintain a majority Francophone society.
Committee Recommendations
The House of Commons Committee* implicitly rejected Mr. Corbeil and QCGN's position. It unanimously determined that there was a decline of French in Canada, including in Quebec, and adopted the following recommendation:
Recommendation 12
That the Government of Canada formally recognize that French is in decline in Canada and Quebec, particularly in urban areas including the Montreal metropolitan area, and adopt the necessary measures to counter this worrying trend. (p. 82)
*The Senate Committee report, in more nuanced terms, reached the same conclusion: The evidence and briefs overwhelmingly support the commitment to protect and promote French. While some dispute the premise that French is in decline in Quebec,2 it is generally accepted that French is in a minority situation in Canada and North America due to the predominant use of English and that this recognition has a place in an amended OLA.(page 2 of the report. In the event of differences between the recommendations/conclusions of the two committees, we prefer the recommendations/conclusions of an elected body over those of an unelected one.
Positive Measures Adopted
Bill C-13, as adopted, includes the following positive measures that are clearly directly inspired by the House committee's recommendation:
- a title for the bill that recognizes that there is no substantive equality between the two languages:
An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada’s Official Languages.
- the preamble and a legislative text that recognizes the minority status of French:
WHEREAS the Government of Canada is committed to protecting and promoting the French language, recognizing that French is in a minority situation in Canada and North America due to the predominant use of English. and
- section 41 (2) which states: The Government of Canada, recognizing and taking into account that French is in a minority situation in Canada and North America due to the predominant use of English, is committed to protecting and promoting the French language..
- recognition of Bill 101:
in a preamble:
that it recognizes the diversity of provincial and territorial language regimes that contribute to progress towards equality of status and use of French and English in Canadian society, in particular...that the Charter of the French Language of Quebec provides that French is the official language of Quebec; and
in the text of the Act (paragraph 2(b.1)):
AND WHEREAS the Government of Canada recognizes the diversity of the provincial and territorial language regimes that contribute to the advancement of the equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society, including that...Quebec’s Charter of the French language provides that French is the official language of Quebec,
- the law ends linguistic symmetry between languages and between linguistic minorities:
Section 3.1 states: For the purposes of this Act: language rights are to be interpreted by taking into account that French is in a minority situation in Canada and North America due to the predominant use of English and that the English linguistic minority community in Quebec and the French linguistic minority communities in the other provinces and territories have different needs.
- section 41 requires that support for English-speaking people in Quebec must take into account the need to protect and promote French:
41 (1) The federal government is committed to a)enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada and supporting and assisting their development...; (5) Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that the commitments under subsections (1) to (3) are implemented by the taking of positive measures.; and (6) Positive measures taken under subsection (5)...(b) shall respect i) the necessity of protecting and promoting the French language in each province and territory, taking into account that French is in a minority situation in Canada and North America due to the predominant use of English,
Measure set aside - promote the demographic weight of French speakers in Quebec
The House of Commons committee accepted the opinion of demographer Patrick Sabourin, who defined the expression decline of French in terms of a decrease in the demographic weight of French speakers. One would have expected to find in its recommendations and in the text of the bill measures aimed at protecting and promoting the demographic weight of Francophones in Quebec.
This is not the case.
Yes, the preamble and the text of Bill C-13 as adopted recommend measures to counter the demographic loss of Francophones outside Quebec:
Preamble: WHEREAS the Government of Canada recognizes the importance of remedying the decline in the demographic weight of French linguistic minority
communities, including by restoring and increasing their demographic weight;
Section 41(6): Positive measures taken under subsection (5)...c) may include measures, among others, to ...(iii.1) restore and increase the demographic weight of French linguistic minority communities,
But there is nothing equivalent for the demographic loss of Francophones in Quebec. Thus, the law recognizes two official language communities of Canada (preamble) and requires (41(6) the necessity of considering the specific needs of each of the two official language communities of Canada, taking into account the equal importance of the two communities. However, there is no equivalent measure to protect and promote the demographic weight of Francophones in Quebec, or even of the entire French-speaking language community in Canada (which would include Francophones in Quebec and outside Quebec). This is a gaping hole that must one day be filled.
Conclusion
In its submission to the Senate committee, QCGN speaks of a purported decline of French in Quebec. And it continues to refuse to acknowledge a decline in French in Quebec and says it was betrayed (trahi). The Standing Committee on Official Languages of Canada (not Quebec), composed of 12 members representing the four main political parties, published a report entitled GOVERNMENT MEASURES TO PROTECT AND PROMOTE FRENCH IN QUEBEC AND CANADA. It examined QCGN's arguments and rejected its position. It is time for QCGN and its accomplices to acknowledge and accept reality. The same could be said of the PLQ leadership candidates.
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Marc Ryan
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