OCOL report challenges myths about Quebec anglophones

Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Federal Commissioner of Official Languages Raymond Théberge has raised concerns about the effects of recent Quebec government policies on Quebec’s English-speaking community in a new report. 

“Over the past two years, English-speaking communities in Quebec have seen significant changes in both provincial and federal language policy, with the expansion of Quebec’s Charter of the French Language and the modernization of Canada’s Official Languages Act, which means that this official language minority community has had to find its footing and readjust not just once but twice,” Théberge wrote in the report, released Oct. 9 by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (OCOL) and titled A Shared Future: A Closer Look at our Official Language Minority Communities. 

“For several years now, the English-speaking minority in Quebec has been facing challenges that are threatening its vitality. First, its legitimacy as an official language minority community is all too often questioned. There seems to be confusion between the majority status of the English language in Canada and the minority status of the English-speaking communities in Quebec,” he wrote. “In a difficult context, which includes the provincial legislature’s adoption of Bill 21 [banning people in certain positions of authority, including public school teachers, from wearing religious symbols including hijabs] and Bill 40 [replacing elected school boards with service centres], Quebec’s [official language minority communities] have engaged in several legal proceedings to protect their rights guaranteed under section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Lawsuits have also been initiated against Bill 96’s amendments to the Charter of the French Language, citing the infringement of the community’s constitutional rights. I will continue to monitor all of these court cases very carefully.” 

Data cited in the report suggested that two persistent myths about the English-speaking community – its supposed lack of integration with the francophone majority and supposed relative wealth – are not based in fact. “The most recent census data from 2021 tell us that 71 per cent of Quebecers with English as a mother tongue are bilingual, and that most of them regularly use French at work, at school or at home, or have it as another mother tongue,” Théberge wrote. 

The report noted that the English-speaking community in many regions of the province “has higher unemployment rates, lower median incomes and higher poverty rates than the francophone majority, despite the former’s high workforce participation rates and higher levels of education.” 

Théberge also expressed concern about the confusion around the (later rescinded) directive by the Quebec government appearing to list situations where English could be used in health care, restrictions to enrolment in English CEGEPs, a lack of funding for local English-language cultural content, and – at a later press conference – about difficulties faced by English speakers in Quebec who want to learn French. 

​​”It is in everyone’s interest to ensure that the rights of English-speaking Quebecers are protected and respected, and that Quebec’s English-speaking minority is recognized as a provincial community whose commitment to bilingualism continues to be a key factor in the success of this political community we call Canada,” he concluded. 

“This report underlines repeatedly what we and other English-speaking community groups have been saying for years: we are not the enemy of the French language in Quebec, despite the picture often painted by the CAQ government and certain elements of francophone media,” Quebec Community Groups Network president Eva Ludvig said in a statement. “As he so astutely noted, ‘One of the main challenges facing the English-speaking minority in Quebec is the perception that it does not recognize the value of French as the province’s common language. This persistent perception is nevertheless a myth whose exposure would benefit everyone.’”