Thursday, 03 November 2011 10:44
OTTAWA, November 3, 2011 – Senator Maria Chaput expressed her strong concern about the recent trends set by the government in the matter of respecting Canada’s linguistic duality.
In September, the Prime Minister decided to hire, as his office’s director of communications, an editorialist who has often denigrated the policy of official bilingualism and even regretted the high number of Francophones in government.
This was followed by the completely inexplicable decision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to remove the French language from his professional cards, in spite of the Treasury Board’s appropriate regulations.
Finally, in October, the government announced the nomination of two unilingual Anglophones to the positions of Justice of the Supreme Court and Auditor-General of Canada, respectively. The government is still unable to explain why it disregarded its own requirement of bilingualism in the nomination of the Auditor-General, who will be the sole Officer of Parliament who is unable to speak both official languages.
Without attributing any intent to the government, Senator Chaput can nevertheless only observe that these successive decisions draw a worrisome picture.
The Senator is convinced of the necessity to strengthen the principles of the Official Languages Act. While remaining cautious, she is ready to collaborate with all stakeholders in this end.
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To arrange an interview with the Senator, please contact:
Suzanne Belliveau at 613-943-2435 or by email
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