New Commissioner of Official Languages pledges support for Quebec anglophones

Tashi Farmilo

Kelly Burke was appointed Canada's Commissioner of Official Languages on March 30, pledging to support both official language minority communities and make full use of the modernised Official Languages Act to protect language rights across the country.

The commissioner is an independent officer of Parliament responsible for overseeing compliance with the Official Languages Act, which guarantees Canadians the right to access federal services in either English or French and requires the federal government to support the development of francophone and anglophone minority communities across the country.

Burke comes to the role with a career spanning French immersion teaching, law, and service as French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario. She said she intends to build on the work of her predecessor, Raymond Théberge, and described the modernised Act as offering stronger instruments to protect minority communities and hold federal institutions to their obligations.

Among her stated early priorities is direct engagement with Quebec's English-speaking community. On her first day in the role she met with TALQ, an organisation representing Quebec anglophones. "I would like to begin by emphasizing that one of my priorities as the new Commissioner of Official Languages is to engage in constructive dialogue with leaders of Quebec's English-speaking community, in order to listen to their concerns and better understand their priorities," Burke said.

Burke described Quebec's English-speaking minority as an integral part of Quebec society, recognised under the Official Languages Act as a minority language community in Canada. She acknowledged the particular pressures anglophones in Quebec face in the areas of language policy, education, and access to health services, and said distinct realities exist among English-speaking minority communities in the province just as they do among francophone minorities elsewhere in Canada.

She also pushed back against what she characterised as a persistent misunderstanding of Quebec's anglophone population, arguing they should be seen as allies in the protection and promotion of French, and that their contributions to strengthening the language are too often overlooked in public discourse.

"The protection of French must not come at the expense of the language rights of the English-speaking minority community. These commitments are not mutually exclusive, and one must not be pursued to the detriment of the other."