Hon. Judith G. Seidman: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak at second reading of Bill C-13, An Act to amend the Official Languages Act, to enact the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act and to make related amendments to other Acts.

For years, Canada’s two official language minority communities, francophones outside Quebec and anglophones in Quebec, have sought to have the Official Languages Act updated. Bill C-13 modernizes the act and attempts to respond to these minorities’ needs and priorities.

However, these proposed changes are not minor and should not be adopted by us, colleagues, without thorough study. This bill rewrites half a century of official languages policy based on the bedrock principle that the two languages have equal status and rights in law. The clearly stated goal of the new policy is one of substantive equality.

As the Law Society of Ontario summarizes:

In Canada, court decisions at all levels make it clear that both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms** and human rights legislation aim to achieve “substantive” rather than a “formal” equality.

Substantive equality . . . requires “acknowledgment of and response to differences that members of a particular group might experience” in order to be treated equally.

The realities around the risks to French culture and language in Canada are significant. However, the changes in this bill do more than advance substantive equality — they put English-speaking minority communities in my home province at risk.

According to the 2021 census, English is the first official language spoken by over a million Quebecers. Approximately 600,000 live in the Montreal economic region, but there are small communities of English speakers throughout the province. For example, there are over 7,500 Quebecers whose first official language is English in Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine; over 4,800 in the Côte-Nord; over 24,000 in Nord-du-Québec; over 3,300 in Mauricie; and over 5,400 in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. There are also English-speaking Quebecers in Bas-Saint-Laurent, Capitale-Nationale, Chaudière-Appalaches, Estrie, Centre-du-Québec, Montérégie, Laval, Lanaudière, Laurentides, Outaouais and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.

The struggles of Quebec’s English-speaking communities are not well known. Fortunately, parliamentary committees have studied these issues twice in recent years. In 2011, the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages released a report entitled, The Vitality of Quebec’s English-Speaking Communities: From Myth to Reality. And in 2018, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages released a report entitled, Toward a Real Commitment to the Vitality of Official Language Minority Communities.

Representatives of rural communities told our Official Languages Committee that it is difficult to access government services in English, that many young people leave and do not return and that economic prospects are poor for those who stay. We heard that the only English-language primary school in the Lower St. Lawrence has no gym, no music room and no library, and in some regions, students attending English schools spend as much as three hours a day on school buses.

Yet, as Graham Fraser, who was the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada from 2006 to 2016, told the House committee in their study:

There is . . . a challenge when it comes to recognizing the reality of anglophone communities in Quebec. There is a sort of erroneous historical impression that the anglophone communities of Quebec are made up of rich landowners and are the owners of large corporations who live in Westmount and do not speak French. In fact, the statistics show that outside of Montreal, anglophones in communities all over Quebec are less prosperous and less educated than francophones, and have higher unemployment and poverty levels than francophones. They have exactly the same problems accessing government services in English as do francophone minorities elsewhere.

In 2021, in this context, the Quebec government introduced Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec. Passed in 2022, this bill amended Quebec’s Charter of the French Language. Most significantly, Bill 96 pre‑emptively invoked the “notwithstanding” clause to forestall any Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenges. This enables the Quebec government to override constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms without fear of court challenge.

It was then, in the context of the Quebec Charter of the French Language having been thus amended, that English-speaking Quebecers were disappointed and disturbed to find the Quebec charter itself referenced in the amendments to the Canadian Official Languages Act. The charter is referenced in Bill C-13 not only once but in three places. Most noteworthy is the reference in the bill’s purpose. These references do nothing to strengthen or promote the rights and freedoms of French‑speaking Canadians.

Though the bill references the constitutional provisions that apply to Quebec, Manitoba and New Brunswick, the Quebec Charter of the French Language is the only piece of provincial legislation mentioned by name. This is a problem because the charter could be further amended by a future Quebec government in ways that are even more harmful to the English-speaking community, yet the reference in our Official Languages Act would remain. This change also creates an asymmetry between the rights of official language minority communities, or OLMCs, within and outside Quebec.

As the Honourable Michel Bastarache, former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, told the Senate Official Languages Committee during their most recent pre-study of Bill C-13:

I am personally opposed to a reference to a provincial act in a federal act. I believe that the federal language regime is very different from the provincial regime. The role of the Commissioner of Official Languages is very different from the role of the Office de la langue française. . . .

. . . The Quebec Official Language Act, with respect to languages other than French, is more a statute on non‑discrimination. It is not an act pertaining to the promotion of English, whereas the federal act promotes minority languages.

When the very purpose of each of the acts is not the same or not compatible, I can’t see the point of it. If the government agrees with certain provisions of the Quebec act, it merely needs to adopt those provisions itself.

Furthermore, because Bill C-13 integrates the Quebec Charter of the French Language into the Official Languages Act, it is said to de facto integrate and sanction the pre-emptive use of the “notwithstanding” clause. It is primarily for this reason, honourable colleagues, that this bill must be studied by our Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. We must carefully examine the potential ramifications of this novel endorsement.

The government was warned not to take this path. When Canadian Heritage released a reform document entitled English and French: Towards a substantive equality of official languages in Canada in 2021, the Commissioner of Official Languages, Raymond Théberge, responded:

I . . . share the concerns of Quebec’s English-speaking community that the addition of asymmetrical components to the Act will undermine the equal status of English and French. I therefore strongly recommend that the government focus on substantive equality rather than legislative asymmetry in order to protect OLMCs across Canada and foster the development and vitality of both of Canada’s official languages. This will help my office to intervene, when necessary, to maintain the important balance between our two official languages.

Despite the commissioner’s warning, the reference to the Quebec Charter of the French Language has been included in Bill C-13. It now falls to us in the Senate, colleagues, to study Justice Bastarache’s suggestion to remove the reference to the Quebec Charter of the French Language and instead insert those provisions that officials think should be added to our Canadian Official Languages Act.

Bill C-13 also enacts the use of French in federally regulated private businesses act. This new act sets out rights to communicate in French and obtain services in French from federally regulated private businesses and to carry out one’s work and be supervised in French in those businesses. This act will apply first to federally regulated private businesses in Quebec before being extended to those in regions with strong francophone presence.

Federally regulated private businesses include banks, ferries and buses that cross international or provincial borders as well as telecommunications, for example, telephone and internet companies. So, francophones — first in Quebec and then in regions with a strong francophone presence — will have the right to obtain services from and work in French in these businesses.

I note that the definition or quantification of a “strong francophone presence” remains to be defined in the regulations.

Furthermore, the new act states that federally regulated private businesses in Quebec can instead choose to be subject to the Quebec Charter of the French Language. This particular change underscores the asymmetries being introduced in Bill C-13.

Honourable senators, in closing, I urge all of you to consider that the Constitution gives the Senate two distinct tasks. The first is to act as a counterbalance or check for the cabinet and Commons. Our founders recognized the importance of protecting the right to political dissent from possible attacks by a majority embodied in the House of Commons.

The second is to represent the regions of Canada at the federal level. As former Quebec politician and professor Gil Rémillard and co-author Andrew Turner explain in an essay contained in Protecting Canadian Democracy: The Senate You Never Knew:

The Fathers . . . wanted to assign the Senate the important function of ensuring that minorities, originally the Anglophone population of Quebec and Francophone minorities in other provinces, would be represented in the Senate.

It was on this condition — that the Senate would protect the interests of minorities even when the majority in the House did not — that the Canadian bargain was struck. Protecting minorities, including the English-speaking minority in Quebec, is our raison d’être.

Honourable colleagues, this bill can be improved. It can be changed in minor ways that ensure the principle of substantive equality while protecting the rights of the English-speaking minority in Quebec. So I therefore ask that we do our jobs and send this bill for study to both the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages and the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. Thank you.

Hon. René Cormier: Would Senator Seidman accept a question?

The Hon. the Speaker: Is that a question?

Some Hon. Senators: Yes.

[English]

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted?

The Hon. the Speaker: The time has expired. Are you asking for five more minutes, Senator Seidman?

The Hon. the Speaker: Is that a question?

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted?

The Hon. the Speaker: The time has expired. Are you asking for five more minutes, Senator Seidman?

Hon. Percy E. Downe: I have one other question. In all your years here in the Senate and in all my years here in the Senate, I have never experienced before where the sponsor of the bill and the critic of the bill have been chair and deputy chair of a committee. Have you seen that before? Do you think that’s another reason it should go to the Legal Committee? I’m not questioning the qualification of the committee members. They are very competent as well. But I have never seen that before.

The Hon. the Speaker: Senator Seidman, your time has expired. There are two other senators who wanted to ask a question. Are you asking for more time?

Hon. Renée Dupuis: Senator Seidman, would you take another question?

The Hon. the Speaker: Senator Seidman, your time has expired. There are two other senators who wanted to ask a question. Are you asking for more time?

The Hon. the Speaker: Senator Loffreda, your time is up. Are you asking for five more minutes?

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

The Hon. the Speaker: Senator Loffreda, your time is up. Are you asking for five more minutes?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I rise briefly to speak to Bill C-13, an act for the substantive equality of Canada’s official languages. I want to thank all who have spoken before me and contributed to the debate on this important bill.

This legislation is an important milestone in Canada’s long journey toward true equality between speakers of English and French — in law, in fact and in the daily experiences of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The context of our debate about Bill C-13 is, in part, that of a digital age in which English has become the language of globalization, commerce and popular culture. It’s a challenge facing many linguistic communities around the world, but it’s one felt acutely by francophones in Canada — not least by those who live in majority English provinces in our majority English country on this majority English continent.

The context of this debate is also Canada’s long history of hostility and discrimination toward people who speak French, going back to the 18th century when British policy sought overtly to assimilate or expel them. This discrimination persisted after Confederation and well into the latter part of the 20th century when most of us were already of age. One example includes the denial of constitutionally protected minority language education rights in Manitoba, which persisted for almost a century until they were restored by a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1985. One can also cite the shameful abolition of French-language instruction in New Brunswick and in Ontario at the turn of the previous century. There are many other examples.

Colleagues, francophone communities have fought for years to establish institutions and secure basic rights, including the right to education in their own language. In doing so, they’ve had to overcome both the ugliness of prejudice and the bitterness of indifference.

Let me tell you one story — one story can illuminate the stories of so many: In 1966, Micheline Saint-Cyr moved from Hull — now Gatineau — to Toronto with her husband and five children. Were they greeted favourably by their neighbours? No, they were not. This was reported in the Toronto Star, by the way. When they arrived, neighbours threw eggs at them, lit fires in their garage and scrawled graffiti on their home with slurs like “Frogs live here.” Faced with that reception, Micheline didn’t give up, or fold her tent and her family’s; she applied herself. She worked with other francophone parents to establish community institutions, including a French cultural centre and Toronto’s first French public school — l’École secondaire Étienne-Brûlé — which her children attended in spite of the fact that the school regularly received bomb threats.

The bravery and determination of Micheline Saint-Cyr paid off for her community and her family. Today, in Etobicoke, there is a school that bears her name, and, in this building, there’s an office that bears the name of her grandson — my chief of staff — Éric‑Antoine Menard.

Colleagues, the efforts of Micheline Saint-Cyr and so many others have paid off for us here in Canada. Our country’s bilingualism is a tremendous national asset, both domestically and internationally, notably giving us an entry and influence in institutions and parts of the world that would otherwise be largely beyond our grasp. As former Governor General Michaëlle Jean has put it, the French language is “a bridge, a strategic vehicle, a powerful lever, and a tremendous opportunity.”

But the health of Canada’s bilingualism is not something that we can afford to take for granted. That’s why, more than 30 years since the last major reform of the Official Languages Act, Bill C-13 seeks to respond to social and demographic trends affecting our country, and to better affirm Canada’s aspirations in matters of official languages.

Assembling Bill C-13 was a collective effort. In recent years, researchers, minority language communities and various stakeholders collaborated and inspired the content of the legislation, which is designed to protect official language minority populations. Our chamber has played a significant part in that process. From 2017 to 2019, the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages undertook an exhaustive study about the prospect of modernizing the act. Then, in a follow-up study, the committee examined a 2021 document entitled English and French: Towards a substantive equality of official languages in Canada, which outlined potential reforms and was tabled by Minister Joly, who was the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages at the time. Bill C-32 was later tabled, but died on the Order Paper. That legislation was then significantly reworked, improved and introduced in its current incarnation last year.

In its pre-study of Bill C-13, the Official Languages Committee held eight meetings, heard from 41 witnesses and received 41 briefs before tabling its report in the chamber late last fall.

Colleagues, Bill C-13 contains key measures to address the decline of French in Canada. It clarifies and strengthens the part of the Official Languages Act designed to promote official languages, and it enhances supports for official language minority communities — all official language minority communities. It also compels federal institutions to improve compliance with their obligations under the act.

[Translation]

The Official Languages Act states that one of its purposes is to, and I quote:

This paragraph clearly shows that the notion of substantive equality is the norm in language law. According to jurisprudence, this equality stems from section 16(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states that English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges.

[English]

The English and French languages benefit from substantive equality of status in Canada. However, to make equality a reality, the government must take positive steps, steps that take into account the vulnerability of the French language and of francophone minorities in Canada and in North America.

The case law, which includes Supreme Court of Canada decisions, has time and again recognized this vulnerability and, on several occasions, stated a need for additional efforts and government action. Bill C-13 addresses this need and takes proactive steps to protect minority-language communities and further the goal of equal status for French and English.

As Érik Eastaugh, Professor of Law at the Université de Moncton, stated in his testimony before the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages:

That doesn’t mean that the guiding value isn’t equality. It simply recognizes that equality, in concrete terms, in practical terms on the ground, requires asymmetry in measures adopted by the government, and that’s recognized in all fields.

Let’s talk about the reality on the ground. Now, I would like to speak to you as a Quebec anglophone who grew up and still lives in Quebec, and as a Quebec senator who represents a unique section of the Canadian mosaic made up of Quebec’s anglophone communities.

Now, as I said at the beginning of my remarks, there is no question that English is the predominant language in Canada and, if you will, the lingua franca in much of the world.

At the same time, the English-speaking communities of Quebec have valid concerns and face distinct challenges — concerns and challenges, frankly, that are not obviated by the fact that English is predominant elsewhere in this country.

Fifty years ago, over 13% of Quebecers had English as a mother tongue; today, the number is 7.5%. To be sure, mother tongue is an imperfect barometer. These numbers clearly indicate a significant decline in our communities’ demographic weight. This has been most pronounced outside the Montreal area, where English-community institutions are less robust, English-language services are harder to access and — in some places — dwindling numbers of senior citizens are all that remain of once-thriving anglophone communities.

There are also economic indicators that should give us pause. They were referred to by Senator Seidman. Last year, the Provincial Employment Roundtable found that English-speaking Quebecers had an unemployment rate fully 2% higher than francophones — 8.9% as opposed to 6.9% — and a median income $2,800 lower. These disparities are, again, most notable in rural areas, as well as among young adults and within racialized anglophone communities.

Colleagues, I don’t mention all of this to be alarmist. The sky is not falling on Quebec anglophones. As minority-language communities go, ours is, on the whole, in comparatively good position. It’s always going to be a tricky situation because anglophones and francophones in Quebec are both simultaneously part of a minority and part of a majority. Both communities are used to feeling vulnerable and, frankly, to having our sense of vulnerability questioned, if not sometimes indeed belittled. Still, most of the time, we get along pretty well in Quebec. We enrich each other’s lives every day.

My point is simply that we should be clear-eyed about the real and unique challenges faced by Quebec’s English-speaking communities. However, my expectation, colleagues, is that under the Official Languages Act as amended by Bill C-13, with the support of new funds under the Action Plan for Official Languages, and hopefully with the support of the provincial government, these challenges can and will be addressed.

Honourable senators, Bill C-13 preserves the rights of Quebec’s English-speaking communities; moreover, it contains notable improvements, such as those made to Part VII of the Official Languages Act, which articulates specific commitments to the protection of both English and French minority communities, their rights and their institutions.

This ranges from interpretive clauses instructing the importance of taking into account the English-language minority community in Quebec in section 3(1), protecting the continuum of education; bolstering and clarifying the government’s obligations under the act towards the English-speaking communities and others; protecting the Court Challenges Program, which is a vehicle for the vindication of minority rights in language and would and can benefit the English-speaking community; supporting the institutions of official language minority communities, and those include, of course, those in Quebec and providing new powers as well to the Commissioner of Official Languages.

Moreover, Bill C-13 does not affect the specific rights that the English-speaking community has in Quebec; indeed, this is a constitutional asymmetry that’s built into and reflected in section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, which provides for the protection of language rights of anglophones in Quebec in the administration of justice, before the judiciary and within the National Assembly, including providing for legislative bilingualism in our province. These rights, not enjoyed by most French-speaking minorities outside Quebec, remain fully in effect.

Now, we have heard outside this chamber and, indeed, today, of the concerns raised about the references in the bill to Quebec’s Charter of the French Language. But, colleagues — and here I say this with respect, and I wear my constitutional lawyer’s hat as much as any other — we have to be clear about what these references mean, what they do and what they don’t do. These references are statements of fact. They’re factual references, if you will allow me that phrase. In no way do they incorporate the Quebec charter into Bill C-13.

In legal terms, these are references of fact and observations of fact. They are not, to use legal terms, an incorporation by reference. No, this does not incorporate parts of the Quebec charter into Bill C-13. In no way does that do that, period.

Bill C-13 recognizes the reality that is part of the context within which language rights live and breathe in this country, and the context within which Bill C-13 attempts to modernize and promote the equality of our two official languages. It recognizes the reality that the Charter of the French Language exists as an important element in a province which houses a French-speaking majority. It does not make federal institutions, much less this law, subordinate to the Quebec charter.

As Warren Newman, a senior Justice Department official, said at committee in the other place:

I don’t see that federal services from federal institutions would be in any way compromised by the mere mention of the fact that the Charter of the French Language and other linguistic regimes are matters that the government recognizes as part of the overall context.

Bill C-13’s reference to the Charter of the French Language does not limit communications or services in English to Quebec’s English-speaking communities, because these are governed by sections 16(1) and 20 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and, as I had mentioned already, section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, as well as Part IV of the Official Languages Act.

Bill C-13 also does not limit access to English education as guaranteed by section 23 of the Charter. The references in fact do not endorse the Quebec charter, much less its subsequent invocation of the “notwithstanding” clause.

With the greatest respect, there are no constitutional issues raised by the references to the Quebec charter. They are references of fact and as part of the context within which this bill is meant to live.

[Translation]

As noted by the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada, Raymond Théberge, Bill C-13 reflects the different language regimes of our regions, whether it is the Charter of the French Language in Quebec, section 23 of the Manitoba Act or even the constitutional amendment made by the only officially bilingual province, New Brunswick.

Naturally, we can’t speak about our linguistic differences without recognizing the realities and the vulnerabilities of Indigenous languages.

[English]

As has been noted over the course of this debate, English and French are, by virtue of our Constitution, Canada’s two official languages. But they are by no means Canada’s only languages, and they are — let’s be frank — languages brought to these lands by colonial powers. Indigenous languages were being spoken here long before anyone from England or France knew that this continent even existed. And for far too long, Canadian governments have not only failed to protect Indigenous languages, but, for much of our history, actively sought to eliminate them.

Finally, in 2019, Parliament adopted the Indigenous Languages Act, which recognizes Indigenous language rights and supports efforts to revitalize Indigenous languages and promote their use. At the same time, Parliament created the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, whose mandate is to help promote and protect Indigenous languages and to review complaints made under the Act.

To support these efforts, the government allocated $840 million through 2025-26, with $117.7 million ongoing. Bolstered by these investments, the number of federally funded Indigenous‑language initiatives increased from 301 in 2019-20 to over 1,000 today.

These are positive, albeit initial, steps, with more work under way. The bill currently before us, Bill C-13, is distinctions-based legislation which seeks to protect and promote French and English. Bill C-13 is explicit, stating:

Nothing in this Act abrogates or derogates from any legal or customary right . . . with respect to any language other than English or French, including any Indigenous language.

It further states:

Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted in a manner that is inconsistent with the maintenance and enhancement of languages other than English or French, nor with the reclamation, revitalization and strengthening of Indigenous languages.

Colleagues, it is entirely valid for senators to ask questions about how Bill C-13 might impact or interact with Indigenous language rights and with efforts to protect Indigenous languages. I expect that the minister and her officials will be glad to provide answers on this subject at committee and to discuss the government’s consultation process, which I understand included engagement with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis National Council, as well as the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, among others.

Ultimately, our collective goal must be to have thriving Indigenous-language communities and thriving French- and English-speaking communities in majority and minority settings throughout Canada. The law we passed in 2019 advances the first objective, and Bill C-13 would advance the second.

Colleagues, this bill was an electoral promise the government made in 2021, and it received near-unanimous support in the other place, with 301 MPs in a minority Parliament voting for the bill at third reading. It responds to Quebec’s concerns about protecting its linguistic distinctiveness; it responds to the challenges faced by francophone communities outside Quebec; it respects the historic and constitutional rights of Quebec’s English-speaking communities; and it respects the rights of Indigenous peoples and the good work being done to protect Indigenous languages under the Indigenous Languages Act.

The purpose of this legislation is to preserve and promote the vitality and development of the two major official language communities in Canada.

[Translation]

We must support our official language minority communities, which include Quebec’s anglophones. However, we see the significant fragility of French in the country, and it is for that reason that Bill C-13 supports the substantive equality of English and French in order to protect these communities. All of this fulfills an important duty of the federal government, which is to promote and protect our linguistic duality, our history, our heritage, our culture and our legacy.

[English]

When both of Canada’s official language communities are strong and vibrant in minority and majority situations, we all reap the benefits. That’s why I urge senators to support this important bill, which will promote and protect French- and English‑speaking communities across this country.

I thank you for your attention, colleagues.