Canadian Cabinet Ministers Mandated to Tweet in Both English and French

The Commissioner of Official Languages for Canada has mandated that all federal ministers must tweet in both English and French languages. Graham Fraser, a former writer and journalist and now Canada’s sixth Commissioner of Foreign Languages, has recently reported that former Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird and Public Security Minister, Steven Blaney have both violated the language law because of their tweets in just one language.

The Official Languages Act

The language law violated by Baird would be the Official Languages Act. This Canadian law gives both the languages of English and French equal standing in the Canadian government. As they are given equal amounts of importance, both languages are considered official languages of Canada. As part of this law, all Canadians have the right to get services from all government departments in both of the official languages. Should there be any need for a Canadian to be heard before any federal court, they may communicate in the language of their choice.

The law further states that the Parliament will create laws and publish them in both languages and that there will be no preference for either version of the law, as they are both created equally. Lastly this law states that French and English are of equal standing within parts of the country that are known to be bilingual, at least for those public servants. However in other parts of the country, the language to be used at work by federal public servants could be either in French or English, depending on the location.

With this law, the Canadian government has set regulations that establish language requirements for certain jobs within the government. Therefore government departments and agencies need to make sure that all individuals sitting in any government position would be able to serve the public in both languages. Public servants who are partial to one language are usually given incentives to learn the other official language and language training is offered by the government.

Support of Canadian Citizens

However this law, despite its having been enacted since 1969, has not been fully supported by the Canadian citizens. In fact, according to polls, a good number of Canadians are said to feel that too much effort has been placed in the promotion of bilingualism, which does not aid in the overall growth of the country. On the government’s side, there are still agency posts that are filled by individuals who are not bilingual, which does not support the Official Languages Act. However with the diligence and constant reminders from the Official Languages Commissioner, there has been a vast improvement with regard to the posting of public servants in agencies.

Violation of the Law

According to the office of Fraser, the ministers do not necessarily have to be bilingual. However when they communicate with the public as part of their official obligations and duties, they must make use of both languages. They may make use of only one language but this can only be done within the privacy of their office and with their own staff. According to the investigation, Baird’s Twitter account was scrutinized and it was found that 89% of his tweets (181 tweets out of 202 tweets, to be exact) were written only in English in a span of two months.

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