Bilingualism Requirement for Supreme Court Judges Decried as Favouring French
Ottawa’s move to make bilingualism a requirement to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada has sparked criticism from diversity advocates who fear it will exclude qualified candidates who don’t speak both French and English. Some are also concerned that it will limit the talent pool and lead to bias in the judicial system.
In 2016, the federal government called for new Supreme Court justices to be functionally bilingual and, in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s words, “representative of the diversity of our great country.” This February, the government announced it would formally add bilingualism as a legal requirement for appointment to the Supreme Court by amending the Official Languages Act.
Pitting the representation of historically marginalized groups on the Supreme Court against another constitutionally protected minority Canada's francophones is a misguided race to the bottom.
English Language Education in India: How Aspirations for Social Mobility Shape Pedagogy
While English is not the official language of India, it has become the language of the ruling elite. Fluency in English is extremely sought after and brings with it the potential for social mobility to the underprivileged sections of society. But is an English-medium education the solution?
The United Nations celebrates English Language Day on 23 April, the date traditionally observed as both the birthday and date of death of William Shakespeare. Celebrating “language days” for each of its six official languages, the organisation’s stated purpose in doing so is to “celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity.”
It’s the most significant proposal on the status of French and English in Canada since the 1982 enactment of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which entrenched the main provisions of the 1969 Official Languages Act in the Canadian Constitution. The last major reform to the act was in 1988.
Both the charter and the act proclaim: “English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights … in all institutions of the Parliament and government.”
The new policy,
English and French: Towards a Substantive Equality of Official Languages in Canada is based on the recognition that French and English are not on the same footing in Canada and that the federal government is constitutionally obliged to do more to protect French from coast to coast.