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Date: 1980-10-09
By: Unknown
Citation: Charter of Rights: Language Rights: Comments by Mr. Max Yalden, Commissioner of Official Languages (9 October 1980).
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CONFIDENTIAL
October 9, 1980

CHARTER OF RIGHTS: LANGUAGE RIGHTS: COMMENTS BY MR. MAX YALDEN, COMMISSIONER OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

In a meeting with Mr. Roger Tasse on October 9, Mr. Yalden indicated in a general way the position he will likely take on the language rights in the Charter if and when he appears before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Proposed Resolution.

Generally his comments will be favourable to the inclusion of language rights in an entrenched Charter as a demonstration of their importance in Canada. However, he will be critical of a number of omissions or limitations on the provisions and of the drafting of at least one provision.

Section 16 – Official Status and Use of English and French

Mr. Yalden is very pleased to see constitutional recognition being given to French and English as official languages and to their equality of use in all federal institutions.

Sections 17-19 & 21 – Institutional Bilingualism (legislatures, Debates and Courts) at Federal Level and in Quebec and Manitoba

Mr. Yalden is disappointed that these provisions have not been extended to New Brunswick and Ontario since they have such large minority language populations. He assumes New Brunswick will want to opt in and is critical of Ontario’s reluctance to do so.

Section 20 – Language of Services to Public

Mr. Yalden is generally pleased with this provision, although he would like to see more parallelism between it and the provisions of the Official Languages Act. He has two particular concerns about the drafting and intent of the provision. First, he notes that as the latter part of the provision is drafted (“and has the same right with respect to any other office… where that office is located in an area in which it is determined, in such manner as may be prescribed or authorized by Parliament, that a substantial number of persons within the population use that language”) it may be difficult to ensure services in both languages to persons living inside a “designated area” where some of the federal offices outside that area provide services to those people . In other words, a regional office in Halifax may serve the entire Maritimes but if only some area of New Brunswick is made a “designated area”, persons living there would not have a right to services in both languages from the Halifax office.