DCHP-2

official language DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — Administration, Law, especially French relations

  one of the languages of government and governmental institutions on either federal, provincial or territorial levels.

  Type: 5. Frequency — In Canada, the phrase official language usually refers to either French or English, which are the languages of the federal government. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (see Charter entry) specifically names English and French as the official languages in Section 16, and goes on to guarantee that all federal parliamentary proceedings and publications will be executed in both (see Justice Laws Canada "Constitution Act, 1982" reference). The Official Languages Act, first passed into law in 1969 and most recently revised in 2005 (see Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages reference), similarly ensures equal treatment of French and English in federal jurisdictions. The Act requires that all federal services be offered in either language. The Official Languages Act expands on the Charter by communicating the government's pledge to the support the country's bilingual nature and encourage the "advancement" and "vitality" of the two languages (see Justice Laws Canada "Official Languages Act" reference).
  However, as this legislation only pertains to parliament and services under federal jurisdiction, provincial and municipal policies may and do differ (see, for example, the 1978 and 1987 quotations). The official language in most provinces and territories that declare such on that level is English, with the notable exception of Quebec, which is exclusively French on the provincial level, and New Brunswick and the Yukon Territory, which have both English and French as official languages. Nunavut added the Inuit language, referring specifically to Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun, to English and French, while the Northwest Territories has eleven official languages, comprised of nine aboriginal languages besides English and French. According to their 1984 Official Languages Act, the Northwest Territories' official languages are: Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib (Tłįchǫ), Gwich’in, North Slavey, South Slavey, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun and Inuinnaqtu, as well as English and French (see Northwest Territories ECE reference).
  The term official language appears most frequently in Canada (see Chart 1).

  See also: anglophone  Charter  francophone  heritage language  bilingual (meaning 2)  home language  Aboriginal language