Quebec moves to protect French amid Canada’s shift towards English
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New figures show that French language use continues to decline in Canada, including in Quebec, the historically Francophone province, where the number of people whose first spoken language is English now exceeds 1 million. This unprecedented situation comes at a time when efforts to protect French in Quebec are intensifying.
The rate of French language use has fallen in Quebec and almost all of Canada. The Canadian government’s latest figures, published Wednesday, show that the proportion of Canadians who predominantly speak French at home is declining throughout the country, with the exception of the sparsely populated Yukon Territory in the Far North.
While population growth for Canadians who speak French as their first official language – the country has two, French and English – stands at 1.6 percent from 2016 to 2021, overall population growth stands at 5.2 percent over the same period.
Furthermore, the proportion of Canadians who speak French as their first official language dropped from 22.2 percent to 21.4 percent in the same five-year span.
The trend is not new. The demographics related to French language use in Canada have been declining since 1971, and in the province of Quebec since 2001, according to Statistics Canada.
The federal minister of official languages, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, described the data as “worrisome”. French is more under threat in Canada, including in Quebec, than ever, according to the minister.
In keeping with her promise to fight the “decline of French”, Taylor in March tabled a bill to modernise Canada’s Official Languages Act, which came into law more than 50 years ago and has not undergone “major reform” since 1988, according to a government website.
Among the avenues being explored are the recognition of French as the official language of Quebec, the bilingual status of the eastern province of New Brunswick, and the bilingualism of judges on Canada’s Supreme Court.
In Quebec, the proportion of people who speak English as their first language has increased by 1 percent in five years, and their numbers have surpassed 1 million. Statistics on the first language spoken at home – the most significant indicator of the linguistic situation – show that the English-speaking population has increased by 1.2 million, while the French-speaking population has increased by 120,000, 10 times less.
