Timeline of Official Languages Policy in Canada

Timeline Of Official Languages Policy In Canada

Because the country contains two major language groups, in Canada Official languages policy has always been an important and high-profile area of public policy.

In an exhaustive 1971 study of Canadian language law prepared for the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, Claude-Armand Sheppard offered this definition for the term “official language”: “ official language is a language in which all or some of the public affairs of a particular definition are, or can be, conducted, either by law or custom. We take public affairs to comprise the parliamentary and legislative process, administrative regulations, the rendering of justice, all quasi-judicial activities, and the overall day-to-day administration.”

This article lists key events in the evolution of language policy in Canada since 1710, when the French-speaking population of Acadia first came under British administration. The timeline covers the policies of the colonial predecessors to the current Canadian state, and the policies of Canada's provinces and territories. The policies listed include:

• Legislative changes including constitutional amendments, acts of Parliament, and Orders in Council;
• Major policy announcements including abortive policy proposals that were never implemented;
• Key administrative initiatives governing the implementation of major policies;
• Court decisions relating to Canada's language laws.

These policy changes have been important to the extent that they affected the lives of individual Canadians. Therefore, in order to give some idea of the relative importance of various policies over the centuries, population statistics for Canada’s different language groups are included where such information is available.