French Language in Canada

French Language In Canada

French is the mother tongue of about seven million Canadians (22.3% of the Canadian population, second to English at 58.4%). Most native French speakers in Canada live in Quebec, where French is the majority and sole official language. About 80% of Quebec's population are native francophones, and 95% of the population speak French as their first or second language. Additionally, about one million native francophones live in other provinces, forming a sizable minority in New Brunswick, which is officially a bilingual province, where about one third of the population are francophone. There are also fairly large French-speaking communities in Manitoba and Ontario, where francophones make up about five percent of the population, as well as significantly smaller communities in Alberta, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Many, but not all of these communities are supported by French-language institutions.

By the Official Languages Act in 1969, Canada recognized English and French as having equal status in the government of Canada. While French, with no specification as to dialect or variety, has the status of one of Canada's two official languages at the federal government level, English is the native language of the majority of Canadians. The federal government provides services and operates in both languages. French is the sole official language in Quebec at the provincial level and is co-official with English in New Brunswick. The provincial governments of Ontario, New Brunswick, and Manitoba are required to provide services in French where justified by the number of francophones (those whose mother tongue is French). However, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires all provinces to provide primary and secondary education to their official-language minorities at public expense. The French used in Canada is regulated by the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF), previously known as the Office de la langue française (OLF).