Confusing and conflicting agendas: Federalism, official languages and the development of the bilingualism in education program in Ontario, 1970-1983

Journal of Canadian Studies, Spring 2001 by Matthew Hayday

For the purposes of crafting an education agreement, it was likely that Trudeau's liberal conception of access to education would be favoured. It is also clear that the predominant focus of the federal government with respect to language policy was on the rights of francophones. In particular, it was concerned with those francophones living outside of the province of Quebec, as they lacked a champion, the Quebec government having abandoned them, and the Catholic Church no longer having the desire or finances to support them.10

Indeed, prominent demographers had pointed out a number of disturbing trends regarding Canada's francophone population, which were a major concern of francophone lobby groups such as the Association canadienne-franfaise de l'Ontario (ACFO). The "bilingual belt" stretching from northern and eastern Ontario to western New Brunswick was becoming home to an ever-greater proportion of Canada's bilingual and francophone populations, as francophones intermarried with anglophones or otherwise assimilated into the English-speaking majority in the rest of the country.11 Moreover, young francophones were found to be adopting English as their language of daily usage at much higher rates than their parents.12 Given these realities, the number of francophones outside the bilingual belt was likely to continue to decline if no remedial measures were taken.

Federal intervention in an area of provincial jurisdiction, such as education, was not a novel concept. Such arrangements normally entailed provincial implementation of federally funded programmes that were to meet national standards. A study conducted by the federal government in 1970 found that 90 per cent of Canadians supported government initiatives to encourage the teaching of English in French schools, and 86 per cent supported encouraging the teaching of French in English schools.13 Only 49 per cent of English-speaking Canadians, however, supported making French a compulsory subject in English schools. The study also showed a considerable lack of enthusiasm for government action - 74 per cent of French Canadians, but only 45 per cent of English-speaking Canadians - to help francophone students outside of Quebec maintain their own language.14 Thus, the federal government was in a conundrum, given that its primary objective - promoting the education rights of francophone minorities - was politically unpopular.

French-language education in Ontario, previously either non-existent, illegal or poorly funded, had begun to evolve in the few years prior to the start of the BER On 24 August 1967, Premier John Robarts announced that his government would establish and fund French-language public secondary schools where numbers warranted it,15 extending the system beyond its established publicly funded Frenchlanguage elementary schools. In 1968, provincial regulations were amended to permit the establishment of French-language secondary schools or classes by local school boards.16 The Schools Administration Act, 1968, introduced under Education Minister William Davis, made the establishment of French-language elementary school classes mandatory when requested by a minimum number of francophone ratepayers in the district.17 It must be noted that the system of education in the province of Ontario was a highly decentralized one, in which local school boards made most of the curriculum decisions, including whether or not to offer Frenchlanguage classes. The provincial government acted largely as a funding agent, providing grants to the boards on a per-student basis.