NB Francophones plot to increase French language usage

"The Official Languages Act of 2002 has led to major advances in the language employed by municipalities, police, health services, in terms of creating the post of Commissioner of Official Languages.”

The English in New Brunswick have to defend their language rights out of their own pockets, while the French take our taxes to expand French language usage.

Translated from a French New Brunswick newspaper:-

Three groups of Francophone Acadians have been invited to participate in the review of the Official Languages Act of New Brunswick, which must occur by December 31, 2012.  A symposium will be held for this purpose on 19 and 20 November organized by the Association of French Speaking Jurists of New Brunswick (AJEFNB), the International Observatory of Linguistic Rights of the Faculty of Law at the University of Moncton and the Acadian Society of New Brunswick (ASNB) and the timing directly links to the provincial election campaign that officially begins in mid-week. They feel the next government of New Brunswick will have on its agenda the revision of the Official Languages Act since they have no choice - it is required by law.

The three Francophone Acadian groups will be well prepared for the review process and have decided to start the debate immediately, claimed lawyer Michel Doucet of the International Observatory. They already met with the Prime Minister on August 14 and want the Francophone community to have its own working committee for this review. They have declared "If the government is not ready, we will be. "

The conference will primarily be an exercise in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of this Act, and an analysis on the changes needed, if any.

"The Official Languages Act of 2002 has led to major advances in the language employed by municipalities, police, health services, in terms of creating the post of Commissioner of Official Languages. But is seen as having been adopted without debate around the law without any input from the community. Some of the provisions which were considered very attractive are still very ambiguous, For example, the police. When we say that the police officer who arrests someone on the roadside has a duty to provide service in the language of the choice of their client in a reasonable time What does "reasonable" mean? Some courts say that 45 minutes is reasonable. Others say the opposite, "says Michel Doucet. The lawyer explained that the symposium will provide Acadians to review various aspects of the law in deciding whether there should be improvements, especially when it comes to service delivery and working language in the public or powers of the Commissioner of Official Languages.

"What do people want? Do they want to make improvements to the law? It is quite possible that we are mistaken and that people say it is just fine."

"The invitation to the general public, the Acadian organizations. We hope to have a lot of people because it is of public interest," adds his colleague AJEFNB.

Following discussions, a report with recommendations will be submitted to the government. The President said that his organization SANB will push for a committee to be established jointly with the government to follow up on this issue.