Message from Interim Commissioner for Franco-Ontarian Day

On this Franco-Ontarian Day, I would like to take a moment to celebrate the major milestones that Francophones have seen so far in 2023.

We Franco-Ontarians are now more than 650,000 strong, from diverse origins. This means that more than 30,000 new French speakers have settled in the province since the last census, in 2016. That’s 30,000 more Francophones who have the right to provincial government services in French.

The role of the French Language Services Commissioner is to ensure the French Language Services Act is respected, and to make recommendations to improve the provision of government services in French, in order to support the Francophone community.

Our team at the Office of the Ombudsman is there to help all Francophones in the province with any issues they may encounter. Francophones can count on us to protect their language rights. We strive to make sure that the Ontario government, its agencies, third parties and institutions of the Legislature make an active offer of services in French, according to the new regulation that came into force in Ontario on April 1, 2023. This new regulation – a promising milestone – is aligned with the vision that our Office has put forward, which asserts that government services in French must be equivalent to those in English, and provided without delay.

There is still much to do, and we are continually working to ensure that all organizations subject to the French Language Services Act meet their obligations. I would like to thank all the Francophones who have placed their trust in us and who contact us to resolve their problems in accessing government services in French. We are currently preparing the Annual Report of the French Language Services Commissioner, slated for publishing in early December. The Annual Report will detail the cases (complaints and inquiries) that were submitted to us and that we helped to resolve.

It is worth remembering that in the past two years, legislation affecting French speakers in Ontario has been significantly updated. Their linguistic rights were bolstered at the provincial level in 2021 with the modernization of the French Language Services Act, and at the federal level, Canada's Official Languages Act was modernized in June of this year. It’s essential that we maintain strong collaborative ties with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada to ensure that Francophones in Ontario can exercise their right to services in their language. That is why, in April, we signed a collaboration agreement between the Ontario Ombudsman and the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada.

I will conclude by celebrating the historic recognition that Notre place, the Franco-Ontarian anthem, has just received, with its induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. The song by François Dubé and Paul Demers beautifully captures the spirit of the French Language Services Act, which recognizes the contribution of the cultural heritage of the richly diverse Francophone population and expresses a wish to protect this heritage for future generations.

As the song says in French (very roughly translated), “To put the accents where they belong / We must stand up, we must celebrate / Our place, today for tomorrow.”

Today for tomorrow, then, let us show our Franco-Ontarian pride, and celebrate these accomplishments together!

Happy Franco-Ontarian Day!

Carl Bouchard
Interim French Language Services Commissioner