Awards

• Long-listed for 2019 Hilll Times' List of 100 Best Non-Fiction Canadian Book (Canada) 2019
• Long-listed for 2019 Hilll Times’ List of 100 Best Non-Fiction Canadian Book (Canada) 2019
• Winner of 2019 Hilll Times' List of 100 Best Non-Fiction Canadian Book (Canada) 2019

Overview

Canada's official languages policy makes English and French the country's official languages in federal institutions. The policy has succeeded in fostering equitable representation of both official language groups in the federal public service and has improved capacities for the public service to serve the citizenry in its official language of choice. It is a puzzle, however, that the Canadian federal public service continues to operate predominantly in English-despite the legislative equality of both official languages as languages of work. This begs the question: why is there still inequitable access to French as a language of work in the federal public service despite the promise of the Official Languages Act (OLA) in 1969 for choice in language of work and the OLA 1988 that made the choice a claimable right? This book argues that the ""virtual"" failure of language of work is a function of how the official languages program was implemented: ultimately, it was unable to challenge the path dependency within the federal public service to operate predominantly in English.Only a close examination of the roles of actors and institutions that influenced the process, and a critical look at the lack of structural change, inadequate managerial engagement and the false sense that official languages are engrained in the public service, can explain the persistence of English as the dominant language of work. Rooted in extensive archival analysis and semi-directed interviews with former and current political and bureaucratic officials engaged in the implementation of the OLA, this book undertakes a historical analysis of efforts related to official languages in the federal public service in the National Capital Region from 1967-2013, providing the first in-depth study of this formative Canadian issue.

Full Product Details

9780776623351

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Reviews

Compelling and convincing : This book is situated at the confluence of public administration and language policy and manages to offer an important and original contribution to both fields. (...) Gaspard develops a compelling analytical narrative around institutionalism, path dependency and layering to explain the shortcomings of the successive language reforms and the role of various actors within the state apparatus. (...) This book should be included in reading lists and research on public administration in Canada. It convincingly illustrates the amount of time and effort devoted to language reform within the public service in Canada, which has not received the necessary attention from the field. It also has the potential to foster comparative studies with other countries that aim to have a linguistically representative bureaucracy. Gaspard offers a unique perspective that must not go unnoticed. -- Martin Normand * Canadian Journal of Political Science * Vous allez faire tout un impact avec ce que vous avez trouve la-dedans. C'est un travail de moine que vous avez fait. A lire absolument! -- Michel Picard

Vous allez faire tout un impact avec ce que vous avez trouve la-dedans. C'est un travail de moine que vous avez fait. A lire absolument! -- Michel Picard

Author Information

Helaina Gaspard, PhD, is Director, Governance and Institutions at the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa.

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