Bilingual services for Vancouver Games still a concern: languages report

Canada's commissioner of official languages expressed concern Tuesday in his annual report to Parliament over the state of bilingual services in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

With the focus of the international community's attention soon to fall on Canada during the Olympics, Graham Fraser said he is worried whether the 2010 Games organizers and many federal institutions participating in the event will be able to fulfil their commitment to provide services and communications in both English and French.

"Canada will only be able to welcome athletes and visitors in the country's and the International Olympic Committee's two official languages if the federal government demonstrates exemplary leadership and commitment on this issue," Fraser said in a statement.

Fraser also singled out Canada's major airports, with the exception of Montreal, for poorly protecting the language rights of travellers, a "weakness that the government should seek to correct very quickly."

In his report, Fraser also urged the federal government to resist cutting the official languages budget during the current economic crisis, insisting Canada has not lived up to the expectations expressed in the Official Languages Act 40 years ago.

"The Canadian government has too often ignored the fact that the health of Canada's language regime depends on the health of all its components," he said. 

"A weakening of leadership from federal institutions in one area of linguistic duality is all it takes for problems to surface in all areas."

The goal of the Official Languages Act, passed in 1969, is to protect the rights of Canadians who speak only one official language. It requires all federal services to be available in both English and French everywhere in the country.

Fraser, a former journalist who was appointed as official languages commissioner in 2006, serves as an ombudsman and advocate for English and French bilingualism in the federal government and in Canadian society.