ARCHIVED - Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages - Report

Percentage of responses to inquiries, complaints and requests for action that OCOL delivered in accordance with its service standards (Analysis of statistics on response time, once service standards are developed)

Quality of investigative process (identified in Report on Plans and Priorities as “Percentage of complaints resolved through a facilitated complaint resolution process: analysis of statistics on the resolution vehicle used to resolve complaints”)

Investigation of Complaints

Between April 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010, the Office of the Commissioner opened 1,819 files: three files were related to an investigation on the initiative of the Commissioner, 32 files were requests for an intervention by the Commissioner, 71 files were requests for information; and 1,713 files were complaints. Out of the 1,713 complaints received, 1,477 were admissible complaints³ related to the implementation of the Official Languages Act, including 876 directly related to the budget cuts at CBC/Radio-Canada in Windsor.

For the same period, the Office of the Commissioner closed 916 admissible complaints, which includes 520 complaints from the backlog and 396 complaints received during the fiscal year. At the end of 2009–2010, 1,905 admissible complaints remained open.

On June 1, 2009, the Office of the Commissioner implemented the facilitated resolution process and finalized an organizational restructuring to move forward with improving its ombudsman role.

The Office of the Commissioner also made limited progress this year on its performance measurement framework, developing basic service standards to facilitate a more rigorous assessment of investigations and the timeliness of its resolution of complaints.

Extent to which investigation, audit and annual report recommendations are implemented two years after their tabling (Follow-up and analysis of responses to OCOL recommendations received from federal institutions and organizations)

Percentage of interventions that led to improvements in the official languages practices of targeted federal institutions within two years of the intervention (Follow-up and analysis of the official languages practices in targeted federal institutions through quarterly reports to institutions, performance report cards, interventions’ correspondence)

The Office of the Commissioner uses several mechanisms to inform federal institutions and other organizations of their compliance performance regarding the Official Languages Act. These include audits, report cards, targeted communications relating to complaint investigations and representations before parliamentary committees. The Office of the Commissioner also maintains regular contact with official languages coordinators across Canada, including through attendance at the various departmental committees on official languages, as well as through regular liaison with federal institutions.

The Office of the Commissioner targeted three key airport authorities in 2009–2010, seeking to improve services in both official languages at the airports and increase the vitality of official language communities in Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver. It completed the Audit of the Management of the Official Languages Program at the Halifax International Airport and conducted an awareness campaign with key institutions that play a critical role in the provision of service to the travelling public: Vancouver Airport Authority, Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Canada Border Services Agency, Air Canada and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

Throughout the year, the Office of the Commissioner produced and distributed 78 regular reports to selected federal institutions, summarizing the status of complaints filed against them. The organization’s staff also met with managers and senior officials of key federal institutions as part of the implementation of the Office of the Commissioner’s new facilitated resolution process, and provided briefings on the new process to the Departmental Advisory Committee on Official Languages and the Crown Corporations Advisory Committee on Official Languages.

The Office of the Commissioner completed the planning for delivering information sessions to parliamentarians on compliance issues, scheduled for April 2010.

For broader awareness raising, the Office of the Commissioner updated its Internet and intranet sites to include more information on the new facilitated resolution process.

Audits

As noted in last year’s Performance Report, the Office of the Commissioner has revised its external audit policy to reflect the renewed ombudsman role of the Commissioner. The audit methodology, through a more collaborative approach with audited institutions, seeks the commitment of senior leaders to achieve positive, sustainable results for Canadians.

In 2009–2010, the Office of the Commissioner published an audit of the management of the Official Languages Program at Halifax International Airport, as well as a follow-up⁴ to its 2007 audit on the implementation of Part VII of the Official Languages Act at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

The Commissioner was generally satisfied with measures taken by the CRTC in response to his audit recommendations, as well as with CRTC’s action plan. All the activities developed so far—including the creation of the formal and structured discussion CRTC forum with official language communities—enabled fruitful consultations to take place with a good number of representatives of linguistic communities from across Canada, which has undoubtedly advanced the implementation of section 41 of the Official Languages Act at the CRTC.

The Office of the Commissioner believes that the CRTC still has work to do to review its broadcasting and telecommunications policies. A senior analyst at the Office of the Commissioner has been assigned to monitor progress on CRTC measures taken in response to the Commissioner’s recommendations 7a) and b), 9 and 10, as well as all activities related to the implementation of the Official Languages Act.

The Office of the Commissioner made important progress on other key audits, which will carry over into 2010–2011, including:

• Linguistic Audit of the Canadian Forces’ Individual Training and Education System: findings from last year’s examination were shared with the institution in November, which delivered an action plan at the end of February.
• Audit of the Delivery of Bilingual Services to the Public by Service Canada: examination began in January.

Measuring Compliance with the Official Languages Act (Report Cards)

In 2009–2010, as an experiment, the Office of the Commissioner published its annual report in two volumes, devoting Volume I to governance and Volume II to compliance. The institutional report cards in Volume II convey targeted messages on compliance, with the bonus of providing another opportunity to report on the Commissioner’s activities. The organization will evaluate the effectiveness of preparing a two-volume report before deciding to make it regular practice.

Intervention in Court Cases Involving the Official Languages Act

In 2009–2010, decisions related to official languages obligations were handed down in two cases in which the Commissioner intervened.

In the VIA Rail decision, the Federal Court clarified the obligations of institutions for the language requirements of positions; the Court also asserted that institutions are not limited to the minimum regulatory requirements for communicating with the public and provision of services.

In DesRochers v. Industry Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a judgment in 2009 establishing that federal institutions must provide services that respond to the specific needs of official language communities, instead of providing identical services to both language communities. The Commissioner highlighted the impact of this landmark decision, which marked the first time the Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted the scope of the right to receive services from federal institutions in both official languages pursuant to Part IV of the Official Languages Act. The Commissioner’s involvement as co-appellant before the Court carried through after the decision was handed down; the Commissioner discussed the impact of this judgment with ministers and representatives of federal institutions in his appearances before parliamentary committees, as well as during many public appearances.

Parliamentary Appearances by Commissioner

The Commissioner made 10 appearances before parliamentary committees this year, twice as many as last year.

Seven appearances related to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver. These discussions guided parliamentarians in many productive interventions with VANOC and with the federal institutions involved, and provided parliamentarians with the means to evaluate the results. Parliamentarians played an important role in ensuring that the Canadian public and foreign visitors could receive services in both official languages and experience Canada’s linguistic duality.

The Commissioner appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights to recommend passing Bill C-232, on the appointment of bilingual judges to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Other topics presented to parliamentary committees included the 2008–2009 annual report, second-language learning in Canada’s universities and the Nunavut Official Languages Act.

Annual Report

The Commissioner’s 2008–2009 annual report, published in May 2009, was extensively promoted among federal institutions and received significant media coverage. The report included a historical retrospective on 40 years of the Official Languages Act. In celebrating the 40th anniversary, the Commissioner called for new players to become involved—universities, other post-secondary institutions and youth—so that Canada could fully benefit from its linguistic advantage. The Commissioner pointed to the need for government to show strong leadership and a consistent approach to implementing official languages obligations, as well as the need to protect official languages programs and the language rights of individuals and official language communities despite economic challenges.

Promotion and Awareness Raising

To provide the Canadian public, parliamentarians and federal public servants with a better understanding of the goals of the Official Languages Act, his Office’s mandate and the official languages program in Canada, in 2009–2010 the Commissioner:

• conducted 90 interviews, garnering 1,447 mentions in Canadian media;
• gave 43 speeches at conferences and public events (including the launch of the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network and conferences on linguistic duality in New Brunswick; the status of French in Western Canada; Francophone immigration in Canada; and language planning in capitals and urban environments); and
• issued 11 news releases, including on landmark Court rulings.

The Commissioner’s staff also promoted linguistic duality in numerous other forums, including information booths at 16 national, 26 regional and 3 international events, reaching some 12,900 people.

The Office of the Commissioner capitalized on the 40th anniversary of the Official Languages Act to generate awareness, interest and public participation in linguistic duality through an array of promotional activities. For example, the organization produced a travelling exhibit, published a special e-newsletter and hosted a symposium. It also published the 40th anniversary special edition of the on-line newsletter Beyond Words, which has 1,415 subscribers across Canada. The Office of the Commissioner’s crowded agenda of outreach activities targeted key federal institutions, including Air Canada, Canada Post, the RCMP, Service Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, airport authorities, the CBC, Canadian Heritage, Treasury Board Secretariat, the Department of National Defence and the National Capital Commission.

The Office of the Commissioner’s Young Professionals Network, established in 2007 to strengthen the voice of younger employees in the organization and encourage them to take on an informal official languages ambassadorial role among public servants and Canadian society, organized a discussion forum on language of work in the fall of 2009. The forum brought together about 100 young public servants from more than 30 departments and agencies. In taking the pulse of the new generation of federal government employees, the forum revealed some best practices regarding the use of the official language of one’s choice and the use of both official languages at work. A number of participants made a personal commitment to take concrete steps to promote the use of both official languages in their work environment. The Network presented the forum’s results to the Council of the Network of Official Languages Champions in January. Through its efforts, the Young Professionals Network increased awareness of language-of-work rights and responsibilities, encouraged discussions in other institutions on the subject, and improved collaboration between young professionals throughout the public service on the issue, leading to many follow-up activities and presentations to various federal groups.

The Office of the Commissioner continued its work with regional federal councils across the country to support them as official languages leaders and encourage activities that would help member institutions meet their commitments under the Official Languages Act. This year, the Office of the Commissioner collaborated with the councils to promote the development of a strategic plan for official languages to raise the profile and knowledge of linguistic duality as a national value in the public service. Other progress with the federal councils stemmed from promotional efforts related to the 40th anniversary of the Official Languages Act.

Representations to Central Agencies and Other Organizations

The Commissioner meets regularly with the Clerk of the Privy Council, the Canadian Heritage Minister and the President of the Treasury Board to discuss the annual report and emphasize their role in implementing the recommendations.

For the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the Office of the Commissioner continued its awareness-raising efforts, meeting with key federal institutions and Games committees, including the Essential Federal Services Committee and the Federal–Provincial/Territorial Deputy Ministers’ Committee.

Regional Liaison with Official Language Communities

Meetings and presentations were organized in the regions with organizations and federal institutions, as well as with representatives from other orders of government in 2009–2010. Here are some highlights:

• The Commissioner was the keynote speaker at the first Pathways to Bilingual Success Conference in Toronto, where he met with 600 students from the Greater Toronto Area enrolled in French immersion, extended French and French-as-a-first-language programs.
• At the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) Administrators Conference in February, the Office of the Commissioner offered a special presentation titled “The Double Minority—Bilingualism in Today’s Canada” as part of the plenary panel.
• The organization’s Atlantic regional office, with the provincial branches of Canadian Parents for French, organized a series of discussion groups to follow up on the Commissioner’s report on second-language learning in Canadian universities.
• In August, the Commissioner participated in the festivities surrounding the 475th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s arrival in Gaspé by attending the inauguration of the William Wakeham Audio Tour, a historical account of a little-known Commander who contributed significantly to the development of the region’s commercial fishery. The new tour, co-created by the Committee for Anglophone Social Action, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation, provided Gaspé’s English-speaking community with a showcase for its historical and modern-day presence in the region.
• The Commissioner encouraged collaboration between the soon-to-be-completed Canadian Museum of Human Rights and official language communities, urging the Museum to take a proactive approach to official languages even as it develops its human resources policy and designs its exhibits. Already there are promising signs as the Museum has begun to recruit and hire bilingual staff and reflect on the language implications of the Canadian immigrant experience.
• The Commissioner attended the Nunavut language summit in Iqaluit. The Nunavut territory has begun implementing its newly adopted Official Languages Act and Inuit Language Protection Act. Invited by the Nunavut government, the Commissioner was continuing his commitment to share his expertise with officials of the Nunavut government and Nunavut’s Official Languages Commissioner.

Intervention in Court Cases Involving the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

In December 2008, the Commissioner appeared as an intervener before the Supreme Court of Canada in the cases of Ministre de l’éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, et al. v. Hong Ha Nguyen, et al., and Ministre de l’éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, et al. v. Talwinder Bindra. Both cases deal with access to minority language education in Quebec and were decided in 2009. Upholding the interpretation principles presented by the Commissioner, the Supreme Court of Canada—in a unanimous decision—confirmed that the right to minority language education (set out in section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) should be interpreted in a manner consistent with the constitutional objective of protecting linguistic minority communities. Despite confirming that the objective of protecting the French language in Quebec is an important and legitimate one, the Supreme Court struck down the Quebec National Assembly’s 2002 amendment to the Charter of the French Language that limited access to English-language public school education. The National Assembly of Quebec was given one year to correct the contested legislation.

The Commissioner also obtained intervener status in the Caron v. Alberta case before the Supreme Court of Canada in February 2010. In that case, the Commissioner argued that interim costs should be available in important constitutional cases related to language rights. The judgment rendered by the Supreme Court in this case will have a significant impact on Mr. Caron’s ability to carry on with his constitutional and language rights case before the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Research

Every year, the Office of the Commissioner conducts studies to enhance understanding among Canadians of how the status and use of English and French have evolved across the country. In 2009–2010, the Office of the Commissioner published three studies:

• A study examining the possibilities for second-language learning at Canadian universities, Two Languages, a World of Opportunities: Second-language Learning in Canada’s Universities is the first survey of second-language learning offerings at Canada’s 84 universities and identifies important gaps that prevent students from developing their second-language skills as they pursue higher education and prepare to enter the workforce. One goal was to raise awareness among key players—that is, universities and provincial and federal governments—of the importance of supporting second-language learning that continues after students finish secondary school. Four roundtable discussions in the Atlantic provinces generated practical dialogue about how to improve the training opportunities in each of the provinces. The success of these roundtables could be a springboard to similar discussions in the rest of the country.
• Vitality Indicators 3: Rural Francophone Communities in Saskatchewan is part of the third phase of a multi-year research project on the vitality of Canada’s official language communities in western Canada. For this study, the Office of the Commissioner examined the rural Saskatchewan region encompassing Duck Lake, St. Louis, Domremy, Hoey and St. Isidore-de-Bellevue. The goal was to determine how rural Francophone communities could contribute to their own vitality—the study was tailored to the community by integrating it in the existing collaborative “Projet du terroir”—and to evaluate progress made toward shared goals.
• Sponsored in partnership with Canadian Heritage, a study and summary report on the Francophone communities in the northern territories are scheduled to be launched in October 2010 at a meeting of Part VII coordinators.

The Office of the Commissioner undertook a research project exploring the essential competencies and behaviours that senior officials must demonstrate to fully integrate linguistic duality as a core value into the federal public service. This study on leadership in a bilingual public service takes a proactive approach to resolving problems related to language in the workplace.

Raising Our Game for Vancouver 2010: Towards a Canadian Model of Linguistic Duality in International Sport—A Follow-up examined the progress that had been made to satisfy the language requirements Canadian Heritage set out for VANOC for the Games in a multi-party agreement under the Official Languages Act. It also examined how well federal institutions, including Canadian Heritage, considered the Act’s language requirements as they planned their activities in the run-up to the Games. The Commissioner made 11 recommendations to VANOC, Canadian Heritage and other Canadian federal institutions, recommending that these organizations monitor their own official languages performance during the Games and report on successes and lessons learned. On the day the Commissioner’s follow-up report was published in September 2009, the Minister of Canadian Heritage announced $7.7 million in additional funding for bilingual permanent signage, resources for translation and interpretation, and bilingual nightly medal ceremonies. This fulfilled certain recommendations of the follow-up report.

The Office of the Commissioner’s also produced quarterly updates on the official languages aspects of the Games, as mandated by a motion adopted by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages.

A forum to enhance the understanding of linguistic duality among Canadians of diverse origins, held in Vancouver in December 2008, was summarized in a report distributed to forum participants in November 2009. The forum also sought to develop ties with participants and to pursue and expand on this crucial dialogue that began with an earlier forum in Toronto and will continue with a similar forum in Montréal, slated for 2012.

Finally, OCOL revisited its approach to monitoring and fostering the implementation of Part VII of the Official Languages Act; it conducted field studies and developed a multiple intervention strategy to craft a more comprehensive approach to ensuring that all federal institutions take positive steps that reinforce community vitality and promote the equality of English and French in Canadian society.

Human Resources Management

This year, the Office of the Commissioner implemented year two of the 2008–2011 Strategic Human Resources Plan, which included:

• the launch of a Leadership Development Program;
• the development of an Apprenticeship Program for the Compliance Assurance Branch to support the implementation of the renewed ombudsman role; and
• a student recruitment and bridging initiative.

The organization also continued to implement its three-year Employment Equity Plan, achieving a marked increase in the representation of visible minorities.

The results of the 2008 Public Service Employee Survey, answered by 90% of employees at the Office of the Commissioner, were validated during an exercise, and a corporate action plan was approved by the Executive Committee for implementation over the next 18 months. The action plan focuses on specific initiatives to create a healthy workplace culture, free of harassment and discrimination, and to address the issues of workload and perceived shifts in the organization’s priorities.

The Office of the Commissioner also submitted its annual comprehensive Departmental Staffing Accountability Report to the Public Service Commission. The feedback received was positive. The one area where improvement was required was in integrating human resources and business planning.

As a result of the Office of the Commissioner’s internal audit of human resources management practices, a Human Resources Management Advisory Committee was created during the fall of 2009 with a mandate to validate emerging human resources management priorities affecting the organization for input in the Strategic Human Resources Management Plan. The committee met twice and made recommendations to the Executive Committee.

Access to Information and Privacy Requests

In 2009–2010, the Office of the Commissioner received 18 requests and 10 consultations under the Access to Information Act, and 5 consultations under the Privacy Act. Although one Access to Information request was late, no complaints were filed against the Office of the Commissioner during this period.

Info Source was updated to increase conformity with the access to information and privacy acts.

Business Planning and Management Practices

For the seventh consecutive year, the Office of the Commissioner received an unqualified opinion on its financial statements from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, following the audit of its financial statements for 2009–2010.

The Office of the Commissioner reviewed its internal controls and presented the findings to the Audit Committee. Overall, the organization is satisfied with the state of its internal controls, and a few areas have been marked for improvement.

The Office of the Commissioner continued the three-year implementation of its performance measurement framework, but is also reviewing it in light of the implementation of an evaluation function and the integration of performance measurement with evaluation.

The Office of the Commissioner focused on improving its integrated planning process, learning from the pilot conducted in 2008–2009.

The Commissioner launched an A-Base Review to ensure that the organization has the right level of resources aligned with its strategic priorities and mandate, and that it creates a stable and effective organization over the next five years. The objectives of the review are to ensure that the Office of the Commissioner is doing the right work, doing it efficiently and doing what is needed to reduce pressure on its resources.

Internal Audit

The audit of human resources management practices was completed in 2009–2010. The Office of the Commissioner started an audit of its information management/information technology (IM/IT) governance; the report is expected to be completed in 2010–2011.

The Audit Committee members agreed to take on responsibilities related to the Office of the Commissioner’s new evaluation function, which will be put in place in 2010–2011 as a result of the revised Treasury Board Policy on Evaluation. The Committee was renamed the Audit and Evaluation Committee, accordingly.

The Audit and Evaluation Committee prepared and approved its second annual report, covering the period from April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010.

The Audit and Evaluation Committee met four times during the year and provided advice to the Office of the Commissioner to strengthen its governance, management control framework and risk management. The committee recognized the continuous progress being made in the organization and noted no serious weaknesses.