CANADA’S NEW POLICY TO STRENGTHEN THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT - FOCUSED ON THE BILL C-13

CANADA’S NEW POLICY TO STRENGTHEN THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT - FOCUSED ON THE BILL C-13

Canada became a bilingual country that spoke both English and French through the Official Languages Act enacted in 1969. The Official Languages Act, which has continued to this day after revisions in 1988 and 2005, has greatly contributed to narrowing the social and economic gap that existed between English and French speakers in Canada. However, despite the implementation of the Official Languages Act, French still exists as a minority language among official languages in Canada today and is not guaranteed equal status and rights to English. There have been several attempts to revise the Official Languages Act, but it has not come to fruition. Canada's official language committee minister and the Canadian government proposed a revision to the official language law called Bill C-13 in March 2022, which was eventually enacted after approval from the House of Representatives, the Senate of Canada, and the royal family in June 2023. This study examines the problems of the Official Languages Act through the enactment of Bill C-13 while examining the impact of this law on Canadian society in the future.