Forty years ago the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism published its report on education. What impact has the report had on language policy and how have those policies affected Canadians?
Glendon College is hosting a conference, "Bilingualism in Canada 40 Years after the Laurendeau-Dunton Commission", on Thursday and Friday. Scholars, civil servants, lawyers and educators will explore the report’s legacy and examine Canada’s language policies from the 1960s to the present.
Official Languages commissioner Graham Fraser (right), author of Sorry I Don’t Speak French, will open the conference by giving the Avie Bennett Historica Lecture in Canadian History Thursday at 4pm in the Senate Chamber in Glendon’s York Hall.
Participants include members of the original bilingualism commission as well as former official languages commissioner Dyane Adam; historian Michel Brock of Ottawa University; Réjean Lachapelle of Statistics Canada; and Julius Grey of McGill University’s Faculty of Law.
Organized by Marcel Martel, a York history professor, and Martin Pâquet, a history professor at Université Laval, the conference has received the support of the Avie Bennett Historica Chair in Canadian History, the Chair for the development of research on French-language culture in North America (CEFAN), York’s History Department and Glendon College.
For the conference program, click here.