A Focus on Parliamentary Language(s)
It’s been said that language is the roadmap of a culture, revealing both where a people has come from and where they are headed. As we explore “parliamentary language(s),” we can see how our democratic institutions communicate Canada’s history and anticipate our path forward.
As an officially bilingual country, Canada’s federal parliamentarians have the right to use either English of French in debates or proceedings (with simultaneous interpretation to facilitate communication). Other jurisdictions in the country have granted official status to Indigenous languages as well. In Nunavut, Inuktut (Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun) is treated equally with English and French in government services and institutions, while the Northwest Territories recognizes 11 official languages: Dene Kǝdǝ́, Dëne Sųłıné, Dene Zhatıé, Dinjii Zhuʼ Ginjik, English, French, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, nēhiyawēwin, and Tłı̨chǫ.
Whether a parliament is unilingual, bilingual, or multilingual, the parliamentarians who sit within an Assembly’s chamber(s) and the people they represent are linguistically diverse. The 2021 Census reported that one in five Canadian households is multilingual (using two or more languages at home). While English and French are the most common languages used by Canadians, the census enumerated a total of 474 languages, including 72 Indigenous languages, Quebec Sign Language, and American Sign Language.
As we planned articles for this theme issue, it became abundantly clear that we would only be able to scratch the surface of this topic. Ideas for content exploring how interpretation works in the multilingual territorial Assemblies, the challenges interpreters have experienced with virtual/remote proceedings, the development of parliamentary communication services for people with disabilities, how parliamentarians communicate
with significant minority language populations in their constituencies, and many others were carefully filed away for a future sequel.
However, the articles we present here reflect some important facets of how parliamentary language(s) work in theory and in practice, and what this says about our country. From articles exploring how creating space for Indigenous languages in parliaments contributes to reconciliation, to the challenges of crafting bilingual legislation, to a survey of multilingual parliaments within the Commonwealth, to a critique of how equal status of languages does not necessarily mean equitable use of these languages, we hope this issue prompts reflection and discussion about how we communicate within democratic institutions and how they speak to Canadians.
If you have an idea for an article on this topic you would like to contribute to a future issue, we would welcome hearing from you.
Will Stos
Editor, Canadian Parliamentary Review