Send a Letter to Your MP

Dear     ,
I am writing you to express my concern about Bill C-13, the federal government’s proposed legislation to modify the Official Languages Act (OLA), which gives the French language predominance across Canada and in Quebec.
This legislation will effectively repudiate the equality of English and French, which has been the imprimatur of official languages laws in Canada since the first act was passed in 1969, and which was the result of work of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission.
I want to emphasize that I believe firmly in the equality of the English and French languages everywhere in Canada. As a result, I am asking you to advocate for changes in the new bill, and failing that, to vote against it when it comes before Parliament. Here is why: .
• Bill C-13 extends the rules of Quebec’s Charter of the French Language into federally regulated workplaces in Quebec. This should be an option for companies, not an obligation.
• Bill C-13 does not extend the equality to work in French or English to all federally regulated workers in Quebec and Canada.
• Bill C-13 does not encourage the integration of English-speakers and non-francophones into the Quebec workforce, where they currently suffer from unemployment and lower incomes than French-speaking Quebecers.
• Bill C-13, while ensuring French-speakers have their right to work in French preserved, diminishes the rights of others to work in their own language.

I am requesting you support for:
1. A new OLA dedicated to the genuine equality of English and French;
2. An OLA applied to federally-regulated labour jurisdictions nationwide;
3. Progressive employment programs for Anglo-Quebecers and linguistic minorities across Canada;
4. A Federal-Provincial conference to create a nationwide legislative framework for language rights.

My riding has English-speakers, French-speakers and Allophones. These individuals are a core constituency to the success of your riding and your electoral support.

Please see www.protectourrights.ca for more information.

I can be reached at     and     to discuss.