Confusing and Conflicting Agendas: Federalism, Official Languages and the Development of the Bilingualism in Education Program in Ontario, 1970-1983

Abstract

The Bilingualism in Education Program began in 1970 as a federal government initiative to promote official minority language education and second-language instruction in the provinces. This article, a study of the development of language policy under the Trudeau government, examines the evolution of the progran1me over its first 13 years of operation in the province of Ontario. Over this period, friction developed between the federal and provincial governments and the Franco-Ontarian lobby groups as the programme evolved away from the original objectives of the federal government. Constrained by provincial jurisdiction over education under the Canadian federal system, Ottawa was unable to control the implementation of this programme. Consequently, the progran1me grew to cater more to the interests of the anglophone majority of Ontario, than to its francophone minority. As the negotiation process proceeded, issues of control and finance came to take precedence, while pedagogical issues tended to fall by the wayside.