Originally published in TEACH Magazine, 50th Anniversary of the Official Languages Act Special Issue, 2019
By Martha Beach
Head to the grocery store and you’ll see shelves of products with French and English labelling. Fill out a passport application in either language. Type in a federal government URL, and you’ll be asked if you wish to proceed in French or English.
It’s second nature to expect that Canada is—at certain levels—bilingual, but it wasn’t always that way. If you were a member of a minority living in British Columbia in the early 1960s, filling out tax forms or finding schools that taught in your native tongue was unheard of.
Martha Beach lives and works in Toronto as a freelance fact-checker, editor, and writer for a wide variety of publications. When she’s not working, you’ll find Martha on her yoga mat or hanging out with her daughter and husband.
