Reflecting on the Official Languages Act at 50: Was the Advent of the Charter so Great After All?
This piece examines more closely the relationship between the OLA and the Charter, arguing that the relationship between the two rights instruments is much more fraught than commonly believed. The advent of the Charter and its entrenchment of language rights have always been seen as unquestionably p...
| Published in: | International Journal of Canadian Studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
2021
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/ijcs.59.x.78 https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/ijcs.59.x.78 |
| Summary: | This piece examines more closely the relationship between the OLA and the Charter, arguing that the relationship between the two rights instruments is much more fraught than commonly believed. The advent of the Charter and its entrenchment of language rights have always been seen as unquestionably positive for the OLA. However, it may be time to re-evaluate that belief. Using the concept of “constitutional displacement,” the article suggests that the Charter also had the effect of overshadowing the OLA, which limits its potential for reform. A similar fate befell other statutes, such as the Canadian Bill of Rights. By way of contrast, the OLA is compared to the Inuit Language Protection Act (ILPA) in Nunavut to suggest that the latter enjoys a higher profile in the territory and has more potential for expansion precisely because of the lack of clearly defined, entrenched Indigenous language rights in the constitution. |
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