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Canada's two official languages, English and French, are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population, respectively. On July 7, 1969, under the Official Languages Act, French was made commensurate to English throughout the federal government. This started a process that led to Canada redefining itself as an officially "bilingual" nation. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French. While multiculturalism is official policy, to become a citizen one must be able to speak either English or French, and 98.5% of Canadians speak at least one (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). French is mostly spoken in Quebec, but there are substantial francophone populations in parts of New Brunswick, eastern and northern Ontario and southern Manitoba. Of those who speak French as a first language, 85% live in Quebec. French is the official language of Quebec. New Brunswick is the only bilingual province in the country. No provinces other than Quebec and New Brunswick have constitionally official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in all of the majority English or Inuktitut speaking provinces and territories. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). |
Canada Information: Inside
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