Last year, the focus of my annual report was on compliance. With the introduction of policies supporting Francophone immigration outside Quebec, the government has recognized that these high levels of immigration represent a challenge for official language communities. It was not until 1967 and the changes to the Immigration Act that Canada began to receive a significant number of immigrants from Asia and Africa.įour decades after the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism recommended a policy of multiculturalism, Canada is one of the few countries in the developed world where one can find not only consistently high levels of immigration, but also a very positive public attitude in this regard. The postwar years saw a new wave of immigration from Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal and the Netherlands and, in 1957, from Hungary. Immigration at that time, and for another three decades, was overwhelmingly European. And seven decades ago, it was significant that a journalist and author based in British Columbia should recognize the essential duality of the country. In 1942, Bruce Hutchison wrote, “ Canada is not English-that is the first thing to understand.” Footnote 1 At the time, he meant that there was a cohesive, traditional, Catholic, French-speaking society at the heart of the country. Graham Fraser The Speaker of the House of Commons

Pursuant to section 66 of the Official Languages Act, I hereby submit to Parliament, through your good offices, the annual report of the Commissioner of Official Languages covering the period from April 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015.

Infographic: English-speaking immigrants in Quebec.Infographic: French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec.

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