Federally-regulated private sector employees should expect annoying complaints under Canada’s bilingualism law, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .“While some official language complaints are well-founded and require corrective action, our members have in recent years faced increasing complaints that are vexatious in nature and do not in our view protect or assist with the values the act stands for,” Association of Canadian Port Authorities (ACPA) CEO Daniel-Robert Gooch told the House of Commons Official Languages Committee. .“Our member ports are regularly diverted by complaints from out of province individuals who developed a niche business reviewing port websites.”.The ACPA said members received numerous frivolous complaints over petty breaches of the Official Languages Act. Gooch said unnamed serial complainers were “earning thousands of dollars simply by searching for these materials online.”.Gooch was testifying about Bill C-13, which would mandate bilingualism in federally-regulated private businesses, such as banks and grain mills, operating in any region with a strong francophone presence. The term strong francophone presence is undefined. .He said people are abusing the complaint system. .“I’ll give you an example,” he said..“They’ve discovered they can just go on websites and, ‘Oh, OK, this consultation document, do you see on the bottom of page five you refer to an appendix and that is in English?’”.Gooch did not identify complainants. Airport managers in Federal Court of Canada documents named Ottawa resident Michel Thibodeau as a frequent complainer who collected thousands of dollars over technical breaches of the Official Languages Act. .A federal judge awarded Thibodeau $11,000 in damages and costs in 2021 after he discovered the St. John’s Airport Authority wished travelers “happy St. Patrick’s Day” in English only. Airport lawyers said he filed six complaints after searching the St. John’s Authority website for technical breaches..Thibodeau in a separate case received $8,900 in damages and costs from the Edmonton Regional Airports Authority after he filed complaints, including a grievance that identification badges worn by Travelers Aid volunteers were restricted to English. The Federal Court learned he had about 50 complaints in reserve against the Edmonton Regional Airports Authority, and he would ask for $1,500 per complaint for a total of $75,000. .Canadian census data revealed on Sept. 22 showed French is the fifth or sixth most spoken language in provinces west of Quebec, trailing behind Mandarin and Tagalog in major English-speaking cities. .READ MORE: French trails Mandarin and Tagalog in most spoken languages in Canada.“We know French is on the decline across Canada,” said Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor. .The Toronto area had about four million residents identify English as the language spoken most often at home, with Mandarin (204,415), Cantonese (177,950), Punjabi (161,965), and Urdu (89,120) following. French came in 19th place (27,420).
