Matthew Hayday – författare

Hayday shows how the language programs and policies initiated by the Trudeau government supported French-Canadian and Acadian minority communities, enabling them to develop minority language education systems and laying the groundwork for the minority language education rights contained in section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He examines how the dynamics of Canadian federalism shaped the implementation and development of language policy in six Canadian provinces and shows how advocates of these programs - politicians, bureaucrats, parents, lobbyists, and teachers - worked to ensure their success. These dynamic programs not only guaranteed minority language education rights but dramatically increased access to French second language instruction, particularly through the innovative new sector of French immersion.

Hayday shows how the language programs and policies initiated by the Trudeau government supported French-Canadian and Acadian minority communities, enabling them to develop minority language education systems and laying the groundwork for the minority language education rights contained in section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He examines how the dynamics of Canadian federalism shaped the implementation and development of language policy in six Canadian provinces and shows how advocates of these programs - politicians, bureaucrats, parents, lobbyists, and teachers - worked to ensure their success. These dynamic programs not only guaranteed minority language education rights but dramatically increased access to French second language instruction, particularly through the innovative new sector of French immersion.

Since the 1960s, bilingualism has become a defining aspect of Canadian identity. And yet, today, relatively few English Canadians speak or choose to speak French. Why has personal bilingualism failed to increase as much as attitudes about bilingualism as a Canadian value?In So They Want Us to Learn French, Matthew Hayday explores the various ways in which bilingualism was promoted to English-speaking Canadians from the 1960s to the late 1990s. He analyzes the strategies and tactics employed by organizations on both sides of the bilingualism debate. Against a dramatic background of constitutional change and controvery, economic turmoil, demographic shifts, and the on-again, off-again possibility of Quebec separatism, English-speaking Canadians had to decide whether they and their children should learn French. Highlighting the personal experiences of proponents and advocates, Hayday provides a vivid narrative of a complex, controversial, and fundamentally Canadian question.