The single most deleterious piece of federal legislation that has and will continue to negatively impact Alberta is the Official Languages Act (1969). It was brought in when the Liberals had a majority government and there was insufficient voting numbers in the West to have any impact on whether or not this act was passed. In effect, the west simply did not have an effective vote in terms of this act being passed nor the way in which it has been/continues to be implemented. This is changing now with what seems to be a run of minority federal governments.

In 1989, the Supreme Court of Canada held that the Quebec language law (Law 101) was unconstitutional. The Quebec government successfully invoked the provisions of the Notwithstanding Clause of the Charter to over-ride this decision. While there is a provision that an over-ride must be reviewed every 5 years, this has not been a problem. Law 101 (QC) stands today, just as it was intended to do in 1989.

It is time for Alberta to use the notwithstanding provision of the Charter to ensure that English remains the functional language/culture of Alberta.

English is far and above the dominant/functional language in Alberta and deserves to be protected - just as Law 101 has protected the French language/culture in QC. Since Alberta was incorporated in 1905, English has been the dominant language/culture and it will probably remain as such. With this comes a "reasonable expectation" that people choosing to locate in Alberta must be/or work to become fluent in English. For the most part, it has happened over the decades but in the last 5-10 years this expectation seems to be faltering under the guise of "Reasonable Accommodation".

Of even greater concern is the little known Law S-3. Yes, this is a federal law but with huge ramifications for Alberta - not a whole lot of them good. Few people in AB even realize that this law exists.

Laws S-3 (an amendment to the Official Languages Act/ 2005) emanated in the Senate with two of the principal sales people being Hugh Segal (Conservative) and Don Budria (Liberal). With their help, it was ushered through the senate and then very quietly ushered through the House of Commons for the necessary three readings. The two people must have done a super sales job on the sitting MPs in order to get this (then bill) through the house of commons with no public debate - particularly in Western Canada.

In 2005, Law S-3 was given all party approval in the House of Commons which allowed it to be signed into law by the Governor General. It was given royal assent on Nov 25/2005 - a few days before the last federal election and is now law in Canada.

Question:
Where was your MP as this bill was moving through the House of Commons? My guess is that they were pretty much muzzled in order to prevent any kind of public debate on the subject.

What does this Law do?
It pretty much mandates the use of French across Canada on demand - not as before, "where numbers warrant". Apparently if someone demands services in French and is not satisfied, they have a legal remedy - and by the way, you and I get to pay for the legal challenge via our taxes should it happen.

Not only will French be expanded, but as with all other federal legislation designed to protect the Francophone minority, other linguistic minorities are bound to argue that it should apply to them as well. Will they succeed? Given the track record of the Supreme Court of Canada, they just may well succeed. Do we have to allow it to happen? No we don't. We can use the Notwithstanding Clause to negate the application of Law S-3 as it applies to Alberta.

There was/is no will within the current or past AB governments to do this. The upcoming election will hopefully make it happen.