Canada’s Native Languages: The Right of First Nations to Educate Their Children in Their Own Languages

Canada used to consider itself not only a bilingual, but also a bicultural country.1 Biculturalism was based on the idea that Canada had two founding cultures, the French-language culture dominant in Quebec and the English-language culture dominant everywhere else, with French and English minorities scattered across the country. This view of Canada obviously failed to recognize both the Aboriginal cultures that existed prior to European contact and the cultures of those immigrants who came to Canada with no knowledge of French or English or with knowledge of those languages but otherwise distinguishable culture.