The Bilingualism subseries contains 64 files discussing the city of Ottawa by-law making Ottawa officially bilingual. Files are arranged by topic. This subseries contains a variety of document types including newspaper clippings, correspondence, newsletters, press releases, memorandum, court documents, background info, reports, legislation, Dialogue Magazine, research, speeches, meeting agendas for anglophone rights groups, meeting agendas for Human Rights Institute of Canada public meetings about bilingualism, census data for statistics on language use and population, job postings with bilingualism as a pre-requisite, telephone transcripts, implementation manuals, and bilingualism policies. The specific topics this subseries covers are a bilingualism by-law in the city of Ottawa after amalgamation, bilingual education in Ontario, Moncton being declared a bilingual city, the Monfort Hospital in Ottawa offering French language medical training, bilingualism as a job requirement in the federal government as well as municipal jobs in bilingual cities, funding through Heritage Canada for translation and language training, cost associated with translation and language training at the federal level to implement a bilingual government, language rights in Quebec, Quebec language laws, discrimination against Anglophones in Quebec, activism of English rights groups such as Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada (APEC), opinions on bilingualism and multiculturalism, support from Human Rights Institute of Canada members for the Institute’s work on bilingualism, organising screenings of a documentary called “The Rise and Fall of English Montreal,” and mutual support between the Institute and anglophone rights groups. Marguerite Ritchie and the Human Rights Institute of Canada opposed the implementation of bilingualism in the federal government and for the city of Ottawa because anglophones made up the majority of the population and francophones are significantly more likely to be bilingual. The Institute was concerned that official bilingualism in Ottawa would lead to discrimination against anglophones in municipal funding for cultural groups and in employment with the city by placing language qualifications above other qualifications. Marguerite Ritchie also questioned whether it was legal for a by-law to make a city bilingual without the permission of the province. The Government of Ontario stated that being the Capital Region, Ottawa was considered exempt from that rule, however Gatineau did not become bilingual despite being part of the Capital Region. Subseries includes some correspondence with board members and Institute members resigning in protest of the Institute’s position on bilingualism.
