The Challenge of Bilingualism: ParticipACTION Campaigns Succeeded in Two Languages

ParticipACTION's history (1971-2001) paralleled the recognition and promotion of English and French as Canada's two official languages. "In establishing the legal infrastructure for the official languages - first by the initial act of 1969, then by sections 16 to 23 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and, lastly, by the new Act in 1988 - the federal government made linguistic duality a fundamental part of the Canadian identity."1

During that same period, Canada became more linguistically diverse and underwent challenging debates on national unity. The French Canadian identity slowly gave way to the Francophone regional identities of the Quebecers, Acadians, Franco-Saskatchewanians, …