Mystery shoppers to test airport bilingualism

The people still harbouring a grudge over the French on corn flakes boxes probably are steaming about the federal government's plan to send mystery shoppers to major airports to see how bilingual they are.

Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser says his office will deploy under-cover observers to conduct 1,500 checks at eight travel hubs, The Canadian Press reports.

"We've looked at border services, we've done an audit of Air Canada's service to the public, and now we're looking at airports," Fraser said Wednesday.

Airports in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax will be covered by the audit. Rules under the Official Languages Act requires all airports serving more than a million passengers a year must offer services in English and French.

More than 40 years since the Official Languages Act made bilingualism government policy, its implementation still remains controversial.

[Related: Bilingualism costs taxpayers $2.4 billion a year]

There have been complaints that making bilingual fluency a prerequisite to advancement in the public service has marginalized unilingual workers.

Some Canadians still bridle at the need for service in French in, say, Calgary.

The Parti Quebecois, campaigning for the Sept. 4 provincial election, is promising to push for a more unilingual French environment in Quebec, including federal services.

Now, according to Postmedia News, Fraser's "anonymous agents," posing as travellers, will test the level of required bilingual services at airports and on "designated bilingual routes."

As Postmedia notes, not all staff working at airport businesses must be bilingual, but at least one or two must be available in case someone needs service in French in Vancouver or English in Montreal.

In reality, most of the complaints the commissioner's office fields from travellers is over lack of French service.

It continues to get "a significant number of complaints about service on Air Canada flights," Fraser told Postmedia News.

Cue the cornflakes box haters.

Why shouldn't workers be fluent in Mandarin or Punjabi, some ask. Well, they're not one of Canada's two official languages, though it is good business to have that capability.

Section IV of the Official Languages Act requires various levels of bilingual services where numbers warrant. Results of an audit by Fraser's office released in 2011 found the public service was doing a pretty good job but made several recommendations for improvement, especially in some regions understaffed with bilingual workers.

Opponents of official bilingualism often argue it's a waste of money and a sop to Quebec, where nationalists seem ungrateful for the effort anyway.

But those critics are perhaps missing the point. Yes, Quebec is the centre of francophone Canada. But there are significant French-speaking communities in New Brunswick, northern Ontario, the Prairies and even Vancouver, where the century-old suburb of Millardville holds an annual Festival du Bois.

Hearing "hello-bonjour" from an Air Canada flight attendant or reading a bilingual sign seems a small price to pay for maintaining a key foundation of Canada's existence.

And by abandoning official bilingualism, we also abandon anglophones in Quebec, many of whom already feel under siege.

(CP photo)