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ABOUT the 

LANGUAGE ACCESS COALITION of CANADA 

ABOUT

February 22 is Language Advocacy Day, recognized unofficially in Canada and worldwide. Starting in 2021, the Language Access Coalition of Canada (LACC) hosted its first ever virtual conferences highlighting the diversity of language access work in Canada and the importance of securing language access for minority language speakers, including newcomers, official language minority communities, and Indigenous language speakers. This year LACC is organized a two-day event:

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On February 21st, LANGUAGE KEEPERS - Celebrating Newcomer and Indigenous Language Revitalization and Preservation, we hosted a celebratory panel about the work being done in Indigenous and newcomer communities to preserve, revitalize, and pass on mother tongues to future generations. In the afternoon, we gathered 60 language advocates from across Canada to contribute to LANGUAGE POLICY HACKATHON 2024 and discuss the topics of advocacy for French language, Indigenous revitalization, the option of "active language offer" in hospitals and the AI adoption in translation and interpretation.

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On February 22nd, our annual day of MOBILIZATION and COLLECTIVE ACTION we invited communities across Canada to contact their representatives to move the needle on language rights in Canada and join us in advocating for language rights as human rights.

 

                  Proudly sponsored by MCIS Language Solutions

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MCIS logo

​We see ourselves as a community of forward-thinking organizations and individuals in the non-profit, public and private sectors, driven by the desire to make a positive impact by advocating for access to information and services in languages people understand.

We are promoters of multilingualism and the understanding of the important role languages have to achieve social justice, economic recovery, education and mental health for all.

We see the plurality of languages as a tool for creating a more equitable and inclusive society.

We are interested in creating and negotiating strategic partnerships serving local and global audiences and supporting sector organizations in the pursuit of their vision of appropriate access and sufficient comprehension.

We have an objective to inform, connect and help with increasing visibility for our shared language rights activism through all relevant platforms, offline and online.

We hope that with this work we can create lasting change in the world.

MISSION .

HISTORY .

Language rights protect the rights of individuals and groups to choose which language(s) they use in private as well as in public interactions, such as legal, health, educational or political access to information and services. Language rights are also a tool of identity and an important social determinant of health. Many nations, including Canada, may not deliberately discriminate against minority languages or those not deemed not to be the “official” ones, but if broader language access is not strategically enabled, organizations and individuals end up being excluded and discriminated against based on their language comprehension and fluency.

 

The concept of a Language Advocacy Day in Canada was significantly influenced by the initiatives of the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL), which has been organizing National Language Day in Washington, DC for over four decades.


While advocacy for equality of access for ALL languages does not have a long history in Canada, global initiatives aimed at promoting universal linguistic rights and monitoring the status of minority and indigenous languages have been ongoing for fifty years (Minority and Indigenous Trends, 2019). The evolving perspectives on language access, influenced by migration patterns and advancements in technology, have emerged against a backdrop of historically linking language to national identity and borders.

Here in Canada, the recently co-developed National First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Languages Act (Bill C-91) that recognized the rights of Indigenous languages not only expanded our national conversation around “official languages”, but also challenged the status quo to reimagine what access in all other languages carried by the waves of immigration to Canada since 18th century onward could be.​
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​The initiative is presently supported exclusively by the Social Benefit Fund of MCIS Language Solutions. The core LACC team expresses its gratitude to several organizations, including early partners listed below, for their ongoing support of this initiative.

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