OTTAWA
(Web posted October 3, 2002 @ 1 p.m.) The Commissioner of
Official Languages is concerned with the amount of French
content on the Internet, citing government inabilities to
provide translated documents online.
 The
annual report released today by commissioner Dyane Adam also
said the federal government is slow in making changes under the
Official Languages Program. She criticized the feds for their
lack of leadership promoting bilingualism in public
services.
Part of the report focused
on the importance of French content on the Internet.
Commissioner Dyane Adam said various online government documents
aren't provided for French users. Since Francophones use the
Internet less than Anglophones, the report is concerned such
users will be become further alienated. The lack of French
search engines is also a concern.
Adam said there is also a
need to have bilingual staff for help lines and other online
services.
With the Liberal's
Government Online (GOL) project in the works, Adam said she is
stressing the importance of making e-services fully bilingual.
So far she's met with the Treasury Board to make sure the design
will attract French users.
The GOL initiative is the
federal government's plan to put all services online by 2004. It
envisioned a single entry point or website where citizens could
securely log on. The project is still in the early design stage.
This week's speech from the
throne addressed the issue of bilingualism in Canada. The
Liberals promised to implement a plan that would double the
number of high school graduate fluent in both English and French
within ten years.
The report also gave seven
recommendations on how the federal government can reach its
goals.
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