The 1963 Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism,
known as the "Laurendea-Dunton" commission or "B.B." was a
created to study the problem of French and English relations in
Canada, pertaining to the concept of the Founding Nations of the
country. The inquiry travelled the country in its search of
answers.
The commission found that French-speakers in Quebec were
generally poorer and limited in their economic opportunities.
Elsewhere in the country it was not much better,
French-Canadians who spoke only French tended to have a harder
time of it, and schooling was completely inadequate for their
needs. With the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, there was a problem
of Canadian identity, something with English-Canadians tended
not to be aware of all.
The commission recommended that the use of French be
encouraged at the Federal level as well as in certain provinces
which had a higher French-speaking population, such as Ontario
and New Brunswick. The commission also suggested that better
educational opportunities should be created in provinces that
had a linguistic minority of 10 percent.
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