News Release

From the Prime Minister's Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)

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Prime Minister welcomes new Commissioner of Official Languages

October 17, 2006
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today welcomed Canada’s new Commissioner of Official Languages, Mr. Graham Fraser, whose appointment was recently approved by the Senate and the House of Commons. This appointment is effective immediately.

The Prime Minister took the opportunity to thank Dyane Adam, who has served as Commissioner of Official Languages since August 1, 1999, for her dedication, diligence and sound leadership during her tenure. The Prime Minister wished her well in her future endeavours.

The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages was created in 1970 under the Official Languages Act to support, enhance and strengthen Canada’s linguistic duality. The Commissioner of Official Languages, who is appointed by commission under the Great Seal after approval of the appointment by resolution of the Senate and the House of Commons, is an agent of Parliament responsible for the implementation of the Official Languages Act, the protection of language rights of all Canadians and the promotion of the equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society.

Biographical notes on Mr. Fraser are attached.


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GRAHAM FRASER

A well-known and respected journalist and author with close to 40 years of journalistic experience, Mr. Fraser was educated at the University of Toronto where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in History. Since 2000, Mr. Fraser has been a National Affairs Writer with the Toronto Star. Over the years, he has held positions of increasing responsibility with various newspapers as well as with MacLean’s magazine, including Québec Bureau Chief with the Montréal Gazette; Montreal Bureau Chief with MacLean’s; and Parliamentary Correspondent, Ottawa Bureau Chief and later Washington Bureau Chief with the Globe and Mail. He was a weekly columnist for Le Devoir from 2000 to 2005 and has been a regular commentator on the TFO public affairs program “Panorama”.

During a long and distinguished career which has straddled the language divide, he has reported in both official languages on issues affecting Canada and Canadians, including cultural and foreign policy, constitutional debates and negotiations and national, provincial and international politics. He has been invited to speak on official languages issues to minority organizations in Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario, as well as national minority language organizations, and has lectured on language policy as an adjunct professor at the Carleton University School of Journalism.

Mr. Fraser is the author of “Sorry I Don’t Speak French”, which was published in March 2006, and which has helped stimulate renewed public discussion of language policy in Canada, as well as “PQ: René Lévesque and the Parti Québecois in Power”, which dealt with Quebec language policy and which was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction in 1984. In 1979, he helped found the Centre for Investigative Journalism, the bilingual precursor of the Canadian Association of Journalists, and served on the Centre’s board for two terms. He is the first recipient of Public Policy Forum’s Hyman Solomon Award for Public Policy Journalism.

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The Prime Minister’s Office - Communications
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