Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism

The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism known more often as the Bi and Bi Commission was a Canadian royal commission into the state of the French language and French-Canadian culture launched in 1963.

The Commission was launched by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson as a result of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. Throughout the 1960s Canada was seeing a resurgent francophone nationalism which demanded equal treatment with the English majority. The Commission was jointly chaired by André Laurendeau, publisher of Le Devoir, and Davidson Dunton, president of Carleton University. As a result it was sometimes known as the Laurendeau-Dunton commission, in addition to "B & B".

Ten commissioners representing each of the provinces were also included in the commission as areas such as education were provincial responsibilities.

The Commission recommended sweeping changes when it reported in 1969. It discovered that francophones were underrepresented in the nation's political and business communities. Incoming Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made it one of his highest priorities to implement the Commission's recommendations to solve these problems. The most important of these was making Canada an officially bilingual nation. This was introduced in 1969 in the Official Languages Act. The provinces were also recommended to make reforms, and many did. Canada's education system was overhauled and school children across the country were made to learn both languages.

The Commission and its recommendations were strongly supported by both the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP, but the Tories did have concerns with the costly implementation of the reforms. Regional parties like the Social Credit movement, the Confederation of Regions Party and later on, the Reform Party would object strongly to these changes.

In the Canada Act of 1982, Trudeau ensured that many of the Commission's recommendations were permanently included in the Canadian constitution.

In his later years Trudeau introduced a major change to the Commission's findings. While Canada would remain a bilingual nation it would pursue a policy of multiculturalism rather than biculturalism.

While in some circles the Commission's legacy is controversial, others view it as a success. The under representation of French-Canadians in positions of power is no longer an issue and French-Canadians have access to government services in their own language.