The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages was established in 1969 by the Official Languages Act. This legislative basis was renewed by the revised Official Languages Act of 1988. Essentially the new act reiterated the role and functions that the Office of the Commissioner had performed since 1969. The mandate of the Office of the Commission has always been to promote the use of both official languages and bilingualism throughout Canada, to investigate any complaint or any other matter related to rights under the Act, to act as an ombudsman in relation to conflicts over linguistic rights whether they relate to the federal public service, the requirements of bilingual service to the public provided by federal offices or the status of both official languages generally, and finally to provide an independent report to Parliament each year.
The records in this accession relate to several administrative activities of the Office including: major conferences, management committee meetings, Parliamentary Matters, and communication initiatives related to long standing adult and youth programs designed to promote understanding of bilingualism in Canadian society. The operational activities of the Office included in the accession incorporate general files on complaint procedures (not complaint case files), international contacts and liaison, programs related to language rights of official language minorities, federal laws and regulations related to language, provincial laws and regulations related to language, minority associations, minority communities, minority education rights, second language education programs, language of work objectives, Official Languages Act, Official Languages program costs, recruitment and equitable participation (in the public service and federal public sector), and service to the public. The accession also includes a large number of special individual special studies stretching back to the origins of the office as well as selected audit reports on federal government departments and agencies. The archival audit files were selected on the basis of exemplary and exceptional selection criteria, to ensure that there was sufficient evidential value of the process and the experience across the federal government that would capture as well exceptional cases reflecting among the most positive and most negative of the individual agency experiences. The departments and agencies represented can be seen in the 1540 series of the file list.
