Mother Tongue: French Speakers

Mother Tongue Dept: In B.C., 70 per cent of residents report English as their mother tongue while a scant 1.3 per cent cite French, according to census data released last week, according to Vancouver Sun. That's almost equivalent to the 21 per cent of Canadians who now identify French as their native language - down from 25.7 per cent in 1981 and new statistics on the number of French speakers in Canada are triggering a debate about the future of official bilingualism. Meanwhile, 26 per cent of British Columbians report their mother tongue is neither English nor French. Nationally, numbers from the 2011 census show a similar trend; more Canadians - 20.7 per cent - are reporting their mother tongue is neither of the country's two official languages. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.