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<span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic, Demi Cond, sans-serif">'''How long have you been an Official Languages Champion? How does this role manifest itself in your daily life?'''

<span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic, Demi Cond, sans-serif">'''Marcelo, thank you for agreeing to take part in this interview. First of all, how long have you been the Official Languages Champion? How does this role manifest itself in your daily life?'''

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<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">I asked for this role three years ago. I saw a good fit with some of the responsibilities of my sector (research and policy, relationships with stakeholders, partnerships and financial contributions to documentary heritage organizations) and opportunities for more active involvement, particularly with official language minority communities (OLMCs). Every week, opportunities for action emerge in this file: whether increasing colleagues’ awareness of our obligations, creating opportunities to talk about linguistic insecurity with the members of our Advisory Committee, reviewing the results of rounds of funding or translation statistics, or promoting Mauril. There are countless opportunities for taking action. My next objective is a real and effective integration of the official languages perspective into all our strategic and operational plans.</span></span>

<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">I have been with Canada Lands Company for almost five years and took on this important mandate shortly after joining the company. We have offices and operations across the country in both real estate development and attractions management. Our priority is to ensure that we adhere to the ''Official Languages Act'' on a daily basis. Whether we organize public engagement events, work with official language minority communities or communicate with the public, we must always be vigilant. Our real estate projects often attract the attention of various linguistic communities and our attractions bring in visitors from across the country and internationally, so reflecting on Canada’s linguistic duality is important for us.</span></span>

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<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic, Demi Cond, sans-serif">'''You are known in the OLMCs' archival and library networks as an Official Languages Champion who demonstrates exemplary leadership. Can you talk about your approach and the initiatives that you have promoted?'''</p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic, Demi Cond, sans-serif">'''Since your arrival, you have overseen the implementation of measures to ensure that official languages are an integral part of your organization. Can you discuss your approach and the initiatives you have put forward?'''</p>

<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">One of my colleagues tells me that we have a three-pronged approach: strategy, collaboration and inspiration. I would like to claim that my approach was very deliberate, but actually, everything was done rather intuitively.</span></span>

<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">I grew up in Québec in French, and one of my first jobs was at a Francophone television station in Ontario. That work experience allowed me to discover the vitality of Francophone minority communities and better understand the importance of promoting French across the country.</span></span>

 

 

 

<span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">In 2019, Canada Lands Company conducted an internal audit, with the help of a consultant, to better understand our strengths and weaknesses regarding the compliance with the ''Official Languages Act.'' This exercise showed us there was room for improvement within the Company and its divisions. As a result, we strengthened our policies and procedures, provided further resources available to employees who wish to work in the official language of their choice and provided more training to employees on our collective obligations under the Act.</span></span>

   

   

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<span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">From the outset, we decided to avoid a model of general discussions with national organizations whose mandate made little room for documentary heritage. After identifying the most active and representative local players in each province and territory, we invited them to participate in a network. Their initial surprise quickly turned into an outstanding mobilization that gave us wings.</span></span>

<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">The commitment of Canada Lands Company’s Board of Directors and the senior management team in making official languages a priority makes the whole difference—not because it is the law, but because we all believe in the importance of promoting linguistic duality.</span></span>  

 

<br><br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Aside from establishing two networks (one archival and the other for libraries), we set up an internal advisory committee with representatives from across LAC to implement necessary measures, including the creation of an OL lens. In parallel, we did some research to clearly understand how memory and documentary heritage could foster the development of OLMCs, since the lack of recognition of the impact of documentary heritage did not match our observations nor those of the members of our networks who, on a daily basis, witnessed the importance of its contribution to their community. This '''[https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.896163/publication.html research]''', which was validated by a group of academic experts, created a feeling of community for both LAC and the members of the networks and, in addition, led the latter to design research projects related to the theme. The feeling of being part of a community was also reinforced by the distribution of a monthly [https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.903819/publication.html '''newsletter'''] that provides information on members’ activities and various topics (podcasts, research studies, newspaper articles, etc.) that concern our community and official languages.</span></span>

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<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic, Demi Cond, sans-serif">'''In closing, what to you appreciate the most about your role as Official Languages Champion?'''

 

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<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">This important role allows me to have a direct impact on not only Canada Lands Company, but, more importantly, on communities and the linguistic duality of our country.</span></span>  

 

 

<br><p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">All these activities inspired our members from the two networks to collaborate with LAC on the organization of a national conference ''Archives and Libraries in Official Language Minority Communities'' in spring 2021. This conference was not only an opportunity to discuss issues and increase collaboration, but it also confirmed the contribution of memory, heritage and history to the vitality of OLMCs. The support for our work expressed by Canadian Heritage, the Commissioner of Official Languages and Minister Fortier particularly moved the members of our networks and inspired other initiatives, such as a partnership for the publication of a post-conference volume at the University of Ottawa Press.</span></span></p>

<span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Most of all, I love seeing tangible results. I see our employees working hard everywhere to promote and protect both official languages. Whether it be by displaying bilingual signage, providing services to the public or working with communities to enable the establishment of new Francophone schools, each success is a victory for our country. My colleagues support and celebrate this work. We aim for linguistic duality in all our operations and want minority communities to feel included when they visit our attractions and live in our communities.</span></span>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">We hope that our second, recently published research examining the policy and regulatory frameworks, as well as support programs for OLMC libraries, will lead to just as many discussions. What is certain is that creating a community, close collaboration among the members of our networks and pride in the role played by documentary heritage institutions were factors in our overwhelming success.</span></span></p>

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<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic, Demi Cond, sans-serif">'''In closing, what to you appreciate the most about your role as Official Languages Champion?'''</p>

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<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic, Demi Cond, sans-serif">'''Ms. Savoie, we thank you for granting us this interview. Our readers will certainly be inspired by your approach and your contagious enthusiasm!'''

<br><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic, Demi Cond, sans-serif">'''Thank you for this interview. We are certain that some of our readers will be inspired by the approach you have taken in your organization.'''

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