We take public affairs to comprise the parliamentary and legislative process, administrative regulations, the rendering of justice, all quasi-judicial activities, and the overall day-to-day administration.”[1] This article lists key events in the evolution of language policy in Canada since 1710, when the French-speaking population of Acadia first came under British administration.
Therefore, in order to give some idea of the relative importance of various policies over the centuries, population statistics for Canada's different language groups are included where such information is available.
In what is now the eastern half of the country, some sort of accommodation was made for French during the long period of British colonial rule that followed, but at no point did the language achieve full legal and practical equality with English.
Other settler languages, such as Scottish Gaelic, Irish, and German were ignored in politics and increasingly suppressed with adoption of universal public education.
Aboriginal languages, which earlier Christian missionaries had studied and helped to document, came under sustained attack by a system of state-sponsored church-run residential schools beginning in the 1840s in the east and later extending across the country.
For example, in Edmonton, Alberta in 2015 the Catholic school board offered full immersion in French, "bilingual programs" (one third to one half time immersion) in Polish, Spanish, and Ukrainian, and part-time language and culture programs in Filipino, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Nehiyaw Pimatisiwin (Cree).
[29]For events prior to the creation of the Province of Upper Canada in 1791, see Quebec The British authorities did more than use French in their relations with their new subjects.