Granting agencies must do more for minority languages

The Commissioner of Official Languages (COL) is urging the federal government and universities to increase support to level the playing field for linguistic duality. The COL has completed a report on language minorities and federal research funding agencies and concluded that more must be done to increase the amount of research conducted on the subject to eliminate obstacles minority language researchers face in pursuing their work. The study included a list of recommendations including: a targeted promotion strategy for the different types of available research funding programs; adequate evaluation in both official languages; a specific funding mechanism targeting small bilingual and official minority language universities (SBOMLUs); a specific funding envelope for SBOMLUs for the creation of research centres and increased partnership and networking capacity; a strategy to make peer reviewers more aware of circumstances and obstacles facing minority language researchers, and stable funding for research on official languages issues....