Official languages at work: Know your rights and resources
July 13, 2026 – Defence Stories
Estimated read time: 2:00
Do you know your official language rights? The end of June 2026 marked one year since the Modernization of the Official Languages Act (MOLA) took effect. With summer now underway, this is a timely opportunity to pause and refresh your understanding of your official language rights in the workplace and how they support you.
For Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members and public service employees
If you work in a designated bilingual region, you have the right to be supervised in the official language of your choice. This right is defined by the Official Languages Act and related Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) Directive on Official Languages and People Management, which applies to the Defence Team and all federal institutions. In practice, this means that those in supervisory positions are expected to guide and direct employees and carry out complex tasks in both official languages. This fosters and maintains a workplace where everyone feels truly comfortable using their language of choice.
To support this expectation, resources are available to help Defence Team members build and maintain proficiency in both official languages:
- Second language training for CAF members
- Second language training for public service employees (only accessible through the Defence Wide Area Network (DWAN))
- Second language maintenance tools for Defence Team members
When additional support is needed, mitigation measures (only accessible on DWAN) may be used to help protect employees' official language rights. These are temporary measures that support supervision in the employee's preferred official language when it cannot be provided directly by the supervisor. They remain in place only as long as needed.
Implications for people management
Following the implementation of MOLA, TBS increased the minimum second-language proficiency requirement for supervisors with employees in bilingual regions from BBB/BBB to CBC/CBC. This requirement came into effect on June 20, 2025, to align with the new provision of section 36 of the Official Languages Act, and applies to the Defence Team, along with all other federal institutions.
In addition to the TBS Directive, policy support is available to guide Defence Team managers in applying bilingual requirements:
- DAOD 5039-2, Official Languages in the Workplace
- Deputy Minister (DM) and Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) Joint Directive on Modernization of Official Languages Act (only accessible on DWAN)
- Second-language requirements for bilingual supervisory positions (CBC Initiative) (must be logged in to a Government of Canada (GC) account to access)
- FAQ - Linguistic requirements for bilingual supervisory positions of employees in bilingual regions (must be logged into a GC account to access)
If you have additional questions about how to best support the official languages within your team, operations, or staffing initiatives, visit the Official Languages intranet page (only accessible on DWAN) or contact your Coordinator of Official Languages (only accessible on DWAN).