Include Gaelic in publisher grants
Petitioners ask the Government of Canada to change Heritage publisher eligibility so Gaelic publishers qualify. The government responds that the Canada Book Fund supports Canadian-owned publishers in any language but sets publication and sales minimums.
Why we would sign this petition
- Would allow Gaelic book publishers to access federal grants, improving their financial viability and chances to continue operating.
- Recognizes Gaelic as part of Canada’s cultural and linguistic heritage and supports efforts to preserve minority-language publishing.
- Could increase production and distribution of Gaelic books, aiding language maintenance and community cultural transmission.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- The Canada Book Fund says it already supports Canadian-owned publishers regardless of language, so changing eligibility may be unnecessary.
- The fund requires publication and sales minimums; subsidizing very small niche publishers could divert limited resources from other projects.
- Extending eligibility for one language may prompt similar claims from other small-language groups, complicating program priorities and administration.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
Petition to the Government of Canada Gaelic is a heritage language of 6 million Scottish Canadians today, the third-largest ethnic group in Canada; Scottish settlers and immigrants have contributed significantly to Canada’s history, politics, and culture, but their Gaelic language was erased from history books and shamefully suppressed, with children beaten and punished for speaking Gaelic in school; and Gaelic publishing has taken place in Canada for nearly 200 years, but Gaelic publishers can’t access the federal publisher funding they need to survive as Canadian minority-language publishers. We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to change the eligibility criteria for publisher support grants from the Department of Canadian Heritage so that Gaelic book publishers in Canada will no longer fall through the cracks of federal publisher funding.
Government response
Response by the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages Signed by The Honourable Marc Miller The Government would like to thank the petitioners for expressing their concerns regarding the important heritage of the Scottish presence and Gaelic language in Canada’s cultural mosaic. The Canada Book Fund is the federal government’s principal measure in support of Canadian books and publishers. It ensures access to a diverse range of Canadian-authored books nationally and internationally, by fostering a strong book industry that publishes and markets Canadian-authored books. The Government acknowledges and supports the country’s rich linguistic diversity. As such, the Support for Publishers component of the Canada Book Fund offers financial support to Canadian owned and controlled book publishers for their production and marketing of Canadian-authored books, regardless of the language in which the books are written. Over the years, Support for Publishers has financially supported the activities of Canadian publishers who publish books in a variety of languages, including in Gaelic. The Canada Book Fund supports the commercial success of Canadian book publishers. As a result, there are publication and sales minimums to access funding. The Canada Book Fund guidelines do include distinct eligibility criteria for publishing firms owned and controlled by members of Indigenous and racialized communities and for official language minority publishers. In accordance with the Official Languages Act, which states that “[…] English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges […]”, the Canada Book Fund defines an official language minority publisher as being either a publisher based outside Québec who publishes primarily in French, or a publisher based in Québec who publishes primarily in English. The Government is committed to continue supporting Canadian book publishers and recognizes that Canadian book publishers that produce books in languages other than English and French face distinct challenges. The Canada Book Fund is open to hearing from those publishers to better understand the realities they face.