Defence minister orders review of military language directive

As of last year, staff in military workplaces must use language designated for that region

Canada's defence minister says he's ordering a review of a 2025 directive governing which languages are used inside military workplaces, citing recent concerns.

In January 2025, the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces changed rules around what languages staff have to use for "workplace activities and services" such as internal meetings and documents.

Previously, units were designated as either English, French or both.

"Many organizations and units located in unilingual regions experienced difficulties meeting their language obligations, resulting in founded complaints and frustration," said a DND blog published in late July.

In January 2025, the directive — officially known as DAOD 5039-2 — came into effect, matching the internal language requirements to the office location's language designation under the Official Languages Act.

This meant only workplaces in designated bilingual regions such as New Brunswick, the National Capital Region and portions of northern Ontario would have to communicate in English and French alone.

These changes did not affect communication with the public or military families.

The military still encouraged use of both official languages to "strengthen inclusion and reinforce respect for Canada's linguistic duality."

That blog post last month drew media attention and criticism from advocates and official languages critics from some opposition parties who said it's a deterioration of French protection in a large federal department.

On Thursday, Minister of National Defence David McGuinty said in a statement he has heard concerns about the directive, takes them seriously and has directed a review of workplace language designations.

"This review will examine how language-of-work requirements have been applied and whether the current approach meets operational needs and respects the language rights of the Defence Team," he said.

The announcement did not include a timeline.

Andrew Foote has been covering Ottawa-area news for the CBC since February 2013 after graduating from Carleton University. He can be reached at andrew.foote@cbc.ca.

With files from Radio-Canada's Maxence Bahaban and Benjamin Vachet