*Translation and the Bouchard-Taylor Commission: Translating Images, Translating Cultures, Translating Québec
Creators: name: Desjardins, Renée
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2013
Subjects: intersemiotic translation
cultural translation
translation
Translation Studies
civic translation
Bouchard-Taylor Commission

description: In December 2010, the National Post published an article discussing the rather costly enterprise of state-sanctioned official bilingualism in Canada. According to statistics provided by the Fraser Institute (2006), translation and interpretation represented 15% of the total federal government budget spending allocated to bilingualism, a cost that many Canadian commentators deemed “unnecessary.” Shifting demographics and diverse immigration flows (Census data, 2011) are also having a significant impact on Canada’s linguistic landscape, forcing policy-makers to consider whether the Official Languages Act (and thus translation) would benefit from innovative reform. Using this contextual backdrop as its main impetus, this dissertation argues that translation, as defined and practiced in Canada, needs to be broadened for a number of reasons, including accounting for technological advancements, for the increasingly web-based dissemination of translated materials, and for the reality of evolving markets. Tymoczko (2008) has championed *translation as an open-cluster concept, a theoretical perspective that has found resonance in this project, given that the notion is the central premise upon which three additional conceptualizations (i.e. *translation sub-types) are founded. The first sub-type, intersemiotic translation, is explained at length and constitutes the focal point of the project. Instead of using a Peircean approach, the dissertation develops a model based on visual social semiotics in order to facilitate the application of intersemiotic translation in not only professional settings but research contexts as well. The second sub-type, cultural translation, builds on insights from the 1980s and 90s cultural turn, with a specific focus on the relationship between the representation of Canadian micro-cultures and intersemiotic translation. In other words, the effects of these translation processes will also be analyzed. Finally, civic translation is proposed as a third *translation sub-type, which offers a potential framework for multicultural management in democratic countries facing the challenges of globalization. A case study using content from the 2006-2008 debate surrounding reasonable accommodation—with specific attention given to the activities of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences (also known as the Bouchard-Taylor Commission)—is woven through each chapter, illustrating all three sub-types of *translation. The case study provides compelling examples of why translation practices in Canada should move beyond verbal and state-sanctioned definitions. The novelty and contribution of this research project are manifold: it transcends traditional verbocentric approaches in TS; it responds to other scholars’ claims that there is a lack of case studies that involve text-image relationships and/or explore the role of translation in the news media in a Canadian context; it explores multimodality and its significance for TS in an era of increased Web presence; it showcases a Canadian case study; and, finally, it explores cultural representation through a translation-based framework.