The political and pedagogical issues arising from language legislation, language policy, and language planning in a bilingual country such as Canada are analyzed. The socio-historical context of bilingualism in Canada is reviewed, and Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (appended), which imposes a constitutional requirement on each provincial legislature to provide instruction in the official minority language (French or English), is examined and interpreted. An analysis of the pedagogical issues includes consideration of the sociocultural factors determining the different success of minority and majority bilingual situations and the educational implications of native language maintenance in minority language groups. Finally, some implications arising from the pedagogical and political issues that relate to official minority language education are outlined. A list of over 60 references is included. (MSE)