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This article aims to provide a critical perspective on translation as it is practised in New Brunswick, a province of Eastern Canada characterized by its official (English-French) bilingualism. We will adopt a sociolinguistic perspective in order to highlight the multidimensional role played by language in a society marked by language contact, i.e. the cohabitation of a dominant language (English) community and a minority language (French) community. Understood as both a language practice and a social practice, translation will be analyzed in a critical perspective. We will attempt, among other things, to answer the following questions : Who translates what ? For whom ? Why ? And in what way does this shed light on the minority-language community and on the power relations that exist between the two communities ? To do so, we will draw on ethnographic research conducted in two translation environments : the provincial public service and the private industry. We will conclude by taking a brief look at the world of literary translation in order to compare translation currents in New Brunswick.