Official Languages Committee on May 15th, 2007

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

I would like to remind committee members that in my colleague's motion, there is no reference to continuing the committee: it only talks about him being relieved of his duties as chair.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Thank you.

Pierre.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

The work of the committee cannot continue without a chair. That creates a problem for you since it is your motion and your vote that will determine the future of our committee. It is your responsibility.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Order, please.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Something happened that made you angry. Clearly, the future of our committee depends on you and the results of the vote on the motion.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Thank you.

Does anyone else wish to speak? No. I would therefore like to make a few comments.

I thank all the members for their comments. I respect all of you and I also respect what you said, whether in support of me or not. However, I must try to explain in my own words why I made this decision and why I think as I do. I'm going to take a few minutes to do that. Some things were said about me that were hurtful. Some members made some statements without knowing all the facts, in my opinion.

For those of you who don't know, obviously, with a name like Guy Lauzon, I'm a francophone. I was born of two francophone parents. My mother, when she moved to Ontario, could not speak a word of English. I was born in a Scottish community called St. Andrews West, and we were the only French family in that village; they were all Scottish settlers and United Empire Loyalists. I went to school in English, my friends were English, and we spoke English in the house because my mother had to learn to speak English, and used to say,

"Talk to me in English: I have to learn how to speak it."

When people say that I don't support minority communities, I'm going to look each and every one of you in the eye and I'm going to say, you don't know what you're talking about: I lived it; I lived what it is.

Finally, when I was elected three years ago and became a member, I was asked by the leader of the official opposition at that time to sit on the committee. It was my first exposure to official languages.

That is when I renewed my contact with my roots.

I finally discovered who I was and where I came from: I was a francophone. I used to be called Guy Lawson.

It is true: I was not Guy Lauzon, I was Guy Lawson.

I know what it is, and I take great offence when you people, anyone, mentions that I don't have the official languages committee at heart. I believe in this committee more strongly than any one of you can possibly believe. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Yes, I made a decision, and I'll tell you why I made a decision. We made a decision here as a committee, about three weeks ago, every one of us—every one of us—and the official languages in this country lost because of our decision. We got Hockey Canada to come here, and we dealt with something that in my mind, as chairman, I didn't agree with, but I allowed it to happen. Okay? And we got the results.

I've heard from some of you around this table and I've heard from some of your colleagues about what the public out there thought, how we went against what we were trying to do to promote official languages.

Mr. Godin, you accused me, or you said that at one time I said I would have a hard time explaining to my constituents about the money we were spending, a quarter of a million dollars to go on a—If you recall, I was the person who went to the Liaison Committee and lobbied very, very hard when they wanted to refuse it. And you were there.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

That was only the second time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

That's right, but you were there. You were a witness to that. And I think you'll agree that if I hadn't lobbied as hard as I did, we probably wouldn't have got that money. I promoted this voyage.

Here's a report we have that I submitted last Wednesday, and nobody, but nobody, ever asked me a word about it—not a reporter. All they're asking about is whatever's going on at the committee—not this work that went on, incredible work. We worked as a committee, when we were in camera; how well we worked, and we got this report finalized, something that I'm very, very proud of. I don't know the last time a report like this was put together, and that's thanks to you people. I was part of that. I was able to be the chair during that.

Yes, I made a decision, and I made a decision because I thought I was making the right decision. You can tell me I didn't make the right decision, and that's your right, and I'm prepared to take that. If it's necessary to be removed from this committee, I'm prepared to do that. The one mistake I think I made, I'm going to tell you, because I didn't think—

And whether I'm the chair or whether someone else is the chair, I don't want this committee to be used as an instrument to play political games. That's what I don't want. I mean the committee. You can play games, but not the committee. It shouldn't be used. It's too important. And here's the proof that it's important. Canadians from coast to coast to coast said something in here, because of this official languages committee.

Right or wrong—and you can disagree with me on the decision—I took the decision at a quarter to eight last Tuesday morning, and I phoned the clerk at a quarter to eight. I realize some of you only got that information at ten to nine, and you know what—

[An hon. member]

Two minutes to nine.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Two minutes to nine. As I sit here, I can tell you the decision was taken for the right reasons.

Unfortunately, if I had to do it over again, yes, I would make the decision a lot earlier. But six months or six years from now, I still think that we will have done what we should do for the official languages committee. This is what we have to do.

We've got 72% of Canadians who agree we should have a bilingual country—72%. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get it to 82% as a result of the work of this committee?

I want to continue as the chair of this committee. I think we've done wonderful work. You're not very easy to get along with, some of you, and by and large, I think I've tried my best. Yes, I can tell you the opposition isn't any easier to get along with...or the government side. We've had personalities on both sides. I've tried to be fair, I really have. And I want to continue to be fair. I want to continue to do good work.

One of the opposition members or one of the government members said I was angry. I take the blame for that, because I should have told you long before that, and I apologize for that. But the truth of the matter is that I was doing it for the good of official languages in this country.

If you chose to remove me as your chair, that's your prerogative, because—you know what?—in the final analysis, the committee is master of its own destiny.

Thank you.

Monsieur Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I would like to comment on some of the things that were said about me.

For example, you said you went to bat for the committee's right to travel. But we have to put things into some perspective. First, before the new Conservative government came to power, I had to go and meet with the House leaders and tell them that if the Official Languages Committee did not travel across Canada, no other committee would be able to travel. In fact, I told them that we would use our veto to prevent all committees from travelling. Because of the election, the committee didn't travel.

When there was a new request to travel, the same thing happened. You know that the same thing happened, Mr. Lauzon. You cannot say otherwise. You went to bat for the committee, and because the government saw that there was no way out, it agreed to our trip. But it was opposed to the committee travelling, it did not want that to happen, because it was not that important for official languages. When you went to bat for us at the liaison committee, I was there too, I'm sure you will remember. Do you recall that I was there with you? Do you remember all the arguments I put forward? Thank you.

When the issue regarding the ombudsman for victims of crime came up and I went to tell you, as chair of the committee, that it was incredible for the government to appoint a unilingual person to this position, you asked me whether I was suggesting that anglophones could not do the job. Do you remember that, Mr. Lauzon?

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Yes, I do remember that.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

So I am wondering what you are thinking, as chair of the Official Languages Committee, when you tell us stories like the one you just told us.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Ms. Folco.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

I would like to call for the vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Do you have something to say, Mr. Murphy?

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Just briefly, I understand your apology, and we don't sit in judgment of you. But the voters sit in judgment of us, I guess. Sometimes the media can package, distort, grow, or otherwise play a story.

I haven't heard from you, however, about why you think it was right for you to cancel the meeting. You haven't really said here why you cancelled the meeting. You apologized for the late notice, and with great respect, I accept that apology. But why did you cancel the meeting?

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

I can certainly explain that, and I did explain it.

There again, you might not agree with my reasons. But as I saw what happened with Hockey Canada, whether you agree with it or not, I felt that the committee was used in that incident for the wrong reasons. I also thought that the meeting I cancelled was going to be used for the wrong reason.

We had a situation where this was before the courts. We had public servants coming who really couldn't say a whole lot. We had the commissioner, who was coming out within days with a report. Someone along the line said that I cancelled because I didn't want to talk about the court challenges program. That wasn't the case at all. I never, ever said that. What I said is that the court challenges program would be dealt with, but I thought the timing would be better when we had the commissioner's report and when the court case was resolved, so that people could speak freely.

Those were my reasons. I seriously thought the committee, on this issue, was going to be used to play political games. Those are my reasons. Whether they're acceptable or not, that's what they were.

By the way, I'm prepared to answer any other question. This was a decision that I made with the best of intentions. I do apologize for the timing of it, but the decision was taken in good faith.

Pierre Lemieux.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

When we vote,

I would like it to be a recorded vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Okay. It's a recorded vote.

Do we have to read the motion again?

[The Clerk]

The motion reads as follows:

That the Chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, Mr. Guy Lauzon, be relieved of his duties as Chair following a decision made on his own accord to cancel the scheduled May 8, 2007 meeting of the Committee which was to study the issue of the Court Challenges Program; therefore, the Chair acted against the will of the committee and overstepped his role as chair and as a consequence, he has lost the confidence of the Committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Do we have a seconder for the motion?

[The Clerk]

Since this is a recorded vote, I will read off members' names.

(The motion is carried, 7 to 4.)

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

The motion is carried. Consequently, the meeting is over.

[The Clerk]

No.