Thank you for this invitation to appear before your committee.
My name is Ghislaine Pilon, I live in Mississauga, Ontario. I am the mother of two teenagers, Nicolas and Mathieu. It is because of them that I am here today.
I am the President of the Commission nationale des parents francophones. Our primary objective is to support parents associations in each province and territory in fostering the family, educational and community development of francophone families living in minority situations.
Our federations serve approximately 500 parent committees across the country, and some 350,000 parents benefit from preschool and school services.
Our organization is responsible for francophone and Acadian communities on matters relating to francophone early childhood development and presides over and coordinates the National Round Table on Francophone Early Childhood Development that brings together a dozen partners. It is an active member of the National Round Table on Education that is chaired and coordinated by the Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones.
Our 20 or so national partners in education and early childhood development bring together, from across the country, 31 school boards, more than 1,250 services, institutions and organizations, including 400 preschool services that are attended by 30,000 children aged 5 years or younger, as well as 630 primary and secondary schools attended by 146,000 children aged 19 or younger.
This network of people, organizations and institutions was able to come into existence, in part, because of the Court Challenges Program. These are the results of more than 25 years of strategic measures to help francophone parents. Our members are courageous and resilient visionaries.
The saga of educational rights began shortly after the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. In 1983, parents from Edmonton, Alberta, challenged the first instance ruling that allowed provincial authorities to refuse francophone parents a French-language school. In the 1990 Mahé decision, the Supreme Court ruled in their favour, not only on the issue of being granted a school, but on the right to manage it. In 1986, Manitoba parents demanded universal recognition of the right to manage French-speaking schools. In the Manitoba order of 1993, the Supreme Court recognized this right.
The statistics, taken from the annual reports of the Court Challenges Program, speak for themselves. Pursuant to educational rights stipulated in section 23, our members and partners have made 183 applications since 1994. These figures do not include activities conducted under the original challenges program that was created in 1981 and abolished in 1992.
Over the last 11 years, 143 applications made by parents have been approved by the program. This is more than half of the approved applications, which deal with linguistic rights. You inferred correctly: francophone parents are without a doubt the most important client of the Court Challenges Program.
The following is a breakdown of the approved projects: 83 litigations, 30 activities concerning access and promotion, 21 case preparations and 9 impact assessments. In the 11 years of challenges, 55 cases were brought before the first instance, 15 were appealed, and 13 went to the Supreme Court. The most well-known cases during this period are the Arsenault-Cameron case in 2000 concerning Prince Edward Island schools, and the Doucet-Boudreau case of 2003 concerning high schools in Nova Scotia.
The following are examples of the lasting results of these cases. Throughout the 1980s, the network of French schools was consolidated from one end of the country to the other. The network of francophone school boards was created during the 1990s. French school boards have created new schools in most provinces. For example, in Prince Edward Island, four new schools were built after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling. In Nova Scotia, six new schools were built. Generally speaking, enrolment ceased to decline and has since stabilized. The quality of French education significantly improved once minority groups took over management of infrastructure, curriculum and promotion.
In 2005, school boards and partners established an action plan called "Action Plan—section 23—completing the French-language education system in Canada" .
Francophone communities are establishing themselves and taking in hand the management of French-speaking schools. As an example, the one and only Métis school in Canada, located in Saint-Laurent, Manitoba, will finally have its own building in 2008.
For us, the courts are the last resort. Each time a complaint was lodged, it was done because there was no other alternative, and inaction would have been intolerable. Each time, there were months if not years of pressure, exchanges of documents, meetings and negotiations. We have the intestinal fortitude and the program gave us wings.
We did not invent this system which pits us as gladiators against the provinces, which—I will remind you—are signatories of the Charter. Legislators created the arena and provided us with arms such as the Court Challenges Program. Are decision-makers innocent bystanders? Each time, citizens are the ones who pay for the lack of political will. I'm referring here to most governments which have come into power since the adoption of the Charter.
Why do governments continue resisting the enforcement of our rights? It must certainly be a wise investment in terms of votes. However, ultimately, it must be said that parents have never lost a case before the courts. Governments have always sought to buy time.
What parents have lost is considerable: they've lost time, energy, money, and I'm not talking about federal money. We have also lost respect for many people, even within our own communities, and we have lost generations of children. As we speak, one out of every two francophone children is enrolled in a French school. Is this what you call linguistic duality in Canada?
However, let us try to imagine Canada without section 23 or the Court Challenges Program. What state would our communities be in without school networks and school boards? The goal of this program is to empower minorities, but the greatest gift of the program is hope. Who can live without hope?
There is a benefit value to this strenuous process of constantly going before the courts; and that is that we make sure that case law reflects changing needs and priorities. Our realities change as do our knowledge of these realities. Because these mechanisms complement one another, Canada is a place where the processes influence public policies. While the majorities can do without this system, such is not the case for minorities.
Case law can help society understand the evolution of knowledge in education. For example, recent research was conducted on brain development among children. When the Charter was first adopted, we did not know that language acquisition begins as early as six months in the womb, and levels out at one year. In 1982, we did not understand that cognitive functions reached full capacity before the age of two. The learning capacity of a child this age is much greater than mine or yours. Such knowledge is crucial for our children's future, particularly for the future of children living in a minority situation and educated in French. This is precisely why parents are calling for the broadening of section 23 to include preschool education.
Our work is not over, and we hope to continue without having to resort to legal means. Will we have the choice?
Members of Parliament, provide us with another solution and we will gladly stop resorting to the courts. In the meantime, keep the Court Challenges Program intact. This is our expectation: that each level of government in Canada, be it federal, provincial or territorial, honour its constitutional commitments with enthusiasm and dignity. We continue to hope. We are not seeking to protect the past. We are seeking to build the Canada of the future. The investment we are making is the investment with the highest return: our children. We want our children to be healthy, multilingual, pluricultural, curious, respectful, innovative, successful and resilient. Are you with us? That is the challenge we put to you today.
Thank you.