Official Languages Committee on June 1st, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

This morning we are here, pursuant to Standing Order 108(3), on a study of immigration as a development tool in official language minority communities.

We have the pleasure of holding a very special meeting this morning at the Collège catholique Samuel-Genest. From the outset, I would first like to thank you all for agreeing to receive us at this school. Allow me, first of all, to thank the school principal, Mr. Réal Charette. When I have finished, committee members and I will be able to express our appreciation. I would also like to thank Ms. Sylvie Plouffe, administrative assistant to the principal's office at the secondary level. Thank you very much for having us, Ms. Plouffe.

There's also Ms. Diane Garneau, library technician, who offered us refreshments this morning, Ms. Dominique Roy-Buisson, teacher and librarian, and Ms. Ginette Bernier, secretary in the principal's office, who distributed coffee, juice, fruit and cookies. There are also students who agreed to prepare the room yesterday: Ms. Tracy Percy and Ms. Varlène Muka Munama, as well as Mr. Pierre Nivardi and Mr. Casey Lanthier.

I would like to inform members of some procedures. Since we are at a school, bells will ring at 9:25, 9:35 and 10:50, but don't be afraid, they aren't the bells calling you to go and vote.

[Some voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

You can stay where you are. If you want to go to the washroom, you have to ask the head of the library for the key, and that's in Room 140. If you leave the committee, I want a note from the principal.

This morning, we are holding the 19th meeting of the committee, which concerns our study on immigration, in which we are in the final stages. It is our pleasure to meet with witnesses on site here. I will introduce them to you without further ado. Ms. Francine Lanteigne is a teacher in the instruction and learning of foreign second languages. We also have the pastoral officer, Ms. Thérèse Desautels. Good morning to you. Ms. Kelly Bararu is also joining us. Thank you for agreeing to testify this morning. She is accompanied by Ms. Andrea Santana, who is a student, and whom I thank for being here, and Mr. Miguel Cédric Tchuemboum Kouam.

So thank you for being here, Mr. Miguel. We also have Mr. Apollinaire Yengayenge, who is a parent. From the Conseil des écoles catholiques de langue française du Centre-Est, we have Ms. Monique Brûlé, Chief of Community Services and Library, who is appearing.

The committee meeting will be held over a period of approximately two hours. We normally begin with an opening address. Then each of the parliamentarians has a period of five to seven minutes to question you.

This morning, our committee is constituted like the House of Commons. The government members are on one side, including Ms. Shelley Glover, who is parliamentary secretary. I also belong to the Conservative government, and I am the chair of this committee. We also have representatives of the three opposition parties, including the committee vice-chair, Mr. Mauril Bélanger, from the Liberal Party. We also have another vice-chair, Mr. Yvon Godin, of the New Democratic Party. We also have with us Mr. Richard Nadeau and Ms. Monique Guay, from the Bloc Québecois. There you have the picture of the House of Commons. There are more than 15 committees like ours concerned with various topics, the Standing Committee on Official Languages being a standing committee instituted under the Official Languages Act.

Without further ado, we'll begin the hearing of witnesses. I am accompanied by the analyst, who takes notes in order to write the report on the study we are conducting, which will be validated by the members of this committee, and by the clerk who resolves procedural issues. This morning, as we have a large number of witnesses, I'm going to turn to her for an opinion on the period of time we are going to allot to each witness.

You've been well prepared. So you will be able to give a balanced speech that will enable committee members to question you.

Without further ado, we'll begin with Ms. Brûlé, from the Conseil des écoles catholiques de langue française du Centre-Est.

[Monique Brûlé, Chief, Community Services and Library, Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est]

Good morning. This morning, I'm going to provide you with an overview of the board. I have in my hand some statistics on francophone immigration within the board. Then I'm going to summarize the highlights of a consultation that we've conducted with board stakeholders.

Let's look at a picture of francophone immigration at the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est. Twenty-five per cent of students have at least one parent who was born outside Canada. We're talking about approximately 4,194 students. In addition, 7% of students were born outside Canada, which means approximately 1,399 students.

With regard to the countries in which those students were born, the majority come from Burundi, Congo, the United States, Haiti, Lebanon, Rwanda, China and France. They are scattered across the territory. As for the dates on which those students arrived in Canada, 50% of them arrived in 2004 or later. So these are recent immigrants. If we do a calculation and distribute by school the number of students who have at least one parent who was born outside Canada, we note that 11 schools in the board would not exist without the contribution of francophone immigration. The face of the board is changing.

On the other hand, with this new face come challenges that we must meet. One of the major challenges is to welcome the students and their parents. We have to give them a good welcome. In a consultation on intake, we noted some highlights when we consulted the parents and students. I'm going to give you some information on that study. We consulted them in order to write a protocol for welcoming the students and the families of our students.

From January to March 2010, we consulted 11 groups, including two groups of students and two parents groups. The purpose of the consultations was to determine best intake practices and barriers to inclusion in the school. Here are the highlights of that consultation.

Parents and students want a personalized welcome and quick integration. Parents need information on the school system, the school and everything concerning the their children's instruction. This is often a barrier to integration. We often need a glossary to break down the educational jargon used in Ontario. We often have to deal with the various school systems—this is a new school system for students arriving in Ontario. They've left their country of origin where the school system was very different. The suggestion was often made that there should systematically be a reception committee at the board and at the school. We believe that would facilitate the reception and integration of students and their parents.

People want a reception even before school registration, when the parents or families arrive in Canada. The spoken language is often a barrier. Everyone has his or her own accent. Sometimes it's hard for people to understand each other. For the students, being welcomed by peers is more important. They want to be welcomed by other students with whom they can share the challenges and successes.

What often surprises newly arrived parents and students is that English is spoken in the halls because school is a francophone minority environment.

Lastly, the students mainly have to deal with a culture at school that is at times different from the one at home.

These are highlights that emerge from the consultations. The board's intake protocol will be developed and submitted to the Ministry of Education in November.

Thank you very much for listening to me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. Brûlé.

Now, on the school side, I believe you have developed a strategy. We're going to begin with Ms. Desautels.

[Thérèse Desautels, Pastoral Officer, Collège catholique Samuel-Genest]

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the Collège catholique Samuel-Genest. It is a great honour to welcome you here to our college.

Some 40 ethnic groups are represented among our student body. This year, we welcomed a number of newly arrived families in Canada, including Haitian families. Our school is located in an environment with highly varied social status levels. A number of students come from disadvantaged families seeking financial support.

I hold the position of pastoral officer. My role with our immigrant students is above all to welcome them, to lend an attentive ear to what they have experienced before arriving in Canada and to provide them with moral support. A number of them, youths, arrive without families. So this is one way to welcome them, to support them and to meet their needs.

The biggest problem when we meet with families and students is naturally poverty, extreme poverty, since these families arrive with nothing. Sometimes, I illustrate that need by saying that they arrive with one sock and one shoe. These families often have to live in motels near the school. This year, I saw one mother with her five children living in two bedrooms at a motel, with a little stove to cook rice on. They lived there for a number of months waiting for a community shelter so they could have housing. This is a difficult situation for the children who have to go to school.

In addition, one of the important aspects when students appear at my office is seeing what their needs are. I have a kind of general store and I try to provide newcomers with all the school supplies, that is to say paper and pencils, but right now we're dealing with USB sticks. So we have to modernize. We need locks for the lockers. I often give out a combination lock, and the students ask me how to use it. They don't know how to use it, and then I find another student to teach them. That's already contact with another student.

These young families, these youths, also lack clothing. They don't know when they arrive here in summer that there will be winter. They don't know what mittens, tuques and scarves are. So there's clothing, bedding and furniture. Sometimes families sleep on the floor, don't have mattresses. They also need food. I always try to direct them to the food banks, but they aren't always open when they get hungry. So we try to offset this problem as much as possible.

I couldn't do this job without the great cooperation of staff members. Everyone lends a hand. There are families at the college that provide help, but there are also community organizations. We have fund-raising drives that also help us offset these shortfalls.

At noon, lunches are offered in the cafeteria. Every day at lunch, some 50 students are received, and we try to direct newcomers there as well. This is a place where they eat lunch, speak with others and integrate into school life.

For young newcomers, school is their second family. It's incredible to see the number of students who stay here after school, after the bell rings at 2:30, because they have nothing to do at home. They don't have any mattresses, television, video games, and they don't know the places or the community. So they stay at school. I tell them all the time that I don't understand them: when I was finished school, I couldn't wait to go home, but for them their second family is here.

There's a major volunteer project at the Collège catholique Samuel-Genest called “Changing my community”. These are volunteer initiatives organized by the kids.

In the context of these events, we try as much as possible to integrate immigrant families through suppers, outings, meetings, exchanges and multicultural shows.

My remarks won't be much longer. I'm already at the recommendations.

Naturally, for the families, I would ask that we facilitate access to neighbourhood resources. There are resources, but the families aren't familiar with them. They arrive in a country where they know absolutely nothing.

Yesterday evening, I was imagining getting these families on board a bus and taking them on a tour of the community. We could show them the Vanier Community Service Centre, the Overbrook-Forbes Community Resource Centre, the food bank. We should tell them that they can meet people. That would be a first step in getting to know the community. They would get to know the services.

We also recommend that French courses be organized for families. In my opinion, organizations and partners should increase the profile and effectiveness of services provided. For the school, there could be training for staff members on the various mindsets. That would help promote integration and understanding. In their classes, teachers receive people from a number of ethnic groups with various mindsets. I think that, if we could increase teachers' awareness and give them training courses on the mindsets of the largest number of students, because we can't talk about all the mindsets, that would definitely help gain a better understanding of our students.

There could also be after-school activities. For example, the library could stay open and provide computers and reference books, which students don't have at home. The gymnasium could open its doors to let students play sports. Since we're keeping them longer, a snack service should be set up. We have to feed them and then see to their transportation because the school buses have left.

One of the school's big projects, which we hope will be set up in September, is the opening of a used clothing store, like a thrift store, so our families and students from disadvantaged backgrounds—which is the case of most newcomer families—can be properly dressed at low cost.

These projects naturally suppose that we can hire trained staff. So in my recommendations, I added one little word for you: “budget”.

Thank you for listening to me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you for your recommendations, Ms. Desautels.

Ms. Lanteigne, go ahead, please.

[Francine Lanteigne, Teacher, Collège catholique Samuel-Genest]

I'm going to agree with my colleagues Ms. Brûlé and Ms. Desautels. I won't repeat their statements; I'm going to go immediately to the recommendations. They've given testimony that I can't make any more authentic. We have stories going back many years.

First and foremost, I think we have to educate the Canadian public about immigration. Ms. Brûlé talked about a glossary. Canadian citizens must be ready to know what this is about. We're talking about immigrants, about newcomers and about various types of status. This is a jargon. Unless you're interested in it, you don't know it. So there's a visibility issue.

Second, we have to promote the implementation of sustained intake mechanisms. We're talking about budgets, but they have to be maintained. A lot of initiatives have come out of the good will and budgets associated, for example, with PAL, in our case, in education in Ontario. If that were formal, official, attached to the government, we would be promoting the added value that is education. It is a truth, not my own, that the immigrants who come to us have been invited to come here. For us, in Canada, the value that we see in it is the added value that immigrants give to education. All of them come to get an education, to which they aspire. They believe in the education provided where they settle. For us, this is the most pleasant student population. We don't need to convince them; they know why they're here.

Third, we have to make the Department of Immigration's partners more accountable for achieving intake and support results.

Lastly, I won't repeat the issue of visibility and effectiveness that Ms. Desautels has already addressed, but with regard to education, we want effectiveness and visibility by introducing a training model for instruction in what were called second languages during the Trudeau era, but today we could call them foreign languages. There's also a whole jargon that triggers all kinds of feelings. We're talking about a cultural passport, about intercultural training. We've gotten to that point.

Right now, we're taking in immigrants because we're nice, we're good, and we believe in our private values. However, there are gaps in the expression of values by the families and students we receive. We're in the third millennium. Our society today is in a new paradigm. Canada is at the top. It has everything it needs. Documents are published and very little use is made of them by the general public. I believe the federal government should distribute what it has already published. I won't name the works, but they are very valid. The Standing Committee on Official Languages has long supported them. We are part of the world of communication, of understanding and of the way of taking action in the world.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. Lanteigne.

Mr. Apollinaire, would you like to speak?

[Apollinaire Yengayenge, Parent, Collège catholique Samuel-Genest]

Good morning.

One of the dreams of parents who leave their native countries to come and settle in Canada is to educate their children. We agree to leave our jobs, our little luxuries. We sell our cars, abandon our homes in the hope of finding a well-paid job here that will enable us to raise our children. Even in our native countries, the children are cared for by the school and by the parents who play a partnership role.

We arrive here, and the children go to school and go through a quick integration period. The parents arrive at home and their dreams are broken because they can't find a job quickly. They stay at home and wash the dishes, do the cooking and do the cleaning. The luckiest ones find odd jobs working up to 70 hours a week. Consequently, they are unable to supervise their children or follow what goes on in Canada.

Parents left to their own devices often go to community ghettos. They stay cloistered there poisoning each other's minds. They hear that, if they want to work, they should quickly accept a position as an attendant at a hospital, do this or that. Most people who come here of their own free will often arrive with very high-level diplomas, but they are unable to integrate because everything is barricaded. Barriers prevent us from gaining access to employment. Worse than that, we don't even have the information that would allow us to fight. Some parents say they're denied jobs because they aren't Canadians.

Integration training is provided at well-equipped places like the Cité collégiale. That's where I was first accepted after trying everything else. I saw that, in fact, I was lacking information that would enable me to be curious, to love Canada, to explore it, to go further and to fight like all other Canadians to find a job.

So there is the fact of arriving here and not finding these integration training structures. There's a kind of withdrawal, a lack or loss of self-confidence. We tend to forget everything we know. Our skills become obsolete because we feel they won't serve a purpose in Canada, that's not where the country is, since our friends who arrived a few years before we did still have little subsistence jobs.

People get to that point. If a person was a doctor and is doing these kinds of odd jobs, what more can I do, with only a master's degree in economics, than what he's doing? It's better to follow your own path. Destiny is determined by the way we do things because we aren't in touch with the country. We don't even follow current affairs. We don't know what is being done. We don't know Canada and its policies. We don't know the geographic dimensions, or a lot of other things. We aren't even familiar with the cultural realities.

If we want parents to integrate well, there has to be an introduction to all the ways of doing things so that their curiosity is focused on the country and its specific characteristics. This aspect is very much lacking. I'm really the result of it because I succeeded by taking well-organized integration courses that made me love Canada, without making me forget part of what I am. That's often what's lacking because they say that's how it is in Canada; you have to go about it like that. So often people feel they'll never be able to do it.

We're telling you our skills are transferable. It's this gentleness, this way of taking us from our world to the other world that makes us love Canada. My recommendation is to say how to organize integration for parents in order to assist them in orienting themselves and in finding out, with their skills, how to integrate into the various professions in Canada. Our children, who are luckier than we are, enter school structures. They integrate quickly. They are real time travel machines.

There's an enormous gap between parents, who have become illiterate because they no longer follow current events, and their children. Their children dangle a lot of aspects in front of them, in particular the fact that we have the freedom to do this or that. They tell their fathers that they're worthless because they are no longer even able to buy a gift, whereas the other children have this or that thing. A parent becomes paralyzed and wonders whether it wouldn't be better to go back and start over.

Frankly, if people don't turn this corner, they fall into poverty. We aren't beggars. Were not looking for charity. When you organize humanitarian services, for example, we're ashamed to make use of them because we have skills that enable us to work. There's a lack of openness in the job market, but we are't prepared to attack that job market.

I'm only asking one thing: that parents be prepared to attack the job market in Canada because this is the country we've chosen.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Yengayenge, it's I who thank you for your testimony.

We're going to leave the last word in the opening addresses to our time travel machines. Ms. Santana, I believe you want to break the ice on behalf of young people, for whom we are here today.

[Andrea Santana, Student, Collège catholique Samuel-Genest]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm originally from Brazil, and I arrived in Canada in May 2006, speaking neither English nor French.

Since French was closer to my mother tongue, Portuguese, it was easier to start by learning French. The school offered me a summer course so I could learn French. The school's partnership with OCISO enabled me to learn French through a volunteer teacher. During that summer course, I studied French from Monday to Friday.

I hope that access to this kind of course will be easier for newcomers, particularly for those who know neither of the official languages.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Perfect. Ms. Santana, take your time, we have all the time in the world. We're listening to you; this is very interesting, and we want to understand you. This is very good. Thank you for being here.

[Andrea Santana]

The volunteer courses in the summer of 2006 hadn't finished by the time school went back. The volunteer teacher therefore continued helping me learn French after school, and she is still helping me even today. I've been helped by her for four years now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

That's good.

Mr. Cédric, please tell me how I should pronounce your given name, please, because I'm having a little difficulty.

[Miguel Cédric Tchuemboum Kouam, Student, Collège catholique Samuel-Genest]

In fact, my given name is Miguel and my surname is Tchuemboum Kouam.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

All right, Mr. Tchuemboum Kouam, would you like to continue to give a little time...

All right, Ms. Santana, we're listening.

[Andrea Santana]

My first school year was a real challenge because, even though I knew the subject in my mother tongue, I couldn't express everything I was thinking. However, during the first year, a teacher helped me at school and made it a lot easier to fit in with the other students. After only one year of training, I took the provincial language proficiency test.

I'm really lucky since so many people fought for me and defended my interests like my volunteer teacher, Ms. Lanteigne, and Ms. Hortense from OCISO.

However, it's so unfortunate for other newcomers who haven't had the chance to have as complete an integration as mine. You must establish integration and official language courses and provide access to them for newcomers by hiring qualified staff.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Ms. Santana, you've given all the members of this committee a lesson. We knew at least one of the two official languages when we became members of Parliament, and some at times have trouble learning two. You've learning both and you know others. You're really a model, and I thank you very much for being here this morning.

Ms. Bararu, would you like to say a few words?

[Kelly Bararu, Student, Collège catholique Samuel-Genest]

Ladies and gentlemen, it is an honour for me to be selected to speak on the immigration issue. Thank you very much.

In my presentation, I will focus on the issues that have affected us, my family and me, and the role the school has played in this regard.

We know that immigration is what makes Canada a multicultural country. We also know that many immigrants from the four corners of the world are looking for jobs. However, I would like to draw your attention to the unemployment rate among immigrants. Most of them have a master's degree or a doctorate, like my parents, but they are often forced to redo their studies. Those studies took many years and cost a lot of money. But isn't it true that, in accepting them as immigrants, Canada expects them to make an economic contribution? However, how can they contribute to the economy when they have no jobs? This situation hurts the economy and the family. If the family is hurt, then so are the children, and those children then neglect school, which could help the family.

In another connection, I would like to talk to you about the Franco-Ontarian identity. Openness to other cultures helps eliminate ignorance from our thinking. It helps identify the differences and similarities between our culture and another. It enables us to attach ourselves to it and to recognize that we belong to a community, a whole and a specific group. I think this is how we forge an identity. Consequently, through a school and the programs it offers us, we learn, as Ms. Santana said, French, mostly, or English, and we also visit Canada. However, based on my personal experience, what I found most disheartening when I arrived in Canada was not receiving any programs in English. That really isolated me from other students and I felt separate. Even though French is the majority language of instruction, we know that English dominates in the halls, at the secondary level in particular. So I would ask that there be at least a few English-language programs.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. Bararu.

Mr. Tchuemboum Kouam, would you like to finish this series of addresses?

[Miguel Cédric Tchuemboum Kouam]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for this opportunity to speak today.

My presentation concerns the integration of students in the school environment. I find that the student population is growing quickly, especially at the Collège catholique Samuel-Genest. I'm going to talk mainly about the Collège catholique Samuel-Genest because that's where I arrived. I arrived in Canada last year, in September 2009.

At the school, I noticed that a lot of English was spoken. I was a bit afraid of integrating into that environment, which is essentially anglophone, as I only speak French. I therefore think that immigration can contribute a lot by leading people to speak French, particularly by bringing the young people from here together with immigrants so they can develop closer relations.

Teachers should also play an important role, particularly by encouraging these closer relations, which permit better integration and promote the emancipation of the French language. A lot of people don't speak French and it is difficult to communicate with people who want to speak only English and who are not really interested in French, or with whom a conservation started in French switches directly to English. That may be because their vocabulary is not broad enough or because they don't know the French word and switch to English. That's the way it is every time and it is not easy for francophones always to listen to something they don't understand.

Immigrants who speak only French should also be given adequate training in English so they can integrate while retaining their francophone culture. When we arrived here in Ottawa, the first thing we were told was that we wouldn't be able to get by if we didn't speak English. You either have to speak English or go to Quebec.

That's all I had to tell you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

We have now completed the part of our meeting where we listen to the witnesses.

We will now begin the first round of questions, starting with Mr. Mauril Bélanger, vice-chair of our committee, and, if I'm not mistaken, member for the constituency in which we find ourselves.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I too want to thank the school administration and Mr. Charette for welcoming us here this morning. I also want to thank the students who agreed to take part in this meeting. We'll have to reflect on what we've just heard.

My first question is for Ms. Brûlé. Ms. Brûlé, you alluded to some agreement that had been developed and would be available by the fall. If I correctly understood, you mentioned the month of November. Could we have a copy of it, if that's permitted, when that document is prepared?

[Monique Brûlé]

That protocol was requested by the Ontario ministry. All the francophone school boards have to develop an intake and communication protocol. That protocol must be submitted to the ministry by the end of November, I believe. Once it's accepted, I believe it will become public. It would therefore be possible to obtain a copy.