Evidence of meeting #42 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was yukon.
11:40 a.m.
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
We applied and we were denied because another organization had been accepted. That's fine. There's another organization. It was a call for tenders. It's like in business; you tender for a project. However, we don't understand why bilingualism wasn't required in the call for tenders.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
11:40 a.m.
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
No, we were never told that. The answer we got was that we did our advertising in French and English. And, in the newspaper, there's still an advertisement from the Yukon News, but it's in English only.
We were told that wasn't necessary. And yet, if you consult the federal government website, you see that it states that CIC must provide bilingual services in Yukon.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
You say the RCMP issues news releases or publishes on its website in English only.
11:40 a.m.
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
The RCMP testified publicly on CBC/Radio-Canada in Yukon. There are excerpts. It simply said that, as it was not publishing its news releases in French, it would no longer be publishing them in English in order to comply with the Official Languages Act. Strange logic, but that's the official response.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
We may have caused that somewhat because we invited RCMP representatives to appear before the committee. There was a reaction. In British Columbia, the RCMP decided that, since it was not issuing press releases simultaneously, it would stop publishing them. There was an outcry, the RCMP reconsidered and decided that it would hire enough interpreters or translators to be able to issue the news releases in English and French at the same time.
Why would RCMP officials not be able to do the same thing in Yukon?
11:40 a.m.
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
They're able to do it, but it's simply that they don't want to. It used to be the person hired by the RCMP who was responsible for that. That person was bilingual. The position had become bilingual. The RCMP in Whitehorse decided to do things differently. It's a real fight. We're talking here about a 10-month fight. It's hard for our little community to fight the RCMP.
A lot of citizens call us—
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
It's hard to fight the RCMP across the country, Mr. St-Pierre. Sometimes we have the same problem on Parliament Hill.
That's fine, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you.
These are obviously issues which the committee will consider and on which it will intervene from time to time. It goes without saying that we will address them when we write our report and in the context of the measures that will follow.
We are coming to the end of the first stage. This afternoon, we will have the opportunity to visit the Centre de la francophonie in Whitehorse. For the moment, I would like to thank you for appearing before the committee this morning.
Mr. Nadon, you cited a passage that I very much appreciated, that there can be no language without culture. The cultural aspect is often what encourages people to learn a language. You explained it well through the quotations. You also talked about the importance of culture in maintaining vitality, not only language, but also the linguistic communities. Thank you very much.
Ms. Bernard, thank you for being here and I congratulate you on this happy revenge of the cradle.
Perhaps we can speak less officially this afternoon during our visit.
We'll resume our activities at 1:00 p.m.
The meeting is adjourned.