Mr. Speaker, my question of September 24 was as follows:
The French speaking residents of the village of Laurier do not have a facility to house the students of the Franco-Manitoban school division. In spite of its constitutional obligations, the provincial government has made no decision acceptable to the parents.
Will the federal government take action to ensure that section 23, dealing with minority language educational rights, will be complied with?
The minister replied, and I quote:
Mr. Speaker, to be sure the community of Laurier has good reasons to invoke section 23 of the charter, and I am convinced that the education minister will show her willingness to settle a situation which contravenes this section of the charter.
From discussions I have had recently, I hear there is a possibility of this willingness, and I hope that this is so, for this situation has been talked about for a long time and ought to have been settled a long time ago.
The question I raised is important, not only in itself, but also because of its far wider implications. We are still talking about services for minorities, in this case the francophone minority outside Quebec.
We are still talking about the roadblocks faced by these minorities. Despite the protection provided them, the communities still have to fight for their fundamental rights, in this case the right to an education in French.
Yes, the government has just signed an agreement, yesterday, aimed at funding minority language education, and I applaud this initiative. I am proud of it. But the parents to whom I referred, as far as I know, are still lacking facilities for their Franco-Manitoban school division.
What I am demanding for Manitoba, and in all of Canada moreover, is that, when we are faced with such a situation, the entire country be considered, the entire Canadian population. What happens in Manitoba has an impact on the francophone in Newfoundland, the francophone as far away as British Columbia or the Northwest Territories, everywhere in the country. What we require is great willingness and open-mindedness from all.
Unfortunately, each time there is an altercation of this nature in the francophone community outside Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois and other separatist forces tend to use it to serve their own purposes.
Does the federal government have a role to play in ensuring that section 23 of the Charter, which deals with the right to education in French, is 100 per cent respected in Manitoba and elsewhere? I believe that the answer to that is yes.
I would add that I also believe that the government must provide the necessary financial support to these minorities, whether for education, for television, for radio-everything they require to improve their situation.