Pauline Picard

[Committees of the House, April 16th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the members of the Bloc Québécois will vote in favour of this motion.

[Foreign Affairs, April 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, last December, the Bloc Québécois introduced a motion calling on the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to release Franco-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt. That motion was adopted unanimously. My colleague from Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher has asked the Prime Minister to join us in calling publicly for Ingrid Betancourt's release.

Will the Prime Minister comply with that request?

[Foreign Affairs, April 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, China has turned down a request by Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to visit Tibet. The Chinese authorities told her that such a visit was not possible at this time. Louise Arbour is due to step down from her position at the end of June, and China did not propose another date.

Will the Minister of Foreign Affairs approach China so that Ms. Arbour can visit Tibet before she leaves her position?

[Competition for Correct French on Signs, April 8th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, two of the award winners in the 11th annual J'affiche en français competition sponsored by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Centre-du-Québec are from the RCM of Drummond. They are the Centre d'emploi pour femmes Partance in Drummondville and Ameublement Setlakwe in Saint-Germain-de-Grantham. This furniture store won the prize for correct French usage on the sign posting store hours and on price tags. The women's employment centre, Partance, won in the service business category.

Out of the 40 establishments in the Centre-du-Québec region that entered this competition, 18 finalists were chosen. In addition to a certificate congratulating them on their correct French signage, the winners received $250 and a plaque created by artist Suzanne Ricard, from Saint-Pie-de-Guire.

Congratulations to Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Centre-du-Québec for this brilliant initiative, as well as to the award recipients.

[Afghanistan, April 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is trying to leave the door open by saying that we will leave once the Afghan army is trained. But if Canada stays in southern Afghanistan to train the Afghan army, it will be impossible to avoid combat with the Taliban, as General Hillier has pointed out.

Will the Prime Minister admit that he is leaving the door open to allow troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2011, under the pretext of training the Afghan army?

[Afghanistan, April 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is falsely trying to convince Quebeckers and Canadians that he will withdraw our soldiers from Afghanistan in 2011. Yesterday, at the NATO summit, he said: “... we will leave Afghanistan after accomplishing our objective, which is training the Afghan army to handle security on its own”.

The Prime Minister must be clear. Is the Prime Minister laying the groundwork for extending the mission in Kandahar beyond 2011?

[Point of Order, April 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, since the hon. member is not here we will take note of what the hon. member for Louis-Hébert has just said and we will ensure that this behaviour is rectified.

[Canadian Cancer Society, April 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, from Thursday, April 3 to Sunday, April 6, the Canadian Cancer Society will once again bring a touch of sunshine and happiness to all corners of Quebec with Daffodil Days, which kick off the society's annual fundraising campaign. Thousands of daffodils will spring up everywhere. More than two million daffodils will be sold by 12,000 volunteers in some 2,600 points of sale throughout the province.

Daffodil Days, which have been held for more than 50 years, have made the daffodil the official emblem of the Canadian Cancer Society and a symbol of hope and courage. In 2008 in Quebec, 41,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and 19,500 people will die from this disease. But there is a ray of hope, because at least 50% of all cancers can be prevented through healthy lifestyles.

[Centre-du-Québec Tourism Awards, April 2nd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, three Drummondville-area tourist attractions received awards at the recent evening presentation of the Grands Prix du tourisme de la région Centre-du-Québec. The three recipients were the Village Québécois d'Antan, AO La Fantastique Légende, and an outdoor adventure park called Réseaux Plein Air Drummond.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2007, the historical Québécois village, which won in the “Tourist attractions--100,000 visitors and more” category, beat all attendance records. And the neighbouring attraction, the multimedia show, AO La Fantastique Légende, performed a brand new show made possible by an investment of nearly $3 million. This show earned them the award for “Tourist attraction--Under 100,000 visitors”.

Réseaux Plein Air Drummond opened an aerial circuit called D'Arbre en Arbre in the Saint-Joachim-de-Courval sector of the park, which clinched the “Outdoor and Leisure Activities” prize for them.

Congratulations to all the directors and volunteers of these organizations.

[Business of Supply, April 1st, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, today, the Bloc Québécois presented a motion that reads as follows:

That, in the opinion of the House, following the recognition of the Quebec nation by this House, the government should move from words to deeds and propose measures to solidify that recognition, including compliance with the language of labour relations of Quebec’s Charter of the French language regarding [workers of] enterprises under federal jurisdiction located in Quebec.

When the Conservative government made the decision to formally recognize the Quebec nation, it led the House of Commons to readily recognize that nation's attributes, including its language, culture and integration model.

If the federal government would truly recognize the Quebec nation, and not just in words, it would respect the language of that nation and it would support Bill C-482, which was presented by the Bloc Québécois to amend the Canada Labour Code, and which is currently going through the parliamentary process.

According to the most recent data released by the Office québécois de la langue française on the language used in the workplace, one quarter of the population on the island of Montreal works in English. Among anglophones, it is three quarters of the labour force.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages keeps refusing to answer a very simple question: When will she finally recognize that French is being threatened in Quebec and ensure that her government stops contributing to this decline?

It is clear that the Conservative government used the recognition of the Quebec nation to try to win Quebeckers' confidence. Once that recognition was a done deed, that was good enough for the government, and that recognition did not change anything.

However, the government can and must act. It can do so either by supporting Bill C-482, or by supporting our motion. In the first instance, it would have to comply with Bill 101 when implementing the Canada Labour Code in Quebec, in order to improve the situation regarding the language of work in Quebec. In the second instance, it would have to propose measures to give concrete expression to this recognition.

In reply to each of the Bloc Québécois' questions, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages indicated that her government promotes bilingualism in Canada and not just French in Quebec. In reality, she encourages bilingualism in Quebec and thus weakens the French language. This explanation alone supports the fact that only the Bloc Québécois defends Quebec's values and interests in Ottawa.

We are asking that the federal government recognize and respect the Charter of the French Language in Quebec primarily with respect to the language of work in businesses that fall under federal jurisdiction, that it exempt Quebec from its multiculturalism policy and that it delegate to Quebec responsibility for regulating broadcasting and telecommunications.

Anyone who looks at the mandate of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages will read the following:

[It] works to protect language rights by overseeing the application of the Official Languages Act by the federal government. It also promotes Canada’s official languages and respect for linguistic duality, which is a fundamental part of our national identity.

There are two important aspects: protecting language rights and promoting the official languages.

According to data from the last census released in December 2007, it seems that the French language has lost ground throughout Canada, including Quebec, even though a greater number of immigrants than before speak French at home. What is the government doing about this? Even though the number of people with French as their mother tongue rose between 2001 and 2006, their relative weight declined and these individuals only represent 22.1% of the population, Statistics Canada revealed.

The same is true for the number of francophones, which, between 2001 and 2006, decreased by 5,000. With regard to the population that uses French most often at home, their numbers decreased by 8,000.

Given those statistics, the government must indicate how it plans to fulfill its responsibility to ensure the maintenance and development of official language minority communities. How can the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages fulfill its mission, which includes taking all necessary steps to achieve the three main objectives of the Official Languages Act, including the equality of French and English in Canadian society?

Anyone who visits the commissioner's website can read this and might even be surprised to learn that the current Official Languages Act:

guarantees services in English and in French where required by the Act;

guarantees federal employees the right to work in the official language of their choice in certain regions;

enhances the vitality of English-speaking and French-speaking minority communities and advances the status of English and French in Canadian society.

The situation in Quebec is changing: for the first time since 1976, the number of anglophones in Quebec is on the rise. In 2006, the anglophone population stood at 607,000, up 16,000 from 591,000 in 2001. The rate of growth between 2001 and 2006 was 2.7%, higher than the rate for the francophone population.

First of all, to avoid any ambiguity, it is essential to make it clear in the Official Languages Act that French is the official language of Quebec. We believe it is important to amend the preamble to state that the federal government recognizes French as the official language of Quebec and the common language in Quebec.

That was the statement made in 1974 in section 1 of the statute that would make French the official language of Quebec. That legislation required public utilities and professions to use French to communicate with the public and the government; French was the language of routine communication in government; employees of companies had to be able to communicate with one another and with their superiors in French in the course of carrying out their duties; French had to be used everywhere in business, particularly in business management, company names, public signage, collective agreements and consumer contracts.

Next came the Charter of the French Language, also known as Bill 101, the purpose of which was to make French the language of the government and the law, the language of work, education, communications, trade and business. Quebec governments enforced the legislation in a spirit of fairness and openness, with respect for the institutions of the Quebec English-speaking community and ethnic minorities, whose invaluable contribution to the development of Quebec we recognize.

Recognition of the Charter of the French Language in no way diminishes the rights and privileges of Quebec’s anglophone minority set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

No matter how the issue is viewed, it is clear that Quebeckers are a nation. Is Canada willing to recognize that fact unconditionally? Is the federal government willing to translate words into deeds and propose measures affirming recognition of the Quebec nation and its language and culture?

Each vote will give us a clear idea of the government’s true intentions.