Official Languages committee As soon as I came, they told me that all of them were not. That was fine; I was comfortable with that, because I had just arrived from Quebec.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee I had no such expectations, and I didn't learn anything about that there. However, I also think that, if we're talking about spirituality—I'm not talking about Catholic faith here—if we can do that in French and offer activities that allow people to feel comfortable, well, that requires openness.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee I have examples. I know an older lady whose circumstances are such that she is just trying to survive. She is extremely isolated. If she had not had a natural community network to support her, that lady would be dead now. There is no doubt about it. I was sitting at a table. Some people are terrible.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee There are many similar examples. You need a network to help you keep going and grow. These events have forged a community which is very tightly knit. It seems to me it can be more than that.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee We don't have any statistics on this, but one of the two spouses must attract the other to French, because otherwise, we would never see them, in the sense that they would go to the Anglophone church. Some things we see here are unusual. I don't really know why, but I think it's due to the attraction of the culture, rather than the idea of speaking French.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee The territory.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee With respect to services for seniors, there are two centres for seniors. As far as services are concerned, there is very good coverage physically. Yes. And the territory is responsible for that.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee I think our demand is legitimate. If there are two languages in this country, why are we still sitting here demanding that people speak French? Are the review or enforcement mechanisms not effective? Why, all of a sudden, because the majority speaks English, are there no longer two founding peoples?
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee The system is built in English. Yes. There are a couple of staff members who are starting to speak French but these are not positions designated for Francophones. Furthermore, as you said, the population is aging. And people are now aging in the Yukon. That, too, is new, because people used to leave the Yukon when they got older, to join their children further south.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee We have no choice but to see that they support them now. But initially, we really had to make our own place.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee Yes. Now there are a lot more partners, because they also see that providing services in French has a certain impact and they would not be able to provide these same services. It is reciprocal as well, because we share responsibilities at a certain level.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee We can't close any, because we don't have any. Ah, ah!
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin
Official Languages committee Yes, I'd say so.
February 7th, 2011Committee meeting
Rev. Father Claude Gosselin