Evidence of meeting #47 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cbc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4 p.m.
Bloc
Roger Pomerleau Bloc Drummond, QC
That wasn't the case until today. Isn't that right?
You also talked about marriages...
4 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
Exogamous marriages.
4 p.m.
Bloc
Roger Pomerleau Bloc Drummond, QC
Exogamous marriages. I wasn't familiar with the word.
First, we certainly can't prevent marriage.
4 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
That's right.
4 p.m.
Bloc
Roger Pomerleau Bloc Drummond, QC
We can't prevent the heart from loving. If someone falls in love with an anglophone, that is who they're going to marry.
4 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
Exactly.
4 p.m.
Bloc
Roger Pomerleau Bloc Drummond, QC
That being said, obviously in situation where people are in the minority and they marry people from the majority, if the children have one language to learn, it will be the majority language. Assimilation will take place in one or two generations. Even Jean Chrétien acknowledged that assimilation of francophones was inevitable in the long term.
So what do you propose to do with these marriages? We can't prevent them.
4 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
I have some statistics. When a French-Canadian man marries an anglophone woman, 20% of the children will speak French. When a francophone woman marries an anglophone man, 80% of the children will speak French.
4 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
The mother tongue is very important. Do you see the difference?
That's what means that a man might be called Mr. Carrière and no longer speak French, while Mr. Robertson spoke French because his mother was francophone. That is what we are seeing now.
How do we show these families, who have the chance to have an exogamous family, the importance of speaking English and French? They would have the chance to pass on the two most beautiful cultures in the western world. That's what we have to get people to understand, both anglophones and francophones, the importance of learning both languages.
I can travel around the world because I speak both French and English. Doors open everywhere. I don't have to worry when I have French and English. I might still have to learn Chinese, Russian or Arabic.
4 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
In five years.
4:05 p.m.
Bloc
Roger Pomerleau Bloc Drummond, QC
You also explained that you lived in a low-lying area. Well, not you personally.
4:05 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
That is what we were told.
4:05 p.m.
Bloc
Roger Pomerleau Bloc Drummond, QC
My question is technical. How is it that the radio waves from the other stations, like the anglophone radio station or the one from Quebec, can reach where you are while the ones from Radio-Canada, which should cover you, don't get there? Is it badly located?
4:05 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
In 1993, Benoît Serré was the Liberal M.P. Did you know him?
4:05 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
The ACFO in the Temiskaming region had been fighting since 1972 to get Radio-Canada. Mr. Serré told me they also didn't have the CBC. So he went to see the anglophones. That is how we got the CBC and Radio-Canada. It was a matter of an antenna.
Studies were done and there had to be an antenna. There was a change of government—from the Progressive Conservatives to the Liberals at that time—when we had almost got our antenna. But we lost it because of the budget cuts that followed the change of government. So we didn't get it.
When it was decided to install something, it wasn't put in the right place, because of a lack of resources. That's why people in the Témiscamingue region in Quebec receive the CBON signal better than we do in the Temiskaming region, because of the low-lying area. I have no technical knowledge, so I'm explaining it as best I can.
4:05 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
Do I have any time left? Yes.
We will soon be switching to digital. Will that benefit you in terms of the reception of Radio-Canada airwaves, or will it put you at a disadvantage?
4:05 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
We are told that it is going to benefit us. We are told that, but we have been told it for a long time and I will believe it when I see it, or rather when I hear it.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
First, there was another witch-hunt, in the last round, about budget cuts. I would simply like to reassure you, Mr. Carrière, by telling you that we made commitments to Canadians that we were going to maintain the CBC's budgets and maybe even increase them.
4:05 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
Thank you.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
For five years, that is exactly what we did. I think that if people want to scare you by talking about budget cuts, they should look in the mirror, because that is exactly what they did when they cut the CBC/Radio-Canada budget by $400 million in 1997.
You came here today to present a very important argument to us. You are already feeling some concerns and we are doing you no favour if we conclude this meeting by adding to your concerns. I would simply like to be a little more reassuring.
4:05 p.m.
Community Project Officer, Association canadienne française de l'Ontario - Région Témiskaming
Thank you.
