Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I would like to move the motion I tabled with the committee on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, to be precise. The motion concerns the Governor General and reads as follows:
[…] the committee :
(a) is concerned that the Governor General cannot adequately address Quebec francophones and francophones from francophone communities in other provinces in their mother tongue;
(b) expresses its deep disappointment that after three years since her appointment, the Governor General of Canada is unable to sustain a basic level of conversation in French in the exercise of her title as representative of the Sovereign in Canada, and that she has spoken only in English when French is the only official language in the province of Quebec; and
(c) requests the chair to report to the House as soon as possible.
It is simply a request to report the situation to the House, a report that shows our disappointment. I hope it is shared and that I am not the only one who is extremely disappointed by this situation. She is the representative of the King of England and, consequently, of Canada's head of state, according to the documents, and that head of state speaks French, in particular.
Yes, his representative is bilingual, but you can be bilingual in many ways. It could have been Spanish, Mandarin. It could have been Portuguese. It could have been Danish, Swedish, but the fact remains that Canada's two official languages are French and English, and not any of the 3,000 or so languages and several thousand dialects that exist all over the world.
This is a measure of respect for francophones in Quebec and the rest of Canada. Regardless of whether they believe in or support this monarchical symbol on Canadian soil, they nevertheless have the need and the right to have their mother tongue respected and considered important.
I am opening the debate so that my colleagues can express themselves and determine the issue around the vote to bring this report to the House of Commons.
Thank you.