Thank you.
Chris, do you want to go first?
No? Okay.
We are talking about credible arguments. However, let me point out that there is a difference between a credible argument and one that seems credible. We could talk at length about arguments that seem credible. For example, an argument against climate change may seem credible, even though there is no credible argument against climate change. We might say that we cannot act on an argument that seems credible, so we are no longer moving forward. I just wanted to share these thoughts with you.
When people demonstrate an adequate knowledge, as the bill says, they must do so by communicating. By definition, they are communicating: they are in front of an officer who administers a test to check their ability to speak in one of the two languages in particular.
I have a hard time understanding how this would not apply to communications with the government. Nowhere in the bill does it say that we should normally, or most of the time, speak in a particular language; it says that we must be able to communicate in that language.
Let's take the example of someone who would like to drive from here to Rio de Janeiro. The person would face a slight problem, called the Darién Gap, between Panama and Colombia. There is no road across it. That region is more than 110 kilometres long, and no roads cross it. So we can't drive to South America. It's therefore like saying that, because we can cover 99% of the route, we can cross America by car.
That is not a very compelling argument. Yes, an argument seems credible with respect to the constitutionality of the bill, but I see no credible argument that makes it constitutional.
I would like to hear your comments on that.