Thank you very much for appearing before us, ladies and gentlemen.
I had an opportunity to meet with Ms. Lewin at Glendon College. That is one model for promoting the two official languages. I prefer to use the term official language rather than second language or minority language. The latter term is a bit condescending. Moreover, the minority language is always French. Many people in francophone communities that we have heard from have said that they feel this way. Basically, it is clear that the status of French in Canada is not so much the result of a lack of knowledge but rather a lack of understanding that French is intrinsicly part of Canada.
In Quebec, the Bloc Québécois favours a different solution to deal with that reality, which we have lived with and are still living with. But we are nonetheless very sensitive to what is happening elsewhere. I am particularly surprised to see that French is not the second language learned in public schools. I am very surprised in that, in Quebec, English is automatically the second language. Students sometimes do not learn to understand English well enough, but efforts are being made to correct that situation. Everyone agrees that people need to learn English as a second language. I have personally even taught English as a second language. The goal of having people learn English as well as possible is a crucial one.
I also want to talk about the need to give students and young professionals in Canada the opportunity to see what is happening in other places. Just the day before yesterday, at a press conference, people were talking about the fact that young professionals were losing the funding to go abroad. That is absolutely unacceptable. We are not in a world that is getting smaller: on the contrary. So we need to open the doors and give young people the opportunity to find out what is happening in other countries.
Globalization is also taking place here. So we must not prevent our young people from seeing other societies up close. It is not enough for them to simply say that they have met someone who is Chinese; they should go to China. My own son went to China and Japan to study. He also studied in Germany and did work in Austria. We need to make sure that our young people are able to understand the world in which we live, so that they can be the best possible ambassadors for Canada.
My comments are more general, I will admit, but I think that it is important to emphasize this point.
Mr. Théberge, you talked about your organization and the fact that it is important to strengthen relationships with the linguistic minority. I think that we really need to avoid talking about linguistic minorities and talk instead about official languages. I am a feminist, and having been the President of the Quebec Federation of Women, I know that the minority label can sometimes be useful in moving things forward. However, the Official Languages Act does not talk about minorities but rather about the rights of francophones and the rights of two peoples with respect to the relations between them. Regardless of everything that is happening in Quebec, I think that we need to promote that idea.
I would like to hear your comments on that.