In the 1960s in Canada there was no Official Languages Act nor any recognition of minority communities. An inquiry asked what was needed to ensure the vitality of these communities. When comes time for us to be accountable, I'm asked to justify our existence for a period of one year. You can't justify the existence of a community for one year; you justify the existence of a community for a generation.
I'm here to tell you that it did work. Indeed, before we were recognized in the Canadian Constitution and when we stopped being told to hide our French books and were allowed to have French schools, there was nothing in the west and the north. My friends in Manitoba had to hide their books. I'm saying that it works for a generation.