If we adopted your attitude, a good Acadian singer named Jean-François Breau would never have become known, even in Quebec. Radio-Canada could say that Jean-François Breau comes from Tracadie-Sheila and will not be given air time because people in Quebec do not know him.
There are 7 million Quebeckers and 250,000 Acadians. The Acadian Peninsula has a population of 60,000. Not all these people would be familiar with this singer. They would never have heard of Johnny Cash or Hank Williams, either, since they did not sing in French.
I have a lot of trouble with that idea, Mr. Stursberg. It is not as if it were a program where someone was saying things that the audience would not be able to understand. After all, this is a gala, which means singing and music. It is different.
I have been invited to performances of aboriginal singers. With all due respect, I have to say that I did not understand any of the lyrics, but I loved the sound and the music. There are three cultures. In fact, there are more than three cultures in Canada, but I will mention the first nations, who were the first inhabitants, and the two peoples, the English and the French, who came from Europe. I would be just as critical of Radio-Canada if it started to exclude certain singers. If people do not know Claude Dubois, maybe it is time to help them do so. It is a learning opportunity.