Official Languages Committee on April 17th, 2008

[Wilfrid Denis]

I have a written document, but it is only in French. It will have to be translated into English in order to be distributed to the committee.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Thériault, could you also send us your proposals?

[Prof. Joseph-Yvon Thériault]

I do not have a text; I have written notes.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Could you send them to the committee?

[Prof. Joseph-Yvon Thériault]

I could use them to prepare a written document that I could send to you.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Could Mr. Jedwab do likewise?

[Jack Jedwab]

I have something in PowerPoint.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Great, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I will conclude. The witnesses are going to send the documents to the clerk so that they may be distributed to committee members. I want to thank them for this.

Mr. Godin, you may have the floor.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

If the document is in French, it can be sent to the clerk and we can do the translation here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Fine, that's in keeping with what I have understood. You may submit your document to us in either official language; we will undertake to have it translated in the other language.

Thank you. We have some business to take care of. Since we have little time less, we will get to it immediately. Thank you to our witnesses for coming.

We have a motion from Mr. Coderre. Mr. Coderre, you have the floor.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Petit is not pleased that Belgium was mentioned.

Mr. Chair, I would like to talk about the events surrounding the incident with the Acadian II which recently occurred in the Magdalen Islands. I don't want to interfere in an investigation by the Canadian Coast Guard, the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board or the RCMP, but I have heard about a rather intolerable situation. Some families tried to obtain services in their language, be it only a summary of the situation regarding their son. Not only did they not receive the service they requested because they were only able to speak to an answering machine, but they were unable to obtain services in French.

I think that we should use the situation and try to find out what really happened. Asking the Canadian Coast Guard to come and speak with us and give us an overview of bilingualism within that organization is consistent with the role of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. This is a territorial situation because we are talking about the Halifax office. This incident concerns sealers, but there are also fishermen telling us that quite often they have to wait or go through three or four other boats, because someone speaks English.

I think that it would be entirely appropriate for our committee to call those in charge at the Canadian Coast Guard here to find out what happened. I think it is a little sad for people to always be told that someone from Quebec city will call. There are no second-class citizens. In my opinion, it is entirely appropriate to ask that organization to report to us on what is happening with regard to the official languages.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Coderre.

I'm prepared to hear comments on the motion.

Mr. Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I want to support the motion. The same thing happened in New Brunswick. The federal legislation is clear, services must be provided in both official languages.

In New Brunswick, when someone was pulled over by the RCMP, they had to wait 20 or 30 minutes on the roadside for a police officer who could speak French to come and talk to them. So, they became second-class citizens. Because we're francophones, we had to sit on the roadside and wait. It made no sense. The Supreme Court decision on this was quite clear.

With regard to the coast guard, we need only recall the case of the Apollo vessel, where a man had applied for a job and he was told that he wasn't bilingual enough to get it, although it was a fishing boat from Shippagan. The coast guard refused to give him a job because he couldn't speak English well enough. Yet, he had done that job for six years.

At the time, we allowed people from Halifax do the same job without being bilingual and yet we're talking about a boat from Shippagan, a place that is 99.99% francophone. But that individual could not have that job. They told him that it was because he needed to be bilingual.

In that instance, the individual cannot have access to services in his or her language. I want to know the coast guard policy. How does it provide services to the public? This is a federal responsibility.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

Mr. Petit.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

My comments are in keeping with Mr. Godin's. I want to tell you right away that I'm not very familiar with the coast guard. Could we ask our researchers to provide us with some background information on the official languages regulations and the coast guard? Perhaps there is a law or something else. We need to have this in advance, before we call witnesses. Is it a question of relationships between private boats, as someone said? They didn't get an answer in French, and so on. I find this unacceptable, but I want to know to what extent I can ask questions. I am not familiar at all with the system. That's what I want to know.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Our analyst can answer your questions in part. However, given the time, perhaps he could get back to this at a future meeting, prior to having the witnesses appear, if the motion is passed?

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Yes, that would be perfect.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

If there are no other comments, let's vote on the motion.

(Motion agreed to)

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I just want to know the agenda for the next two meetings.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

First, as you know, next week is a break week. During our next two meetings, we will be discussing the Canada-community agreements and the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Have we any news from Radio-Canada?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I need to talk to you about that.

Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.