Mr. Chairman, the work that we have done has not amounted to a strictly technical assessment of how the Official Languages Act has been implemented at Borden.
There are two or three extremely important points I would like to make. First, it seems absolutely clear to me that all Canadian Forces recruits, whether they are English-speaking or French-speaking, have the right to express themselves in the language they understand, in their first language learned, during their training. In the case of most people that we met at Borden, it is the only language that they understand and can use. They have the right to be answered in their language and, in particular, to feel that it is not a privilege, when they are asking to be served in their mother tongue. They are asking to be treated in a fair and equitable way, like any other Canadian citizen.