Mr. Nadeau, I experienced that myself in Nova Scotia, where I come from. Before the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial was established, we were the ones, we whose mother tongue... I work for a school board that brought a case before the Supreme Court regarding section 23 of the Canadian Charter of rights and freedoms. I am well aware of this phenomenon.
I would like to point out that in our part of the province, each year we lose more than 700 or 800 students. But the number of students at the Centre scolaire Étoile de l'Acadie, which is the school in our region that teaches children whose mother tongue is French, continues to increase because we work in the children's mother tongue, their first language. Our goal is not to encourage families to send their children to our schools. We respect the decision made by the families, but what is really important is that people be well-informed. Material designed to teach children in their mother tongue, in their first language, is not identical to material designed to teach children a second language. There is a big difference between the two. Many of my friends were assimilated and lost their French, their maternal tongue. That is the tragic story of Acadians in our part of the country.
We must provide clear information, but all the same, the decisions are made by the family. We have always said that the information is correct, that it's good information.