Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Ms. Goulden and Mr. Loyd.
Ms. Monique Guay, from the Bloc Québécois, raised a very important issue, and I have the impression that we put some very strange questions last week to our witnesses. I might mention that most of the witnesses, or at least some of them, were from my riding, because there are three organizations run by blind people in my riding. We have schools and even some industrial production involving activities which are in Braille.
Ms. Goulden, here is the situation I want to explain to you. This is how I understood it. Please correct me if I'm wrong. As it now stands, Francophones from Quebec and New Brunswick use the Nemeth Code for their studies, mainly, for reading novels and books which are not school manuals. The school systems in New Brunswick and Quebec are different, but in France, they are even more different from our systems. Consequently, Braille is mostly used for novels and general reading material.
The issue Ms. Guay raised, and which I find very interesting, is that in Europe the code will be standardized. France, Belgium and Switzerland will use the new standardized code beginning in September 2009, and it will also be used in Quebec. For this reason, if the code is adopted, people in New Brunswick and in Quebec will not be able to communicate or learn with francophones from other provinces, because the standardized code will introduce a new code, the Antoine Code, which will be used mostly in science and for the numbering of books. We learned that the number 12 is a and b in the current code, but that this would change under the Antoine Code. So that is already creating a problem. These people are already dealing with a handicap. Now in addition they will have to learn two languages. The third issue is that they will have to learn a script other than braille.
It's true that there is no standardization now. You said that virtually everyone is doing something about it, but it is script, and you can translate script from French into English or vice-versa. It's a form of writing, but it's also a language. Those are the two official languages.
Today, anglophones and francophones can use the same code. In French and in English, the Abraham Nemeth Code is used, and it is also used in the United States, Australia, England, and perhaps in other countries, too, which don't come to mind right now. Consequently, if the new standardized code is implemented, we risk becoming illiterate compared to other groups. We will not be able to talk to each other anymore. A person from Quebec or New Brunswick will not be able to communicate, if the new code is implemented, with a francophone from Manitoba, or Saskatchewan, or Alberta, or British Columbia.
Is that the reality? That's what I think was explained to me.