Official Languages Committee on June 10th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mrs. O'Neill-Gordon, for your comments.

Mr. Nadeau, you would like to intervene.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I'll pass, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Then, let us continue with Mr. Weston.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First I would like to thank my colleagues from every party for having supported the bill that I tabled in the House yesterday evening.

[An hon. member]

We have just changed our minds.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

It was a golden moment. All the members were unanimous. I was very happy to live this moment in the House along with everybody else.

We could also learn our Canadian history here. I thank my colleague O'Neill-Gordon for having taught us some of the history of Air Canada, which was founded in 1938.

I appreciate the spirit of these discussions. I think that it is important to emphasize the positive aspects in our civil society. In any case, our society depends on this positive spirit. We do not have as many policemen in Canada as other countries have to enforce our laws, because the people themselves approve of the Constitution, the laws and conventions of the land. I also believe that Canadians are happy when we, the parliamentarians, emphasize not only negative aspects but also positive ones.

Besides, the expression "Her Majesty's loyal opposition" contains the word "loyal". This means that even if the opposition members criticize the government, all members must unite in this positive spirit.

In the private sector, companies depend on the participation of their clients. Mr. D'Amours suggested a good idea when he said that the clients should have the opportunity to participate in the management of Air Canada.

In the documents handed out by Mr. D'Amours this morning, he emphasized two passages that, in fact, deal with positive aspects. Here is the first excerpt:

If one of our employees has demonstrated our commitment to serving you in the official language of your choice, we invite you to share your experience and nominate the employee for a Dialogue language award.

The other excerpt rends as follows:

If Air Canada staff has allowed you to have an exceptional in-flight experience, please go to aircanada.com/customersolutions or fill out a comment card that flight attendants will provide you with upon request.

Therefore, I favour the initiative of tabling a friendly amendment that will give the clients an opportunity to offer Air Canada compliments and congratulations as well as complaints.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Weston.

Could somebody let me know where the magazine and the formulas are? Thank you.

We have another guest this morning at our committee: Ms. Wong.

Ms. Wong, welcome to our committee.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is a very interesting experience for me, because as you probably know, I'm the Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism. Whenever you talk about languages, I may have a slightly different perspective when we only look at bilingualism. Canada is a bilingual country, and we need both French and English, and I'm so lucky that I speak English, one of the official languages, well enough to be here to represent my riding, where 67% of my constituents speak a language other than the two official languages. Some of my constituents would love to have access to as many languages as possible. I would not argue for only English or French, but what about Farsi or Chinese or Korean?

I come from the business point of view, because my background happens to be that I taught business in school, in university, in marketing and other areas. I travel a lot. Find out how many times I've flown with Air Canada, not only between here and my constituency, but all over the world.

I also come from the perspective of a consumer, a customer. I would definitely love to have a forum in which I can express my opinions.

However, I want to speak from two different perspectives, first from the business point of view, and second, from the perspective of official languages and linguistic duality. I also have a degree in linguistics, and my doctorate degree is in business. My dissertation is on bilingualism from a practical perspective, a study of content and language. I think this is quite an interesting topic. I'd be more than happy to comment on that.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

I'm going to come to the point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. D'Amours.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chair, if I wanted to know Ms. Wong's curriculum vitae, I would consult her web site. Today we are discussing a very important motion, and I think that we could go on to something else besides what these people studied in the past and what their experience is. We should go on to more serious matters.

Mr. Chair, I find that these discussions, which are supposed to be about a serious motion, are verging on the ridiculous. Just now, we were going into historical data, and now we are trundling out CVs to tell people what we studied. If people want to share their CV, let them do it during their electoral campaign or on their web site.

Could we discuss the motion that I presented this morning, please?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. D'Amours, I know that you want us to discuss your motion. However, if you constantly interrupt the committee's work by raising points of order, this will draw the process out at length.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

As I said just now, these discussions are about the use of both official languages, especially in the field of transportation. Therefore, I now invite the honourable member to keep to the subject matter. However, I consider that up to now, the information that I have heard is perfectly relevant, regarding the whole issue of the language of business and other linguistic considerations. I think that Ms. Wong was just ready to raise the issue that we are dealing with today.

Therefore, I would invite you to be sparing in your use of points of order.

Ms. Wong, I would invite you to....

Ms. Glover, do you want to raise a point of order?

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate what you said about using points of order appropriately, because for whatever reason, it's not always understood in this committee as to what exactly a point of order is. But I believe I have a point of order.

My point of order has to do with unparliamentary behaviour.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

What is her point of order about?

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Do I have the floor, Mr. Chair, or does Mr. Nadeau?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I invite the committee members to listen to this point of order.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I was thinking out loud.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau. I accept your apology.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

I was going to say that I believe I do have a point of order, and it has to do with unparliamentary behaviour and language and the comments made by my colleague, Monsieur D'Amours, with regard to the background of someone who has a lot of experience and was just sharing that experience because it provides some credibility and some substance to the arguments she is about to put forward. I believe making jokes about her CV or about the manner in which she speaks about her experience and about her expertise is unparliamentary.

This is the first time that Mrs. Wong has come before this committee, and it disturbs me that we would have these kinds of unparliamentary comments made. I want her to feel welcome. I want her to know that we appreciate the background. I myself did not know about it.

So I would ask that you take that into consideration, Mr. Chair, and ask that Monsieur D'Amours not make jokes about other members, particularly when it's her first time here. I appreciate hearing about their experiences, so that I can be more educated when it comes to the points they're making.

Thank you.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I would like to raise a question of privilege, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. Glover.

Concerning the point of order, Ms. Glover, I consider that your proposals are relevant.