Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank the representatives from Canadian Heritage for being here. We are pleased to welcome you to the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
I am reminded of all the discussions we had for the 2010 Olympic Games. I remember that we heard from a lot of witnesses about this. We could say that good things were done, but we could also say that, in some cases, we very clearly missed the mark.
We will mainly discuss the two official languages here because this is the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
Will our francophones be singing in English or in French? That's what happened during the last Olympic Games. When it came to French, people defended it by saying that a francophone had been asked to sing. But an English song was chosen. However, I didn't see many anglophones choosing to sing songs in French.
What will Canadian Heritage's involvement be with respect to looking at the schedule for such events? There are Métis, first nations and different groups. They shouldn't just be invited for the opening and then forgotten. We're talking about celebrating the 150th anniversary of Confederation. I'm sure Mr. Dion will speak about it. You are talking about Canada's birthday, but I don't think it's Canada's birthday. In our documents, we are really talking about Confederation. There is a difference between the two.
I would like to hear what you have to say about that. Our committee worked very hard at that time. We had even invited the president of the organizing committee for the Vancouver Olympic Games. Despite that, we really missed the boat. When the celebration began, we realized that we had lost.
What are Canadian Heritage's intentions in this matter?