Official Languages Committee on Nov. 1st, 2012

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to welcome our witnesses.

I want to begin by putting things into perspective. At the Standing Committee on Official Languages, we were wondering whether to do this study on the celebration for the 150th anniversary of Canada's Confederation. My team and I thought it was too soon on the heels of the study by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

I would like our committee to add something different to what was done at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. If not, I wonder what the point is of our study.

Look at the study that was done on the Vancouver Olympic Games. VANOC, the team and the organizations were already in place. There was already talk of a budget. There were questions to be asked. We could have asked whether the organizations had the means to serve the linguistic communities if need be.

In this case, preparations for the 150th anniversary are just starting. The study conducted by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage took a year. What is the difference between them and us? We are the Standing Committee on Official Languages, and as such, our mandate is to ensure that the official languages are respected.

Mr. Thompson, you said that everything should be planned to make everything equal for anglophones and francophones.

You're saying that French and English have to be equal in all those celebrations. I want you to be more clear on it. Are you saying that if they're going to celebrate in Alberta, they should make sure that francophones are as equal as anglophones, for example, to make sure they understand the two peoples, les deux peuples? Is it the same thing for home, in Quebec? Would we do the same? I'd like to hear more, at the same time keeping in mind that I'd like to have your view on it.

I saw the heritage meeting, and the QCGN had not.... When were you invited?

[Stephen Thompson]

I'm sorry, sir. Could you—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I didn't see you on the list of witnesses for the study of the heritage committee. Were you invited to appear? Did you go?

[Stephen Thompson]

I don't recall our being invited to that.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

You were not invited.

[Stephen Thompson]

I don't recall our being invited.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Well, that's not a good start, if we're talking about how the francophones and anglophones have to be.... Would you say that's not a good start?

[Stephen Thompson]

It was surprising to see the heritage committee's recommendation specifically address the question of official languages and the participation of linguistic minority communities in the planning. It was a surprise that Canada's English-language minority communities were not invited to participate in that committee's study.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Ms. Kenny, you appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage as part of this study. I want to know the difference between the two. This is not the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage here. We are the Standing Committee on Official Languages, which is the only committee whose existence is prescribed by law.

I would like you to say a few words about what is expected of us. In your view, are there any recommendations we can make that would be any different than those made by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage?

What is more, do you think it is too soon for us to be holding these meetings?

[Marie-France Kenny]

First of all, I would like to say that the federation sort of invited itself to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, or rather we asked to appear before the committee. I am not certain that the federation would have been invited had we not asked.

It is unfortunate, but 42 years after the law was adopted parliamentarians do not automatically think of the anglophone community in Quebec and francophone communities outside Quebec.

The role of this committee with respect to the 150th anniversary celebrations is different than that of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. The main thing I see is that Canadian society has an opportunity to succeed where it has not been able to in the past 42 years. We must unite these two solitudes, as they are known, the anglophones and the francophones of this country. They must come to know one another.

This i what I told the committee:

“I'm a proud francophone. I'm bilingual, but I'm a proud francophone.”

And that is what we have not been able to make people understand in one way or another. Anglophones are not against francophones and francophones are not against anglophones. All I want is to have the right to raise my children in French and to live part of my life in French. I live in Saskatchewan. My neighbour across the street does not speak a word of French.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Ms. Kenny, I believe Mr. Thompson said that the two groups must be treated equally. That truly would be education of the two peoples by the two peoples.

[Marie-France Kenny]

You are quite right. We need to promote the linguistic duality.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I would like to hear what Mr. Thompson has to say about that.

Were you presenting it that way?

[Stephen Thompson]

Our message was specific to Canada's English linguistic minority communities. Should the information or the celebrations be available in the French language in Alberta? Absolutely. This is the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Confederation is the story. A significant part of that story is the compromise and the turmoil around Upper and Lower Canada and the Maritimes, and the two languages getting together, and the accommodations that were made in law in the BNA Act to allow our country to begin. Not telling that story in both of our official languages across Canada is incomprehensible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay, thank you, Mr. Thompson and Monsieur Godin.

Mr. Gourde, you have the floor.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank our witnesses for being here this morning. I do not agree with my colleague, but we can have different viewpoints. That is part and parcel of committee work.

I think this is an opportune time to be undertaking this study. At one of our first meetings, we heard from a representative of the Department of Canadian Heritage, who told us that the department was listening to people and organizations in order to establish and build the framework.

I would like to know the role that your respective organizations' would like to play in the process and in this major celebration. We cannot afford to not get this right. This is an ideal opportunity to promote linguistic duality in Canada. We have work to do over the next four years.

What part would you like to play in this major celebration and, at the same time, how would you add value to this celebration? I would like to hear from each organization in turn.

[Marie-France Kenny]

We recommended that a committee or organization be established and that is what we want to happen. It must include someone who represents the official language communities. I have heard my colleagues everywhere say the same thing.

I do not want a celebration that someone on the other side of the country is going to organize. We want to be involved. We want to be there. We want to help organize it. We want to participate and contribute.

Our francophone communities, our young people and our seniors want to be there. We want to be part of the decision-making process. That is how we view our role. We do not want to just be consulted and then told what to do. We want to be there and to contribute.

[Dr. Lorraine O'Donnell, Coordinator, Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN), Quebec Community Groups Network]

Good morning.

I'm in agreement with Madame Kenny. I work with English-speaking communities and research, but my own background is as a historian. I've had the wonderful fortune of working on several community-based history projects with different ethnocultural groups making up the English-speaking communities of Quebec. I've worked on a history of the Irish community, the Jewish community, and the different communities in Quebec City.

In answer to your question, the English-speaking communities are already very interested in the question of history, and have developed a really good infrastructure of local history groups, heritage organizations, and arts and culture organizations over the years. We're very well positioned, I would say, to work in cooperation with the committee or with Canadian Heritage to support the bigger picture throughout the province of Quebec. We definitely have the track record and the structures.

Also, on the research side, interestingly, a growing number of historians are not only English speakers, but French speakers studying English-speaking Quebec, who I think would have a lot to offer as well.

I believe we have knowledge to contribute, but we also have contacts on the ground across the province to support the bigger picture at the local level and to get information at the local level up to the big picture.

[Alexis Couture]

We definitely agree with Ms. Kenny and the FCFA position on creating an organization to coordinate and oversee these celebrations.

I would also like to take the opportunity to properly answer Mr. Godin. At the beginning of this meeting, he referred to the Vancouver Games and how the committee went about organizing the celebrations.

I think this is the right time for the committee to study the issue because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If the issue of official languages is part of the debate from the outset, rather than being a secondary consideration after plans have already been made, then their inclusion is much more productive and pertinent.

Having said that, Ms. Kenny told us that she still has her Expo 67 passport. Obviously I was not born, I was not even a twinkle in my parents' eyes. I am not even sure that they had met—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

They were in university.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Alexis Couture]

If we want to have that kind of impact, if we want, 50 years from now, the young people—they will not be as young then—to come to this same committee and tell us that they kept such and such an object from the 2017 celebrations, young people will have to participate.

It is also very important that we ensure that these celebrations do not take place in just educational, entrepreneurial or even cultural contexts; they must be true community celebrations. That means we have to be included in all these community events to truly celebrate the present, past and future of Canada, and not just one of those three elements.

That is why I am repeating what I said earlier about meaningful participation. All too often, token youth, whether anglophones from Quebec or francophones from Canada, are invited, consulted and thanked, and then excluded from the decision-making. It is important that each of these communities be represented effectively and that they be given a real role to play.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you Mr. Gourde and Mr. Couture.

Mr. Dion, you have the floor.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our guests.

I am trying to be very practical and determine what recommendations will come out of your presentations. Most important is what will be retained. I believe that there is a consensus in French and in English for an independent structure responsible for organizing the celebrations for the Confederation anniversary. If that is correct, please confirm this for me and tell me why you prefer that option, rather than the department or minister being responsible for organizing the celebrations.

You want to be part of this organization. Who else will be included? The structure will not be efficient if it is too unwieldy.

Finally, I will summarize what I retained because as, Ms. Bateman mentioned, we do not have copies of the presentations. We are not blaming anyone; those are the facts. Perhaps it was overlooked.

In the three presentations, there was a great deal of interest in the mobilization of students, waiting lists for immersion schools, museums, history, monuments, tourism, all forms of artistic and cultural expression, training youth so they can serve as facilitators at all these events, and considering the events that you are planning for 2017 to see how they could complement these celebrations.

That was my summary. If I forgot something, I would like to know.

Thank you.

We could perhaps start with Ms. Kenny.