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.