Evidence of meeting #59 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was 2017.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
Yes.
I agree with you, Mr. Dion.
I also understand why people would think that 1867 was the birth of Canada because that's the name of the first of July.
Thank you for your remarks.
We'll go to Mr. Trottier.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for joining us today.
Mr. Caron, I really enjoyed your presentation, especially the part about founding documents. There is something magical, especially for young people, when you see documents like the Constitution or versions with signatures.
In terms of the founding documents of our country, for example with respect to Confederation—which Canadians see as the birth of Canada—I was wondering whether they were written in both official languages at the time, in 1867.
12:40 p.m.
Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada
Not necessarily. For instance, the British North America Act is not a Canadian document. It belongs to the British Parliament, which has the original. So the document we have is a copy.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
I feel that there is a degree of convergence between your initiatives—the documents that could be made available to Canadians, for example—and the work of the museums from coast to coast. But I wonder how possible it could be to present those documents in both official languages. Of course, they are not all original documents, but it should be possible to communicate their magic to Canadians. How could that be done? What challenges and issues are involved?
12:45 p.m.
Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada
It is certainly possible to translate the major documents. An example might be the commission given to Jacques Cartier in 1534. You may not agree, but, for some people, that is the first constitution of Canada.
12:45 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
12:45 p.m.
Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada
At least, that is what some constitutional experts say because it is the first document that gave…whatever, it would be possible to translate those documents, but they would be copies in that case, of course.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Can you go a step further and make a translation that looks like…
12:45 p.m.
Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada
Yes, it is quite possible to make a facsimile. It is very easy these days.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
There are other documents as well. Really, 1867 is only the beginning of Canada as a legal entity in the world. Other documents came later. The 1926 Balfour Declaration, for example, is a British document. Could documents like that be made available to Canadians?
12:45 p.m.
Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada
Certainly. Anything that is not bilingual can be reproduced in the other language in a similar form.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Are there plans along those lines? Has the work already been done?
12:45 p.m.
Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada
The question has not yet been asked. Things will evolve as and when we develop projects. For example, we have one with the Confederation Centre of the Arts. We can do those kinds of things and we will be considering them.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Let me turn to the representatives from the Canadian Museums Association. What is your vision? Have there been any thoughts about this, about how to provide those documents to Canadians? You mentioned a train. Are there perhaps other ways to make these very important studies available? It is one way to grasp the idea of Confederation, of Canada.
12:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Museums Association
Mostly museums deal with objects, and not so much with documents. We deal with the stories behind the objects or, in the case of song and dance, with bringing them to life. There are some wonderful examples in the museum world of aboriginal tales, myths, and stories being brought to life through holography or different lighting. I've worked in this business a long time, and I've seen some wonderful exhibitions, particularly in New Zealand, which is a truly bicultural nation. It's a very interesting approach.
I think there are good examples. What we need are the tools to be able to implement them, because they cost money. We're prepared for a matching program. Our museums are prepared to do fundraising, but the creativity is going to come from the individual museum or art gallery. It's not top-down; we need it to be bottom-up.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Could you share with us some of the objects attached to 1867? They don't come to mind immediately. I think about our neighbours to the south, in the United States. I think of the Liberty Bell, for example. Is there something like that, an object attached to 1867 that embodies the spirit of coming together as a country?
12:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Museums Association
That's a really good question.
Offhand, a number of iconic images come to my mind about Canada, in the very early periods. In fact, just a week or two ago I was at the Museum of Civilization for the official announcement of its name change and they brought out a number of things from their collection—Champlain's astrolabe, the van that followed Terry Fox, the Maurice Richard hockey sweater. Those items are there. We think they can be found, and we'd like them to be broadcast across Canada.
The BBC did a program that was extraordinarily popular. It was called A History of the World in 100 Objects. This was on the radio. You can't see them. It's not television; it's radio. Through the magic of storytelling, they brought them alive. It was a top award-winning radio show recently.
We think a lot of innovative ideas along those lines could be done.
12:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Confederation Centre of the Arts
I would love to respond to that.
I live and work in an architecturally stunning building that was built specifically to represent the first meeting of the Fathers of Confederation in the conception of Canada as a nation. It takes up a full city block. It had the same architect as the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, if you would like visualize it, except that it's several times larger. We have hundreds of thousands of square feet of space that we use for our gallery, for our theatres, etc.
That building was built as a national memorial to the founding of the nation, and it's recognized as Canada's birthplace. I'm very close to it as an object. I live and work in it every day, and I would like all Canadians to know about it.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
I guess it would be rather difficult to take that object on the road and bring it to Canadians, though, wouldn't it?
November 6th, 2012 / 12:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Confederation Centre of the Arts
I can do lots of other things to make sure they're aware of it, though.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Some of my colleagues have made the point that we're not trying to redo the work of Heritage Canada, but in terms of our unique bilingualism and linguistic duality challenges, can you think of some of the things that we need to think of now? It's early, still four years away, but what are some of the things we need to get in motion right now?
Maybe I'll open it up to the museums for an answer, because I think the local and provincial museums might have some challenges.
12:50 p.m.
Director of Programs and Public Affairs, Canadian Museums Association
That is a very good question. That is why we mentioned a multi-year program in our presentation.
Mr. Dion is right in that 2017 is just one year. But, for museums, a lot of events leading up to 2017 are all just as important because they define our nation. While 2017 is the anniversary of Confederation, it is also the centennial of Vimy and the 375th anniversary of Montreal. Those are events that define us as Canadians and we owe it to ourselves to celebrate them.
Museums are quite innovating in terms of artifacts and history. Mr. Caron is right about that. Some documents are unilingual by their very historical nature, but museums are quite innovating.
I have been working in the museum area for a number of years. I can tell you that I know a museum that brought the Act of Confederation alive, even though it was written in English only.
The example shows, first, that the document must be displayed as it is because it is an authentic artifact and, second, that innovation allows us to bring the actual document alive through an audio presentation in several languages, making it accessible to all. So it becomes not just about reading a document but about being part of it and getting right into it. That is an example of objects becoming accessible.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses very much for their presentations.
Canadian linguistic duality and multiculturalism complement each other. What measures should be taken to ensure that these two Canadian values are celebrated in a fair and equitable way and also reflect our duality of the two languages? How are we showing in the two languages the contributions of other Canadians to Canada?