Thank you, Mr. Dion.
There are a few recommendations in our brief.
Number one, we would like every celebration across the country to be bilingual, and not rely on the fact that certain communities.... I'll speak from Red Deer's perspective, and when we have Canada Day
or a celebration like that.
If you were to ask the people in the organizing committee how much French should there be, they wouldn't necessarily recognize that 10% of the school population is in immersion or core French. They wouldn't know the history of Fort Normandeau or that our community was founded by people like Guy Lacombe. They wouldn't know that.
We recommend, first of all, that there be a stronger emphasis and it be much clearer what the language requirements are for all celebrations across this country.
Again, for those students who are learning French as their second language, and this speaks to Mr. Cooke's point, this means showing that French is a living language. It's a language we speak outside the classroom. It's more than math. It's more than social studies. It's who we are. It's part of our history, and part of where all Canadians live.
Number two, we would like official recognition of people like myself who are bilingual, who took time to learn les deux langues officielles to try to live, work and play in both languages and consider it so essential to our identity.
We've been working really hard at trying to work on the DELF program, Diplôme d'études en langue française, so that bilingualism is officially recognized across this country as a skill and an asset. Bilingualism is something you can bring with you and showcase and celebrate.
One of our other recommendations was to look at creating a bilingual national anthem. I can tell you from living in the part of the country I live in, I was at the Calgary Stampede this year, and I'm sure you all heard about the bit of controversy there. The English-only version was played at the grandstand show. What was really interesting was Calgarians said that this was not acceptable, that they want a French and English version. I can also tell you that people don't know what that means.
What is the real version of O Canada?
Is it the version sung in English and in French,
Is it a bilingual version that is shared across the country? Every Canadian should have an opportunity to learn that even if it's just
four sentences in French
that they learn, it's our national anthem and should be represented in both languages.
Thank you.
I don't know if what I said was clear.