Official Languages Committee on Nov. 29th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 63^rd meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages today, Thursday, November 29, 2012.

We are here pursuant to Standing Order 108 for a study on linguistic duality during the 150^th anniversary celebrations of Canadian Confederation in 2017.

We have three groups before us today: Ms. Perkins and Mr. Rothon, from Canadian Parents for French; Mr. Cooke et Ms. Lafrance, from French for the Future; and Mr. Chartier and Mr. Fleury, from the Metis National Council.

We will start with Canadian Parents for French.

[Lisa Marie Perkins, President, National Office, Canadian Parents for French]

Good morning, Mr. Chair, and to all of you respected committee members. Thank you for inviting Canadian Parents for French to attend these hearings on linguistic duality during the 150th anniversary celebrations of Canadian Confederation in 2017. On behalf of my board, which represents members from coast to coast to coast, I am honoured to have been provided this opportunity to speak to you.

I would like to start with the following quotation from official languages Commissioner Fraser:

Despite the fact that the Official Languages Act is now into its fifth decade, it is still a challenge for some to recognize linguistic duality as a Canadian value and as a key element in Canada's identity. For that understanding to be broadened, it is important that the government do a better job of stressing the importance of Canada's official languages, increasing the opportunities for second-language learning and strengthening the presence of both languages....

I believe these words illustrate why there is a real and urgent need to use the 150^th anniversary of Canadian Confederation as an opportunity to promote the value of official languages to all Canadians. As a Canada-wide network of volunteer parents with decades of experience organizing socio-cultural events celebrating our linguistic duality, CPF is pleased to be here today to share its best practices. Canadian Parents for French hopes that it can help in planning the celebrations for the 150^th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.

I will now speak about Canadian Parents for French and pan-Canadian events supporting linguistic duality.

Each year, CPF organizes hundreds of activities in schools and communities across Canada. In the interest of brevity, I will describe just a few of these activities led by our national office or CFP offices, although many others of no less importance are led by parent volunteers, school boards and schools.

Our Concours d'art oratoire is a decades-old competition in which FSL students from across the country write and deliver a speech in French. Approximately 80,000 children take part in our concours from individual classrooms all over this country. Many francophones also compete in the concours, in the French first language category of the competition.

Allons en France is another CPF pan-Canadian competition. Organized in partnership with the Embassy of France, this writing competition requires students to incorporate words from a list of 10 pre-selected words. The contest originally required students to write a 300-word text in French on a specific theme. This year, we have modernized the competition by replacing the 300-word text with four tweets, which must incorporate at least two words from the list.

The CPF's B.C. and Yukon branch, later joined by CPF Alberta, ran two projects called Bilingualism Rocks and Bilingualism Rocks Two; a very innovative name, I guess. For two years, francophone performers from Quebec, Yukon, and Alberta toured two provinces and the one territory visiting dozens of communities and playing to thousands of children. The aim of Bilingualism Rocks was to bring young Canadians together in cultural celebration, establishing and extending relationships between young francophones and young francophiles.

As an aside, CPF national, in partnership with a number of CPF branches and Canadian Youth for French, has applied for funding for a project called O Canada, which is Bilingualism Rocks writ large. If approved, O Canada would engage students in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario by focusing on the historical, cultural, and artistic legitimacy of the francophone presence throughout Canada and its impact on francophiles.

Two more projects I wish to bring to your attention come from our Nova Scotia branch. Speak for Yourself/Parle, c'est l'idéal is a bilingual play developed by the Resource Centre for the Arts in Newfoundland and Canadian Parents for French. The play has a strong interactive component that invites audience members to come on stage and represent themselves. In other words, they become “spect-actors” rather than merely spectators.

The Action Media project made junior high students aware of francophone culture and the value of linguistic duality. Students researched a francophone musician, a genre of French music, or a francophone historical figure in Nova Scotia. With the aid of Radio Halifax Métro, more than 100 students prepared scripts and recorded three-minute audio presentations that were broadcast throughout March and April.

All these activities reflect a deep desire across the country to see the French language form part of the content, even in regions, and perhaps especially in these regions, where French is not part of the day-to-day reality. Addressing this need is what makes CPF one of the most important promoters of francophone and bilingual artists.

Let me turn to CPF's ideas on the 150th anniversary celebration of Confederation.

In its report “Canada's 150^th Anniversary in 2017“, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage split its recommendations into four categories. We will give our opinion on three: planning, legacies, and participation.

In organizing its activities, CPF was able to adopt certain practices that have helped us develop our programs. Our success as one of the largest promoters of francophone and bilingual artists can be explained through the following five points.

In terms of what we would give you under those three categories, from our perspective we think many of the details the committee should consider are among those.

In conclusion I would like to sum up our view on what a central part bilingualism plays in our country's heritage, in who we are and who we will become, and to say how this fits into the 150th anniversary celebration.

A strong national identity is something to celebrate, and a key part of who we are as Canadians is official bilingualism. As such, Canadian Parents for French believes that linguistic duality during the celebrations of 2017 should be strongly represented.

With the integration of new technologies to attract younger generations, new linguistic legacies can be created. The lessons we have learned in order to be successful proponents of linguistic duality through our events are, we believe, universal. Our vision of these celebrations is that both French and English speakers be able to access all the events funded by the Canadian government without difficulty.

Canada’s 150th anniversary is about our country, what makes us proud and what makes us unique. At Canadian Parents for French, we think one of those key pieces again is bilingualism, official languages bilingualism, to be specific. French is part of all Canadians' heritage. In the part of the country I come from, I think sometimes that is forgotten, or not even recognized. We need to take the opportunity to remind people of it.

French immersion students and core French students—and there are 2.8 million students across the country studying French as a second language right now—often talk about learning their country's history through another set of eyes when they learn their other official language. It's like learning about that other part of your family. It helps them understand who they are and realize their dreams and the dreams of their nation.

We could not be Canadians if we did not embrace both of our official languages. Maybe through the 150th anniversary celebration it's a gift we need to give back, showcasing official languages in all events across Canada.

It's also a gift to pay forward, by creating opportunities for our young to become the next prime minister, a great athlete, a great community builder, a trailblazer. It's a gift to open up and celebrate over that year by recognizing our bilingual graduates and singing all together a bilingual national anthem.

Thank you. Merci.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mrs. Perkins.

We will now move on to French for the Future.

[Max Cooke, Vice-President, French for the Future]

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

I would first like to thank the Standing Committee on Official Languages for inviting French for the Future to take part in the study on linguistic duality during the 150^th anniversary celebrations of Canadian Confederation in 2017. This is the first time our organization has been asked to take part in such a process. Therefore, I would like to begin by introducing French for the Future so as to provide a context for the recommendations we will offer the committee.

French for the Future was founded in 1997. It was born out of an idea by John Ralston Saul that Canada's official languages are a richness that should unite us rather than divide us, and that all Canadian youth should have a chance to understand the positive impact that being bilingual can have on their lives. Based on this notion, a two-day forum for 250 high school students was organized in Toronto, focusing on the advantages of speaking French as a second language.

Since then, French for the Future has grown considerably. Our goal is best illustrated by our official mission statement: to promote Canada's official bilingualism and the immediate and lifelong benefits of learning and communicating in French to students from grades 7 to 12 across Canada. We do so by offering four main programs every year, to both French-first-language students of minority linguistic environments and French-second-language students.

First of all, we have a national essay contest which offers winners more than $200,000 in scholarships to francophone and bilingual colleges and universities.

We also have Francoconnexion Sessions, our newest program, which consists of a ready-mate event toolkit and planning guide for the promotion of French within a classroom environment.

There are also Local Forums, which are held in over a dozen cities across the country every year, and allow for students to connect with successful bilingual role models — such as Olympian Kara Grant, and Juno Award winner Andrea Lindsay, to name a few — all the while attending educational and fun activities on the advantages of bilingualism.

Finally, we have a National Ambassador Youth Forum, which is in its ninth year, where 30 young leaders from across Canada gather in one city for five days. This a forum where, for example, a French immersion student from Lethbridge, Alberta, learns about minority language life from a student from Bathurst, New Brunswick and vice versa. They get a real, first-hand look at the current reality of Canadian bilingualism and its issues, and work together to create a conversation and find solutions that resonate with them. At the end of the National Ambassador Youth Forum, the students return to their respective communities as “ambassadors“, who will promote the French language and bilingualism amongst their peers and in their communities.

The goal of both the Local Forums and the National Ambassador Youth Forum is to bring students together. In doing so, we hope to give students the opportunity to experience French-Canadian language and culture outside of the classroom, so that they may develop their own understanding and appreciation of our country's linguistic duality.

Last year alone, our programs reached 25,000 high school students. Our next strategic goal is to reach 50,000 students. As we speak, French for the Future is an ever-growing leader in the promotion of official bilingualism in Canada, and that is because we have adapted our programs to the ever-changing reality of Canadian youth. Yet we have done so without ever losing sight of the organization's purpose: to contribute to the vision of a Canada in which all young people value our French heritage, appreciate francophone cultures and endeavour to excel in the French language.

It is clear from previous testimony in this study that French for the Future is not alone in recognizing the value of bilingualism. As numerous other witnesses have made abundantly clear before this committee, bilingualism is a defining characteristic of our country's history and identity and should not only be included in Confederation's 150th anniversary celebrations, but should be intrinsic to all elements of its preparation.

The same spirit that allowed two languages to survive and flourish side-by-side since the beginning of Confederation has continued to draw in the citizens of the world as we become an increasingly multinational and heterogeneous people. We believe bilingualism is a practical manifestation of this spirit of inclusion and openness, offering other avenues through which future generations are able to forge social and emotional bonds in our country.

At its core, our work strives to promote the message of acceptance and collective pride. The celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada should go beyond simply integrating both of our official languages. It should use our linguistic duality to reach out to our youth, to help ignite a sense of national pride, and to revive students' desire to learn and continue speaking both French and English in Canada. We can often see the moment when the eyes light up among students participating in our programs when they themselves realize the value of their emerging bilingualism. We can see they will carry on this lifelong passion for languages and culture. It's absolutely magical. A similar connection is made among our francophone students too, who perhaps had taken their own language and culture for granted.

We fully understand that the 150th anniversary of Confederation is not the anniversary of the Official Languages Act; however, we firmly believe that the celebrations should be used as a platform to reinforce the status of bilingualism as one of our nation's defining characteristics. French for the Future believes this can be done by promoting and investing in organizations that already work in this vein, but most importantly, it must be done through our youth.

I will now provide you with our recommendations.

One, we firmly believe that face-to-face exchange and personal interactions are most conducive to forging the idea of a collective we. In large part, our program is dedicated to offering an opportunity for students to further both their own experiences with bilingualism and their personal relationship with la francophonie. They are opportunities to celebrate regional differences and recognize common challenges. Perhaps most importantly, we strive to promote interaction in French beyond the classroom by underscoring the notion that learning French is not limited to grammar lessons and verb conjugations. It really isn't. We strongly support an initiative that would increase opportunities for cultural and linguistic exchanges leading up to and during the 150th anniversary of Confederation, as outlined in the 2011-12 annual report of the Commissioner of Official Languages. We believe that youth thrive when given the opportunity to experience the other official language beyond their curricula.

Two, while opportunities for French language instruction are increasing at the secondary level, students wishing to pursue post-secondary education in French continue to face many obstacles. One of these is basic availability, but in our experience a larger issue is that students simply aren't well acquainted with the options that do exist. Part of our programming seeks to make clear to students that they can continue to build on the momentum they have gained in their language education. We hope to convince them that their efforts can, and indeed should, lead to something beyond a designation adorning their high school diploma. We encourage developing more post-secondary French language opportunities so that young Canadians can realize linguistic duality is a lifelong gift and something they can carry with them into adulthood. Too often this isn't the case. This push should be tied in with the 150th anniversary of Confederation to cement the historical import of our bilingual heritage. However, it would continue to impact students well beyond 2017.

Three, French for the Future relies on the great diversity of the official language minority communities that exist throughout Canada to enrich our programming. We create local committees for our various events in cities to ensure various constituents with a vested interest in and passion for the success of French language education are properly represented. This allows our events to be infused with a local flavour, all the while showing students that their participation is part of something greater.

We believe the preparations for the 150th anniversary of Confederation should be conducted in a similar way. However, our experience is that youth are the key vehicle in spreading a message that endures beyond an event's celebrations. We support the formation and active involvement of a youth council consisting of representatives from different provinces and territories in the planning and execution of the anniversary commemoration in 2017. The council's work could be complemented by that of a high-profile bilingual youth spokesperson, whose role would be twofold. First, they would use their visibility to give voice to youth interests and concerns on a wider stage. Second, they would work to ensure that parts of the celebrations are oriented toward engaging our youth.

We hope that our testimony will help the Standing Committee on Official Languages in ensuring the presence of our official languages in the 2017 celebrations of the 150^th anniversary of the Confederation.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Cooke.

We will now have the Métis National Council.

[Clément Chartier, President, Métis National Council]

Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

With me is Elder Norman Fleury from Manitoba, an expert on the Michif language.

First, let me provide a brief overview of the Métis National Council, the representative body of the Métis nation. As I said, we are the national government of the Métis nation in that part of our historic homeland encompassing the prairie provinces, and extending into Ontario and British Columbia. Our homeland also extends into the Northwest Territories and the northwestern United States, historically known as the Old Northwest. We represent approximately 400,000 people, about one-third of the total aboriginal population of Canada.

Your study of Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017 and the role of the two official languages, English and French, affords Canadians the opportunity to reflect on how they wish to relate to Confederation. It has particular significance to the Métis nation, the founders of Canada's first post-Confederation province, Manitoba.

Our ancestors for the most part were not directly affected by the events in 1867 because they did not reside in the four confederating provinces. They lived in Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory, both of which were controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company.

Originally the mixed offspring of indigenous women and European fur traders, they evolved into a distinct people with their own culture, language, and political consciousness. In particular, the Michif language was influenced by the French voyageurs from Quebec, with the nouns being French and the remainder primarily being Cree. This is basically a fusion of two languages, forming the language of that newly evolved aboriginal people, the Métis nation.

While we were not part of the negotiations leading to the Constitution Act, 1867, our ancestors were nevertheless greatly impacted by its enactment. A major impetus behind political union was desired expansion to push westward to reach and unite with the colony of British Columbia.

Little attention was paid to those occupying the vast expanse of territory between the confederating provinces and the Pacific. By 1869 the population of the Red River settlement, one of the largest settlements on the plains of North America west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri, consisted of 9,800 Métis and 1,600 white people. This was the community that lay in the path of the new Dominion of Canada as it began its march from sea to sea.

In 1869 the Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land to the Dominion of Canada for £300,000 and one-twentieth of the territory's fertile land. During the negotiation of the sale, no provision was made for the rights of the Métis majority in the Red River settlement that was expected to become part of a territory governed directly by Ottawa.

The response of our ancestors in 1869 was to establish the first Métis provisional government under Louis Riel and take control of the Red River settlement. It drafted a list of rights demanding no less than provincehood and sent emissaries to Ottawa to negotiate the terms of admission into Confederation of Manitoba as a province through the Manitoba Act, 1870, which among others, provided for French language rights in the new western province.

Unlike the confederating provinces, Manitoba would not have control over public lands. As compensation, section 31 of the Manitoba Act, 1870, provided for a grant of 1.4 million acres of land to the children of the Métis heads of families. A process for distributing these lands to the Métis, envisaged by the lieutenant-governor of the province to take one to two years, took more than a decade for the federal government to administer.

Amid a rapid influx of hostile settlers from Ontario moving on to their traditional lands, the vast majority of the Métis moved on. Their proportion of Manitoba's population dropped from 83% in 1870 to 7% in 1886. Our leader, Louis Riel, was elected to the House of Commons three times, but denied his seat. The continuing failure of the federal government to address Métis land claims led to the formation of the second Métis provisional government in the Saskatchewan Valley in 1884-85, again under Riel's leadership.

The federal response was an armed invasion, leading to the North-West Resistance of 1885, the defeat of the Métis nation at the Battle of Batoche, and the execution of Louis Riel on November 16, 1885. To this day, a significant number of French-speaking Métis remain in our traditional homeland.

I believe Canada's 150th anniversary provides an opportunity for Canadians and their governments to reflect on what happened in the wake of Confederation. Confederation and the federal system of government were a means of accommodating regions and cultures within a state. Through Riel's provisional government and the Manitoba Act, the Métis established themselves as one of Canada's founding peoples or nations. Despite this historic fact, we, the Métis nation, must struggle to have our existence recognized and our aspirations realized.

While recognition has been slow in coming, there has been some progress. In 1992, Parliament unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the unique and historic role of Louis Riel as a founder of Manitoba. In 2010, Parliament and a number of provincial legislatures declared the Year of the Métis to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the North-West Resistance of 1885, the Battle of Batoche, and the execution of Louis Riel. The Métis nation itself declared 2010 the year of the Métis nation, and subsequently declared 2011 to 2020 the decade of the Métis nation, with the year 2012 designated as celebrating our Métis nation culture and language.

I believe this committee should recommend that Confederation commemorations recognize the historic contributions of the Métis nation as a founding people who had to rise in resistance to enter Confederation. Furthermore, I encourage this committee to start giving serious thought to the 150th anniversary of Manitoba in 2020 with particular focus on the historic and contemporary role of the Métis nation in its development, including the constitutional guarantee of French language rights today benefiting Franco-Manitobans.

Given this committee's mandate to deal with official languages, one of the greatest contributions this committee can make is to encourage Canadian Heritage and national cultural institutions to support the development and expansion of the Métis nation's efforts to preserve and enhance the Michif language.

A number of years ago, I encouraged the federal government to put in place a French language training program so that our Métis youth could study that language in Quebec, which I believed would help us in the preservation of Michif. This proposal was not acted on.

An important contribution your committee can make in this regard is to encourage Canadian Heritage to support the expansion plans of the Métis nation's cultural and educational institutions. Prime examples are the Gabriel Dumont Institute in Saskatoon, the Louis Riel Institute in Winnipeg, the Rupertsland Institute in Edmonton, and their efforts to revive the Michif language.

Another concrete measure that could be taken by your committee is to recommend to the federal government that fiscal resources be provided to our governments and institutions so we can save our Michif language, and that as part of the preparations for the 150th anniversary, Canada take into account that the Métis nation flag will be 200 years old in 2015. This should also include funding for our Métis nation governments so that materials and publications can be translated and published in French.

On that note, after hearing from Elder Fleury, we'll be happy to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Elder Fleury, you have about a minute or so before we need to go to questions and comments from members.

[Norman Fleury, Elder, Métis National Council]

Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Norman Fleury. I am very pleased to be with you today to talk about the importance of our language, Michif. For our nation, the Michifs of Canada, it is important to preserve our language, to keep it and to document all of our stories in Canada. It is an important part of Canada's heritage.

The Michif language came about in this country when first nations and French people from France met. I have ancestors who are still in France, in Quebec and in the Canadian Prairies. I am happy to be able to speak all of these languages, but especially my first language, which is Michif.

I am Michif. There are Métis people, Métis and half-breeds. I am Michif. My language and my nation are associated; I am Michif. That is why the Michif language bears that name, just like someone who speaks French is French and someone who speaks the Dakota language is Dakota, and so on for other languages. It is a question of association.

I don't have much time to talk today. I apologize. We could talk about many things, for example camps for young people that would allow them to keep their language.

The Michif language is made up of two languages: the nouns and the grammar come from French, while the verbs come from the Cree language.

Michif was my mother's first language. She passed away two years ago at the age of 108. I was born in 1949, and my first language is Michif. My maternal grandparents were born in 1877 and 1880, and it was also their first language. My great-grandparents also spoke Michif. This language was not created yesterday.

It is above all an oral language. We started writing our language about 20 years ago in Canada. Linguists have studied our language. In North America, in the United States, in Belcourt, in North Dakota, our people are still present. Our language is spoken and taught in institutions.

In Canada, we don't have institutions; it's sad. The Michif language is taught in communities that are specifically Michif. In 2013, I will start to teach at the University of Brandon. It will be the first time that our language will be known. It is mainly French, but we still borrow words from English, for example the truck, the computer, the telephone, and so on.

[A voice]

We do too.

[Norman Fleury]

Our language is mainly associated with French. There are voyageurs songs, songs by Pierre Falcon, music and dance. It is all associated with dances from Europe, from Canada, and with the language. French has never been forgotten and it needs to be preserved. Michifs speak all of these languages, but mainly French and Michif.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Fleury.

[Norman Fleury]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We now have one hour and 20 minutes for questions and comments.

We will start with Mr. Benskin.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Thank you for being with us today.

I rushed in, so I missed a little bit of your presentation, Ms. Perkins, but I managed to catch up from your document. Thank you for providing that.

There are a couple of common themes that have occurred throughout this study, and the almost year-long study in the heritage committee. Mr. Chartier I believe you were present at the heritage committee. One of those themes was exchange and how we get this celebration across Canada, as opposed to having a hodge-podge of different events happening across the country. One of the huge obstacles is the cost of travelling across the country.

How would you see the organization that will eventually be at the head of this tackling this issue? What methodology do you see being used to make this happen?

The question is for Mr. Cooke and Ms. Perkins in particular.

[Lisa Marie Perkins]

We're very lucky to work very closely with our colleagues in organizations like French for the Future and Canadian Youth for French, who do a lot of work and exchanges, along with programs like Encounters with Canada.

In our brief, we point out two things that are very interesting. We, as individual organizations, do a lot of work to bring together youth across this country, in things such as our signature event, national Concours d'art oratoire. That could potentially be elevated to be something very significant during Canada's celebrations in 2017. We talk a lot about social media and connecting with students in a virtual environment. Sometimes exchange is the exchange of ideas, the exchange of communication, and that can be done very effectively in an online environment, as well as in person. I think we have to challenge ourselves to look for those opportunities. It's an environment that our youth are increasingly very comfortable and familiar with, which we don't necessarily leverage for that purpose.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Okay.

Mr. Cooke, earlier you touched on the idea, and I believe this very strongly, that language isn't simply language. One also needs to be able to immerse oneself in the culture itself. It's harder to do that virtually as opposed to going to Quebec City or going to areas within the Métis nation to learn about that history in a more tangible way.

Would you care to address that?

[Max Cooke]

In a lot of ways, I think back to my own experience and my first exchange in Lac Saint-Jean. I always go back to this. It changed my life, being in a family for a couple of weeks and having that recognition that French wasn't just something I was being asked to learn or something to take, like a vitamin. Essentially, the connection was made, and that's the point. How do we build this connection, not only between French and English, but to culture, too? How do we build this connection to the history of Canada?

We can't look at it as a given that many of our students have a good knowledge of our history and Confederation. You're never going to bring every student into Lac Saint-Jean for that discovery. However, I support the idea of social media. I think if it was driven by a theme, led by youth, to engage youth in an inquiry-based model, assuming that they don't know what Confederation is, and they could discover everything themselves along the way—and that goes for all of our cultures—then there's a lot of learning that could be done.

As a communications person, I honestly think it would take some pretty good marketing to make it cool and to engage the youth to want to be part of this. I think that takes a lot of shrewd planning, but I think it's possible if it's done correctly. As an organization, we do have experience in connecting with youth as do Canadian Parents for French and many other organizations.

It's a collective effort, but it should be based on a common theme, one that is youth-led, youth-voiced, youth-driven, to let the youth discover the importance of this for themselves along the way.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Thank you.

The other thing that has been quite recurrent is the concept of recognition of the true history of Canada. I think there are only two or three provinces right now that require history to graduate, and that's a sad, sad thing. Kids aren't learning about the true nature of how this country came together. Whether we agree with it or not, it is part of our history. I think history is a wonderful thing, warts and all.

To our Métis friends, with regard to the 150th anniversary of Confederation, you've set out quite succinctly the history of the Métis people. How would you want your participation in this commemoration and celebration of our Confederation to be recognized?

[Norman Fleury]

First of all, I'd like to express myself in my language and give you an actual example to answer your question.

[Witness speaks in his native language]

I've answered you in my language. Historically that's how we used to speak. Our language was used in various ways, and it was a family language. It was a language of commerce, of trade. It was also a ceremonial language.

When you're talking about the history of Canada and how Canada has learned to appreciate who we are as a people—and Heritage Canada has taken part in the development and the preservation of our language—it has come to a point where we're just getting started. We've barely started. We're trying to bridge the gap between the cultures in Canada so we can bring ourselves together and have a better foundation in this country and a better place for everybody.

I have children and grandchildren. I have a son who's 15 going on 16. He's in high school. When he was seven years old, he did a presentation and a display. He was just a young boy. In one way, we're saying we're lost, and in another way we're saying we've gained. When a seven-year-old child goes out in the public and showcases who we are as a people and a nation within this country, that means we've come a long way.

My grandmother, who was born in 1880, never had a chance to use her language publicly. She never had a chance to showcase her language. When she went shopping, the business of commerce was English, and that's how she learned a little bit of English and she learned French. My grandparents knew many languages. They were the languages of trade. During the buffalo hunts, when you went through certain territories you had to speak the languages of the people of those territories. That's how we became very diverse. Today I'm one of those people who can happily say that I'm very well versed in Dakota, in Ojibway, which is Saulteaux, Cree, Michif, and French. We're very well assimilated with our languages and our culture. Some 90% of our Métis people are assimilated in the English culture.

Because of the colonization and whatever else, residential schools, we have had no choice but to be immersed, and because of that we've lost a lot of our culture. If it wasn't for our Métis organizations that celebrate Back to Batoche every year, where we display who we are, we wouldn't get many chances. When I hear what we're talking about here, I see us at Back to Batoche, where we can display ourselves as people of this country. That's not to forget—and that's why we're here—that the Michif, the Métis people are involved.

We have to have things like cultural camps, language input, our stories, our songs, our history. We have to have it all. We have to showcase it, regardless of whether it's in Saint-Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec, or it's in St. Lazare, Manitoba, where I was born and raised, as long as the people have an opportunity, especially our youth, to gather with our elders, because the elders are the teachers.

Merci. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Monsieur Gourde.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses for coming this morning. It is very interesting.

My question is for the representatives of the three organizations.

How would you like to participate in planning the celebrations for Canada's 150^th anniversary, in 2017, and what contribution would you like to make to the planning?

[Lisa Marie Perkins]

In my presentation on Canadian Parents for French, I indicated that

we have a lot of experience in organizing pan-Canadian events for our youth across the country and in working with families.

You must recognize that French is not the first language of most of the parents we deal with, but it is something they value. Therefore, not only do we, along with our colleagues, have an opportunity to be that connection for you to youth, we have an opportunity to bridge with and engage the families in those communities all across the country. For any planning you do, we have a lot of expertise and doors we can open.

We offer our own events, such as Concours d'art oratoire and Allons en France, as two themes for the 150th anniversary we could showcase and build to be national celebrations that all Canadians and the Government of Canada could be very proud of.

There is an opportunity for this committee to make recommendations that not only create new things but also leverage much of the good work that organizations such as my colleagues across this table offer.

[Max Cooke]

For our part, French for the Future, our expertise mainly involves engaging teenagers. They are at an age when it is pretty difficult to get them to participate in anything.

For our Local Forums, we have a national network of coordination committees. That infrastructure allows us to plan events. For example, for our National Ambassador Youth Forum, we have a different theme every year. Certainly, in 2017 or even in 2016, the significance of the anniversary of Confederation would be a perfect discussion theme.

We also have a sort of database with the spokespeople for youth, throughout Canada. These are people who work in the public and private sectors. They could help spread the message about this anniversary and highlight the importance of Confederation.

[Clément Chartier]

Thank you for the question.

We have a protocol with the federal government, the Métis Nation Protocol signed in 2008. Under that, this whole issue could potentially be one of the agendas that we deal with bilaterally with the federal government. One of the things I may propose to the minister is that we set up an interdepartmental or multi-departmental committee of senior officials and our Métis nation representatives to discuss the potential for Métis nation engagement.

I know we won't resolve it today. I appeared in front of the heritage committee, but I didn't see anything in the recommendations that was Métis specific. In any event, we keep coming to these tables.

One of the things I would reiterate is that as we move to the 150th anniversary in 2017, we should not lose track that three years later there is Manitoba's anniversary. The two should be linked. We're dealing with not just a snapshot in history; we should be dealing with Canada's history as a total to determine how we have evolved as a people, as Canadians, since Confederation, but also with the steps that took place after that, particularly the important ones such as the negotiation of entry into Confederation of the Métis nation through the province of Manitoba. That transaction involved something like three-quarters of the current land mass of Canada in that negotiation process. The Métis were very instrumental in ensuring French language rights and school rights were entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. That is significant, so I would think the Métis nation has a very crucial role to play in all of this. A process that engages us directly would be something that we would benefit from.

The specifics we can speak about there, but picking up on what Elder Fleury said, we could have a simple thing like youth camps at Batoche and at Lachine, Quebec where, rather than having separate camps we could have camps together to discuss the history and also to learn the respective languages. French-speaking youth should also learn the Michif language. That would help us. I think our youth must learn the French language, because it's a very important part of our heritage as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Dion, you have the floor.