Thank you, Mr. Fraser.
Clause 2 refers to the ability to speak and understand both official languages. That goes without saying. However, it states that one must be able to do so without the aid of an interpreter.
This week, or late last week, the committee received a letter from the Canadian Association of the Deaf, which represents 3.5 million Canadians. That organization sent us a letter saying that it had some reservations about the word "interpreter". If one of the agents of Parliament had an accident or a health problem that caused him or her hearing problems, sometimes that person might not understand certain words.
You can be bilingual and understand both official languages, but you have to think of all the synonyms in the French language. Sometimes you may need an interpreter to explain the synonym so that you can be sure your correctly understand the meaning of a sentence. Those people have to make major decisions.
Could the fact that they never use the services of an interpreter undermine the understanding and even the decisions of those people?