One of the first announcements we made, in fact, was to bring back university education to the College militaire royal de Saint-Jean. University education was provided in Kingston, mostly in English, but it was not provided in French at the military college in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. It had a direct impact on the advancement possibilities for members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
We were able to see the first university cohort enter last September. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you, Mr. Rioux, for all your fine work on this file. Finally, members of the military will be able to take university education in French. That will help us not only in ensuring a better presence of French in the Canadian forces, but also, internationally, to have troops going into French-speaking conflict zones.
When the previous secretary general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie went to the UN Security Council, she noted that half the conflicts where the blue helmets are present are occurring in French-speaking locations. For us, it is important to have senior officers who can speak French and command armed forces in French.