Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to you, Commissioner, and the people who have accompanied you.
Before discussing the modernization of the Official Languages Act, I would like to explain the circumstances in which we now find ourselves. The Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada recently wrote, in a letter dated November 23, 2018, that we were witnessing an "erosion of rights [that] goes beyond Ontario's borders." Here are some excerpts from that letter: As we’ve seen, the shock wave created by this announcement has sparked outrage not only among Ontario Francophones,...We’re starting to see examples of this well beyond Ontario’s borders, like the decision to move Saskatchewan’s Francophone Affairs Branch from the province’s Executive Council to the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport; the uncertainty surrounding the future of linguistic duality in New Brunswick following the most recent provincial election;...
He also wrote, obviously, about the dissolution of the Office of the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario and the Université de l'Ontario français.
Do you agree with the vision of the Commissioner of Official Languages, who feels that something is happening now? You're having a difficult time, and there appear to be attacks and infringements of rights to French-language services across the country.