Official Languages Committee on Dec. 11th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we will continue our study of the state of Canada's Francophonie.

This meeting is being broadcast, but it is not a popular current events show like Tout le monde en parle; it is the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

This morning, we are pleased to have Ronald Caza with us to talk about the situation in Ontario.

Welcome, Mr. Caza. You have a few minutes for your presentation. Then, as usual, we will have questions and comments from committee members.

Mr. Caza, you have the floor.

[Ronald F. Caza, Lawyer, Caza Saikaley LLP]

Thank you very much, Mr. Paradis.

I will make a short presentation. I'm going to raise three points that I raise every time I have a chance to talk about the status of minority francophone communities, and not just those in Ontario.

First, I would like to talk to you about what it means to be a member of a linguistic minority because that is important to keep in mind. That is probably not the case for everyone here, but it is for some of you.

Second, I would like to talk about the reinforcements we need. We must seize every opportunity to take advantage of supports that are available.

Third, I would like to talk about how rights-holders are vulnerable and some other issues that must be addressed.

Being part of a linguistic minority means making a continuous effort. Those who have experienced it know what I mean. I have an analogy for those who have not experienced it.

Francophone Acadians, Franco-Ontarians and Franco-Manitobans can never rest. They have to keep swimming. They have to make a conscious decision every day to keep making an effort. Swimming requires constant effort and constant movement. No matter what, the desire to preserve our language and culture must be instinctive.

While members of the francophone minority swim, the anglophone majority travels by boat. I'm talking about Ontario, but it's the same everywhere. They live their lives without ever having to make an effort to maintain their language and culture.

Assimilation happens when a francophone stops swimming. He won't die, but he'll get on the boat and start living with the anglophones on board. Once a francophone is on the boat and stops swimming, he forgets how to swim in no time. If he forgets how to swim, he can't teach his kids to swim, and they can't teach theirs. That is when irreparable harm is done and francophones end up being assimilated because those who should be swimming end up on a boat.

Franco-Ontarians, Acadians and Franco-Manitobans must make it a priority to keep swimming. One way to do that is to swim alongside others. Franco-Ontarians swim alongside each other. The more people they're swimming with, the more motivated they are to swim.

Swimmers also need encouragement. They need beacons to show them where to swim. The Montfort is one such beacon. I can go into more detail about that later if people have questions. The Montfort hospital is a lodestar for all swimmers, not just those who will one day require care there. All francophones in minority communities can see that the institutions exists. That buoys them and sends them the most important message there is: it is worth fighting to save our language and culture. That message needs to be broadcast at every possible opportunity.

When we protect and strengthen institutions, we send the linguistic minority the message that their efforts are worthwhile. Constitutionally, a government cannot tell a linguistic minority that its efforts to keep swimming are futile. As I just said, if we stop swimming, irreparable harm is done. We lose a significant share of the linguistic minority that keeps our language and culture alive.

As I said, we need reinforcements. I have good news. Reinforcements arrive every day at the Ottawa airport, the Toronto airport and other airports. Those airplanes are carrying francophones from around the world. Many of them are from Africa, Haiti and other countries that are home to francophones. These people will be the salvation of francophone minorities. They are the best possible soldiers in the war against assimilation.

Upon arriving at the airport, these people should be welcomed as heroes by the linguistic minority, for that is what they are. Most of them are parents who want a better life for their children and believe they can find that here. They want their better life here to be lived in French.

As I said, it is important to welcome them into our communities, our social circles and our families with open arms. We need them. They are the bravest soldiers and they can help us fight the war against assimilation. I have worked with many people from other countries who have come here to join our community, and I can tell you how amazing it is to see them leap from the plane right into the water and start swimming with us. They don't wait. We don't have to convince them. They jump right in and swim with us. They are everywhere. We have to encourage these people, these soldiers, to come together and settle all over the country where we need them to swim alongside our swimmers. Some of our own family members are reluctant to swim. I have two examples relating to rights-holders, francophones in this case.

Some francophone parents enrol their kids in English schools. That is something we have been seeing for decades. In many cases, they do it because of an illusion. They believe that their kids will learn English better and become perfectly bilingual. That is not true. The fact is that young francophones who end up in English schools start assimilating and losing their language and culture. They become anglophone, they stop swimming, and they live out their lives on the boat. Rights-holders who enrol their children in English schools put them on the boat instead of making them swim with the rest of us so they can preserve their language and culture.

My second example involves francophone rights-holders who enrol their children in immersion programs. Immersion schools are one of the best things that has happened to the linguistic minority. They have made an entire generation aware of linguistic minorities. For the past two decades or so, our population has been much more aware and recognizes the importance of having linguistic minorities in every province, of having a language and culture that are not solely anglophone but also francophone. This phenomenon is due in large part to immersion programs. Once these people have that awareness, they spread it to their family members. That is really positive, but the fact is that immersion schools are for anglophones, not francophones. Immersion is a tool that enables anglophones to develop an understanding of the Canadian reality and the francophone reality across Canada. Francophone students should not be enrolled in immersion schools. Kids in immersion live on the boat. Parents who put their kids in immersion school are putting them on the boat.

I would like to raise another important fact that people may not be aware of. Graduates of French-language schools in places like Ontario and New Brunswick who then go on to pursue master's and doctorate degrees at Cambridge or Harvard obviously do that work only in English. Students at those schools are the very best. I can name francophones who have risen to the very top at big universities around the world. Those francophones learned English at French-language schools. Graduates of French-language schools master English just as well as anglophone graduates of English-language schools. It is important to remember that, spread the word, and encourage each other.

Francophone parents, rights-holders, are a huge liability. Kids are not the ones deciding. We have to do everything we can to make sure that francophone parents decide to put their children in the water rather than on the boat so they can swim as their ancestors did for generations. By learning to swim, children can access one of the most amazing experiences: knowing their language and culture.

In conclusion, let me say that it's now or never. As someone said to me this morning, the wolf is at the door in Ontario and New Brunswick, and maybe in other provinces too. We cannot back down. Our institutions, such as the Université de l'Ontario français and the role the French Language Services Commissioner should be playing, must be preserved. They are essential.

I would like to read a short excerpt from the decision on the Montfort Hospital. I'm going to read this because people need to understand that the constitutional grounds for saving the Montfort Hospital had nothing to do with its being a hospital. Here is a quote from paragraph 71 of the Court of Appeal for Ontario's decision:

Apart from fulfilling the additional practical function of medical training, Montfort's larger institutional role [or that of the Université de l'Ontario français or the French Language Services Commissioner or any of our institutions] includes maintaining the French language, transmitting Francophone culture, and fostering solidarity in the Franco-Ontarian minority.

That is what an institution is supposed to do.

Every province has institutions like these, and we need to do everything in our power to protect them so we can accomplish our main goal, which is to send the message as often as possible to as many members of the linguistic minority as possible that our constant efforts to preserve our language and culture are worthwhile.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. I'm ready to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Caza.

We will start questions and comments right away with Steven Blaney.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Caza, welcome to the committee.

Thank you for sharing your insight with us this morning and for your testimony.

Would you mind rereading the paragraph you just quoted, please? It was dense, and I would like to hear it again.

[Ronald F. Caza]

Certainly.

Apart from fulfilling the additional practical function of medical training, Montfort's [and any other institution's] larger institutional role includes maintaining the French language, transmitting francophone culture, and fostering solidarity in the Franco-Ontarian minority.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

So, “...maintaining the French language, transmitting culture...”.

[Ronald F. Caza]

“...transmitting francophone culture...”.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

What was the third thing?

[Ronald F. Caza]

It was “...fostering solidarity within the minority...”

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Okay.

If I understand correctly, Mr. Caza, those functions apply to the French Language Services Commissioner and the Université de l'Ontario français as well?

[Ronald F. Caza]

Yes, those functions are present in all vital institutions that exist across the country in places like Chelmsford, Hearst and Moncton, everywhere that people have their institutions, such as hospitals or any other kind of institution. When we look at why those institutions were created, the most important role they play in our communities is the role the Court of Appeal detailed in its description of the Montfort Hospital.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Excellent. Thank you.

I also want to thank you for reminding us about the effort that francophones in minority communities have to make. I myself am a Quebecker, but every day, as you said, they have to swim—sometimes upstream, it seems—and those of us who enjoy the relative ease of living in Quebec forget that, for our minority compatriots, institutions are important.

As you know, we are conducting a special study of what happened in Ontario. Of course we believe that federal and provincial governments have a duty to promote institutions. That is the crisis we have been going through in recent weeks.

You were a key player on the Montfort file. Can this kind of thing trigger a positive reaction in the community, a kind of electric shock? It all started with Denise Bombardier on Tout le monde en parle, who said that there was no hope outside Quebec. That is what she said, but it was practically a shot across the bow.

This morning you talked about taking responsibility. We agree that governments have a role to play, and we stand with Franco-Ontarians on this. However, you were there for the Montfort saga. Do you think recent events will bring out a sense of pride in young people and maybe a sense of responsibility?

Do you think this has mobilized people? This morning I was reading the press clippings, and there has been phenomenal mobilization, and not just in Ontario. There were demonstrations in Quebec and other places in Canada too.

Would you comment on that Mr. Caza?

[Ronald F. Caza]

Mr. Blaney, you're absolutely right, and the Montfort Hospital may be the best example of that.

Montfort was a small university hospital. At the time, when Mike Harris's Conservative government decided essentially to close the hospital, there was tremendous mobilization. Now, in 2018, we have one of the best university hospitals in the world, it has doubled in size, and it now has all kinds of specialists it didn't have at the time. It has a lot more short term care beds, and it has also become a research centre, which is phenomenal. I am sure none of that would have happened and the Montfort Hospital would have carried on the same as it was before if Mike Harris's Conservative government hadn't attacked it. In retrospect, it proves once again that when we are under attack, we emerge even stronger.

The current situation presents a somewhat different challenge, however, because the community was not expecting this kind of attack. The ruling in Montfort was so clear that it is obvious the government should never have sent this kind of message. The community fought in the past, for sure, but it did so only when it had to. Also, there has been no other big battle since the Montfort Hospital. The current situation is the first attack in a long time. What I think we need to do is get back out there and hit hard to ensure that this threat does not spread to other provinces.

We are a minority, and that means we need protection. We have learned from the past that, ultimately, we must look to the courts for protection, especially the Supreme Court of Canada, whose mandate is to protect minorities. However, until such time as our rights are affirmed, our minority might suffer serious harm. We have to prevent that harm and do everything in our power now to preserve our institutions without resorting to the courts.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Caza.

[Ronald F. Caza]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We'll move on to Mr. Arseneault.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you for answering our questions, Mr. Caza.

I would like to look at another issue, Bill C-57, which was passed by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario last week. Can you give us a 30-second summary of what it means for the future of the Université de l'Ontario français in Toronto?

[Ronald F. Caza]

The Ontario government announced that it would not fund the university despite the fact that it already exists and that so much work has been done, as its rector told you. For all practical purposes, the government's decision spells the end of the Université de l'Ontario français.

This situation is an example of the irreparable harm I was talking about. Based on the roadmap detailing everything it needed to do in preparation for opening its doors in 2020, the university was on track. If it does not open its doors in 2020 as planned, many young Ontario francophones who are now in Grade 11 and who were planning to go study at the Université de l'Ontario français will have to go to either bilingual or anglophone universities. The painfully clear message they will all be getting is that it may not be worth continuing to work so hard to live their lives in French.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Right. I am an Acadian from New Brunswick, and I completed all my law studies at the Université de Moncton, which is small but has an immeasurable impact on Acadians. In Ontario's case, it is unbelievable that 650,000 francophones do not have a university of their own in this huge province, one of the richest in the country. It is unbelievable and, if you ask me, shameful.

As a constitutional expert accustomed to these major legal battles, what do you see as the most likely legal avenues in this case?

[Ronald F. Caza]

Thank you, Mr. Arseneault.

Let me just point out that I am not a constitutional expert. I work with a lot of them, but, as a lawyer, I handle litigation. Nevertheless, I have had the opportunity to argue some major constitutional cases.

I would like to say a few words about the Université de Moncton. Yesterday, I was talking to Rodrigue Landry. In the early 1960s, when the Université de Moncton was just being set up, an important decision had to be made. The premier at the time wanted the university to be bilingual. Other community leaders wanted it to be French. At the time, making the university bilingual wouldn't have been a problem because the francophone community wasn't as vulnerable as it is today. Laurentian University in Sudbury and the University of Ottawa were set up as francophone universities initially but became bilingual institutions later on. When they became bilingual, that was fine because francophones weren't vulnerable. The church was strong and played an important role, and families were strong too. Francophones had the support of a social system that enabled them to maintain their language and culture, but that is no longer the case.

There are several constitutional arguments, but the main one is the gift we received from the Supreme Court of Canada in the Quebec secession reference. According to the rules set out in that decision, if a province decides to separate from the country or wants to do so, we have to look at the contract. If a party wants to end the contract, the terms of that contract have to be clear. We looked at the Constitution. The Supreme Court said that some elements are not written into the contract, but are part of it anyway. These are the responsibilities governments took on when they signed the Constitution in 1867. One of the implicit clauses was the obligation to preserve and promote linguistic minorities. That implicit constitutional obligation is part of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court went further still, saying that linguistic minorities in every province need institutions to survive. That is part of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision. If we consider the decisions that have been made, amendments to laws, and everything a particular government is doing, we can tell that government that a contract binds it to those obligations, that everything it does has to respect that, that it's in the Constitution, that one of those obligations is to respect and promote the linguistic minority, and that failing to respect that obligation in a given undertaking is a violation of the contract that was signed when this country was formed. That clause is essential.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

These kinds of legal battles always involve a lengthy process and usually wind up before the Supreme Court. How long do you think it will take for a decision to come down or for the Ontario Court of Appeal to support you?

[Ronald F. Caza]

I"m hoping that, as a result of the committee's recommendations, we won't have to go through the courts and that the situation will be resolved. That's the first step.

As for timelines, it depends how long it takes before the community suffers any irreparable harm. As soon as it begins to feel any irreparable harm, we'll have to take legal action.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Caza, although the decision is within the purview of the Government of Ontario, I'd like to know how the federal government could help you in the fight to build the French-language university.

[Ronald F. Caza]

The federal government holds the key, given that the solution is a financial one. The only reason given by Premier Ford was money. The federal government could contribute funding, which would then remove this argument or this concern, so the university could then be established.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to Mr. Choquette.