Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank our guests for being here. It is truly a pleasure to hear their point of view.
I would like to point out that Mr. Foucher had a successful tenure at an Acadian university, the Université de Moncton. He must be the only constitutional expert who can strum a guitar and sing Charlebois at the top of his lungs and he sure did.
I will leave it to my colleagues to talk about the merits of having an administrative tribunal, even though I would like to discuss it, but I will focus on another topic instead.
Mr. Pelletier, the first point you raised in your opening remarks—a point that Mr. Foucher subscribes to—was the following: the concept of linguistic duality seems to have gone quietly into the night. It is not something that seems to be talked about any more in Canada. I think that is the main reason our Official Languages Act is weak and has no teeth. This is not new and I would like you to expand on that. Why are we still discussing this today? I think we need to nip the problem in the bud and talk about it openly.
Before we get into that, however, I would like you to explain the link between this lost concept of linguistic duality and the age old separation of legal powers between the provincial and federal governments. Many witnesses have told us that if they cannot live, breathe, sing, write, and dance in their mother tongue from early childhood and throughout their education and post-secondary education, then they will not be able to thrive and grow. My mother tongue is that of Antonine Maillet.
How do you explain this lack of teeth in the Act or the fact that this concept of linguistic duality seems to be lost in this beautiful and great country of Canada?