No.
That is a very good question.
That argument is certainly made in our brief. As you surely know, before we submitted our brief, we consulted our lawyers, that is, the lawyers of the three federations, as well as the communities, parents, and all other interested parties. We are simply saying that if the federal government provides funding to support French-language school boards that are protected under section 23, it must demand results. This of course is very difficult. We know that it will take time to negotiate a new protocol. The federal government could even negotiate directly with the school board without going through the ministry of education. That is the case in some sectors, such as health, and justice for first nations and associations. There is nothing stopping it from doing that.
We are following the rules, but we would like to change them a bit to get a separate protocol. It is not that onerous. It makes sense that our rights are protected under section 23 of the charter. If we are included in the process from the outset, it would be possible to discuss appropriate accountability by the provinces. The communities, parents and school boards are not part of Canadian Heritage. We defend francophone rights across the country. Before signing a protocol, if we see there is no accountability or that funding is not allocated in accordance with the priorities identified, we could do something then, but it would be too late once the protocol is signed. We have to be at the table from the start.