Well, I should hope so, after all this time.
The motion refers to the process, but that is not all. I mentioned this earlier and the chair spoke of it last Tuesday. It is incumbent upon us to evaluate the skill, the credentials and the ability of the person selected, to determine whether he or she may assume the office of Commissioner of Official Languages. I am convinced—but I would like everyone to have the necessary clarifications in this regard—that this person unfortunately does not have that capacity.
I will explain that by reading a short excerpt from her testimony of May 18. Mr. Mulcair put the following question to her:
Madam Meilleur, if another investigation opens up around the Prime Minister, will you recuse yourself because of the fact that you donated to his leadership campaign?
Ms. Meilleur answered as follows:
I don't even know if the commissioner can recuse himself or herself. I would get advice. I think it's a unique situation. If the situation occurs, I will look for advice.
Mr. Chair, in two years I filed two complaints against the Prime Minister. That means that complaints against the Prime Minister are frequent. This is also the case for complaints against the Privy Council Office and the Treasury Board. For all of these groups, this person must evaluate compliance with the Official Languages Act, and conduct studies on that. We are talking here about the Privy Council Office, to whom the Prime Minister, the Secretariat of the Treasury Board, the Department of Justice and so on report. The Deputy Minister of Justice called Ms. Meilleur to tell her that she had obtained the position, which you must admit is rather strange.
I have an article here from the newspaper La Presse entitled: “Madeleine Meilleur Appointment: Other Candidates for the Position Express their Discomfort”. The article quotes another candidate:
He was very surprised to be questioned by the Deputy Minister of Justice on how he would handle a complaint on a current issue that would likely involve that department.
The deputy minister who asked Ms. Meilleur how she would react if a complaint was filed against his department was also the one who called her to let her know that she had obtained the position. All of this is very murky, very strange, and casts doubt upon Ms. Meilleur's ability to perform the duties of Commissioner of Official Languages.
Why am I raising these points?
Mr. Chair, last Tuesday you mentioned a Standing Order in this regard, and you read it. As Minister Joly reminded us yesterday during question period, our committee is independent. It is our duty to issue or not issue a recommendation with regard to Ms. Meilleur's certificate of nomination. It is our duty here. This concerns every one of us. To do so, we have to be sure that she has the capacity to fulfil her mandate.
However, what I have just read raises a serious and important doubt about her ability to discharge that mandate. That is why we members of the committee have to do our work very seriously. We would have liked to finish the report on Air Canada and the one on the full implementation of the Official Languages Act in the Canadian justice system, but we are having to deal with this exceptional situation.
Representatives of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada and of the Quebec Community Groups Network are asking to meet with the Prime Minister. The members of these groups are asking themselves questions. That is exceptional. That is an unprecedented situation for us.
The nomination of the person chosen by the government must be examined by the committee. That is our role, it is our duty. Certain groups are wondering if she has the capacity to correctly discharge her mandate. According to me, she does not. I simply want all of the members of the committee to be able to verify whether or not she has that ability.
In this regard, I ask my colleagues to reflect on this specific point, so that we may make a judicious and enlightened decision on the certificate of nomination. We cannot do that lightly, and we cannot make a decision while the members of the FCFA and the QCGN have serious doubts about Ms. Meilleur's ability. Some of them have more than doubts; they think she will not be able to discharge her mandate competently, since she is too close, not only to the members of the Liberal Party, but to the Prime Minister's inner circle: Gerry Butts, Katie Telford, Mathieu Bouchard and others.
All of the Liberals expressed their thoughts on the process, but neglected to mention a very important aspect, the Language Skills Act, that is to say the act regarding the bilingualism of officers of Parliament. None of the Liberals referred to it. I would like us to look into that, because the act requires that officers be bilingual. I will talk about this again later.
This concludes my remarks, Mr. Chair.