Official Languages Committee on June 6th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We will resume our public hearing. We are continuing our study of Mr. Choquette's motion, which I will read immediately:

That the committee invite witnesses in order to assess Madeleine Meilleur's ability to perform the duties of Commissioner of Official Languages before it reports to the House on her appointment.

Mr. Choquette, you have the floor.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Chair, if memory serves, did I not table the other motion first?

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Yes.

[An hon. member]

What motion?

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

The one about the language tests.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Had we not made a decision on that?

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

No, we had not. We interrupted the debate and postponed it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Okay. If the motion on language skills was tabled first, we are going to debate that one first.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Yes, and it seems to me that that would be easier in any case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

That is not a problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We will go back to the other one. This is Mr. Choquette's other motion:

That the committee ask Madeleine Meilleur for her language skills qualifications as required by the Language Skills Act.

I expect that some of you followed the debates in the Senate last night. The reply to that motion was discussed.

Mr. Choquette, you have the floor.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am rereading the testimony provided by Ms. Meilleur yesterday. A senator—I'm trying to find the passage—raised this same concern. As you know, as a committee, it is our responsibility to provide or refuse a certificate of nomination to the person who is being suggested, Ms. Meilleur, in this case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

May I correct you; it's a recommendation.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Yes, that's it, a certificate recommending the nomination, as you said, Mr. Chair.

In this regard, it is our duty to examine her CV, her skills and also her ability to perform the duties of this post, this role. The new act requires that officers of Parliament be bilingual. Hence the position of Commissioner of Official Languages must be filled by a bilingual person. We were informed that the other candidates underwent a language test. That language test was even a prerequisite to continuing with the process. Since that requirement was made of the other candidates, we simply want to ensure that the same rules were applied to Ms. Meilleur, that she went through the same process as all of the others, and that things were done normally. We are only asking her for proof. A senator asked her about this yesterday, and she replied that she had indeed taken an official language test, and had passed it. Consequently we are simply asking her to produce that certificate, since she mentioned that she had passed the test. It would be normal, I think, to add that to her CV, because this is part of our examination of her skills.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Choquette.

Ms. Boucher has the floor.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

I was present during Ms. Meilleur's entire appearance at the Senate yesterday, and in light of what we heard, it seems to be a very, very good question.

Yesterday, Ms. Meilleur told the Senate that she had received the highest possible ranking on the test. How did she know that? Who spoke to her about it, and why did she find that out, whereas the others did not find out about their results? I would like the committee to inquire about her language skills, as required by the Language Skills Act. During her appearance before the Upper Chamber, Ms. Meilleur was unable to answer any of the questions asked by senators about the anglophone minority in Quebec. She was not even able to name the anglophone organizations of Montreal.

So we must be informed about everything concerning this nomination. The more we look into this, the more we see that the process was borderline; that is what I would call it. It would be good for the committee, beyond any partisanship—and I say this honestly—to find out what happened. Yesterday at the Senate there was no partisanship—we know how the Senate works—and even some former Liberals, such as Serge Joyal, did not understand this nomination. In light of that, I would like the committee to study the matter, as we have always done before; we need to set aside partisanship and get to the bottom of things to see what lies there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Arseneault, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

For the same reasons I listed last week regarding another of Mr. Choquette's motions, I think we are trying to use the back door to do something we cannot do by going through the front door. However, Mr. Choquette agreed with me that we should not be involved in the process.

The process includes a language test. I personally did not follow the debates that took place yesterday because I was in committee. Ms. Boucher just informed us that Ms. Meilleur stated that she did very well on the language test. Nothing tells me that the other 71 candidates were not told the same thing.

Trying to get into that is getting involved in the nomination process. A committee has already examined Ms. Meilleur's candidacy, as well as that of the 71 other candidates. A committee already administered language tests to all of the candidates. We are now asking the Standing Committee on Official Languages to get involved in the process once again.

Subsection 49(1) of the Official Languages Act is clear:

The Governor in Council shall, by commission under the Great Seal, appoint a Commissioner of Official Languages for Canada after consultation with the leader of every recognized party in the Senate and House of Commons and approval of the appointment by resolution of the Senate and House of Commons.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

That was not done.

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

According to Ms. Boucher, this was not done; that is her contention. That said, it is up to the Senate and the House of Commons to decide on the nomination. It is not up to our committee to go and see if the candidates obtained the requisite diplomas before they began their career, or if they successfully passed the language test, since that was already done in the course of the process.

What I mean is that there is already a process in place. There were people who examined the 72 candidacies. They did a selection. There were language tests. How could the Standing Committee of Official Languages have the mandate to re-examine the candidate's language skills qualifications, when this was already done in the same process that led to Ms. Meilleur's nomination?

For those reasons, I think we cannot go through the back door to do what we cannot do through the front door. We can't interfere in the process. I will oppose this motion for those same reasons.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Ms. Boucher, you have the floor.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

First, we don't want to know if she passed her English tests in high school. We want to know why she benefited from preferential treatment. She found out that she had passed the language test. Who told her? We don't know.

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

That is not the topic of the motion.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

No, it isn't. In fact, the motion is very moderate as compared to what we heard yesterday.

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

I spoke about the motion, personally.