Thank you very much to our Franco-Manitoban friends.
I would like to get back to the main reason we submitted a brief that includes a solution. The solution does not involve clauses. I know our Liberal friends are very proud of their linguistic clauses, and I congratulate them on that and am very grateful, but that does not solve the problem. What we need is a federal act that includes protection and guarantees respect for legislation, the philosophy and the ultimate purpose of section 23 of the charter. Right now, we are at the mercy of politicians. In politics, if a party wants to be re-elected, it has to look after the majority, not the minority. Education in minority communities, which is guaranteed by a constitutional right, is everyone's business.
Personally, I reject the argument that education is under provincial jurisdiction while, on the other hand, the constitution establishes rights, privileges, and an obligation to manage all aspects of language and culture. We might be at the mercy of an anglophone official who does not take part in the community's activities or whose children do not attend French-language schools. Yet it is that person who tells me how to spend the funding allocated to me. It is a joke. To my mind, it is like Nivaquine, a little tablet against malaria: the pill is so bitter that you can't swallow it.
Our schools are grappling with cultural disengagement. We have an outdated school, in the very south end of the city. It has a capacity of 300, but it currently has about 480 students. It no longer has a library because we had to use that space for classrooms. Next year, we expect to have more than 500 students. It is so bad that the students have to line up to use the washroom. It is ridiculous.
Clauses and rules are really not what we need. We need protection that is included in an act in order to recognize the need to consult and to provide accountability. If you send us money, you have to live up to your obligations to us.
We also have to remember that school boards are tired of dragging provincial governments to court. The Official Languages Act can be challenged in court. At some point, we have to see what we can do instead of just whining about it.
I don't know if I have answered your question.