Thank you, Mr. Chair.
On the one hand, I don't want to talk too much about content, but I want to correct some information. Yesterday, someone went to 3736 Saint-Hubert Street. We found the location, even though it isn't mentioned on every platform. When he knocked on the door, there was no answer. A man was waiting in front of the door and said he was the owner. According to the information we have so far, it isn't that the company has closed its doors and the employees are teleworking, but rather that the company has broken the lease. We'll be able to do further checks.
On the other hand, if WE Charity had also hired English-language communications firms, I don't think it would be to help it communicate in English or because people in the organization have difficulty speaking English. In the case of NATIONAL, it seems that it was explicitly to help the organization contact francophones, among other things.
Many Liberals seem to be very close to WE Charity and very familiar with its activities. I've checked around and nobody knew about it; nobody had heard of the organization. It seems to be a fairly small network.
This is an important example. We've seen a number of indications, including the issue of product labelling. Initially, it wasn't considered important for francophones to be able to read the safety instructions on health products. There were all kinds of easy measures, which were finally taken. The government revised its position and said that it would have been very simple to require companies that order these products to label them in French once the products arrived. There are all kinds of ways to do this.
There are a whole host of examples that show that it is a bit of a facade of bilingualism. Services in French are often inadequate. We saw this week that Fisheries and Oceans Canada didn't send out all its calls for tenders in French. We could list a number of examples where even government agencies flout the Official Languages Act.
This is a good example to get to the bottom of the issue and see what action has been taken. Then we'll be able to generalize and see what measures are taken to ensure that programs are always accessible in French. I won't do that, but if there were an amendment to be made, it would simply be to add the word “presumably” before the phrase “unilingual anglophone”. In any case, it's important to get to the bottom of this issue.
It's one thing for WE Charity to be able to organize events where there are talks in French, but it's another thing to have people within the organization who can respond in French and who can really provide services in French, not just at a talk at a given time.