Of course.
All our proposals have evolved from a common core idea: that the individualistic symmetrical equality model of bilingualism long and currently advocated by the federal government merely proclaims an artificial and superficial equality whose actual usefulness to Quebec is debatable in that it absolutely fails to protect the collective language rights of the Quebec nation in respect of its sole common language, French.
In our view, the equality of status and equal rights model in place at the federal level, under which English and French are treated equally, is merely the equality of La Fontaine's iron pot and clay pot in a North American context.
We believe it is time to undo that dysfunctional model and to adopt an asymmetrical and territorial bilingualism approach whereby, in a collective perspective broader than individual claims alone, the French language would be granted distinct, reinforced and special protection to reflect the North American reality and the fact that the language question is not merely an individual one in Quebec. It is a societal issue that calls for the permanent retention of a strong francophone majority within the population of Quebec, a condition associated with the very existence of the Quebec nation. History has shown that this is true, and contemporary reality still does so today.
That being said, our three proposals are as follows.
First, we suggest that the Charter of the French Language be extended to apply to private businesses under federal jurisdiction. The idea would be to extend the Charter fully to embrace private businesses under federal jurisdiction so that Quebec workers employed by those businesses may finally enjoy the same rights as the millions of their counterparts who are already protected by that act in the rest of Quebec's private sector.
In tangible terms, we propose two ways to achieve that end. The first would simply be for Ottawa to allow the National Assembly of Quebec to proceed with this extension on its own, which would be entirely feasible from a constitutional standpoint under the constitutional double aspect doctrine, which was recognized and clarified in the Canadian Western Bank judgment. The federal government could also proceed on its own, and, for that purpose, we would suggest that it amend the Canada Labour Code by adding a provision incorporating by reference the provisions of the Charter of the French Language so that the Code retains the Charter's operative legislative intent.
It is our firm view that, on this specific issue, an amendment to the Official Languages Act would probably be a bad idea. The OLA is a public act, designed to regulate the public service and services to citizens far more so than private-sector labour relations. Remodeling it in that way could cause problems of legislative consistency. Furthermore, extending it, even if only to expand current federal language policy in this field, would not solve the problem but rather conceal it under a legislative veil. What is really necessary is a comprehensive and detailed regime that has proven itself and functions smoothly, a regime such as that of the Charter of the French Language, which would also come with decades of instruction, jurisprudence and legal stability.
Furthermore, in this matter—and we support the territorial approach here—the National Assembly is clearly much closer than Ottawa to the reality of businesses in Quebec and, in our view, is the most legitimate political, legislative and democratic partner in the federation to address these kinds of issues.
Our second proposal would be to amend the Official Languages Act to establish a special regime to protect the French language in Quebec and in Canada's national capital region, given its undeniable importance to the federation. Our second proposal thus submitted would be to amend the Official Languages Act to include a detailed protection regime for the language rights of public servants in Quebec and in the federal capital to fully work and communicate in French in the workplace, based on sections 45 and 46 of the Charter of the French Language, thus precluding all forms of linguistic pressure or discrimination in hiring and employment.
We propose here to adopt, not only the spirit of the Charter of the French Language, and to transpose it to the federal level, but also the legal regime and court access rights that it entails—adapted to the federal context, but along the same lines—to guarantee genuine and effective language rights for federal public servants using French in Quebec, more than 44% of whom are revealed by the recent reports of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages as suffering from linguistic insecurity in the workplace in a culture that is transitioning to English. Once again, the Charter of the French Language appears to be the ideal model to combat this situation.
I'll speed up a little but will then be happy to answer your questions.
Our third and final proposal will be to revisit the constitutional issue and to suggest a return to the initial version of the Charter of the French Language as an official statute. The time has come to turn the page on the Supreme Court's judgment in Blaikey, a decision it rendered more than 40 years ago in a different constitutional context from the present one, having since evolved to enable Quebec to establish French as the sole official language of its legislation.
A strange situation prevails in Canada: under section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, Quebec alone is subject to a legislative bilingualism obligation, whereas, just next door, Ontario may publish its statutes in its official language, English, and translate them into French. We are merely seeking equality, a symbolic change that would have a powerful effect on generational renewal and immigration.
Lastly, a brief word simply to provide context for my remarks. Our comments focus solely on the situation of Quebec, without prejudice to francophones outside Quebec. We share their concerns but here are focusing solely on Quebec.