First of all, thank you, Ms. Ashton, for your kind words concerning the longshoremen and longshorewomen of the Port of Montreal. I'll say no more about that because it's not our topic for today.
As for bilingualism, I'm a member of the Office québécois de la langue française, and we regularly see announcements for jobs in certain businesses that require applicants to be bilingual. We can accept that, but sometimes I see cases where 130 out of 150 jobs in a business are advertised as having to be filled by bilingual persons. The idea has even been expanded to the point where candidates are reqired to be fluently bilingual. As I said in my presentation, the people who are penalized here are francophones, in their own francophone majority city and province.
Many cases—and this happens frequently—involve people who don't speak English, mainly in the regions. The percentage of people who speak English in the regions is not very high, and they find themselves in situations where bilingual positions are advertised. Under the act, applicants can't be discriminated against based on an English proficiency requirement. No francophone in Quebec should be denied a job because he or she doesn't speak English, but it does happen. Some mechanism should be established to ensure that's no longer the case.
We have long claimed the right to work in French in Quebec, and we will continue to do so. Measures should be introduced to ensure that right is honoured in practice and isn't circumvented by certain businesses.