Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I have a question for Mr. Haché, but first I would like to make two comments.
First, I would like to thank the witnesses for being here.
We welcome you with open arms for this study and for the one on the decline of French across the country.
Ms. Chouinard, my first comment is directed to you. Thank you for making us aware of the increasing role universities play in society and thus with regard to language for both Quebec and the minorities.
Mr. Lacroix, you are a prolific author. For example, you have written that Ottawa is highly unlikely to use its weight to support French across the country; that it should take a political tack because French is the only official language that declines from one census to the next; and that substantive equality between English and French, not mere legal equality, should obviously have entailed the adoption of asymmetrical linguistic norms.
You have referred to this in discussing studies on postsecondary education. Ultimately, as Ms. Chouinard said, the minority has suffered for the sake of the majority. I'm sure you'd like to comment, but I'm going to put my question to Mr. Haché.
Mr. Haché, you are at the centre of the study we've undertaken as a result of your university's situation. We regret the general situation, and I would clearly like to say to you, "What a waste!" What a waste it is for a university to find itself in this situation. We are all attached to our university system and to our bilingual institutions.
Before you, we heard from other witnesses, notably from the Franco-Ontarian community, and it seems the relationship of trust with your university is now broken. The francophone community no longer believes you can be the driver of francophone vitality in northern Ontario.
You said some good things today, but, in actual fact, you've abandoned the three satellite universities with which you had cooperation agreements. I understand that what you're going through isn't easy, but the question I want to put to you is very simple.
Are you prepared to transfer the French-language programs that Laurentian University offers to an organization such as the University of Sudbury, an educational institution that would be solely by and for northern Ontario francophones?