Evidence of meeting #117 for Official Languages in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Unless the clerk contradicts me, we can continue.
Mr. Dalton, go ahead.
Conservative
Marc Dalton Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
I'll take my time. In fact, I have to make more effort to speak French, but I like to take advantage of these opportunities.
We heard the story of Mr. Serré's family, which was interesting. We've heard Mr. Samson's story many times. We heard the story of the 1450 war, among other things. We stayed here, we didn't sleep too much, we tried to listen, and it was fascinating. So now it's our turn. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk a little about our personal stories and to explain how important French is for us who represent Canada and are members of the Conservative Party.
Do you agree? So I'm going to continue. Grab your cushions—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Mr. Dalton, when you speak French, I could listen to you for a long time. I congratulate you, because you are doing a good job.
Conservative
Marc Dalton Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Thank you very much.
There's always someone here who says it's not relevant to the motion. The motion talks about Canadian identity; those words are in the text. All of my remarks are about Canadian identity. I'd argue that. Mr. Beaulieu should appreciate what I'm saying, as should everyone here. I'll do my best.
Think about it, the coureurs des bois are francophones. They spoke French.
Conservative
Liberal
Joël Lightbound Liberal Louis-Hébert, QC
Mr. Chair, I really appreciate Mr. Dalton's comments. However, he shouldn't be making them here before the committee, but to his colleague from Brantford—Brant. He should focus on the motion before us, because we're talking about coureurs des bois, which is far from the subject.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
I was waiting to make the connection, but I hesitated. I was giving him another 10 seconds.
Mr. Dalton, there are people who want to speak, including your colleague.
Conservative
Marc Dalton Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
It's clear that Mr. Lightbound wasn't here with us recently. He missed a lot of things from his colleagues. I'd ask him for a little patience, please.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
We all remember the episode you are referring to. In that case, I always called the speaker to order to remind him of the subject of the motion. One word or another, once in a while, brought us back to the minimum.
Conservative
Marc Dalton Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Okay, I accept the minimum. I'll go back to the motion.
The motion is essential to Canadian identity. I'm talking about the paragraph in the motion that talks about that. This is really important.
Let's go back to the coureurs des bois. Yes, I know there were Scots, but francophones were the ones who went all over Ontario and Manitoba, to the Red River, where a colony was established. Do you know why that's important? The Red River was the birthplace of a new people.
Marc Serré, who were they? It's a matter of history. It's—
Conservative
Marc Dalton Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
I'm talking about the Métis. There you go. So I'm going to talk about the Métis. Mr. Serré is proud, and I'm a proud Métis. Yes, I'm a Métis.
My roots go back to the Red River colony on my grandfather's side. They continued to explore and trade in beaver pelts. French coureurs de bois not only populated Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, but also went to British Columbia. Fort Langley was the first capital of British Columbia. French coureurs de bois were there. French Canadians were just across the river from where I live. From the outset, French Canadians were in the west and all the other provinces. That's part of our identity as a people. I agree with this point in the motion. I don't agree with everything in the motion, but I agree with that point. Let's also think about Louis Riel and the ties between Quebec and the people of the Red River.
It's important to point out that we fought for the right to speak French and to be educated in French. That's something we always do in committee. In this committee, all the political parties, the NDP, the Bloc, the Liberals and the Conservatives, we're all here in committee because we want to protect French and advance the rights of francophones and francophiles. We also want to see them develop and progress in French.
We had the opportunity to hold several meetings here in committee where we conducted studies on trade. We want to see people doing business in French. We want them to learn French in school. We really want to. This is important, because we all know that French is an island in an anglophone sea. It's really important to preserve the language. We don't want to lose that jewel. The French language and French culture are a real jewel. That's what really differentiates us from the United States. I think that Quebec is a jewel. It's important to recognize not only Quebec francophones, but francophones across Canada as well.
I talked about my personal story, I talked a little about my Métis side. My mother, who is now deceased, was a Beaudoin. Our lineage goes back to 1640, when the first Beaudoins arrived here. It was among the first families here, in the Quebec City region, on the other side. When I have more time, I'll do more genealogical research, because it's very interesting.
At the beginning of the last century, around 1910, like everyone else, the Beaudoins had very large families. But with most people working on the farm, land was starting to run out. Some people had to move elsewhere to make a living as farmers. So, a few members of my family moved near Amos and Val-d'Or. Families continued to grow. In fact, my grandmother, Alice Beaudoin, had 18 children. Eventually, her family decided to move near Kapuskasing.
Incidentally, I'm still discussing the Canadian identity as a Conservative and as someone for whom it's really important. I'm glad to see that in this motion.
So my grandmother and her family moved to the Kapuskasing area and stayed there for some time. My mother was born in Opasatika, although I'd point out that my grandmother's children weren't all born there. Then, around 1941, they decided to move with the entire family to the Rivière de la Paix region. I don't know if other committee members have had a chance to go there, but a lot of small communities were settled there during the 1930s and 1940s, villages like Falher, Girouxville, Joussard and many more. There are villages like that in the region and many other regions as well. You also have Gravelbourg, in Saskatchewan, for example. Anyway, there are a lot of communities like that everywhere.
This is important because families were large at the time. As a result, there was a francophone society across the entire country, one in which people spoke French. What happened is that, with the inventions—right, Mr. Samson?—families got smaller and smaller.
Liberal
Joël Lightbound Liberal Louis-Hébert, QC
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
We're digressing. I definitely think it's interesting to listen to my colleague Mr. Dalton. I even think I'm going to make a video and send it to his colleagueLarry Brock so the latter can understand how important French is to Canada.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
On a point of order, this isn't a point of order.
Liberal
Joël Lightbound Liberal Louis-Hébert, QC
However, I find it hard to see the connection between Mr. Dalton's remarks and the motion before us.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you, Mr. Lightbound. I know I'm very permissive. Mr. Dalton wants to discuss the motion, which states among other things that French is just as important to Canada's bilingual status as English and that French is indispensable to the Canadian identity. So he has been talking about the Canadian identity for the past five minutes, but he will soon be circling back to the motion.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
I do so in a spirit of fairness because let's say this isn't our first discussion about motions.
October 29th, 2024 / 12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
This is very educational, Mr. Dalton, and I admit that the coureurs des bois are an interesting topic. However—
Conservative
Marc Dalton Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
It's also important for western Canada.
I'm talking about my mother's side of the family, the Beaudoins, because that's part of who I am and part of the history of French culture in Canada, and therefore part of my identity. That's one of the reasons why I'm proud to be here.
What has happened? Here we're studying and discussing the increasingly difficult situation of small francophone communities because we can see they're depopulating. More people are settling in major centres like Edmonton and Vancouver, and the challenge for us is to determine what we can do to improve the situation. That's our responsibility, and it's part of our vision. How can we promote this culture and afford the francophone community opportunities to speak French? That's the major challenge that immigration represents. We're talking about all that and about how important the French identity is to Canada.
My father, on the other hand, was a Dalton. The first Daltons lived in the Montreal region in 1760. Edouard Dalton was born there. It's interesting to note that he was born before the Conquête, in 1760. The English invaded Montreal in 1761. One wonders how that was possible. The Irish didn't really like the English at the time and were quite close to the French. There's even a Rue Dalton in Montreal, which the members from that city may previously have crossed. When you see it, think of my family, who lived there long ago.
I'm still thinking about the Canadian identity. It's really personal for me.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I'd like to understand the connection between Mr. Dalton's remarks and Mr. Iacono's motion. If he wants to discuss the Canadian identity, he can discuss it directly with Mr. Brock, as Mr. Lightbound mentioned, because I think he needs to be educated.
What connection does Mr. Dalton's speech have with the motion?