Mr. Chair, this has really been a fundamental part of our identity for hundreds of years. I'm trying to show that the Conservatives agree the French language is important. It's been said that we aren't in favour of the French language, but that's not true. It's as though they're saying we aren't Canadian. The French language is part of the Canadian identity, isn't it?
I was talking about Canadian military members, and we have regiments like the 22nd Regiment based in Quebec City.
My father was based in Quebec City and Chibougamau. When I was three years old, my family moved to the south, far from London, to Clinton to be more precise. My father began training at the radar stations. The children there spoke English and made fun of me because I couldn't understand them. I couldn't speak English. I remember my mother telling my father that they had to speak to me in English. My mother regretted her decision for many years because I lost my French, even though it's true that I now still speak a little.
So we went and lived on military bases in Alberta, north of Vancouver Island and in Chibougamau. We were living in Chibougamau when I was a teenager. My mother tried to force me to speak French, but I didn't want to do it. She sent me to live with relatives in Opasatika, not far from Kapuskasing. So I lived with members of my family who spoke only French. Personally, I still didn't want to speak French. I spoke to American tourists when I was at Opasatika Lake. My parents were angry with me because I didn't learn much French.
When I lived in Chibougamau, I attended an English Catholic school. My parents enrolled me in the French comprehensive school when it opened, but that only lasted a day or two. I wasn't happy and I went back to the anglophone school.
I was always very competitive at school. I always wanted to be the best in every subject. I competed with my sister Danielle, who's now a judge, but that's another story. I'll come back to it if I have time. It's unrelated to the motion for the moment. French was my worst subject; I even failed my French course. All the other kids in my class in Chibougamau spoke French, but I preferred to clown around.
Life went on: I earned my high school diploma and started travelling to Mexico, where I lived for a few months. So I had to speak Spanish. I started learning it, and that made me want to learn other languages. I thought it was really worthwhile to do it. So I decided to learn French and took correspondence courses. A few years later, I enrolled at Simon Fraser University and studied to become a teacher.
I became a history teacher, to the delight of my mother, a French second language teacher. Those poor kids! Anyway, I completed a master's degree and taught for many years, seven in primary school and another seven at the secondary level. I then became a provincial MLA, but wasn't re‑elected, then went back to the high school where I had taught 16 years earlier. I taught French second language to grade 8, 9 and 10 students for six years.
The most important thing for me was for them to have a positive experience. They often forgot how to conjugate various verbs, but I wanted to give them an opportunity to communicate, to enjoy themselves and to want to speak French. That's what I wanted. What we want here, as individuals and as a committee, is to make Canadians want to promote French. We don't just want to maintain French in its present position; we also want it to flourish. French is very important for us.
As a teacher, I also observed that many students were enrolled in immersion programs. I'd like to discuss the importance of immersion a little more in our current study because I think it's a missing piece of the puzzle. Much of the vitality of the francophonie outside Quebec is found in the schools. In a way, they've replaced churches as language transmission centres. That's one of the reasons why we're conducting this study on education from early childhood to the post-secondary level. It's a very important study, but I think we should also focus on immersion programs or else conduct another study.
I'm still talking about the Canadian identity here. In the immersion programs, there are nearly half a million….
Mr. Chair, at this point, with your permission, I'd like to yield to my friend and colleague Ms. Gladu because I'd like a glass of water.