Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the hon. member for Notre-Dame-de-GrĂ¢ce accused Lucien Bouchard of being against bilingualism.
In fact, Quebec could be a role model for second language teaching. Second language classes are compulsory from the fourth grade to the end of college. It is in Quebec that second language teaching is the most rigorous. It is therefore not surprising that Quebec is the most bilingual province in Canada, with 35 percent of the population speaking both English and French.
However, the Bloc Quebecois denounces the fact that, in Canada, the onus of bilingualism is on the francophones. Forty percent of francophones in Quebec and Canada are bilingual, compared to only 8 percent for anglophones.
In English Canada, bilingualism is too often the last step to assimilation for francophones, which is just what the English provinces want. Denying this fact amounts to refusing to fight against it.