Mr. Speaker, two French speaking women holding key positions made a speech at the annual meeting of Canadian Women in Communication. They are the CRTC chairperson, Françoise Bertrand, and the Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage, Suzanne Hurtubise.
Neither one of these women saw fit to address the audience in French. Not one paragraph, not even one sentence was said in French. These women delivered their speeches exclusively in English, even though there were French speaking members in the audience.
These two women clearly showed that English is the true official language commonly used in Ottawa and in Canada. They also proved that the Minister of Human Resources Development is wrong in stating that the federal government protects French in Quebec and in Canada. The minister should have said that the federal government protects folklore French in Quebec and in Canada.