Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support the bill introduced by the hon. member for Verdun—Saint-Henri.
This bill addresses a real problem in Canadian society. It is known that our rate of illiteracy is extremely high and unacceptable for an industrialized country, a country that boasts of having one of the highest standards of living in the world. And yet, we have a real problem. There are people in Canada who do not know how to read or have difficulty doing so.
I want to assure the member for St. John's East, who is not in the House at this moment, but who spoke to this bill—